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Italian city mourns loss of bushwalker who died in Blue Mountains
Feb 3, 2020CESENATICO, Italy – The city in which Mattia Fiaschini grew up is in shock at the death of one of their most promising young people.
Mattia’s body was found in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia where he had gone bushwalking, on Sunday.
“A tragedy for the whole community,” the Mayor of Cesenatico Matteo Gozzoli said Monday.
“A boy who loses his life in those circumstances in the place he loves leaves you speechless.”
“The municipal administration tightens in pain to the mother, father and all the family members of Mattia for this great tragedy that has caught everyone deeply,” said the mayor.
The father of the young man (pictured with his son) left Bologna on a flight to Australia on Sunday night. Rodolfo Fiaschini, was already booked to go to Australia to joint the search for his eldest son when the news came through that his body had been found.
Rodolfo is well known in Cesenatico having worked for 25 years as an official in the foreign commercial office of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Sala (now Romagna Banca). He said earlier Sunday he was , looking forward to reaching Sydney. “We are apprehensive, it is normal, but I am also confident, I want to think positive,” he said.
“Mattia is a very smart boy, a sportsman, an athlete and an expert hiker; despite being only 24 he has already made important excursions in the Himalaya, the Amazon and other distant places. However the Blue Mountains are extensive and it is easy to get lost. It is a huge park behind Sydney, as large as our region, but Mattia was facing it as a light trek, to go and return, in essence it would have been little more than a walk.”
“A news that fills us with pain,” the President of the Region, Stefano Bonaccini said Monday. “I want to express closeness and condolences to the father and the whole family, in my personal name and in the entire regional community. A sincere hug goes to them. And maximum solidarity also to the city of Cesenatico.”
Mattia Fiaschini, 24 years old, grew up in Cesenatico, where his family lives. It is a port city on the Adriatic coast of Italy and has a population of about 26,000.
He reportedly graduated from the Enzo Ferrari high school and had been living in Sydney for about a year on a working holiday. He had a passion for hiking and nature and was considered an expert trekker, having completed challenging international climbs.
Early last week he told his father he wanted to go to the Blue Mountains to view first hand the devastating damage caused by the bushfires. He texted his father for the first few hours, but then the texting stopped. When he didn’t show up for work the next day, the alarm was raised.
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