Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:
> > Many of the Italian shoes are just too narrow
> > for an average North American foot.
>
>
>Now to be sure I'm on-topic here, let me say the best cycling
>shoes I ever owned were made by G. Bianchi. They even came
>with a fabulous sticker that's on the back of my tool cabinet.
>Anyway, I purchased those from College Park (Maryland) Bicycles
>in the early 1980s. I wonder if Larry still has some around?
>
>
Let me, too, get back on topic.
As I said once before, there was in Lucca a very famous shoe maker, by the name of Colombini (CHECK IT OUT!). Too bad there is barely the name of the Company left of what it used to be.
Nowadays, they use mainly new synthetic materials and it so happens that when you commission a custom leather pair they may have to make them twice to get the nearly correct size, as it happened once in my case (at least, they were rather cheap, by your measure in $$$). Exactly that prompted me to venture onto making myself a pair. Funny looking and somewhat heavy, yes, but perfectly comfortable and durable.
Sergio
Pisa