So, if you survived up to here, let's go on!
Well ... since right today, and solely for the Grace of God,
I reached the VENERABLE
age of 55 Years, 10 months,
and 11 Days,
and after years of attempts looks like I'm still not
able to find some time to do a serious business website,
to share something of my life with you I decided to use this page, which
is basically a list of pointers to contents, especially via some social networks ...
For those in a hurry:
- on this page: Sharing, Reporting, Photography, Sport
- on social resources: Facebook, X, Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube
But first some pictures: this is me in 2010 in a "Triathlon Referee Version" which captures me quite well!
After an Age Group Athlete start in 2007, i upgraded to an Atlete+Referee just in 2008 and was usually appreciated by the atheletes.
One day the old me : Marco, only you can save us from "er pinnetta" and his performances ...
we are talking about an "athlete" that crossed the finish line with his face ranging a certain number of shades of violet,
and was well known from his habit of "racing with fins", letting him be found hanging at the first buoy,
getting out from the cliffs near T1s or using multiple-colour "cuffie" to get bonus-minutes by starting in a different starting group.
After seven months of carefully collecting data I found the right moment to handle the stuff on the right table and then coni/nado brought his ego to a stop by 4 years suspension for doping.
Now back to me in 2003 in a "Post NY Marathon" version in Medjugorje! A pilgrimage before going, the gift of the marathon that used to be a dream since the nineties, and finally the need for thanksgiving!
We are talking about my "vocational" days in which I was pretty undecided about what to do in my life and I said to myself "don't know where to go? don't know whether to (maybe) enter a seminary or not?
Well: go to medjugorje, pray, and try this "Centers of Peace" guide meeting ... an appointment I then followed yearly for 10 years. On this pic we can see a quite early-version of the PodBrdo area:
The statue was actually placed there on September 8, 2001, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the apparitions: sculpted by the Italian artist Dino Felici was an ex-voto gift from pilgrims from South Korea.
I was wearing the official NYC Marathon Jacket that I still use to train by winter plus the finisher medal.
Fast forward to Feb 2026: on my Graduation Day ... Happy? MayBe ... Some Relief? After 36 years for the first "immatricolazione" well ... YES! Proud? The one and only 110L in my session, so YESSS!!!
This story begain back in 1989 when - undecided about which university to choose - I was oriented to go for Information Technologies in Pisa and finished to follow the wrong suggestion :
"Marco, go to perugia, not far from terni and Electronic Engineering is somehow more complete".
Yes, true, but you had to finish it, and I was fond on computers, not transistors themselves, although you could find zillions inside PCs!
So in 1994 i quit to open first an IT distribution company, then an IT consulting one, and finally a freelance consulting VAT that i Run up to 2012
To Share
the Verb of My Life
I had the habit of writing about of the most important things in my life long before the Internet went public domain: my high school diaries was full of notes and i also had some pen pals, while I maintain with care "a number" of love letters all written by hand.
When all got "informatized" sharing just got easier and I have all of my files from 1981 with a two years pause gap: Back in 1996 I can clearly remember my open desktop pc standing open next to me for routine inspection, while after a short visit to the "restroom" a heavy Vocabulary decided to dive down onto my 2gb conner ata hd : that destroyed my first two years of e-mails, from the very first regarding wnet.it, my first company-registered domain. Consider that before the infamous "night of the faxes" to be able to register an Internet domain in italy you had to first register a matching trademark ...
Reports
From Writing to "Reporting" was an easy step with PCs from Windows 3.1 up ... WinWord got mature with version 6.0 while Word 95 was blazing fast on Windows 95
I started such a specific way of writing sharing way before the term "blog" existed. For example, here you can find my New York City Marathon 2002 "report", both in ORIGINAL and BRIEF version.
The above story is part of my book, "The Way of an Italian Pilgrim"... (Now in Italian but - God Willing - English version is next to come) which is loosely inspired by the Way of a Russian Pilgrim: As the latter is centered on the prayer of jesus, mine rounds about the hail mary
But it all Already started with my very first "pilgrimage" in Medjugorje in December 2001: one of those "never again" experiences which then evolved in a "let me quit counting" attitude after the first 50 trips: as a pilgrim, as a guide, as a reporter, as a journalist, for a retreat or just for vacation
Being aware of having had the gift of my life, I soon felt the urge to share what I had the chance to live and back in those years internet mailing lists
were a "de facto" standard for such a sharing: I began writing my reports for "Innamorati di Maria" and "Informazioni da Medjugorje" and while i Quit the first because of the moderator
I still keep writing in the second "nonostante" the moderators, having had to nickname the list as "Moderazioni da Medjugorje" a number of times.
For those wanting to read my thoughts all of my writing flow currently follows this route:
- First I write my "reports" for marco.piagentini.it and then wordpress shares them automatically over my linkedin profile
- Italian IT Insights then go to mc2027.piagentini.it
- Catholic-oriented posts go to maria.reginadellapace.it site, facebook group, and mailing list
Photography
Node 0: The Analog Genesis (1994). I initialized my visual documentation back in 1994 with a Yashica Minitec AF. I distinctly remember purchasing it to test the very first swipe of my company credit card. Armed with its surprisingly sharp 32mm f/3.5 Tessar-style glass, the vast majority of my early trainspotting was captured through this humble point-and-shoot. However, I was generating so much visual data that the cost of physical printing quickly threatened bankruptcy. As an early exercise in system optimization, I pivoted my workflow: I limited the lab to developing only the raw negatives, and digitized the assets myself using an incredibly slow Epson parallel-port scanner. It was my very first hybrid analog/digital architecture.
Node 1: The Digital Pivot + The VAT ID (2002). After years of analog railfan photography—with my peers constantly saying, "Imagine what he could do with a reflex"—and after testing a few early 640x480 digital compacts, I finally crossed over into the digital domain. I acquired the legendary SONY DSC-P71.
This marked another massive architectural "first." Having just quit my corporate job to open my independent VAT ID, this camera was one of my very first official business purchases. The acquisition was justified by a strict multi-tiered operational scope:
- Official Scope: "Business photography for website development."
- Secondary Objective 1: Documenting my upcoming expedition to Medjugorje.
- Secondary Objective 2: Capturing the New York City Marathon.
The quality of that early 3.2-megapixel Sony CCD sensor left a lasting impression: You can still appreciate its dynamic range in the unedited, handheld night capture of Times Square below.
Times Square, NYC — Captured on the Sony DSC-P71
Node 2 (2010): The F-Mount Era. I finally upgraded to a DX Reflex system with a Nikon D5100, officially joining the "Nikon-Forever" party and taking my stance in the infamous war against the "Canon-Forever" camp, though still occasionally tempted by moving to sony (as per the quality experienced with the DSC-P71). At a certain point I put a D5300 next to it to begin working with a semi-pro dual-body setup, but the latter got stolen. The replacement D5300 got stolen the next month. Finally, I purchased a third "burgundy" D5300 from the German market: it survived for a while, but its motherboard died exactly one day after the warranty period expired.
Node 4: The Mirrorless Architecture.After some "survival" with samsung's S series, my main subject—religious and liturgical photography—often demanded extreme silence, I decided to go Mirrorless with a z50. Finally, after securing my Master's degree in 2026, I decided to gift myself a Nikon Zf. I currently run this full-frame architecture with a 24-70/f4, a 50/f1.8 prime lens, and a cool 180-600/f5.6-6.3 that I still need to master.
Node 5: Mobile Edge & Backup. Today, my Z50 serves as a reliable backup camera. However, mobile computational photography has advanced so far that my Samsung S26 Ultra and S24 Ultra occasionally allow me to leave BOTH the Z50 and the Zf cameras at home!
Most of my pictures are on my Facebook profile and Flickr.
To keep track of my 20++ years of digital pics I mainly use Google Photos.
Sport
Started swimming at 8, basketball at 11, and running has been a constant since then.
As an "athlete" I was born at 37 (in 2007) with my first official memberships. Up to date I've run 7 marathons and nearly 100 triathlons.
I'm currently upgrading from Triathlon to Quadrathlon, trying to develop this last one in Italy.
All of my internet websites are hosted by MisterDomain.EU.