For a good part of Beijing Express the Pastry chefs Damiano and Massimiliano Carrara they seemed so caught up in the race that they didn’t pay enough attention to the beauty and humanity they encountered during the journey, but their phone reveals another truth. In the twenty minutes we spend together, both Damiano and Massimiliano show me not only the messages exchanged with most of the natives who hosted them and helped them get to the end, but also the many videos in which they play with the local children, they hug and are moved. «It’s sad that much of what we did hasn’t been shown», comments Damiano who, despite being over the moon at having won this edition of Beijing Express – the final was followed on Sky by an average of 530 thousand viewers – retains a bit of bitterness for certain hateful comments posted on social media that seem to forget that we are still talking about a game and that it would be appropriate to measure our words because on the other side there are people of flesh and blood and not two-dimensional figurines.
A moment after jumping on the red carpet you cried: what was behind those tears?
Damiano Carrara: «All the willpower, the sacrifice and what we tried to be during the journey. For a month we ran, we worked hard and we met many people who had nothing and who gave us everything. The tears were for this incredible experience that was coming to an end, as well as for the adrenaline that was still flowing through my body. Are you aware of the taps? When I started, Massi started too.”
Massimiliano Carrara: «It was a release from all the tension we had accumulated. Beijing Express it was the best thing in our lives.”
As in previous years, you discovered that you had actually won this edition during the broadcast of the program: first reaction?
Damiano Carrara: «Great emotion because we didn’t expect it. We found a crazy group in which we all became friends because such a journey must be experienced together, sharing the same effort and the same emotions.”
roger I look at it
TO Beijing we have only seen a piece of the relationship that binds you. What were you like as children?
Damiano Carrara: «Exactly like now: me speaking and Massi staying silent. When we yell at each other it doesn’t actually mean that we get angry, it’s our way of being.”
Massimiliano Carrara: «In fact I don’t even pay attention to it anymore. Jokes aside, Damiano and I are really close: as brothers we have experienced every type of challenge and we have never really argued except when we were very little, over a football match.”
What happened in that match?
Damiano Carrara: «But nothing, I must have punched him. But we were 10 years old, two children. Other than that, we’ve seen hell together. When we went to America we learned our skills and started from nothing: no one gave us anything. Once we arrived we invested all the money we had saved in the premises and hoped that things would go well.”
Massimiliano Carrara: «We were young, we said to ourselves: “Let’s try, no matter what happens, we’ll lose and we’ll go back”. In life you never stop learning, growing and improving. When someone falls and hits rock bottom, they can only get back up and grow» .
How do you get up from the bottom?
Damiano Carrara: «With willpower and determination, helping each other».
Massimiliano Carrara: «We were the rock for each other, I was the left shoulder and Damiano the right: when we put something in our heads we always try to get to the goal».
Damiano Carrara: “Not to mention that we were lucky enough to grow up in a real family that taught us to be direct and not to let anyone lead us on.”
Beijing Express he brought you together, given that Massimiliano lives in America and Damiano in Italy.
Damiano Carrara: «He comes back often and I go to visit him, but we missed a trip alone: Beijing it was the right opportunity.”
The most emotional moments that concerned you were those in which you heard from your wives: what did you miss most about them?
Damiano Carrara: “All. Not hearing from her on the phone was terrible: even if she passed a day it felt like a week had passed. We were away for a month which seemed like a whole lifetime, so much so that when we returned home we looked like two savages, accustomed as we were to eating with our hands and washing ourselves in a small shower inside a toilet under the stairs like in Sri Lanka ».
