When in the gym we listened to “il” Mattioli as if he were Socrates

One day “il” Mattioli arrived. The setter of Ruini, the former captain of the national team. Who now, at the age of 33, still played in Serie A, in Amaro Più Loreto. He, he himself, had been appointed physical education teacher at our high school. He would sit on the horse—that leather contraption with iron legs—and watch us smiling, teasing us a bit. He wore teardrop Ray-Bans with green lenses, he had a dark complexion…