Spartaco Bellicioni was an expert climber. He habitually attended the group of Ligurian climbers of Muzzerone, a cliff overlooking the sea between Porto Venere and the Cinque Terre, from whose top, on clear days, the gaze can reach as far as Corsica. But precisely this passion, which drove him to conquer the peaks, step by step, to discover new promontories and mountain ledges from which to view the world without obstacles, betrayed him yesterday morning. Fatal was a flight from fifty meters while he was climbing Mount Procinto, in the Apuan Alps.
He had left early in the morning with a friend towards the Seravezza valley. Bellicioni, sixty-one years old, originally from Orvieto but residing in Spezia, was walking along a stretch of path that from the mouth of the Bimbi leads to the belt of the Procinto, in the small town of Stazzema. An area where geology has indulged, “creating towers with extravagant shapes, large rock arches, overhanging yellow slates; all immersed in the bright green of the forest” the guides tell. Precisely on this classic track of Apuan mountaineering, with first and second degree sections reserved for those who know rope maneuvers well and with enchanted landscapes, the tragic fall took place. And it was Bellicioni’s climbing partner, who had also been a member of the CAI for some time, who triggered the alarm.
The emergency call to the 118 station arrived at 9.20 in the morning, and immediately a team from the Querceta mountain rescue team set off to reach the climbers. A technician took off from the Pegaso helicopter rescue, but could not help but ascertain Bellicioni’s death. Around 11, the authorization for the transfer of the body arrived from the magistrate on duty. Accompanied by the team to the helicopter pad. From the Retignano camp, therefore, the last journey to the morgue of the “Versilia” hospital, where the family went in the afternoon.
mdc