Florence by bicycle involve a complete adventure! Florence is a small city, so in order to move through the narrow streets closed to traffic, the bicycle is the best way. However, we get a nasty surprise to leave our home or office to find out its no longer where we had parked it. In Via Tornabuoni and in the center you can see every day many people cycling, tourists, businessmen, students and ladies, but this is very common in other Italian and foreign cities. From the beginning of May there is something new: the bikes will have a plaque. It is in fact a new project of the City of Florence “Lamìbici” (my bike in Florentine dialect) designed to avoid or at least limit the phenomenon of bicycle thefts in the city.

Every bicycle in fact will have an indelible adhesive Easy Tag, sticked to the bicycle with the Italian Bike Registry, that associates the owner tto the consecutive number of the “palque”, the chassis number and the identification data of the bicycle itself.

In addition to citizens, the campaign will also appeal to sellers of bicycles, who will undertake, in the case of bicycle purchase equipment for resale, to ensure that they are not stolen.

But if my bike does not have this plaque, how can I prevent it from being stolen? Here is a list  with some advice:

• Always tie the bike, although you leave it for a few minutes, and with a good lock.
• Tie it well, trying to ensure the frame, and not only the wheel, to a pole or to a wire rack.
• Choose a crowded place to park, perhaps the thief will be deterred by the coming and going of people.
• Customize as much as possible, adhesives or special written, it will be more difficult for the thief hide your tracks.
• Make a note of the frame number, take some pictures, in short, try to have the “evidence” showing that the bike is yours.

Perhaps all this will not help much, but as a famous Italian proverb says: There’s no harm in trying!