I was born in 1986 in Venice. I define the first years of my life as “normal”, since I was a child I was lucky enough to travel a lot, even now I am a passionate traveller. I have always loved sport, I played football, I skied, I practised karate and I swam. When I was nine years old, I noticed that I was getting tired much earlier than others and that my heels no longer supported me. Muscular dystrophy of the caterpillars was the diagnosis, with the unacceptable consequence that I would soon be in a wheelchair due to the constant weakening of my legs and arms. I could not rest! I was thirteen years old, and as every year in winter I was on a ‘skiing holiday’. I arrived on the slopes, but immediately realised that something was wrong. In spite of all my efforts, my feet no longer reacted. From then on, every day that went by was one more setback. At the age of sixteen, I no longer played any sports, and the difficulties in moving around increased, but I could not accept using a wheelchair. I tormented myself with the “classic” questions: why me? What was my fault? I thought about my life in a wheelchair all day, I was distressed.…
I couldn’t accept the idea of doing all my things sitting down! Fortunately, the weakening came about gradually, and I postponed the use of the wheelchair for quite a few years. But by the age of 29, the wheelchair had become my daily routine. Above all, I had changed my point of view and was thinking more about myself, thinking about what I could still do, about what I liked. Among my dreams was the midnight sun in the North Cape, Norway. No sooner said than done, in 2016, alone I set off! I told my experience on a social page “Manuel la soluzione c’è”. It’s really true that when you least expect it, the best things happen, one above all Veronica, a wonderful woman who stole my heart. My love for her and the way she spoke transformed me. Veronica used to tell me: “After all, being in a wheelchair is not the end of the world! You can still do many things, all of them, even the sports you love so much”. From that moment on I haven’t stopped: paragliding, wakeboarding, sailing, canoeing, skiing, karate and I’m in the “Black Lions Venezia” electric wheelchair hockey team. Sport has taught me that the difficulties of life are like games, they are challenges to one’s own limits and one must always put everything back into play, because there are no certainties of winning only the commitment to do one’s best. It was a teammate who told me about the Klick for the first time. Trying it out was an incredible surprise. Finally without any help I could attach it and release it, put it in my car and go. The best thing was that it freed me up and I didn’t feel like a ‘burden’ anymore. What a thrill to walk hand in hand with Veronica. With the Klick all my dreams became more concrete. So I set off on a new solo trip: ‘Venezia – Roma in un Klick’. It was an incredible journey, which severely tested my physical strength, my endurance and my willpower. 800 kilometres of narrow roads, winding paths and comfortable cycle paths in 8 days. Today I am recounting my experience and sharing my ‘little big victories’ with the children I meet in schools. I try to explain, that the wheelchair is not the problem per se, and with new technologies, you can be really autonomous and do everything you want. If I look back, I realise that the years I spent in the wheelchair were a real surprise and very intense with emotions. I discovered that I am a guy who never gives up. I can only be good at summarising when I try my hand at my great passion: “video editor”, then I “cut”!