I met Matteo in 2014 when I became mayor. He had already collaborated with the municipal administration, he had written the beautiful book: The pounds bracelet, in collaboration with the administration, had presented it here in our area. I immediately found myself in harmony with him as regards the celebrations, the commemorations of Villa Rossi and Villa Calvi. He knew he shouldn’t talk politics with me, because otherwise we would bicker right away and our positions, even though we had common roots, of course they immediately clashed. But that was never a problem and instead of him I remember the enthusiasm, overwhelming, the ability to tell stories, to find, to recover stories and human contacts. It was his great gift. I cannot forget also the wonderful work he did to collect testimonies from all over the world, in March 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, to still succeed with us to tell and remember the attack on Villa Rossi, also because it had been 75 years since the attack. And there is a video that we published really sensational with beautiful testimonies, of all relatives and again by the protagonists of that attack that night. Then many things, truly irrepressible, I remember the birth of the smallest museum in the world, so he had renamed it in the old weighbridge with a center in Albinea that has come to life with the collaboration with prolocco and which is naturally continuing its path. That was Matteo’s idea, as well as the last project that I then wanted to carry out after his death, the path of the tulips. I remember with great sympathy the phone call he made to me in the midst of the pandemic to tell me that he had this wonderful idea of ​​remembering the dead American pilot that the American mother he came here to Albinea to lay tulips in his memory, to plant tulips in his memory. And this thing, precisely he, told me in great detail, saying that it was very important and beautiful, it would have been wonderful to make this path full of tulips.I liked the idea a lot, but the problem was that I was in videoconference with the ASL in one of the important videoconferences we had almost every day during the pandemic. So, after a quarter of an hour on the phone, I said to him, Matteo, that’s enough, now I have to put this thing down we do it here, I promise we do it, I like it but now I have to go. And he always with his never ever touchy way said to me, sorry sorry, come on, we’ll talk, bye bye bye and the phone call ended like this. Then we spoke again, but that phone call still impressed me because of the commitment I had taken it, I absolutely loved the project and now you can come along from via Poiano the path of the tulips which has also become in memory of Matteo Incerti. And in any case one thing is certain, Albinea will never forget, in short, the love that Matteo has poured into our territory for our country.

Hello guys, hello to all my Scout friends. I am happy to think of you and to remind you Matteo why You were and still are very dear to me. We lived from 8 to 15 years old together with the Scouts and so we did a lot, and after that we also played to american football together. Many beautiful years. Until we got really big. The thing that pleases me is that after twenty, twenty-five years, I’ve lost you a little, but when I recovered you, I understood that the values ​​we lived and taught us, we shared, when we were in the Scouts and also when we were in football, serious things in life, you kept them and carried them forward, carried them forward with great pride, great dignity. I am very happy to have been your friend and to have known you, I think of you and if in my heart. Thanks Matthew.

Matteo was a force of nature. He was an extremely outgoing person and a person with many passions. I remember knowing him now almost 15 years ago and I had known him on the occasion of the V-DAY 1, because there was obviously an interest in politics, but also this desire to change, to change the country, to change our territory. He was extremely passionate about Reggio Emilia and the area in general. I remember he used to tell me about when he took his walks on the Reggio Apennines, How much he loved going to the Apennines, and he was a figure you found in the centre. I remember when I lived in Reggio Emilia sometimes I would go down and he would pass by with his bike and also there he stopped and we had long chats about politics, about Reggio Emilia, about what had to change, what had to change, in short, on many things. He had a very, very important civic engagement. And then Matteo from Reggio Emilia was exactly the same Matthew of Rome. I remember that maybe every now and then he sent messages and said, Edera I can go to the office and also between one presidency and another, even during classroom shifts, he came and even for a few minutes we would talk about how we could improve, about what could be done on that day’ Then an extremely proactive person. She was one of those who sent you messages from seven in the morning and maybe told you, but this morning we could go out on this or this morning we could prepare this article. It was extremely proactive. And then his passion for history. I remember him talking a lot about his books, he was very proud of having written those books and somehow managed to put people together. So he was connecting people from different countries too and he was passionate about that, he was passionate about history and he was passionate about telling different lives and bringing them together. And this was a very nice thing about Matteo, he was a storyteller, he loved to tell stories people’s stories. So what else to say ? Surely the fact that he is no longer there it is something that has shocked all of us, the whole community of Reggio and beyond. But I’m sure Matteo will always have a special place in the hearts of those who knew him.