Love, Loss & Bicycling

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to retire and move to Italy? Not to restore a villa or a farmhouse or to look for love. Douglas Ritter did just that. At the age of 65 he retired and moved to Italy. But not to Rome, Florence or Tuscany, but to a relatively unknown town (to Americans) Bassano Del Grappa. Douglas Ritter was fortunate to grow up in Italy, spending seven years there from the age of eight to fifteen in Rome. While he never learned Italian his dream was to retire there. When he turned 65 he made that dream come true and selected Bassano to follow his passion, bicycling. There he makes friends, joins an Italian cycling team, learns Italian and finds a woman to share his life. Ritter details his first year in Italy through the four seasons as he navigates the daily bureaucracy and the wonders of Italy.