Italy has been deeply saddened by the passing of basketball star Kobe Bryant, who spent many years as a child in the north of the country.

He moved to Italy at six years old when his father Joe played for a series of teams in the 1980s. One of those teams was Cantine Riunite, which brought the family to Reggio Emilia, a city 20 kilometers north of Bologna.

Home to just over 170,000 people, this was where Kobe first learned to play the game that would make him an international sporting legend. Bryant credited the city for the skills he developed, saying "my story began in this town."

"He started from this small city, playing with us in small gyms and without any comforts," said Davide Giudici, who as a child played basketball with Bryant in Reggio Emilia. "He managed to become one of the strongest players in the world, starting from suburban gyms of this small Emilian town."

Claudio Sarti remembers Bryant well. Sarti has worked for decades at the PalaBigi, also known as the Palasport, Reggio Emilia's main indoor sporting center. He told CGTN how the young Bryant used to practice shooting hoops in the gymnasium there while his father played with the professional team upstairs. 

He also recalls one time Kobe, by then well into his NBA career, revisited Reggio Emilia.

"I saw this big guy coming down the stairs and I asked myself, 'Who is this man?'," says Sarti. "Then I recognized him and said 'Hello Kobe'. 

"He was with a friend of his and wanted to show him the gym where he had trained. Kobe went up a back-way that only those who know (this center well) can take."

Reggio Emilia is where Bryant learnt much of his Italian, even picking up the local dialect perfectly.

"When he is emotionally involved he speaks Italian," says Sarti. "He spoke Italian very well. Every now and then he lacked the right word, but stopped for just a moment and then started again. He spoke it fluently."

During the NBA lockout in 2011, Bryant had tried to return to Italy full-time, even reaching a verbal agreement with the club Virtus Bologna.

In 2016, Bryant was back in Reggio Emilia. Local journalist Daniele Barilli interviewed him, and saw him doing what he did best. "He came to Reggio and went to the Palasport, where there was a team training. He asked to train with them," recalls Barilli. 

However, by then Bryant was a basketball legend with a 20-year career in the NBA and a stack of medals. "He had a huge salary and the (Palasport) president, Mr Monducci, asked him to sign a waiver, to make sure he was covered by insurance. So Kobe signed it and trained with the team."

Sadly, it was to be the last time he returned to Reggio Emilia.

All over the city, televisions have been tuned to channels broadcasting memorial content of the sporting legend, who died in a tragic helicopter crash on 26 January along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. He was 41 years old.

"I was hoping the news was a fake," said his childhood basketball friend Giudici. "Then I saw all the newspapers... It was a serious blow for me and for everyone, because those who knew him personally lost an important piece and those who did not know him personally but admired him for his sporting feats lost an important reference point."

An open space outside the Palasport arena has been dedicated to Kobe and will be renamed in his honour. The town is also discussing adding his daughter's name to the memorial.

Bryant returned to the United States when he was 13, but he maintained his close ties with Italy, calling the country his second home and even giving his children traditional Italian names: Natalia, Gianna, Bianka and Capri.

Reggio Emilia's mayor Luca Vecchi tweeted: "Kobe Bryant grew up among us and was a Reggiano."

The Italian basketball federation has announced a minute of silence for every professional team across the country to pay homage to the NBA star that some say gave them the courage, confidence and spirit to chase their dreams.

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