The Italian diet is famously delicious, with people in the country enjoying everything from cornetto pastry for breakfast to pizza for dinner – and then there is ice cream. And the wine.
No one is more aware of that than Luciano Fregonese, the mayor of Valdobbiadene in northern Italy. He has held the post for 10 years, and put on 50kg (110 pounds) in that time.
It is all the fault of “social obligations” as mayor, says Fregonese, who is out and about meeting people from morning until night. All those meetings do not leave any time for exercise, he says. And, the 47-year-old concedes, he enjoys food. But his mealtimes are irregular – often, he only eats just before midnight.
Fregonese, who currently weighs around 140kg, has turned to brisk walks to help him lose weight.
At the start of the summer, he invited the residents of Valdobbiadene to join him on his walks. Some 200 citizens now turn out to stroll through the area’s picturesque hillsides for an hour and a half.
I don’t know if I’ve lost weight yet, but I feel better, physically and mentally. And that’s the most important thing for me
Every Thursday, Fregonese and his fellow citizens gather in the central Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, then they amble through the streets of Valdobbiadene and the local vineyards. Later, the mayor shares photos of their walk on social media.
Friends joked that his first goal as re-elected mayor should be to address his own health, he says – since, while they were always encouraging him to get some exercise, he was always putting it off.
“About a month ago, a friend said: ‘Let’s go running tonight!’” says Fregonese, but he could not make it because it was during his office hours.
His friend suggested that they also invite citizens to join them. Forty-five people came out for the first walk. Each week, more showed up – peaking last month when more than 200 people came out.
“So many people come to cheer me on, to give me the will to keep going, because I honestly wouldn’t be able to do it alone,” says Fregonese, who wants to encourage others to exercise and take care of their health as well.
That is perhaps unsurprising in Italy, where obesity is a taboo subject.
A few months ago, someone wrote the word panzone, meaning “fat man”, on a wall in Valdobbiadene, about Fregonese. “That didn’t bother me. But it did get me thinking,” says the mayor.
In his view, being overweight is not something to be ashamed of. “But you just have to understand that it’s not healthy and that you have to do something about it.”
His main aim is not to change his figure – he has not stepped on the scales since that very first walk. “I don’t know if I’ve lost weight yet, but I feel better, physically and mentally. And that’s the most important thing for me,” he says. “It’s good to meet people outside.”
“A glass of Prosecco doesn’t have that many calories,” he says.
