At 17 he left football and started running and so, the former outside left player of the Navacchio has become one of the top Italian long distance runners, becoming in 2014 European marathon champion. But the thirty-year-old from Tuscany, who has also won a continental bronze in Barcellona in the 10,000 meters (to which he added the silver medal in Helsinki 2012), a third place in the European cross country event in Budapest 2012, runs fast also in life. Testimonial for the charity known as “Associazione per donare la vita”, he spends his spare time with his partner Giada, son Dario and daughter Noemi. And, between one thing and another, he gained a degree in Engineering and completed his PhD in Robotics. Because “sport passes, life goes on”. From running at the ham festival events, where he met his girlfriend, to Rio he’s gone a long way. And he has no intention of stopping now.