The Critical Mass started in San Francisco (USA) in 1992 and since then it has disseminated for more than 300 cities around the world. It is impressive how this monthly event has spread up to the five continents (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Masa_Crítica_por_país, in Spanish). Bikers meet and ride the city in a good mood demonstrating that a different way of transport is possible even in the most extreme circumstances. Kampala celebrated the first Critical Mass in Uganda at the beginning of this year. Good for them! The desire of pacifying traffic, claiming for space, infrastructures and respect for bicycles, giving visibility to bikes, protecting the environment or making relationships are some of the targets it follows. Hence it is opened to everybody who loves these principles. Furthermore, it has a political point in favor of the issues I have indicated and above all the use of bikes. Conflicts between bikers and cochistas took place specially at the beginnings. Thus, the more bikes on the roads, the more respect we have.

On the other hand, there are countries which celebrate a national, annual Critical Mass. Well, in reality the national adjective here means one big Critical Mass in a country, although riders from other countries are welcomed. I talked about the Criticona. Today I am going to expose what the Ciemmona is. Basically, it is similar to the Criticona since both events offer routes, workshops, meeting places, accommodation, etc., but in Italy. 1,500 bikers joined the last Ciemmona. The 2018 edition consisted in the Firenze (monthly) Critical Mass on the 18^th of May; workshops on the morning, the Ciemmona on the afternoon and a street party in the evening of the Saturday 19^th of May; and a beautiful route on the Sunday morning.

If you want more information, you can check the Ciemmona official blog (mainly in Italian).