Jan. 21 – “It’s difficult to summarize in a few lines a life full of experiences. Ennio Odino was a partisan who escaped a massacre in Liguria, then interned in the Mauthausen camp; after his release he returned to Italy to become a professional cyclist, riding next to Fausto Coppi. He later became a European official in Brussels and chairman of the National Association of Italian Partisans in Belgium. Ennio Odino’s is a biography that summarizes some of the most dramatic, but also the most extraordinary moments lived by our country in the last eighty years. From the resistance to Liberation, the post-war difficulties, the enthusiasm of the economic boom, up the construction of the European Union.” With these words – last December – Laura Garavini, secretary of the presidency of the Democratic Party Group in the Lower House, recalled Ennio Odino, who had just passed in Brussels at the age of 90. Ennio Odino (Gavi, June 8, 1924 – Brussels, 13 December 2014) is a partisan and a great Italian cyclist; he is a character that left a mark in Italian history. And today Brussels remembers him. The Italian Cultural Institute is hosting a conference entitled “We ride with Crik for freedom.” Crik is Odino’s battle name. The event was organized by the Italian Cultura Instite in collaboration with the Anpi division in Brussels. (red)
