The former Italian boxing star tells himself: “In Paris, I didn’t know the street and we shared a bed for two, in Bogliasco I saw Sampdoria lead the good life. In Italy, no one ever said to me ‘Dirty negro’, but the politicians they deny…”
He is found in front of a petrol station on the Via Ostiense, where he made an appointment for us when we spoke on the phone. We go downstairs to greet him and in the warm embrace that he naturally exhibits it’s like squeezing a small marble column: at sixty-four, Nino La Rocca is still an athlete, who looks fifteen less, if we want to be severe. And he smiles like someone who has seen and gone through so many that he is not surprised by any question.