The bells of Tavullia
I saw the smile on Father Cesare Stefani’s face as he prepared to ring the bells in Valentino Rossi’s hometown of Tavullia to celebrate a race won by Valentino, in the documentary Hitting the Apex. He was a Priest. He was a fan of MotoGP, but above all, he was a devoted fan of Rossi.
Imagine for a second Father Cesare praying – rosary in hand – for you to win at doing what you most love to do. Someone who is rooting for you. And Father Cesare was a supporter with contacts with all the people who provide us with spiritual sustenance and are capable of producing miracles.
I would like to know whether the bells rang in the town of Tavullia on Saturday 13 January 2024, although Father Cesare is no longer there. The social media coverage of the 100k of champions at the Motor Ranch was something that really stirred my emotions, not just as a race, but because I am virtually certain that it was a ‘gioia della vita’, a very special moment, and I would like to think that the bells rang because Valentino and his brother won the race, and also because, with everything that Valtentino does, all of Italy is a winner.
Once I saw the retirement of a great world tennis star on the television. While I was watching the event, I felt as though I was attending a funeral. To be clear, I was witnessing one of the many deaths that we experience in this life. The game was over. No more international competitions. He was leaving tennis. His time was up. He was too old. It was all over.
Valentino too retired from his sport. But the feeling I have is that he left one track and opened up five new ones: a family of his own, switching to racing-car driving, setting up a MotoGP team, making VR46 into a Brand, building up his motorcycling school, and, to crown it all, having the vision to create a competition with the best known MotoGP riders, with all the bells and whistles, and even a famous sports reporter thrown in.
When I saw that the Pata Negra46 was part of the prize, my laughter travelled all the way to Tavullia (I live in a town in the south of Italy). It seemed to me more important than the prize itself, and proved to me that someone who emblazons on his shirt ‘Gallina vieja da buen caldo’, a colourful Spanish expression meaning ‘good things improve with age’, and shows it to the world, is simply someone who knows a thing or two, someone who works to make his life into something worth smiling about, and who, of that I am certain, walks serenely beneath the sound of the bells of Tavullia.
Maiskell Sánchez
