...now I know Tiziano too...

I who know the mountains from photos, maps, hiking routes, the odd rock face to climb... I who have aped real mountaineering...

... I who don't set off unless the weather is good, I who moan if the route is a bit longer or the rucksack a bit heavier than usual... well … I felt...

Although Tiziano Cantalamessa is mainly known as one of the strongest mountaineers of the central Apennines, “Tu non conosci Tiziano” (You don't know Tiziano) by Massimo Marcheggiani is more than just a book... it is almost a diary, or I would even say something more...  a loving tribute to the man, to the friend.

I would  have liked to walk on tiptoe through the pages of this book, almost afraid of reawakening the memories, the pain... That pain which is essentially the bitter aftertaste of the great happiness lived together with Tiziano, the happiness of those who, lucky enough, were able to know him.

I almost wouldn't have wanted to reawaken such heartfelt sentences and words so full of meaning.

For those who move as a rope team, tied to one another, friendship takes on a particular colour... of strong contrasts, where you can love and loathe each other with the same passion.

I who know the mountains from photos, maps, hiking routes, the odd rock face to climb... I who have aped real mountaineering, I who don't set off unless the weather is good, I who moan if the route is a bit longer or the rucksack a bit heavier than usual... well … I felt small, ridiculous, foolish before the grand simplicity of a man like Tiziano, who in the morning went to milk his cows and then set off to climb some demanding face on the Gran Sasso. This book is a lesson in life that speaks of friendship and reciprocity, of intense feelings and unrepeatable moments such as few have been able to have.

As in Tiziano's case, a book cannot do justice to the many mountaineering successes of the sportsman, the athlete, the adventurer... a book like this can do a great deal when, coming straight from the heart of the man who wrote it, it makes the impossible possible. Much more could still be said about Tiziano Cantalamessa, we realise  that, but everything that is in the pages of this book, his strength, the intensity, leaves us with a feeling, there... now I know Tiziano too...