It all started with a makeshift restaurant beneath a tree in an Italian forest. Its creator soon learned to weld and began crafting attractions to bring people to his business. Four decades later, Ai Pioppi has become one of the most curious and terrifying amusement parks in operation, simply because the visitors themselves provide the power—their own energy—to the rides.
At first glance, this sounds like one of those fabricated internet stories, but Ai Pioppi is entirely real. The rides' creator is named Bruno, his restaurant is still running, and what elsewhere might be an old park rusting away in the hands of nature actually welcomes many visitors. One of the most recent was Tom Scott, who decided to climb aboard the "Death Bicycle" with a friend—a strange sort of pendulum that demands its riders' energy, pure pedaling. As you can see in the video below, if enough energy is generated, the pendulum completes a full rotation and will send any unsecured personal belongings flying, as happened with Scott's mobile phone.
The Energy Is All Yours
Needless to say, the potential for injury is enormous. But seen from another angle, the rides only have the force that users put into them. So a carousel ride will be calm and safe as long as those on board aren't determined to experience the Coriolis effect and share the experience with everyone else.
The Blacksmith's Lesson
So why did Bruno decide to build rides? Initially, all he wanted were hooks to hang chains, but the local blacksmith turned down the job. Instead, the blacksmith taught him to weld so he could make the hooks himself. His first creation was a slide, and from that determination came all the other rides.
In summary, this combination of chef and master welder has turned Ai Pioppi into a place that can both feed and terrify its visitors—or at least exhaust them completely. Pedaling that bicycle seems like one of Hercules' labors, and with my current physical condition, let's just say they'd have to carry me out of that cab with a spoon.
