Ambassador_Simone Fagnoni

SIMONE FAGNONI

Memento Audere Semper (Remember to always dare)

DATE OF BIRTH

28/02/1984

PLACE OF BIRTH

Milano, Lombardia

NATIONALITY

Italian

My name is Simone Fagnoni, I was born and raised amid concrete and asphalt, in the Milanese suburb of Niguarda, where I lived until 2004.

Fortunately, my grandparents had a holiday home in the province of Lecco, between the legendary Grigna and Monte Resegone; I spent the weekends or entire summers there, with grandpa Attilio and grandma Mariuccia. My grandfather was a native of Bergamo and an Alpino of the Julia division, one of the few lucky ones to return from Russia alive thanks to his strong fighting spirit and survival instinct. He taught me a great deal without saying much; every morning he would wake me early to take me into the mountains, and we always came back strictly at 12:00, because my grandma Mariuccia served lunch at that time, punctual as a Swiss clock.

I thank God that mobile phones and other electronic distractions for children did not yet exist in the 1980s. From then on, the mountains and their sports on snow, ice and earth have always been part of my life.

The turning point came in 2006 when I met my wife Jessica, who lived in the hills around Modena, and it was love at first sight. Together we bought a house in 2009 inside the Parco dei Sassi di Roccamalatina (MO), where we moved for good in 2010. From then on my life reset itself; I reconnected with nature the way I used to as a child with my grandparents. I learned to work the land and then grow vegetables from the garden, to care for the garden and the trees, and to see woodland animals up close in my own field, animals I had until then only seen on television or in books.

For many, 2020 was a year to forget: between Covid19 and Lockdown, many people lost their lives and many others fell into depression for different reasons. For me, on the other hand, it was the year of my second rebirth… a wonderful year in which, after having serious health problems at the end of 2019, I realised how short my life could have been. So I made the decision to stop wasting my time and to live my life intensely, without looking back or having the regret of what I could have done, but following my passions one by one. The mountains, mountaineering and sport climbing taught me never to give up, and so here I am! I have become an Environmental and Hiking Guide authorised by the Emilia Romagna Region, and I can’t wait to pass on to you my love for the nature that surrounds us.