In northern Italy’s Piedmont region, a rusty old bicycle has made its way back home after an extraordinary journey. The bike once belonged to Clemente “Mente” Berardo, a celebrated mountaineer from Manta, near Cuneo. In the early 1950s, he and three friends hauled it to the summit of Monviso—12,600 feet above sea level—simply as a playful stunt in the spirit of postwar youth. For decades, the frame lay hidden among rocks and snow until climbers rediscovered it in 2020. This summer, two young alpinists carried it down from nearly 9,500 feet and delivered it to the Monviso Park authority, which recently returned it to Berardo, now 87. “It was a different time,” Berardo recalled. “We were young, full of joy after the war. My mother had bought me that old bike, and we thought it would be fun to leave it on the mountain. But Monviso belongs to stones, eagles, and chamois—not bicycles.” The bicycle, once a whimsical symbol of freedom, is now a piece of local history cherished by both mountaineers and the community.