A A A
首页 › 出访见闻 › 出行 › * 托斯卡尼(Tuscany)藍天下 ~ 2009年7月PIPA尼克(Nik)拜訪義大利托斯卡尼鴿友洛可.透斯卡尼(Rocco Toscani)

* 托斯卡尼(Tuscany)藍天下 ~ 2009年7月PIPA尼克(Nik)拜訪義大利托斯卡尼鴿友洛可.透斯卡尼(Rocco Toscani)

2009年7月Pipa的尼克(Nik)很榮幸應邀拜訪義大利托斯卡尼(Tuscany)鴿友洛可.透斯卡尼(Rocco Toscani)，洛克出自當地名門!

Actually I went on holidays to Tuscany for one week...but when I go somewhere, even on holidays, I always think whether I know a pigeon racer close to where I stay... Now I didn't need to think for a long time, because Rocco Toscani is a young italian pigeon fancier, who bought already many pigeons on PiPa and who already invited me before to come to visit his loft in Tuscany. We had a great time together with Rocco, my wife Jana and my friends Danielle and her boyfriend Sebastian...they are no pigeon fanciers but after the visit Sebastian considers to start to keep pigeons!
Rocco Toscani is born in May 1980, he is 29, has one child named Luce and his wife is Benedetta. Rocco says she is the most patient person on earth!!! ;-)
Danielle Coolens, a friend who went with us to Tuscany, we rented a nice house together with her and her boyfriend...She is holding one of the dogs from Rocco.
Rocco his profession is being a photographer. He works in the company his world-famous father Oliviero Toscani founded ( Oliviero Toscany is known worldwide as the man who took all the controversial pictures for the 'United Colors of Benetton' Campaign ). Rocco's hobbies are racing pigeons and riding horses, to be precise 'reining horses'. It is a discipline that comes from the United States and it is a little bit like a Dressage but with many differences. The kind of horses they breed are Quarter Horses. They breed them since 1980. URL : www.othorses.com
Rocco is a genius in photographing, although he still says his father is much better. Here you can see a pigeon picture, taken by Rocco. I believe Rocco has also a lot of talent to take pigeon pictures. Unfortunately Italy is not a big market for taking pigeon pictures.
The box and lights Rocco uses to take pigeon pictures...
When did Rocco start to keep pigeons ? And what is the reason for him to keep pigeons ? He was working as a photographer in Paris and started breeding canaries...and he promised himself that when he would go back home to Italy he would start keeping pigeons...but he did not know what kind...so he started reading on the internet, and he found racing pigeon auctions and information about racing pigeons...so he started investigating more and more...to the point of understanding that managing racing pigeons is extremely similar to how you are supposed to manage a competing horse...so when he got back home he started...this was five years ago! Why? Difficult to say why...to tell us the truth...as soon as he took the first one in his hand he immediately felt a very strong bond...probably because they are working animals and working animals have a different feeling...and Rocco likes that!! The very special thing that he has with his two sports is that they are extremely similar but at the same time the complete opposite. A horse you can teach things physically, you being on top of him and forcing him to do certain things even if sometimes, it is not really natural for them, you can feel when they are not physically fit, or not in top shape ; the pigeon you "teach" him or train him completely free but at the same time to have total control over him, physical condition is felt with a special feeling, you have to be really close to them but at the same time look at them from a distance. but all that concerns feeding, conditioning, daily time schedule it is all very similar....but the fun part is that it is also at the same time very different.
Up until now Rocco raced with 40 cocks and 40 hens in total widowhood, the hens and cocks meet when they get home from the race, which is very difficult here where they race because many get lost during racing season. So starting from next year he will race with 40 cocks and 20 hens. Rocco has 30 breeding couples and 100 youngsters. Many youngsters are sent to one loft races all over the world competing with the "Italian Team" URL : www.italian-team.eu
In total, Italy has about 2.500 pigeon racers.
A breeding record card, made by Rocco. You can see how well he manages his things.
Nikolaas and Rocco.
Italy is divided in the middle by a chain of mountains called Appenini, so all the north of Italy race on the Adriatic Coast (East coast) which has very few obstacles generally winds that blow from the sides or from the front, but most of the trip they do not have to cross mountain ridges or difficult passages to get home. Rocco races on the Tirrenic coast (west coast) which has usually from mid May to the end of racing season head winds. Until south of Rome (250km 300km) the races could be considered easy, when the races are longer it becomes very complicated because there are mountains right on the coast so basically the birds fly on water, and an incredible invasion of birds of pray, so many times the birds come home with bad hawk attacks. Also the temperatures get really harsh, they go up to 40/43 degrees celsius. So there is a great natural selection of pigeons due to the fact that the birds have a very difficult championship by the time they get to the end. The races in Italy go from 100km to 800/900 km depending on where you live in Italy.
In his loft Rocco has original birds from Ludo Claessens, Marcel Sangers, Koopman, Kees Bosua, Louis Van Loon, De Klack, Debusquois, Saya. He also has many good birds from his good friend Hatty Roest (NL) which is his personal "advisor and trainer". At the same time he is crossing this very important international blood lines with Italian based lines which are very strong in the italian racing conditions. The conditions can be extremely hard with very strong head winds and temperatures going up to 40/45 degrees. The most popular strains in Italy are mainly the same like used all over the world... the famous ones, but the lines that hold very strong are still the long time Italian bread lines, which are able to race from 600 to 800 km with very hard conditions: head winds, high temperatures, and sometimes hard rains that hit very strong, so Rocco thinks that racing 700 km in Italy is the same as 1000 km ore more in Belgium or the Netherlands. I have to admit, when I was there in Italy, temperatures got up to 40 degrees °C...
Rocco, Sebastian and Nikolaas. Sebastian is a bariatric Surgeon in Belgium, working together in team with the world famous Dr. Bruno Dillemans. But despite his busy professional life, Sebastian seemed very interested to keep pigeons. Now only he needs to convince his partner about that idea ;-)
Nikolaas, Rocco and Sebastian.
The most important title to win in Italy is the National championship, but it is very difficult for smaller groups like where Rocco lives. Since Italy is divided badly for racing pigeons, there are many small groups that race from different directions, so each small section has a very hard championship but most of the times it is difficult to compete with the three or four big groups for the championship, due to the fact that the points are given based on birds in the race and number of fanciers. For every group the most important prize is the Gold Ring. For youngsters is the Silver Ring.
A difficult question for Rocco, who are the best pigeon racers in Italy ? Answer : Burani( Reggio Emilia) Michele Alberti (San Vincenzo) Pietro Celli (Bologna) Walter Bolondi (Pisa) Andrea Cheli (Massa Rosa) Enrico Galli (Grosseto) Paolo Cattellani (Reggio Emilia) Balboni (Reggio Emilia) Eros Carboni (Reggio Emilia) Dall'Aglio (Reggio Emilia) Burani( Reggio Emilia) Brugnoli (Reggio Emilia)
The truck for Rocco's pigeons and on the picture Danielle, Sebastian, Nikolaas and Jana.
The domain of the Toscani Family exceeds 130 hectares, it is like a movie scenery. Rocco drove us through their domain with his Fiat Panda 4 x 4... We had the opportunity to take some great pictures. Something more about Oliviero Toscani ( source : wikipedia ) Oliviero Toscani (born 1942) is an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton, from 1982 to 2000. Most of these advertising campaigns were actually institutionals for the brand, always composed of rather controversial photography, usually with only the company logo "United Colors of Benetton" as caption. One of his most famous campaigns included a photo (by Therese Frare) of a man dying of AIDS, lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by his grieving relatives. That picture was controversial due to its similarity to a pieta painting. Others include allusions to racism (notably one with three almost identical human hearts, which were actually pig hearts, with the words 'white', 'black', and 'yellow' as captions), war, religion and even capital punishment. In the early nineties Toscani co-founded the magazine Colors (also owned by Benetton) with American graphic designer Tibor Kalman. With the tagline "a magazine about the rest of the world", Colors built on the multiculturalism prevalent at that time and in Benetton's ad campaigns, while remaining editorially independent from Benetton. In 2005, he sparked controversy again with his photographs for an advertising campaign for the men's clothing brand 'Ra-Re'. Their portrayals of men participating in homosexual behaviour angered groups such as the catholic fundamentalist parents' association Movimento Italiano Genitori who called the pictures 'vulgar'. The campaign came amidst on-going debate in Italy about gay rights. In September 2007, a new campaign against anorexia was again controversial due to his shocking photography of an emaciated woman (Isabelle Caro). He is creating with La Regione Toscana a new research facility for modern communication called 'La Sterpia'.
Some nice pictures.
Some nice pictures.
The Toscani family produces great olive oil, about 20.000 bottles per year! The olive oil is produced for centuries in this area. In Italy, when you have a field with olive trees you produce oil. URL : www.otoliveoil.com
One of the greatest passions of Rocco is horses. They bought very expensive horses up to 100,000 US $, imported from US...They have a place where friends can keep their horses.
Rocco and one of his horses.
A place for the horses to train.
In the horse section.
Danielle and Rocco.
Danielle and Rocco again.
To ride horses.
Oliviero Toscani and his family also produce exclusive wine, price is about 30 euro/bottle. The idea of producing wine came in around the year 2000 when Mr Gaja (very important wine producer in Italy) came to visit the Toscani Family and Mr. Gaja told them the place where they live could be a superb area for producing wines, so they did it and it is working perfectly! The grapes in their wines : 50% Syrah, 35% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot.
Rocco's mother is a Norwegian fotomodel. So Rocco is half-norwegian, half-italian. His mother is Kirsti.
Places for horses.
A group picture.
Rocco in the trophees room from the horses. When you would type in Rocco Toscani in You Tube you will find some interesting movies.
In the house of Rocco's father Oliviero. Unfortunately at that moment his father was not there... When we ask Rocco if he likes to be compared with his father, he says that he prefers not to be compared with him, but they work together, and in any case he (Rocco) is used to that...his father is better than Rocco in their work. For now Rocco says ;-)
A nice place to relax in the house of Oliviero Toscani.
Another nice place to relax in the house of Oliviero Toscani.
Nikolaas and Sebastian.
Sebastian, Danielle, Rocco and Nikolaas.
Three bottles of wines...different colors, but the same wine! Thanks for the great time you gave us Rocco! Hope to see you soon and for me it is good to know that I have such a good friend in Italy. Website Rocco : www.stellarossa.eu Results pigeons : www.alitoscane.com
Nikolaas G/盧娜(Luna Lai) - 27/07/2009
标签: Rocco Toscani

评论

星期一, 03/08/2009 - 15:48

HI!!!!!!!!! To my two new Facebook friends

From a Mexican racingpigeons fancier.

Jesus Garcia
Mexico