In the saddle for peace

What does it mean to travel through history? he tells it in his own way: riding his bicycle, he travels thousands of kilometers every year to reach places that have been the scene of violence and war, inside and outside Europe.

It is precisely in those spaces that Giovanni wants to bring a message of peace and brotherhood. At the beginning of May he left Turin for a new journey: "I will retrace the places where the Nazi-fascist massacres took place and along my path I will meet hundreds of young people »explained the cyclist just before the start. Indeed, meeting boys and girls is one of his main objectives: someone makes a piece of travel with him, while others meet them in schools and in the realities of the territory.

«John Paul II said that the best hope of peace are young people who know what war was like - the cyclist underlines -. The kids want to talk about the past and the present. In recent weeks they ask me about the meaning of the war in Ukraine, they can't understand it ». The conflict, for Giovanni, has a particular weight: «I have traveled a lot both in Ukraine and in Russia, I have fraternal friends in both states and I would never have imagined a similar situation. The images we see on the news tell us that unfortunately the war is still in Europe and that raising awareness of peace today is even more important ".

On the saddle of his bicycle, Giovanni travels light: a tent, some changing clothes and a peace flag that he never abandons. His travel is slow and this allows him to reflect in depth on the events that have taken place in each territory he crosses. Everyone calls him "the cyclist of memory". Today, Bloisi concludes: "the bicycle is an extraordinary means of communication, capable of magically involving the people I meet".


Chiara Vitali
NP June / July 2022