The challenge of closures: Antonio is preparing to inaugurate three floors of the gym in Viareggio

Viareggio. The first question that comes to mind is “how do you think of opening a gym in this period?”. Antonio Carducci he laughs from the other end of the phone and sighs: «In fact, many people ask me. But we have this investment and we carry it through. We are not in a hurry and we hope to be able to inaugurate everything for the autumn. We hope that for that period the contagion situation is different from now ». Maybe Carducci is also right: although a bit slow, but the vaccination campaign goes on and certainly the percentage of immunized people will be much higher than it is now.

In short, that of Carducci with his Old Style Gym is a bet against the virus and against the closures that have plagued sports operators for practically a year now. Because, although the reopening of gyms and swimming pools was planned at the end of the month, the new Draghi government does not seem willing to give the green light by postponing the possibility of training in the equipment room or doing exercises to a future and uncertain moment. But Carducci’s is a passion that has been going on for decades: «I had a gym in Forte dei Marmi and then we managed the Balena bathroom gym for many years. The staff will be the same and we will carry on the quality of the service that our customers know ».

The new gym is located along via Monte Matanna, in front of the Migliarina sports field in a building that housed the old furniture factory. Now it is all a construction site but the idea is that it will be ready by October.

It is a huge building on three levels, of which only two are open to the public with the possibility of accessing two aerobics rooms and an open space training area.

“There will be no particular courses compared to the old style ones – explains Antonio – we decided to give a classic setting and also in the furnishing and the stylistic rendering we will be inspired by the 80s. Obviously, given that there is a lot of space and therefore we can manage with schedules, we are also open to collaboration with teams or teams that need space to train. So there will be no massage areas or anything like that. “

Therefore a Spartan solution for “old style” training as the name of the gym implies. The staff and competence are what have distinguished Carducci’s team for some time: “At the moment there are no hiring plans because practically all the staff who took care of training at the Balena are moving everything to the new structure”.

But there will also be space for the Social: “We will have special attention for those who have special needs and who have difficulty accessing training in the classical sense, perhaps with a handicap – explains Carducci – to certain categories we will give the opportunity to train completely at free of charge. An important commitment that does not only concern the body but also sociality and a little bit the heart ».

On the opportunity to make this investment he explains: «I understand that the situation is special and we do not know if and when we will open, for this reason we are not in a hurry and the works are proceeding at a contained speed. However, it was an investment that we had already started and therefore it seems right to carry it out. We cross our fingers and we hope ».

It is said that luck favors the bold and in this sense Antonio certainly has a lot to sell. –

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