Genoa – “We don’t want to give up”: in Piazza Piccapietra, Roberto Olivieri, instructor of the “Area 51” gym, says that there is only one way to go forward.
To react. «Reinventing himself, doing what is possible. Clenching every possibility with fists and teeth ». Translated here means bring bicycles for “indoor cycling” (what most people call spinning) outside, in the square, outside the gym. To be able to train, like this, on a Saturday morning in the heart of Genoa.
“Gyms are one of the most penalized activities, for a year now. Even in the last Dpcm – explains Olivieri – I also worked in a gym in Albaro which decided to bring the books to the Court, declaring bankruptcy given the situation. Our sector should have demonstrated in Sanremo, today, on the last day of the Festival, but the initiative was canceled by the Prefecture. We are a sector that is exhausted. But, let’s be clear: we don’t want to give up ».
Each bike is sanitized before and after. And every security measure is taken to allow the lesson in peace, respecting the rules, outdoors. Between music and instructors who accompany the students in the right rhythm to lead: now faster, now more relaxed, always keeping heart activity under control. There is no shortage of students even if, of course, they are not comparable to the numbers of when the gym was running normally. “This is a temporary solution made certainly not for profit but to show that we are there, to keep loyal customers” says Olivieri.
And ride outdoors, in Piazza Piccapietra. Even so, to show the willpower of a sector that – despite a terrible last year – tries not to give up.
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