MASSA. The trip was one of those dream trips, the kind you say all your life “I’ll do it sooner or later” and then you actually do it. A motorbike trip straight to the North Cape, up there where in winter you can see the Northern Lights and in summer the midnight sun. A magical place that for him was the trip of trips. But Pier Francesco Giannarelli just missed the North Cape. He died in a car accident in a tunnel on the road in the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago in Norway that extends northwest between the counties of Nordland and Troms. There were eight hundred kilometers left of the almost two thousand that he would have traveled in total from Copenhagen, where he had started, to the roof of the world.
Pier Francesco was the brother of Michele Giannarelli, the mayor’s spokesman, who learned of the accident and his death yesterday morning first from the contact person of the group he had left with, then from the Italian embassy in Norway. The dynamics of the accident, however, are not yet clear. “It seems that there was a collision, but it is not clear who was involved. We only know that he is the only one who died,” Michele Giannarelli says with a voice muffled by pain.
Pier Francesco was 69 years old, a very well-known retired accountant who continued to provide consultancy for some companies in the area. He had two children, Margherita, 36, who works in Switzerland in the advertising sector, and Giorgio, 33, who works in real estate. He also had a partner who was not with him.
That was a trip he wanted to do alone. One of those organized trips, with a coordinator and lots of strangers who become friends as the days go by. He left on June 20 and was supposed to return on July 6. The goal was to ride a motorbike from Copenhagen to the North Cape. He was on a Harley Davidson, his passion. “He was a very careful person when riding it,” his brother recalls. He was also passionate about sports, “all sports,” and, indeed, travel. From what we understand, the accident occurred in the archipelago, one of the unmissable stops for those who want to reach the North Cape. Islands famous for their isolated bays, sheep grazing in the meadows and picturesque villages. And also for the Northern Lights and the midnight sun that, this time, set too early.
