The mystery surrounding David Rossi's disappearance has been enriched with a new chapter: his disappearance in March 2013 appears to have been attributed to "coercion." Investigations by the RIS (Italian Investigative Committee) in Rome suggest that the persistently hot case involving the MPS communications director is a homicide, not a suicide. He immediately understood why the Strade Bianche would make history in the world of cycling and cycling tourism...
There's yet another mystery in Italy's already-overwhelming list of mysteries. It's being channeled into reopened cases. That's right: as was easy to predict, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of the Chambers of Parliament has revealed the findings of a new in-depth examination by the RIS—the Carabinieri Scientific Investigative Units—in Rome into the death of David Rossi, the communications director for Monte dei Paschi di Siena, found dead on the evening of March 6, 2013, in the alleyway overlooking his former office in Palazzo Salimbeni.
We passed through that office years ago.
The recent expert report, supported by virtual simulations, underscores how the fall from the third floor of the "Palazzo" is inconsistent with a deliberate act. In other words, it's a shift from suicide to homicide, lending credence to the theories advocated for over twelve years by Rossi's widow and the closest family members of the man considered a public relations genius.
What leads to these new and perhaps not even definitive conclusions? The watch strap apparently left traces of such forceful handshakes on his wrist that it has led to the theory that Rossi was forced to take the extreme step, if not actually held suspended in midair above the windowsill and then dropped three floors below.
For the public, this is certainly not a great mystery like the massacre at the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, on December 12, 1969 (the anniversary every year casts sadness over Santa Lucia and the approaching Christmas), with 17 dead and around ninety injured; like the Ustica massacre on June 27, 1980, when an Alitalia DC9 plane crashed into the Mediterranean with 81 people on board; or like the Bologna train station massacre on August 2, 1980, with 85 dead and 200 injured.
Rossi's story ties in with the work of Peppino Impastato, Giorgina Masi, Emanuela Orlandi, Willy Branchi, and even more so, Enrico Mattei and Michele Sindona. And the unsolved cases continue to include the tales of the Monster of Florence, where sinister stories intertwine with testimonies of uncertain or unacceptable nature.
In the long list of shameful events that have never been fully clarified, we cannot draw on direct testimony. However, we have something special about David Rossi from the first decade of the 21st century. Rossi was the sponsor of the professional Eroica, which in 2007 enjoyed the patronage of the Banca di Siena and ten years later became a regular fixture on the elite calendar of world cycling, the UCI World Tour.
We remember well that meeting on the upper floor of Palazzo Salimbeni, which once served as the Salt and Customs Office. Later remodeled in neo-Gothic style, like the other buildings surrounding Piazza del Campo—home of the most famous horse race, the Palio dei Cavalli, and recently also of the classic horse race invented for the benefit of RCS under the Gazzetta logo—that building houses the headquarters of Banca dei Paschi di Siena, which has always been at the center of financial challenges, from Medici to Rolo Banca, from Mediobanca to Generali.
There, in an open space, seemingly suspended in the shadow of an exposed-beam ceiling, under the active direction of Dr. Patrizia Sega, a project was born. It aimed to support one of the Gazzetta's legendary cycling races, the Milan-Sanremo, accompany the Tirreno-Adriatico by crossing areas of extreme interest to the Bank, and experiment with the transition from cycle tourism to elite cycling with the Eroica-Pro, thereby drawing attention to and promoting the forerunner of rechargeable credit/debit cards in 2007.
It was a success that year and… forever, thanks also to the happy intuition of relaunching pioneer cycling through the stages of the Giro d'Italia (such as Montalcino 2010) capable of offering a global audience the challenges on the dirt roads and clay soils of the province of Siena and surrounding areas.
Well, as he expertly scrutinized the Gazzetta project—yes, because it was designed by Made in Rosaia, not by RCS—behind those distinctive glasses, David Rossi's pupils dilated, and when he accompanied us to his third-floor office for a private meeting, he had already decided the operation had to be carried out. And so, elite cycling became part of the program of events sponsored by MPS, on a par with top-level soccer and basketball leagues, with Siena Football Club and Mens Sana Basketball Siena. And, of course, with the two annual editions of the Palio.
In other words: every time that suicide, which in 2025 took on the appearance of murder, comes back into the news, Rossi's diminutive figure appears before our eyes and we are comforted by the fact that sports tourism was embraced by finance, which was then forced to embrace the 2013 World Cup in Tuscany simply because MPS was also the regional tax collector.
Rossi immediately understood how traditional cycling could generate a highly attractive economic impact for the region where his bank dominated. Sports tourism is the most direct testimony to this. Cycling, and especially traditional cycling, generates value, attracts tourism, creates local identity, and revitalizes rural areas. All of this was certified in 2025 (18 years after Rossi's brilliant intuition!) by the Polytechnic University of Turin, which examined one of the historic Granfondos, the Fausto Coppi, now sponsored by Generali, regularly held in the province of Cuneo.
The Polytechnic's report shows that the most recent Granfondo, with its "2.450 participants from 69 Italian provinces and 42 countries," "resulted in 7.812 weekend attendees" of the race, "with an average daily expenditure of €77,42 and stays ranging from one day (for locals) to over three (for foreign participants). The impact on accommodation is clear: hotels were chosen by 44,9 percent of Italian participants, B&Bs preferred by 44,4 percent of foreign participants, and camping was the preferred option for 11 percent, especially among international guests."
Attention: the two Granfondos linked to the Terre Bianche each have almost triple the participation of the Fasto Coppi and so the induced income each time rises to millions of euros, in addition to:
- Reduce CO2 emissions;
- Produce environmental benefits;
- Build loyalty among Italians and foreigners towards the area;
- Promote the process of identifying premises;
- Etc. etc.
It's unclear whether or how the charade of Rossi's suicide turned murder will be resolved. Every time "that event" is mentioned on television, both in Italy and abroad, beyond uncovering the never-ending cauldron of Italy's great mysteries, it also begins to mutter about the legacy his actions have left in keeping the tradition of the Palio alive, saving elite football and basketball in the city, and launching what has become over time the "Northern Classic held furthest south in the world of cycling." That is, the new cycling that is most popular, which has transcended the confines of the Province of Siena to strengthen events across five sporting continents, including the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain.
Thanks also go to David Rossi.
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