Surrounded by his entirely local brigade, that is, African - with even a proud pastry chef from Burundi -, here he is in action (and in a very useful photographic pose for team building): Tiziano Brichese, the cook of the Italian national team busy at the stoves of the Kigali Delight Hotel. It's his third year with the cycling Azzurri for the chef and owner of the Eden restaurant in Ottava Presa, a hamlet of Caorle, who in recent days found a fundamental Rwandan, indeed Italian, co-equipier.

Because there was a need to source food that, due to import restrictions, could not be put in the airplane's hold: so Brichese, an excellent rider in the past (with a Coppa Adriana junior and then activity as an amateur), followed the indications from the Italian Cycling Federation and came across the Sole e Luna restaurant in the Rwandan capital, not just a place to select at will numerous menu options focused on first courses and countless types of pizza. "In tight times, we made a virtue of necessity, finding everything we needed, I think of prosciutto or Parmigiano. The most famous Italian restaurant in Kigali also has a well-stocked emporium of products from the Bel Paese, including oil" explains Brichese, who usually rides his bike on the Veneto roads every Thursday, his day off from work.

RESPONDING TO CYCLISTS' NEEDS

"My task here as in every national team trip is clear, it corresponds to optimizing athletes' nutrition, trying to satisfy their tastes as much as possible, while maintaining the essential carbohydrate intake and certain good practices. Obviously, one must take into account the timing of the activity, whether competitive or preparatory, preparing lunch at non-canonical hours, like today, Friday, upon the return of boys and girls from the time trial course. We try to vary, for example by offering chicken and fish as an alternative to red meat alone. For fruit, we prefer bananas to other less controlled tropical foods like pineapple, so the tart cannot be missing, avoiding lactose" - adds the cook from the province of Venice, after receiving explicit compliments about his puff pastry from Matteo Sobrero, who had been avoiding tarts for some time due to an intolerance.

ITALIAN PRODUCTS ON-SITE FROM SOLE E LUNA RESTAURANT

In the evening, we move to Sole e Luna, encountering the owner Dionigi Breazzano, in Rwanda since the distant 1995, a year after the genocide that led to the death of a million Tutsi people. "The restaurant has been open since 2001. Here I got married and started a family, spreading Italian taste with appreciation not only from the Western community and fellow countrymen, but also among Rwandans. We have products brought from Italy and they can also be purchased in the store, in some cases the duties are quite heavy, but the quality factor guaranteed by carefully selected raw materials from Italy is indispensable for us. Wine is also appreciated, and my Apulian origins have pushed me to offer mainly Negroamaro or Primitivo" - adds Breazzano, accompanied by his Rwandan wife, Beatrice.

But how did Mr. Dionigi end up here?

"By continuing in '95 a volunteer initiative driven by the strong impulse of a lady, Amelia, then 80 years old from Thiene, in the province of Vicenza. It was an experience that then led to the birth of an NGO called Futuro Insieme, still active today. Amelia, in those terrible years for this country recovering from the drama, managed to bring 53 Rwandan children to the Cerris Institute in Verona, thus facilitating their relocation. That meritorious activity earned her recognition from the President of the Republic".

Thirty years later, the collaboration with the national team becomes a non-trivial parenthesis alongside a story of solidarity.