Interview by Titti Chiarello - Photography Annalisa Ceccotti

Living Forte on the water, surfing the waves, chasing the perfect one in winter as in summer. For Rachele Gatti, Versilian, twenty- seven, as beautiful and intense as that sea she so loves, surfing is a passion. Rachele, how did it start? Five years ago, I was going through a dark period in my life when a dear friend, an instructor at The Pier Surf School of Forte dei Marmi, invited me to a surf camp organized by the school in Santander, in Cantabria. I began there – and I’ve never stopped. Surfing is a sport that exposes all your weaknesses but also teaches you to know your strengths. Because you certainly can’t compete against the sea: you have to be able to adapt. If you’re out there alone with your board, you have to learn to read its humors, to decipher its whims before you can understand where to wait and which waves to ride. Without running unacceptable risks. Do you often surf at the Pontile? Oh yes, every chance I get when conditions are right. Because you never get enough: as soon as you wade out of the water you want to run right back in! In any season? Certainly! Surfing in Forte is always fun: the conditions here are special, determined by the tides, the shallows, the pier itself. These factors combine to create the kind of waves surfers look for. There are right waves and left waves, long waves and steep waves. And because there’s a sandy bottom, the swells don’t always break in the same spot, which happens instead when the bottom is rocky. What is Forte like from the water? It’s a triumph of nature. Beautiful! Sometimes, even when conditions aren’t right for surfing, I’ll paddle out anyway. In the summer for the pleasure of watching the sunset from the sea, while in the winter I love to look at the Apuans, with or without their snow cover, and the light they reflect back into the sky. It makes the cold and the hard work all worthwhile. And maybe helps me forget a wave or two I didn’t ride like I should have! What has this passion of yours taught you? To come to grips with myself, to find new energy within; and above all, that we must show more respect for the sea, protect it and not spoil it.