From Reggio Calabria to Padua: the 'two saints' tour of Italy turns cycling into solidarity
by P.Sol.
The cycling marathon of the Giovanni Celeghin Foundation has raised almost two million euros in twelve editions for brain tumour research: the goal for this year is to exceed 215,000 euros in 2025
Cycling is hard work, competition, fantasy, freedom, industry, economy, but it is also responsibility. Having now reached the end of the Giro d'Italia for professionals, the prospect of what has now become another two-wheeled 'classic', which travels up the peninsula from Reggio Calabria to Padua, under the banner of solidarity and the common good, opens up.
1 to 6 June sees the return of 'Da Santo a Santo', the solidarity cycling marathon promoted by the Fondazione Giovanni Celeghin Ets, a Third Sector organisation set up in 2012 to remember the entrepreneur Giovanni Celeghin, who passed away in 2011 due to a glioblastoma multiforme. It is a project that, over the years, has turned grief into strength and remembrance into concrete gestures. Now in its 13th edition, the event aims to combine sport, remembrance and civil commitment to raise public awareness of brain tumours, among the rarest and most aggressive oncological diseases.
The itinerary follows the original spirit of the event: to cross Italy from one 'Saint' to another, stitching together different territories, communities and histories along a single thread of solidarity. The route is divided into six stages: it starts in Reggio Calabria - the city of Saint George - and arrives in Padua - the city of Saint Anthony - passing through Cosenza, Potenza, Bari, Vasto and Pesaro.
It is a journey that scales the Apennines, unites the south and north of the country and carries with it the weight and privilege of representing thousands of patients and families.
