Oltre il Bersaglio - A life on Target

Varide Cicognani is a name that today’s precision rifle shooting enthusiasts and sportsmen alike, know very well – a champion with an impressive list of credits to his name and a competitive shooting career spanning decades. Competing in the most important National, European and World tournaments, Cicognani has built an extensive foundation for his “second life” as a craftsman, designing, creating and testing custom precision firearms. Dedicating more and more of his time and energy to these activities, over the years, helped him fulfill his dream of opening his own shop to create and sell handcrafted firearms – the Armeria Cicognani in Poggio near Forlì, Italy. Right from the start, we see two figures – the athlete and the gunsmith, the champion and the entrepreneur – that appear in his passionate memoire, as two sides of the same coin, two paths on the same quest. One aims at the center, sights set on the bull’s-eye, and the other pushes forward and beyond, aiming at self-improvement and a mental equilibrium that could be defined as peace. Peace and rifles, an unlikely pair. Yet, Varide Cicognani, a true Romagnolo, born, raised and still living in that surreal atmosphere of Romagna that feels like one of Fellini’s films, from the tall tales to the giant reeds, will tell us how guns – as he conceives them – are not for injuring, to shoot at the enemy, but to reach a state of perfection. Hidden behind those calm movements of a champion are the obstacles that have been overcome, the falls, the failures, and the daily work on discipline and self-discovery. This is a life, the mission of a young man who – believing the road ahead of him was smoothly paved to enroll in the Carabinieri Force (part of the Italian Armed Forces) – was suddenly declared formally unfit to shoot because of an injury to his arm as a kid. This didn’t stop Varide, on the contrary: he grew wings. He understands that goals need to be ambitious, and to achieve them you have to bet your whole life on them, no holds barred. All of this and much more is part of what Cicognani, with the valuable support of Maria Luisa Suprani, will tell us in this moving story of an amazing life on target that invites us all to look forward and set our sights beyond the horizon.

Varide Cicognani è un nome che oggi tutti gli amanti e i professionisti del tiro di precisione con la carabina conoscono. Campione dall'impressionante palmares, costruito in lunghi anni di carriera sportiva gareggiando nelle più importanti competizioni nazionali, europee e mondiali, Cicognani ha sin dagli albori del suo percorso posto le basi per la sua "seconda vita" di ideatore, costruttore e collaudatore di armi per il tiro di precisione. Di questa attività, divenuta sempre più rilevante nel corso degli ultimi anni, l'Armeria Cicognani a Poggio di Forlì rappresenta il punto di arrivo ideale e materiale, la realizzazione di un sogno nutrito di impegno e dedizione costanti. Due volti - lo sportivo e l'armiere, il campione e l'imprenditore - che fin da subito in queste appassionate memorie appaiono come due facce della stessa medaglia, due sfumature della stessa ricerca: quella del centro, da colpire sul bersaglio e oltre il bersaglio, in una costante tensione al miglioramento di sé e al raggiungimento di un equilibrio che non sarebbe sbagliato definire pace.