Pietro Chiolino Rava was the protagonist of some editions of the “Giro della valle” at the turn of the 1950s and the early years of the following decade.
TRAVERSELLA
The funeral of Pietro Chiolino Rava, 81, who died two days earlier in the retirement home of Vico where he had been a guest for some years took place yesterday afternoon, Thursday 10, in Fondo, a hamlet of Traversella. Chiolino Rava, an Olivetti retiree, had been one of the pioneers of Valchiusellese running and one of the founders of the Valchiusella Friends Club.
Protagonist, between the late 1950s and the early years of the following decade, of some editions of the “Giro della valle”, a foot race whose path wound through the villages. “Pierino” is also remembered as the winner of the first edition of the Giono Cup which was held in the summer of 1960 starting from the hamlet of Chiara, at an altitude of 880, and arriving at 1,044 in the Succinto fraction, on a path that did not allow for a moment of breath. With the remarkable time of 12’40 “, Chiolino Rava preceded Ezio Arnodo (12’55”) and Alberto Griffo (13’00 “).
The races in the mountains, he who used to train on the paths that led to the mountain pastures, were what he preferred. When the idea of setting up the Valchiusella Friends Club came up, he was among the most enthusiastic to join the project, collaborating, following the construction of the Alpe Gheia Refuge. Among his latest public releases, the one on the occasion of the inauguration, in Fondo, of a plaque commemorating Amerigo Sonza, mountaineer and column of Cav.
In the field of running, Chiolino Rava was then able to rejoice in the successes of his nephew, Roberto Giacchetto, a strong athlete in the specialty, coincidentally, of the alpine marches and winner, in addition to numerous other races, of an edition of the Royal sky marathon held in Ceresole Reale, on a grueling route between the peaks of the Canavese side of the Gran Paradiso. Like many others who grew up in the Valchiusellese mountains, even Pierino Chiolino Rava, who leaves his wife, Laura and daughters Piera and Nadia, wanted to be buried in the village of reference, in his case that of Fondo.