An Italian mayor who says that years in the job have made him overweight is taking weekly brisk walks with the town’s people in an effort to shed the kilos.
Luciano Fregonese, 47, won a third mandate as mayor of Valdobbiadene, a town in the northern Veneto region, in June, on a promise to take better care of his physical health and try to get back to the 90kg (14st 2lb) he weighed when elected for the first time a decade ago.
Fregonese, who now weighs 140kg (22st), blamed the weight gain on the job’s “convivial obligations” and long hours.
“For sure, it was a question of laziness and a sedentary lifestyle too, but being mayor meant I no longer did any sport or physical activity,” Fregonese said. “The other problem is that I enjoy eating and drinking, also because you eat and drink well here and so it’s not easy to follow a diet.”
Valdobbiadene, a town of about 10,000 residents, is in the heart of Veneto’s hilly prosecco-making region. But the bubbly, which is lower in calories compared with an average glass of white wine, was not the culprit.
“I enjoy an occasional glass of prosecco when in company, but it was more the food and the irregular eating hours,” he said. “So I would only eat maybe once a day, but it would be late at night. It wasn’t an aesthetic problem: I began to not feel so great, it was an effort to walk and breathe, and my knee and back were hurting. I am 47 – an age when you have to pay attention to your body. Fortunately, I am otherwise healthy.”
Friends joked that he should focus on his weight loss in his re-election campaign, a choice that appeared to galvanise supporters as he beat rivals by a wide margin with 67% of the vote.
He was then propelled to start walking once a week after someone wrote panzone, which roughly translates as tubby, on a wall in the town. A photo of the scrawl did the rounds on social media.
“I wasn’t bothered by it,” said Fregonese. “But it did spur me on. A friend suggested walking together on Thursday evenings, which is when I have meetings with residents, but then I decided to combine the two.”
The 5.5km walks, which include about 250 metres of uphill, began a few weeks ago, with the first one attracting 45 people. “The week after we got 113 and last week it was 215 … and 12 dogs.”
He added: “People come to support me in my goal, and I would say about 10% use the opportunity to ask me questions,” he said. “But the majority come to walk too, and chat with others. It is very motivating as I wouldn’t do it alone – it would be too boring and I am too lazy.”
Fregonese is determined to reach his goal, and may even raise his game to jogging.
“Maybe in the future, but for now it’s just walking.”