L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 L'Italo-Americano I n Italy, rosa is not only the color of baby g i r l s . R o s a m e a n s Giro d'Italia, the cycling competition we love the most. As precise as a Swiss clock, our Giro comes every May, its colorful, h a p p y c a r a v a n t r a v e l i n g across the country to give us all a little taste of sport histo- ry. And then, if you ask any Italian, they'll tell you the Giro is more than sport, it's poetry. Because cycling is strenuous, it's hard work, a n d y o u ' r e o n y o u r o w n , there on a bike, riding away along the roads of the world: sounds a bit like life, doesn't it? Just like life, this is a sport that hurts, and where noth- ing beautiful comes for free. And just like life, sometimes, you don't get to win, never mind how much effort you put into the race. Just like l i f e , t h o u g h , c y c l i n g c a n reward you for everything you lost and invested, for all t h e s w e a t a n d t h e a c h i n g muscles, in the space of a sec- ond: that's how much you need to win the race. Il ciclismo: what an amaz- ing metaphor of our exis- tence it is. It doesn't surprise its protagonists all look and sound a bit like heroes – some of them, more tragic than others – and that's why, perhaps, we still love the Giro so much, 112 years after its first edition took place: 112 y e a r s , b u t 1 0 4 e d i t i o n s , because the race had to stop between 1915 and 1918 and 1941 and 1945. There was a war to fight, then. Covid-19 d i d n ' t s t o p i t , t h o u g h : i n 2020, the race took place, just a bit later in the year, in October, between the first wave of the virus and the sec- ond. The first winner was Luigi Ganna, born in 1883 in the V a r e s e p r o v i n c e o f Lombardia, not far from the border with Switzerland: his first words after the historical victory were in dialect and, legends say, went a bit like this, "all I can say is that my behind burns," just the word he used wasn't "behind," of course. But the first true icon of t h e G i r o d ' I t a l i a w a s C o s t a n t e G i r a r d e n g o , class 1893 and Piedmontese. Vai Girardengo, vai grande campione/nessuno ti segue s u q u e l l o s t r a d o n e , s a n g Francesco De Gregori in the 1990s: you see the way it is, our cyclists become cultural i c o n s , b i t s o f p o e t r y t o remember. Girardengo won his first Giro in 1919, the sec- ond in 1923, then six Milano- Sanremo, a second place at t h e 1 9 2 7 W o r l d Championship in Germany and dozens of day race victo- ries, throughout a career that spanned over more than 20 years. Once he quit racing, he became a trainer for younger athletes: he was the one who led Gino Bartali to the vic- tory of the Tour de France in 1938. Gino Bartali, one of our greatest racers, another icon, another piece of poetry. Un Toscanaccio, we'd say in Italian, a true son of his amazing region: rough edges, a sparkle in the eye, a heart made of gold. He won the Giro three times, in 1936, 1 9 3 7 a n d 1 9 4 6 , p l u s t h e Mountains Classification seven times. Just as you'd expect from a Toscanaccio, he showed his best when the game got harsh, when the road went uphill. And life. Because in time we learned that Gino wasn't only a courageous rider, he was a fearless man. During the last war, he embraced the Jewish cause and he support- ed the Italian Resistenza. He w o u l d r i d e h i s b i k e f r o m Florence across the Tuscan countryside to deliver impor- tant documents to the parti- giani, using his popularity as a form of protection: and it worked, because neither the Fascists nor the Nazis ever had the courage to arrest him, perhaps fearing people's reaction. And he did even more: with Archbishops of Genoa, Pietro Boetto, and Florence, Elia Dalla Costa, the Franciscans of Assisi a n d , a b o v e a l l , G i o r g i o Nissim, a Jewish accountant f r o m P i s a , f o u n d e r o f DELASEM, an association t h a t h e l p e d I t a l i a n J e w s escape persecution, he saved the lives of some 800 Jews in t h e y e a r s o f t h e S a l ò Republic. Gino, good old Gino never told anyone about it and the w o r l d l e a r n e d a b o u t h i s courage only in 2010, ten years after his death. Today, he isn't only an icon of Italian sport, he is a Righteous among the Nations. But if you say Bartali, you say Coppi, Fausto Coppi, another great man of the Giro: he won five of them, b e t w e e n 1 9 4 0 a n d 1 9 5 3 . Their rivalry was the stuff of dreams, because they were immense athletes and great men. There was respect, there was friendship, even, because they were different, yet made of that same special fabric all the men of their generation were made of: rough, but protecting. Italy is still divid- ed about who was the best, and perhaps there is no win- n e r , b e c a u s e l e g e n d s a r e great all the same way. But if B a r t a l i ' s l i f e w a s h e r o i c , Coppi was dramatic and trag- ic: his love story with The W o m a n i n W h i t e , G i u l i a Occhini, filled the pages of every tabloid in '50s. They were both married, but they lived their love in plain sight, something unacceptable for our moral standards back then. Even in death, Coppi remained a tragic hero: he caught malaria in Burkina- Faso, while competing in a race, and died back in Italy, in Tortona, Piedmont, on the 2 nd of January 1960. Then, the Giro had other great names, great heroes of the roads and mountains of Italy: from Felice Gimondi to F r a n c e s c o M o s e r , f r o m C l a u d i o C h i a p p u c c i , t o Gianni Bugno. Yet, no one c a u g h t t h e h e a r t s o f u s Italians as much as Marco Pantani did. Perhaps, Il Pirata, as he was – and still is – known to all, didn't win as much as the others we mentioned, but something in him, something in that tiny man as strong as iron, who could conquer the highest peaks of our moun- tains, but shrank away from people and fame, made him closer to us. Pantani rode his bike like it was the only thing that counted and like every race was to be the last. Pantani was shy, of that shyness that becomes dangerous when you are famous, because peo- p l e t h e n c a n t a k e b e t t e r a d v a n t a g e o f y o u . I t a l y d r e a m e d w i t h P a n t a n i , around every bend and along every stretch of the road. When he was accused of dop- ing – an accusation refuted today by many, and on the basis of reliable documenta- tion – during the 1999 Giro and again during the 2001 edition, his life fell apart. Perhaps, we know today, it was organized crime that did- n't want him to win, because his victories decreased profits from illegal betting, but we don't know it for sure. Il Pirata lost, in the end, his battle with depression, with addiction and with, we can say it, the injustice of life: he died of a drug overdose in 2004, his death still shroud- ed in mystery in the eye of many. Yet to Pantani, just l i k e t o t h e g r e a t d a m n e d heroes of music and litera- t u r e , f r o m B a u d e l a i r e t o C o b a i n , f r o m P l a t h t o Winehouse, everything has been forgiven, because he was one of us. And so it goes, the story of the Giro d'Italia: if they tell you it's only a race, now you know it's not true. Our Giro is a metaphor of life, a 112 years long poem. Its protagonists tell us about their epochs, and about the greatness, the weakness and the fallacy of Man, they tell us there is, perhaps, perfection in imper- fection. And also that some- times, after riding uphill, we m a y s e e t h e v i c t o r y l i n e across the valley. The Giro in Catania (Photo: Katatonia82/Dreamstime) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE GIULIA FRANCESCHINI The "race in pink" has begun, and we're telling you its story!

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