Cycling trails are expanding across our cities, but not everyone can use them safely or independently. In Bari, since the early 2000s, the Franco Ballerini Cycling School has run a bike park in the San Paolo neighborhood—a facility devoted entirely to bicycles, with training courses for beginners and competitive riders alike. In 2008, president Pino Marzano had an idea: launch an integrated sports project for schools called Two Wheels to Dream. About a dozen children with Down syndrome joined in. The results were so promising that the school decided to open the program to anyone who had never imagined cycling could be for them.
Word spread. Soon children and teenagers with other disabilities—particularly autism—were arriving at the park. "These years have taught us a lot," Marzano explains. "Now, for every new child, we schedule half-hour sessions with an instructor, one-on-one. We assess their balance and pedaling technique so we can choose the right bike for them." There's so much to learn or strengthen, and many reach the point where they can ride alone. "The hardest part is braking. Kids can see a physical obstacle coming, but learning to use the brakes takes real work—it's easier to swerve or put a foot down." Yet, he adds, "the feeling of freedom, being out there alone for the first time, wind in your face, that sense of control—it's priceless. Pure joy and laughter."
After the initial training, riders come to the park on their own, watched discreetly from a distance by an instructor. Some of the older ones bring friends and spend hours in a welcoming space. A few have even joined competitive groups. What about cost? To spare families the burden, Marzano sought funding from the city and regional government, covering most expenses that way. The program has recently expanded to mental health centers run by the local health service: people of different ages are now learning to ride safely in traffic, practicing short group rides through the city. Marzano has fielded calls from Rome and Piedmont asking if the Franco Ballerini School has branches elsewhere. He—who knew nothing about disability before and learned everything in the field, through passion and care, from families navigating the complexity of raising a child with fragility—had to tell them the school is only in Bari. For now.