Pelotome –
around Italy on a bicycle.
“Two monks standing there asked how far we were going on our velocipede.
‘To Rome?’ they cried. ‘Why, then, here are two pilgrims and two priests!’”
~ Two Pilgrims’ Progress – Elizabeth Rose Pennell (1886).
My Life and Times
by Jerome K. Jerome
From £4,75
October 1885 – published in U.S.A., Dec 1886, & U.K., Jan 1887.
Two Pilgrims’ Progress.
Following on from “A Canterbury Pilgrimage“, London-based American tricycling couple Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell had continued their journey from Canterbury to Florence, on their honeymoon in the summer of 1885, although had not yet put it into writing. Instead, they first chose to release the account of their third stage “from fair Florence to the eternal city of Rome: delivered under the similitude of a ride wherein is discovered the manner of their setting out, their dangerous journey, and safe arrival at the desired city; and behold they wrought a work on the wheels” in October and November 1885.
Originally serialised in The Century, it was then published in the U.S.A., before a British edition of the book appeared under the different name, “An Italian Pilgrimage.”
- by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
- Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston, Massachusetts, and by Seeley & Co., London.
VIRGIL’S COUNTRY.
“Already in our short ride – for it is but ten miles from Assisi to Foligno – we noticed a great difference in the people.
It was not only that many of the women wore bodices and long earrings, and turned their handkerchiefs up on top of their heads, but they, and the men as well, were less polite and more stupid than the Tuscans or Umbrians about Perugia.
Few spoke to us, and one woman to whom we said good-morning was so startled that she thanked us in return, as if unused to such civilities.
Even the beasts we met were stupid as the people. At our coming, horses, donkeys, and oxen tried to run.”
– Elizabeth Pennell, Two PIlgrims’ Progress, 1886.