Death came unexpectedly yesterday. A sudden illness, they say. All of us orphaned by Carlo Gemmati. Iride, Gemmati Velocipedi, Teglio Veneto. A centuries-old story of bicycle craftsmen who became industrialists, then returned to being craftsmen. A story of love, passion, precision. And also the story of a place, more defined by penumbra than by shadows and half-shadows, more by silences than by declarations, more by gestures and movements (even central ones) than by trends and fashions, more by dialects and accents than by anglicisms and neologisms.

I had visited Gemmati Velocipedi five years ago. A pilgrimage that became a tribute, and of which I would have remained a captive. For that mechanical atmosphere, for that twentieth-century ambiance, above all for that "bicycle-iade" hanging and suspended, with frames and parts, gleaming and seasoned, damaged and miraculous. For that same solemnity you breathe even in a church or a library. An outpost, a refuge, perhaps an oasis, extraordinary.

I had published a piece of mine, this one: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2021/07/30/1627491316/gemmati-teglio-velocipedi. And here I referred to another piece, by Franco Bortuzzo, here it is: https://www.tuttobicitech.it/article/78971. They won't be able to resurrect them, but at least to remember, bear witness, and pass them on.

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Carlo Gemmati was 69 years old. The funeral service will be held tomorrow, Saturday, July 11th, at 3:30 PM at the Parish Church of Cintello in Teglio Veneto.

Our deepest condolences to his family.