It is safe to say that American writer John Fante is better known to the European audience than to his native audience. His succinct prose is easily translatable and his countless stories like Ask The Dust, recounting the son of an Italian immigrant’s quest for literary fame are full of irony and wit.

I am not sure that Fante actually spent any time in Italy, but I couldn’t help think of him and his masterpiece this weekend as I ventured to Siena to experience my first Strade Bianche. And it was not the magnificent medieval city of Siena that called to mind Fante, but rather my day in the dust.