Interview by Titti Chiarello - Photography Annalisa Ceccotti

When love for sailing captures you, it is forever. Michele Alessandro Lari discovered it while boarding a sailboat for the first time with his father Agostino when he had recently turned three years old. Since then – we can say – he has never gotten off one. Now, twenty-year-old Michele already has eleven years of regattas under his belt; because being born and raised in Forte also means this. Especially if the family origins are rooted in the sea before they are in the land. Michele, how did your passion for sailing come about? “I can say it’s in my DNA, it has been running through my veins for as long as I can remember. My great-grandfather Agostino was Sailing Captain; he used to transport Carrara marbles from Forte’s loading jetty to China and Japan, to the point that he earned the nickname “Gu of China”. My grandfather Alessandro, instead, made Forte dei Marmi famous for sailing worldwide, winning numerous regattas as skipper and tactician of the legendary Yena, IOR class of owner Sergio Doni. Two decades of achievements, so successful that in 1980 Yena was proclaimed boat of the year. My father Agostino was among the hundred best Italian sailors in the Finn class and competed in qualifying for the Olympics.” And when did you sail in your first regatta? “I was nine years old, in the Optimist class. Since then, experiences and regattas have been surging. I have had my gratifications and today I am in the 420 class, which is considered intermediate between the youth and Olympic classes. Moreover, I am studying to get my sailing license. I have a hard time staying away from the sea and the wind!”. The love for the sea and for sailing therefore dominate your life, don’t they? “Yes, although I study Jurisprudence in Pisa and in the summer, I work as a waiter in a prestigious hotel in Forte, sailing is vital to me, just like breathing. In fact, I always say, “so much wind takes the sail, so much of it I breathe,” because after all, we are the same thing, we both feed off the wind and the sea. There to me is real life, a life worth living. It is a breath for the soul. For this reason, I train three times a week, and go out to sea as often as the weather conditions allow.”