The biggest difficulty I experience is to make people I meet understand that mine is not an association, but a tour operator. That mine is a job. The difference is that I can organize these walks on an ongoing, professional basis, investing time in surveys, recognizing the work of the “drivers” with pay.”

Mirko Cipollone

When we reach the top of Mount Salviano, David is exhausted, but enthusiastic. “For me, the joelette is a way of life – when I’m up here I’m happy about my condition. It’s like a second skin to me, an empathetic and important tool; it can put an end to the idea that people with disabilities ‘can’t’ do things”, he says. And he implies a long list of things they supposedly ‘can’t’ do, like going to the mountains, hiking or walking with friends by the sea or along a river. “David feels a bit like my partner” says Mirko Cipollone, the young entrepreneur who has made the joelette available for this walk accompanied by music and words, organised by three associations from the Marsica region – Ethnobrain, Mapuche, and Piccola Biblioteca Marsicana. In August 2021, after participating in the ReStartApp 2020 ‘on-campus’ course and winning first prize, Mirko – who is originally from Cese dei Marsi (L’Aquila), at the foot of the Monte Salviano Reserve – founded Appennini for All, the first tour operator in Italy specialising in accessible environmental tourism.

David’s assertion is not unfounded: “In 2013 – he explains – I saw a joelette for the first time. A joelette is a single-wheel off-road wheelchair, a system I make available for people with motor disabilities. It was then that I met David: he is from Avezzano, also in the province of L’Aquila. That day, as part of a festival on human rights that we organised in town with the Mapuche association, which I founded, we went for a walk. When we got to the top, he asked me to be left alone: something we often take for granted was in fact special and unique for him. This is how I came up with this idea: thanks to David. I began to wonder how many people, like him, would like to experience the same thing. Then, during the pandemic, I happened to see Fondazione Edoardo Garrone’s call for proposals. And it all started”.