For me... 100% ROAD!!!!

Let me tell my story.
In 1980/81, I had my Viscount stolen (still in high school). By that time Dad was planning a sabbatical in Italy, so I decided to buy an Italian road bike.
So... I bought an "interim" bike for $65, I think.
Spring of 1982 I bought my Colnago Super in Parma, Italy, and brought it back to the USA that summer (turns out to be one of the earliest of the Supers, 68/69). Complete with Sewups.
Anyway, the Colnago served me well for the rest of HS and all through college, including commuting to both HS and the university, while the interim bike remained mostly parked.
I think after college I ended up with a swingshift/graveyard shift job with a 10 mile commute. I dug out the old interim bike and kicked in the canister generator... WHEW!!!!
I decided that I absolutely hated my interim bike, and bought a set of Nightsun lights for the Colnago.

Since then, the Colnago has been my primary bike for pleasure and commuting, rain or shine. It has been locked up more times than I can count, sometimes to racks in the rain, although I do like to keep it out of the rain when possible.

The old Colnago has also carried a rack, attached with a special nut for the dropout triangles, and P-Clips for most of its life (Ernesto didn't believe in eyelets).

Sometime in the mid 90's, during a heavy bicycle commuting period, I finally replaced the sewups with 23/25mm clinchers.

I'm a little embarrassed that the Colnago looks absolutely beat up, although nothing is truly broken on the frame. And now I find out that it would be considered a "collector's item" if it wasn't so worn out

But, I absolutely do not regret riding my favorite bike for the last 30+ years.

Anyway, I don't see any reason not to use your Bianchi. You bought it to be ridden and not to be a wall hanging. And, if you can ride 50 miles on 23mm tires, surely you can ride 3 miles to the Post Office on them.

Oh, I've used toeclips for years. I did put SPD pedals on recently. You'll have to decide what you wish to do with the shoes, perhaps you'll just wear your road shoes with cleat covers.

Great story. You got any pics around of your steed?

I'm sure it's not 'worn out', you should plan to treat yourself sometime with a complete strip-down, repaint, parts-clean, and rebuild. Your bike would look as good as it rides for you. Although that would also make it more of a theft target...

Yikes! Good to hear you were not injured! Plus you get a cash payout from insurance to kickstart your bike habit...

Agree 100% about it being subjective. Though note that there are also many people who feel that the "bigger tire is more comfortable" idea gets rather overblown.

The most comfortable bike I've ridden was a Trek Emonda with 25c tires. I recently rode a bike with 32c that was not as comfortable on the road (and was a full carbon comfortable-to-ride bike similar to the Emonda). If you're happy with your current tire size for regular riding, there's probably no need to switch.

FWIW (I started this thread, BTW) here is the status of things.

1) This could work, at least in the short run (one car experiment). Have to see how this holds up longer term and in the winter (not too bad here in NC)
2) Mostly riding on the road bike is absolutely the right thing to do. I just like being on this bike, and it makes it much more fun vs. a clunky Trek 700.
3) The Trek 700 will have a place when carrying heavier load and as a rain bike (not putting fenders on my EL-OS Nivacrom Steel Binachi). But see later comment
4) I am having new hubs put on some older rims and will be riding more durable tires around town. We'll see if the tire switching holds up.
5) Running shoes on clipless pedals works good enough. But when things are wet, good enough really isn't very good with much care required

Now for an interesting datapoint. I had a bunch of running around to do yesterday (whole thing took over 4 hours) and there was a threat of popup showers late afternoon. I just took off with zero rain protection with the backup of calling home for a ride if required. I was on the way home about 5 miles out when it started to rain steady and moderately hard. This was not a gulley-washer but was a steady rain. This was not a big deal (if you are extra careful with the pedal thing). And I did NOT notice any fender spray!! I was wearing a Bell cycling helmet, standard cycling shorts/jersey, and a backpack. I noticed just a little bit of 'crap' low on the backpack (not too bad) and pretty much nothing on the shorts. I was expecting MUCH worse (although it has literally been decades since I last rode in the rain, I always avoided that as best as I could, and I just don't recall what happened back then). I am beginning to think that I don't need fenders at all. Am I fooling myself? Is it maybe that if it went from a strong/steady rain to much harder that it would suddenly make a difference?

Thanks.

dave