Florence, 26 June 2024 – Experience the Eroica in Florence. From June 26th to 28thin the days preceding the departure of the 111th Tour de France from the Tuscan capital (29 June), within the Leopolda station as part of Becycle – a new project on the world of cycling created by Pitti Immagine and Stazione Leopolda srl - it will be possible to admire three iconic shirts worn by Gino Bartali and relive through viewers the latest edition of the Eroica is augmented reality. A “Casa Eroica” space” will rise in the heart of Florence just as it has been part of the exhibition itinerary of “Chianti Origo” for a few months, the new culture center built in the spaces of the former Cantine Ricasoli of Gaiole in Chianti. Between exhibition, multimedia and interactive spaces it is possible to discover the birth, evolution and formal affirmation of a real network of events, capable of involving tens of thousands of enthusiasts all over the world, and move among all those accoutrements, objects and accessories that make Eroica a unique brand in the sports panorama. To embellish everything, even at Leopolda, the official Eroica products which evoke the charm of cycling of the past riding vintage bikes along the dirt roads of Chianti. The absolute protagonists of the space set up by Opera Laboratori will undoubtedly be the memorabilia of Gino Bartali loaned by the Archdiocese of Siena – Colle di Val d’Elsa – Montalcino. These are two jerseys that the great Florentine cyclist wore over a period of 14 years: a yellow jersey he wore in 1938, the year in which he won his first Tour de France; another yellow jersey from 1948, the year of his second victory in the Grande Boucle, in the days of the attack on Palmiro Togliatti. Bartali had donated these shirts – together with the one with which he became Italian champion in 1952 – to Don Bruno Franci, at the time parish priest of the church of Santa Petronilla in Siena, with whom he had established a strong friendship. The two met for the feast of the Assumption of 1935 in Vallombrosa and from that day onwards there was a close relationship between them. In July 1937 the Sienese priest rushed to Marseille to the bedside of the champion who was forced to retire in his first Tour de France. The following year, when Bartali won the Tour de France, the champion gave the priest one of the eleven yellow jerseys worn in his first triumph. Bartali often went to Siena to visit his priest friend and to pray in his church. He also went there in June 1948 before leaving for Paris, promising to give his friend another yellow jersey in case of final success. And so he did: Bartali returned to the city of the Palio on Monday 9 August to fulfill his promise, giving Don Bruno Franci the shirt worn in the final stage of the event, the Roubaix-Paris. The shirts were kept in the church of Santa Petronilla where, as the decades passed, they inevitably showed the signs of time and wear. Hence the delicate restoration intervention which was carried out by Carla Molin Pradel, technical manager of the Opera Laboratori textile restoration centre. A restoration commissioned two years ago by Don Dino Arciero, parish priest of the church of Santa Petronilla, and by a group of sports and Sienese history enthusiasts. A project which, however, would probably have remained wishful thinking without the active support of Opera Laboratori. Maurizio Costanzo
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