2 March 2026
They had both known the Meeting since childhood. Pietro used to come with his parents. Marco would follow his father with curiosity, volunteering at the performances. Then, as they grew older, came the moment of personal choice.
“What changed everything was the invitation from our friend Aquila, in the months after graduation. He said to me, ‘You know, here there’s a way to learn how to work—something you can experience together with friends.’ That was the initial spark.” For Marco, instead, it was meeting Pietro that rekindled his involvement. And for both of them, working in General Services was no small challenge. You interface with conferences, technical services, management, and the Meeting’s audience—it’s like an orchestra where everyone has to play their part, with schedules timed down to the minute. But it is also an opportunity for precious discoveries.
“The first thing I learned was a method,” Pietro says. A way of facing whatever happens, tackling situations together with the people beside you. What makes it possible is the clarity of a shared purpose: building something together. “Throughout the year, I realize I carry this method into my own work.” Of course, there are rules, contracts, procedures. “But the most important thing is to know the other person—to really look at the person in front of you.”
Marco agrees: the Meeting is a place where you encounter people and stories that stay with you all year long. “It doesn’t remain confined to that one week. You discover experiences that change the way you look at life. You meet people who remain, who become part of your journey.”
From this experience also comes a deeper awareness of the Meeting’s value. “It is certainly a place of cultural engagement,” Pietro says, “but above all it is a place where a kind of beauty emerges—a more human, more authentic way of living circumstances, even when they are painful or difficult.” “The most vivid example in my mind is the 2025 exhibition on Ermanno the Cripple,” Marco adds. “It told the story of the struggle of disability—of families welcoming fragile children, of adults living with their own limitations. I watched the faces of people as they came out: it was moving. I myself came out of it ‘split in two,’ in a good way—strengthened in my experience of fragile humanity.”
That is why it is worth supporting the Meeting. “To support it,” Pietro explains, “means recognizing that what happens there can also be true for you, in your everyday life.” And a question almost naturally arises, Marco adds: how can the world not know that the Meeting exists? “Supporting it means giving even just one more person the chance to encounter it—to allow someone else to have that experience of goodness, beauty, and growth that I have been able to live.”
And so this year the two of them will be there again, this time with new responsibilities. Pietro will continue coordinating the conference halls, with particular attention to the Auditorium, welcoming 3,500 people—one by one—for multiple events each day. Marco, together with Nicola, will lead General Services, a platoon of more than 500 volunteers. It will certainly be even more demanding. But deep down they already know that, in the end, those efforts will make them lighter.
