Massachusetts-based Ciclismo Classico was started by Hefferon after she graduated from Cornell with an anthropology degree, studied fine arts in Florence, and rode morethan 35, 000 miles throughout Europe.
For morethan six centuries, the brilliantly frescoed walls of Florence's Basilica of Santa Croce functioned as what its current rector, Father Antonio Di Marcantonio, calls "medieval PowerPoint": scenes from the Bible and saints' lives illustrating the sermons that Franciscan friars preached to largely illiterate congregations.