PRESS RELEASE (8/1/2016)
Sunday, January 10, a Loano, at 4:30 pm, in the Civic Library the last event of the review will be held. Books under the tree, promoted by the’Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano and organized by the I.So. Theatre.
Conducting the meeting with the author. Paola Gianotti will be the curator of the review Graziella Frasca Gallo Of the Journal of Loano.
The focus of the literary afternoon will be the presentation of the book “Dreaming of infinity” (2015, Ed. Piemme), an account of a solo crossing of 30,000 km by bicycle, an adventurous journey around the world, in tune with nature, challenging oneself.
Thirty-four-year-old business graduate without conviction when her company closed, Paola Gianotti decided to throw herself into her passions: sports and biking in particular. In 2014 she completed the round-the-world bicycle race, the first Italian woman and second in the world to cross four continents and twenty-five countries in 144 days. In 2015 she participated in the Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme, 9,200 kilometers along the Trans-Siberian Railway route from Moscow to Vladivostok. “Dreaming of Infinity” is his first book.
Says the author, “A cyclist likes to train in a group: feeling part of a single entity increases the level of challenge, the perception of pain is divided among everyone. But it's when you ride alone that you feel every part of your body, the labored breathing, the legs pushing on the pedals. You learn to get in tune with the elements: the wind, friend when it is in your favor and makes you feel like a champion, enemy when it is against and makes you a victim. The rain, dripping off your helmet and beating the rhythm on your thighs, the wake of the wheels cutting through puddles. The bike teaches you how to deal with emotions, the temptation to stop, to give up, to fight with yourself.
On the road it is you and your bike, you can only rely on your tenacity to endure the pain and the climbs. And to savor the pleasure of fatigue, it seems a nonsense but it is so, because as in life, from the fatigue of an unreachable goal, of an endless stage comes satisfaction.
When I set out to go around the world by bicycle, among the many who asked, «But how are you going to do all those kilometers?» was me. 144 days, 12 to 14 hours daily, in cold and heat, totaling almost 30,000 kilometers. I didn't know how I was going to do it either. I knew I wanted to pursue my dream and that the body follows the mind. One thing I learned from biking is that limits are only mental. I am not Wonder Woman and I have also been lucky, but by now I have coined my own motto: when you don't know what to do, pedal. It works, even for going around the world..”
The volume presentation will be interspersed with musical pieces performed by the Master Roberto Sinito.
