A Quick Catchup With Roberta Mancino

Monday, February 12, 2018

Photo by Kinka

 

Roberta Mancino needs no introduction. She has occupied a rarified position as the reigning, radiant queen of airports since around 2008 when her first videos appeared on Italian TV and started to attract the world’s attention. With a list of achievements longer than a two-mile catwalk, there seems to be nothing outside her elegant reach. In any case, Roberta very graciously made time to answer our ten questions with characteristic charm (in that accent we love so much, naturalmente).

 

Q: What is your desert island food?

Roberta: Margherita pizza with buffalo mozzarella, basil and pepperoncini. Spicy, with pepperoncini flakes.

This is what I tell everybody in the sport–anybody who asks me, really. You have to leave small stuff to do bigger things. You can’t be lazy. You need to try harder. You have to seek out opportunities. Otherwise, you are going to do the same stuff everybody else does.

Q: What would your superhero costume look like?

Roberta: It would be a red and gold wingsuit, but made to look like a dress–cut like a dress, with pretty details painted on top. Instead of wingsuit booties, I would have heels built into the suit. I don’t know how well it would fly–but if it’s a superhero costume, it can be anything, right?

Roberta Mancino flies through two buildings in a white wingsuit.
Photo by Roberta Mancino

 

Q: What was your favorite toy when you were a kid?

Roberta Mancino swimming in azure water.
Photo by Roberta Mancino

Roberta: I had a stuffed E.T. I carried him with me all the time when I was five or six years old. I watched the movie and I wanted the alien to come pick me up and take me to wherever he was from, so I was waiting with my stuffed E.T. on the balcony all the time. He never came, obviously. Eventually, when the toy was too old, my mom threw it away. She told me that ET went back home to his family. I cried. Anyway, the problem is that she threw it away in the garbage, and I saw it there. I wanted it back. She told me that that was the place where his family were coming to pick him up, and he would disappear the next day. 

 

Q: What is your spirit animal? 

Roberta: A shark. I would be one if I could. I love sharks; I like how they are. I spend a lot of time with them. They are super cool animals. They live very long. They are just amazing–so smart.

My favorite is the tiger shark. It’s the prettiest one, I think. My favorite place to see them is the Bahamas, in a place that’s called Tiger Beach because it’s so full of them. There’s one that is always there that likes to pose for pictures. She is, like, a famous model shark. She loves people. Her name is Emma. If I had a spirit animal, it would be Emma.

 

Q: What’s your favorite record of all time?

Roberta: Andrea Bocelli’s Con Te Partiro. It is not a record, but it is one amazing song. I first heard it when I was right at the age when you fall in love a lot and believe it is forever; when you read Romeo and Juliet and believe that love is actually like that. It’s a love song, but it is also about going on a journey to somewhere amazing together. Every lyric is so beautiful.

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Q: How would your best friend describe you?

Roberta: They’d tell you I’m very Italian. They’d probably say that I’m funny, very determined and kind– that I enjoy talking with people all the time and I do it in a funny accent. They might make fun of me for the fact that I’m always filming with my GoPro and taking pictures with my phone.

 

Q: How would your worst enemy describe you?

Roberta: I don’t have any enemies that I know of–but if I do, they’d probably say that I can have an ego. It only seems like that to people who don’t know me, because I’m very determined in my job and focus on it one hundred percent. I like to do artistic projects, fashion and unique ideas.

The funny thing is that it’s usually men who say that about me–not other girls. The girls are super cool. They like everything I do. And I like everything they do, too: When I see something cool from them, I love it to watch it. I feel we support each other much more.

Roberta poses with an alligator
Photo by Sean Havas

 

Q: Describe your ideal day.

Roberta gives the peace sign while walking to the plane.
Photo by Dennis Sattler

Roberta: My ideal day would be in Hawaii. I’d start by skydiving with my boyfriend, Sebastian Alvarez–some freefly wingsuit jumps–and then go surfing with him for hours and hours, in this beautiful spot that’s close to the dropzone and has nice little waves. Then I’d cook a nice dinner for us, we’d sit and admire that gorgeous place and have wine together, and then we’d go to sleep. I have had this perfect day before. I want to do it again.

 

Q: What is the very best mistake you ever made? 

Roberta: I have made a few wonderful mistakes. The biggest one I made when I was working a lot in Milan. I was making good money as a model for magazines in Italy–my country, speaking my language, with my family close by. Then a friend told me I should come to the U.S. and try to do something new here. I thought it was a big mistake for a long time. But I didn’t give up, and it ended up being the best decision I ever made in my life.

My career would have been modeling–maybe hosting stuff on TV–but it wouldn’t involve me doing the action stuff, or these projects that I love. I had a good career in Italy and I could maybe have made more money, but I gave it up for something better. It took me eight years of living here before I really felt I had made the right decision after all.

This is what I tell everybody in the sport–anybody who asks me, really. You have to leave small stuff to do bigger things. You can’t be lazy. You need to try harder. You have to seek out opportunities. Otherwise, you are going to do the same stuff everybody else does.

That’s me! Photo by Andrey Veselov

 

Q: What do you think nobody should ever worry about? Why? 

Roberta: That’s a hard question, because anyone who knows me will tell you that I worry a lot about everything. But I don’t worry about work. In the beginning, I took every job, no matter what. But since then I’ve learned that the jobs come and go and then come back. It’s okay if you don’t work for a little while. If you know what you are doing, you’re really focused and you want to do the best you can do in your job, I think you shouldn’t be worried too much. 

 

Q: How long does it take you to finish a bucket of popcorn in the theater?

Roberta: Maybe 15 minutes, maximum. I am very fast when I eat. It is horrible. I eat too fast. The rest of my family is the same. 

Roberta does ballet in the sky.
Photo by Joe Jennings

 

Q: What’s next for you?

Roberta: Last year I was so busy. I didn’t have time to do much. Now, finally I have time to jump more; to train more. If I’m going to do something, I want to do something good. Life is too short not to find the most inspired project, and I have a few of them in mind, but I am waiting for exactly the right thing to come along.


CYPRES is proud to support Roberta Mancino as she continually adds her signature mix of beauty, elegance and consummate skill to the airsports world.

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Adventure, Tips, and Adrenaline

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