Dad practiced every kind of sport that there was at his time.
During the early 1930’s he took up roller skating. Roller skates had wooden wheels that wore down and had to be changed regularly since all roller skating was done on rough public roads. Dad became successful in this sport more than any other and won the Italian roller skating championship title. No one could even get close to beating him. The rivalry was so intense that in one important race someone changed the signs on the road so that Dad would take the wrong turn when he got to a fork. About 5 or 10 minutes later Dad realized that he was heading in the wrong direction and immediately turned around to come back so he could continue in the right direction. Dad was able to catch up with all the other competitors that had by now gone way ahead without him. He caught up with them and passed all of them and still won that roller skating race.
When he was 14 or so he joined the Canottieri Roma that headquartered along the Tiber River. There he learned how to swim, row and box. One of the other boys who was 16 years old and a much better swimmer than Dad began pushing Dad away from the dock as he was returning from his very first swim in the Tiber River. But Dad was already having a hard time reaching the dock and close to drowning. By some miracle Dad made it back to land. When he finally got out of the water he challenged the 16 year old boy to a boxing match. This was unexpected since at that time Dad was two years younger and 5’2”. He went by the name of “shorty”. Well Dad knocked the other young man down with the very first punch and they could not get the 16 year old fellow off the floor until they had doused him with buckets of water.
From then on everyone respected Dad and was careful how they treated him.
Then when he was 16 years old Dad grew eight inches in six months. He went from being the shortest boy to being the tallest boy around. He was also built proportionately, weighing in at 78 kilos.
Many who knew him thought Dad would become the next Italian heavy weight boxing campion. He refused to continue boxing because the trainers told him they would need to break the cartridge of his nose. Later in life he avidly followed the careers of Rocky Marciano, Franco De Piccoli and other Italian boxers of his time.
Dad won several sculling competitions. He competed in quad rowing events and was very successful.
He also participated and four mile swimming races in the Tiber. Many would never complete the race. Dad always did even though he knew he could never win.
He also raced on his bike, but said that this was one of his less successful sporting events
Even in later life he still kept in shape every way he could, biking to work, refusing to take elevators and racing up stairs on foot two at a time wherever he was and rowing on wooden oar boats called “pattini” or “mosconi” on Sundays with all of his family.