iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Financial doping, eh? It’s beginning to look a lot like the Armstrong years.

Premiership titles tainted by financial doping

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not for the first time, I find myself wondering why I’m drawn to subjects studiously avoided by British historians 🙄

A mad incomprehensible map of the Battle of Mount Cer

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

As a teenager with an interest in photography, my father gave me this book and an old East German SLR. They sparked a lifelong passion for photography and journalism. Mercifully the book survived our recent flood (the camera was sold long ago).

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Accommodation options for my forthcoming research trips to the Balkans are…interesting.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Me, today. Comes to a research dead-end. Reluctantly opens AI thing. Asks complicated question. Gets unmitigated drivel. Closes AI thing. Reaches for actual book.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If there’s a group of sportspeople less enthusiastic about doing their job, I can’t think of it.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Climate change: good for bomb disposal troops and archaeologists, bad for everything else. Over 200 UXOs in the Italian alps have been made safe in the last two weeks.

Soldier on a glacier messing with an unexploded WW1 artillery round

Many unexploded shells melting out of a glacier

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It’s always chilling to read about a fatality on a climb you’ve done. This poor chap fell 80m from near the Osservatorio into Circo Est, a place where numerous bodies accumulated during WW1.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The upside of our flood…empty shelves will require refilling. A book-buying spree in Belgrade could be in order (it’s cheaper to fly there than pay postage on 15kg of books).

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I’m on the latest Helion Military History podcast chatting to Chris about the Italian Front, QR codes, and what readers of military history really really want. Have a listen… #TiTM

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

One of these days I’m going to run Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, and Trevelyan’s Scenes from Italy’s War through an AI thingy to see how much Hemingway lifted. Also, these covers 😂 AFTA features no snowy mountains, and SFIW wasn’t set in the Middle East.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I own a few terrible books about WW1, but typically not one of them was damaged in our recent flood. Instead, some of my favourites perished 😢

ΑΝΤΟΝΙΟ BERTI

1915-1917 GUERRA IN COMELICO

DALLA CRODA ROSSA AL PERALBA

A CURA DI TITO E CAMILLO BERTI

ITALO ZANDONELLA CALLEGHER

LA GRANDE GUERRA SULLA CRODA ROSSA

1915-1917

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

How did I not know about this??? It’s got my name written all over it. International bestseller, blockbuster movie (think Escape to Victory, but in bikes), merch, you name it. It might even be true, who knows?

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Great ride from Enric Mas today. Little known fact: he used to be a sculptor.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Bloody hell, Balkan social media’s reaction to the death of Mladić 😱 Some of these people are seriously deranged.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It looks like the Vuelta is also adopting the week-long format.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I’m currently reading this, about the Bosnian war of the late 1990s. I’m intrigued by conflict photography/reportage, and the effect it has on its practitioners. How does anyone do that job without being horribly traumatised? And why would anyone want to do that job?

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

A sunflower has self-seeded next to our bug hotel, which pleases me greatly.

A sunflower growing up a wall next to a bug hotel

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The CPA not understanding how helmets work, and making themselves look stupid, again.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Nice email from a reader who has fully engaged with the spirit, as well as the content, of Thunder in The Mountains 👊

Description of dangerous activities engaged in having read my latest book.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

My very useful map of the Great Retreat from Serbia in 1915 has one small problem…all the dates are from the Julian calendar. So I’ve changed them all to the Gregorian calendar to avoid endlessly having to add 13 days to everything (which makes my head hurt). It took a while.

Serbia used the Julian calendar until 1919, so all their maps have the “wrong” dates on them 🤬

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It’s so hot in my office that I’ve kindly given myself the rest of the day off.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I’ve finally finished ‘Dan Šesti’, by Rastko Petrović, generally considered to be Serbia’s greatest book about WW1. It’s a wild, fevered, jumble of nightmarish vignettes. This jumped off the page: ‘Hunger sat beside him, grinning, and held one of his hands in its own.’

Two emaciated Serbian soldiers dying of starvation and disease.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

When it became clear in November 1915 that Serbia was lost, most Serbs packed essential clothing and food and prepared to flee to Albania. Branislav Nušić packed 15kg of books. I think many of us can relate to that.

Branislav Nušić, Serbian playwright and satirist.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney rode up Ventoux in under an hour, in 30 degrees of heat, and not one bead of perspiration appeared on her face. I lost about 2 litres of sweat doing it at half the speed!

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Terrible moral dilemma: should I subscribe to an AI translation platform? It would be very useful for my forthcoming Balkan book, but it would mean that your grandchildren will probably die of thirst. For an extra $7 a month I could get it to write the book as well 👊

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Today we have mostly been in the Argonne looking at WW1 craters and eating heavenly tarts.

Vauquois used to be a village on a hill, now it’s an ugly scar in the landscape caused by WW1 mines

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Today’s find: winding gear from a German WW1 cable car system on Hohneck, in the Vosges. There’s still a lot of this stuff scattered around these mountains, and some great hiking.

Rusting wheels and gear resting on a concrete block in the woods

View from the Hohneck saddle looking south-east

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Imagine being the only clean rider on that list (I’m talking about Big Mig, obvs).

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I’ve had a Johnny Hoogerland moment and cycled through 300m of brambles.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Today’s learning outcomes: 1. Push-starting a 1,400kg car on your own, in 35 degrees, is possible, but inadvisable. 2. Paying €300 never to have to do it again seems very good value.

A rather expensive new battery for my car

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Recommended by the scariest historian on social media? I’ll take that.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Inspired by @profaliceroberts.bsky.social riding a bike along the Via Appia antica, yesterday I rode my bike for a few km along the Via Cassia. It was delightful 👌

Tom riding his eMTB along a Roman road in Lazio, Italy

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I can’t imagine why the inside of my car smells the way it does 🤔

Very wet Labrador dog shaking itself after a swim in a lake

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Thunder in the mountains 👌

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Probably time to repost this…

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Der Schlachtfeldhund schwimmt in der Klapfsee, a popular spot for Standschützen returning from front line duties during WW1.

A rare black Alpine Otter in a freezing cold lake in the Carnic Alps

A memorial to the Standschutzen who served up here in WW1

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Tight security at the local museum 💪

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

The view from the window of a WW1 Austrian-Hungarian barrack at Tilliacher-joch (2094m) in the Carnic Alps. There was fierce fighting here, and on Cima Palombino in the summer and autumn of 1915.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Walked up to Golzentipp (2317m) for a view north, deep into Austria. The 360 panorama from the top is sensational, and down in the valley Obertilliach is delightful.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

My hotel room balcony is quite large. Am thinking of setting up a trials course, and getting in a bit of extra practice.

Large balcony with enough room to ride my bike around.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Up in the Brenta Dolomites today, which was rather nice.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Up on the Gavia today, a vital Italian supply route during WW1.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I can believe my mountain guide forgot to mention this in his list of potential vie ferrate hazards.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Today I nearly suffered the most middle-class death imaginable - I deeply inhaled an edamame bean from my salmon poké bowl. I eventually coughed it half way across the restaurant, just as the Maitre D was preparing to perform the Heimlich Manoeuvre. Apparently my face was a picture!

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

#OTD in 1916, the British celebrated Kossovo Day, during which everyone conveniently forgot about the 1915 Allied abandonment of the Serbs, and all the disparaging remarks about Serb fighting ability, and instead celebrated our plucky little ally in the Balkans.

Poster showing Serbia being attacked by three nations

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

There are many books about travelling the length of the Western Front, some good (mine), some not so good (no names, no pack drill). But this, by Nigel Bruce, is very different, in a good way. It’s filled with wonderful photos and excellent maps, there’s a wealth of info, and visually it looks 👌

The front cover of The Road of Hope and Sorrow, by Nigel Bruce

The accompanying website www.nigelbruce.co.uk

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