The year 2011 and the national-popular events chosen to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification: the Coppa Italia Final (Inter), the Giro d'Italia (Alberto Contador, later disqualified in favor of Michele Scarponi), and the Song Festival (Roberto Vecchioni). Italy's first female Prime Minister since 2022, eleven years earlier she held the Ministry of Youth Affairs in the Berlusconi government, and left the Riviera wearing the… pink jersey.
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Sometimes stories intertwine without the protagonists knowing… Take Laura Pausini and Marco Pantani, for example.
On January 12, 2026, Carlo Conti announced the participation of the singer from Solarolo in the Sanremo Festival as co-host and, at the same time, Mamma Tonina Pantani posted a photo of the singer with the Pirate on Facebook: an image taken while the two – Laura and Marco – were discussing who knows what while crouched behind a wooden hut (changing room) on the beach in Cesenatico.
“Laura Pausini with Marco at the seaside in Cesenatico behind a cabin to shelter from the cold. It wasn't summer, but I think they were talking about a song.” Mamma Tonina's exact words.
January 12, 2026, was the eve of what would have been the Pirate's 56th birthday, which Mamma Tonina celebrated as always. Rituals, as we know, never break. And off with another post depicting a tray full of pastries.
Fate took Pantani away in 2004. The Pausini & Pantani song never came to fruition. It wouldn't have been surprising if the Pirate had sung it with Laura after having written it on the stave... words and music, as they say in Sanremo.
Pantani was in love with Italian music and sang it (especially songs by the band Stadio) in a club where karaoke was all the rage. He didn't (it would seem) go as far as imitating Charlie Parker, the beloved jazz prophet. He stopped at... "I stand on the pedals," in short.
Sanremo, as a Festival, also cuts across Giorgia Meloni's public life. We remember well how on-the-moment the young Minister of Youth in the Berlusconi government was when, in February 2011, we "dressed" her in a pink Giro d'Italia jersey with her surname stamped on the shoulders: MELONI, in capital letters, of course.
It was part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and the Festival—the hub of national and popular entertainment events—gathered both us, the organizers of the Giro, a national and popular sporting event par excellence, and the regents of the Lega Calcio (Football League), because of the Coppa Italia, which within three months would crown Inter Milan the Italian champion for the seventh time.
And here we might also remember Roberto Vecchioni, a true Inter fan, who won over the Festival in 2011 with "Call Me Love Again," lighting up the Riviera di Ponente, just as he had done for Milan with "Luci a San Siro." It was the second year under the artistic direction of Gianmarco Mazzi (promoted by Meloni to Undersecretary of Culture in November 2022), with whom we had enjoyed collaborating for the grand finale of the 2010 Giro d'Italia in his native Verona.
The singing competition was hosted by Gianni Morandi, under the slogan: "Stare Uniti." The singer was joined by Bélen Rodriguez, Elisabetta Canalis, and the comedian duo Luca and Paolo: all still in the saddle fifteen years later, as was Roberto Benigni, who on the third night delivered the monologue "Per sempre Unita," celebrating the 150th anniversary of a Republic worthy of being remembered.
The celebration of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification fell under the ministry of Ignazio La Russa, who at the time was Minister of Defense and in 2026 holds the second highest office in the state as President of the Senate: second only to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
That government ended its history in November 2011, with the 150th celebrations over, with Vecchioni still basking in the sun at the Festival, Inter also reached for the Super Cup and the Club World Cup, in the wake of the sixth Coppa Italia, the 2010 Champions League, and the seventh Coppa Italia in May. How distant that Nerazzurri opponent-crusher seems, especially in the aftermath of the defeat at Arsenal in the midst of a season of ups and downs in which their supporters never truly rejoice…
Returning to Pausini & Pantani, it should be noted that the announcement that they will co-host the 2026 Festival hasn't been met with widespread enthusiasm. Social media, which often maliciously spells out the chapters of contemporary history, has been rife with criticism of Pausini and Conti. In the background, there are supposedly "productions" long ready to be launched on the international market, including a carefully planned tour, with the Festival as a launching pad. And what if that were the case? A clever strategy, we dare say. The two—Pausini and Conti—have ended up in the meat grinder of trials of intent.
It will be what it will be.
What won't be is that 2011 Giro d'Italia. And thankfully so! It started from the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale (due to Turin being the first capital of the Republic) with a team time trial that saw the 23 teams (under the UCI's exemption to field an additional Italian team) cross the jets of water from the central fountain and head towards... Milan with two stages that touched 17 of the 20 regions, underscoring the unification established in 1861. It continued with the tragedy of the death of Wouter Weylandt, who fell on the descent of the Passo del Bocco, the Livorno hamlet dedicated to his memory with a compact march. And then, the subsequent cancellation of the Crostis by someone who pulled back after throwing a stone on a descent considered dangerous – but are the brakes still there...or not? – and the posthumous removal of winner Alberto Contador from the finish lists and final classification for alleged doping offences committed elsewhere and not in that Giro.
There was also the issue of the incorrect Spanish anthem being played and sung (but since the Franco era, there haven't been any lyrics in the Marcha Real!) by a group of entertainers in the pay of RCS Sport, who we should have kicked out of the Milanese podium, but who instead continue to make a fortune thanks to a credit boasted of and never collected by the masters of the steam.
The undersigned had to apologize to Madrid's Ambassador to Italy and to all the democrats of Spain, as well as to the Friulians who remained waiting for a group that never arrived, etc. Chapters closed.
That Giro was handed over retrospectively to Michele Scarponi, who was taken away six years later (22 April 2017) by a training accident, and with him went the mysteries of Operation Puerto and other gossiped-about associations.
Pausini, Pantani, Meloni, Mazzi, Morandi, Belèn, Canalis, Weylandt, Scarponi: for better or worse, all faces that will come to mind during the Sanremo Festival at the end of February 2026, which we will devote a few glimpses to on television from Malta.
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