Doctor Enrico Locatelli and his young wife Giulia were known locally as ‘the ideal couple’ or ‘the inseparables’. They never quarrelled. They would spend evenings together in their sitting room, where she would crochet while he read La Gazzetta dello Sport, searching the pink paper for any article that mentioned his idol, whose photograph could be seen all round the house. If the paper did not have a piece on Coppi, he would throw it down and go to bed. As for Giulia, she had no idea why anyone should be so interested in any sport of any kind. Cycling held no attraction for her, just yet. Almost every region of Italy had its own Giro – a one-day event that was organised by the local paper and which would usually draw the greats of the day. Such local classics have since declined in importance, virtually to the point of anonymity. Nowadays the Tre Valli Varesine, the Three Valleys of Varese, just north of Milan, would barely get a few paragraphs in La Gazzetta dello Sport, but in the late 1940s it was another key episode in the Bartali–Coppi soap opera.
