Forza

We’ve seen the people of the Cinque Terre use the word “forza” – or “strength” – quite a bit over the past weeks. They use it with a definitive kind of solidarity that punctuates the word even more.

But this is nothing new – “forza” has been a theme with the people of the Cinque Terre for well over 1000 years in their struggle to carve a lasting way of life out of this rugged, spectacular landscape.


It’s hard – really hard – putting together a project like this. It was an ambitious project, from the start (as several of our friends have mentioned to us), but we didn’t think too much about that. The story was important to us, and we decided we were going to do it, despite any obstacles we might encounter (and there have been a few). We’ve had to completely overhaul our workflow system, in more ways than one, to get this done. Our budget and crew are very, very small. All of our interviews are in Italian, which is exactly the way we wanted them, and they are spectacular. The fact that we don’t speak completely fluent Italian (or even close to fluent) wasn’t really a concern, or maybe it was, but we didn’t let it stop us from moving forward. Thank God for great friends who are also great translators! And it’s amazing how much better our Italian is getting in the process…

Despite all this, we have somehow managed to make each step of our process happen, and incredible things have happened along the way. We have great friends with great passion for this story and our project helping us. And it’s a story that, now, more than ever, really needs to be told. We hope we do this story – and the people of the Cinque Terre – the justice it deserves.

Forza, Amici!

Krista & Sharon