🇮🇹 With the Tour de France starting in Florence today, we remember the Tuscan professional cyclist Gino Bartali and his role in saving Italian Jews in the Second World War. Gino was born in Ponte a Ema, a small village south of Florenceand he became a professional racer in 1935. winning the Giro d'Italia in 1936 and the Tour de France in 1938. However, Bartali had no sympathies for the regime. He didn't dedicate his win to Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, as tradition dictated, and consequently, he received no honours upon his return to Italy. 1/3