Back to Intellighenzia

Some time ago I had the pleasure of returning to Intellighenzia Project, the climbing gym in Padua, to tell a little of my journey, of the mountains, the expeditions and the projects that over the years have taken me further and further away.

It was a very simple, informal talk, in the setting that perhaps belonged to it most: a climbing gym, among climbers, friends and people used to talking about holds, grades, attempts, training and days on the rock.

But for me that evening had a special meaning.

Intellighenzia is the gym where I started climbing indoors and, in some way, also the place where I really started training for climbing. Before that I already went to the mountains, I did lots of different things and already had a great passion for that world, but I hadn’t yet truly devoted myself to climbing.

It was there that that passion found ground to grow in.

I met extremely motivated people, who passed on to me even more enthusiasm for this sport. I found partners to share training sessions in the gym with, and then to tie into the rope with on the rock. I began to measure myself against grades, training methods, people stronger than me whom I could learn from.

And, almost without realising it, I also began to find my place within the climbing community.

I think this was one of the most important aspects of those years. Climbing was no longer just something I did in my free time. It began to enter my days, my friendships, my weekend plans, my travels, the way I chose to use my time.

In some way, from Intellighenzia onwards, climbing began to become a way of life.

Over the years that way of living the mountains then expanded enormously. Bigger walls came, expeditions, faraway places, ever more complex projects and my own personal idea of mountaineering. I changed goals, grew technically and always tried to understand what my own way of being in the mountains was.

But many of the foundations were laid precisely in that period: by curiosity, by constant exchange and above all by the people I had around me.

That’s why going back to speak at Intellighenzia was moving.

It was moving for another reason too: I was in Padua, my city.

Among the people listening to me there were many who already knew me. Some had shared those very years with me, others had seen me take my first steps in climbing, or knew the Silvia who still had no idea how far that passion would take her.

Telling them about the expeditions, the projects and the experiences of recent years created a strange and very beautiful feeling: looking at the distance travelled without really feeling it as a distance.

My way of living mountaineering today has become very personal and has led me to look for paths of my own, but it built its foundations in a very specific context, and that is what let it evolve into what it has become today.

It also grew thanks to a community of people with whom I climbed, argued, learned, made mistakes, tried again and shared the same cycle of life.

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