ELISO RIVERA, The novel of the life of the founder and director of Gazzetta dello Sport. 23 November 2019. 6.00 p.m.
ACDB MUSEO Alessandria - Palazzo Monferrato - Via San Lorenzo 21
Friday, April 3, 1896 was born in Milan la Gazzetta dello Sport. One of the two founders was Eliso Rivera, a son who was very fond of his homeland: the hills of Roncaglie in the municipality of Masio (not by chance he signed his articles as Eliseo delle Roncaglie).
After a century of oblivion, finally, the rediscovery of this incredible exponent of our land: from the happy collaboration between the City of Masio and Claudio Gregori (a leading figure in the Gazzetta dello Sport) was born the biographical novel by Eliso Rivera.
It is precisely a novel, because Rivera was a multifaceted character with a thousand interests: not only one of the founding fathers of the Italian cycling movement (which had its cradle in Alexandria), but also a leading lawyer on the Milanese scene, adventurer and traveller (for 15 years he emigrated to Argentina where he founded and directed other newspapers), attentive to social issues (inspirer of the Casa del Popolo in Abazia di Masio and the Unione Alessandrina in Buenos Aires).
All this is recounted in Claudio Gregori's book, which cleverly manages to transport the reader into that period of great political and social ferment experienced by Rivera at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This surprising human adventure could not have a better place to be told than the Museum Alessandria Città delle Biciclette, which has dedicated a section to Rivera.
Two journalists who have been following with passion and competence the path of rediscovery of Alexandria's origins in the history of Italian cycling for years will talk to the author: Mimma Caligaris and Luciana Rota.
The rediscovery of Eliso Rivera did not stop at the book: the Monsterrato-Strade Bianche Monferrato, a cycling tour for vintage bikes, gravel bikes, mtb and e-bikes, dedicated the longest route to Eliso Rivera. The next edition of the event will be held on 21 June 2020.
Saturday's meeting, closely linked to the story told by Museo ACdB, will allow all those attending to visit the exhibition "Scatti. Fausto Coppi and his photographers. And a dialogue with the works of Miguel Soro', which is hosted in recent months on the third and fourth floors of the Palazzo del Monferrato.
"We are grateful to the City of Masio - said the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Gian Paolo Coscia - for having involved a serious and passionate scholar like Claudio Gregori with the aim of telling an extraordinary figure like that of Eliso Rivera. Together with Carlo Michel and Carlo Cavanenghi, founders of the C.V.A., the lawyer Rivera was one of the pioneers of the nascent cycling movement in Italy, and together with Eugenio Costamagna he gave life to a fundamental chapter in the history of sports journalism in our country. Palazzo del Monferrato is therefore honoured to be able to host this presentation which allows us to close the year of Coppi's centenary in the best possible way".
