Chronicle – Oration Di Garza has traveled for sixty years the road that linked his home on Via Nuovalucello the field cultivated in Mascalucia. “From farmer I did 14 times around the world, four more than Merck,” he said. Cyclists in safety clothes will meet to Catania retraces his steps to seven years after his death. Watch the video.

“He never looked at the road in front of him.” White hair and a dark cap – to protect themselves when the rain when the heat – head down pushing his bike for all 15 kilometers of ascent that linked the house where he lived – in Catania – with cultivated land, near Mascalucia. “And he did not want anyone’s help.” Every day, for all its past sixty years, this was the life of Oration Di Garza. It was called so the man that many people of Catania have crossed at least once along the road that connects the city to the municipalities foothills, but any of them remembers how the old bike. It failed to 84 years old, on November 4 seven years ago. The association released Promenade, in collaboration with freewheels and Stesicoro square Liberate, Sunday commemorates him with a ride.

“We will leave from Catania Cathedral at 11 – says Alsip Machete, one of the organizers -, we will pass from his home, located in via Nuovalucello, and we will reach Nicolas,” at 16:30 approximately. Participants in reflective clothing will retrace the road in single file that Di Garza daily grind “with the boots with rubber feet and – said those who knew him – a bicycle loaded with vegetables, fruit and working tools.” Put them all in a box red, tied to the roof rack. After being hit by a car – and hospitalized – she decided to wear a reflective jacket. Especially that made his figure and his effort even more evident in the eyes of commuters and residents.

Among them is Alessandro Marinara, that the old bike has dedicated a feature film. It tells the story “of an extraordinary man, out of time – explains the director – who loved cycling, nature and especially Gazelle”. The girl he wanted to marry but that – by the will of the family – was married to a rich cousin, while Di Garza had left for World War II. “He had no news of his beloved for two years. All letters he sent were torn from her father who – adds Marinara – told her that he was dead. “But instead he deserted, returned to Sicily and met again; “But she was not the girl he remembered the pain of losing him had stopped eating.” He died a few months later “and Horace became the mourning in the sense of guilt for not being able to protect her.”

From then on, “he claimed that God had sentenced him to push his bicycle as a long Way of the Cross – he continues – but at the same time, in his love for the bicycle could be free.” In the documentary Of Grace explains: “Gazelle has not been able to enjoy life, not even I want to enjoy myself.” The cycling champion Eddy Merck said once to have done ten times around the world, running with his bike. “Horace was sure I beat him – he tells marinate – said” I, as a farmer, traveled around the world fourteen times I did it. ‘” In memory of those who knew him, “will remain an example of freedom, simplicity, poetry, willpower – said the director – that there has to reflect on what our company is certified to conformity.”