«I work 18 hours a day». My chat with Francesco Facchinetti begins more or less like this. How is it going? With my very quick calculation and a quick question: so how many hours do you sleep? The answer was not obvious, not at all. You will think that he replied: "about six hours". Oh no, Francesco isn't one for back and forth, and in fact he started talking about his REM sleep phase, about the recovery documented through "Aura" (a ring that monitors sleep and physical activity), to finally tell me that with 4-6 hours of rest he is loaded for the following 18 hours of fire.
Son of the legendary Roby Facchinetti, singer of Pooh, Francesco has an incredible CV: DJ, presenter, singer, sports agent, entrepreneur. We learned about him with his summer catchphrase The Captain's Song, and from then on it was a crescendo.
X Factor, Isola dei Famosi, Miss Italia, Striscia la Notizia, and then cinema, radio, dubbing, without forgetting a very long series of successful singles. These are, in short, the fields in which Francesco has been experimenting for years, moving from one commitment to another with the ease that only someone who strongly loves what he does can have.
«It's exactly like this, my work is a passion and I have always lived it that way. At 16 I understood that if I wanted something I had to earn it because my parents never gave me anything, and it was lucky. So at the age of 20 I was already living alone and also supporting all my friends who I invited to stay with me."
It's true that having famous parents can open certain doors for you, but then you have to earn the stage. A path that has never weighed on Francesco, on the contrary, of the words in Bergamo dialect that his grandmother always repeated to him («Alùra, ricordét: bergamasc work dür, forza de Bestia Pura de Négot») Francesco has made it a lifestyle.
«We people from Bergamo/Brianza feel guilty if we don't work, and I'll tell you more: Saturday and Sunday are the hardest days for me, I get a headache, I can't sit still and do nothing. There are those who live for the weekend, and I respect that. I live for my working days, those in which I have one commitment after another, meetings that fit together and the agenda that explodes."
He talks to me about a dinner with the singer Cher and the actress Demi Moor, a few days later he flies to Madrid for the sale of a player to Atletico, and then gets on an intercontinental flight to New York, all just a few days later distance. But it is also true that in the few moments of rest Francesco takes advantage of it to be with his large family, giving absolute priority to his children and Wilma, and hanging out with his old friends, the ones he grew up with. People with whom you can talk about everything and nothing, have fun without pretensions, and keep your feet on the ground. A way to take root, to return to a healthy normality as opposed to his working world which he himself defines as crazy, made up of famous people, glamour, and a long series of trips to the airport.
"My luck? I'm just not really an artist. And it is truly a winning factor because this world is difficult for artists to live in."
In what sense?
«You must know that in the vast majority of cases those who become famous experience it as a deprivation. Being famous amplifies what you are, and an artist usually has more introverted than extroverted characteristics, making his suffering his art. Having never been an artist, I have been lucky enough to always experience it very well, for me everything has always been brilliant!
Francesco is an extremely enthusiastic person, a characteristic that no one could tame at an early age, neither his parents nor his teachers. His nickname was "Attila, scourge of God", and probably given the runaways and expulsions from school, it was quite apt as a nickname. A true rebel who however always loved himself, never pushing himself beyond the limit."
How has this way of being of yours transformed into adulthood?
«Well, luckily I always had my head on my shoulders, I had fun, but without ending up in dangerous or vicious situations. I don't smoke, I don't drink. Now, thanks to technology, I can also keep my well-being under control, and when I see that I am at the limit I run for cover and rest a little more, I try not to stress myself out too much by working in a positive way and with a smile, even if I know well that the life leads you to lose, and not to achieve results. There are many defeats. The difference between those who win and those who lose is made by those who know how to transform these defeats into victories." A positive attitude makes the difference, and so does healthy nutrition."
Are you careful about what you put on your plate?
«A lot: I try to take care of myself by eating well, I was even vegan for two years. Now I eat a little meat but for the simple fact that traveling a lot it's not always easy to find vegan restaurants, but if it were up to me I would live on vegetables, I love them. And then I walk a lot: when I'm away for work I can easily walk 10, even 20 km a day."
I add: "I guess on call?". He, of course, confirms. Among other things, the telephone of Francesco is locked. In what sense? In the sense that only a few people can reach him by phone, everyone else if they want to communicate with him must do so via WhatsApp or e-mail: «It's normal, like any other company head I can't afford to be on the phone with everyone. He how are you? Did you see how beautiful the weather was? Via e-mail or message all these frills are automatically eliminated, communication is quicker and we get to the point straight away. I have to manage myself like this, otherwise there's no way out. I would like to be able to spend more time talking to people, but it's a luxury I can't afford. I am the head of 3 companies, and I have more than 100 employees, I have to optimize my time as much as possible."
More than a year ago, Francesco decided to make Lugano his headquarters, a region he already knew and frequented, as well as being the place where Wilma spent part of her student life: «I love Lugano, and all of Switzerland in general. I travel around it a lot for work because I have commercial activities in both French and German Switzerland, and in addition to the safety, I really appreciate the nature, there are some crazy mountains and lakes. Think that I feel so good here that I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, even if I confess that I also have a soft spot for Lucerne, I think I could even live there. But, returning to Lugano, in addition to being magnificent, for me it is also truly strategic: it is close to Milan where I often work, it is close to Brianza where I grew up and where my mother still lives. In short, I couldn't have chosen a better place."
