Photographer
PEBBLES OF A FRAIL ROCK
Medieval village of indisputable beauty, San Leo stands on a spur of rock in the Valmarecchia, like a shining rock in the middle of a stormy sea. Its walls contain a very ancient history, the first finds of which date back to pre-Roman times.
There are numerous legends that have found inspiration in this beautiful village and that have then, over the centuries, enchanted the people, making San Leo a very popular tourist destination today. Every summer, in fact, fleet of tourists run through the narrow streets of the village, crowding the restaurants and visiting the famous fortress where Count Cagliostro spent the last years of his life imprisoned, leaving the village almost empty in the early cold of autumn, frequented only by a hundred permanent inhabitants, mostly elderly.
A hit and run tourism is essential for the subsistence of the country's activities but, at the same time, is harmful to the survival of its community. In the low season, in fact, without the expenses of tourists, the shops are unlikely to earn enough and, slowly, due to economic difficulties or simply due to the lack of a successor, the businesses are closing one by one. As has already happened at the newsagent's and tobacconist's, as will soon happen to the only grocery store and as, first, it happened at the historic bakery of San Leo. The more the basic businesses close, the more the inhabitants are led to leave the village, so in San Leo, as in other similar villages in the Italian hinterland, the risk of depopulation is very high.
However, the closure of an important business such as of the bakery triggered something in the hearts of the inhabitants. The desire to give new life to their beloved village brought them together to create a community cooperative: “Fer-menti Leontine”. By finding financing, rolling up their sleeves and working on the renovation of the oven themselves, they were able to reopen it on May 1, 2021. They hope that this can be the beginning to prevent other activities from suffering the same demise as the oven.
Marco, Marta and Samuele, all under 35, are the guys who hold the reins of the cooperative. Passionate and in love with their native village, they are investing a lot of their energy to give new life to the hamlet. Samuele is 26 years old and the youngest member of the group. He has decided to invest his future in San Leo rather than move and try to make a career in bigger cities. He loves his town and he loves his inhabitants, He is sure that this project and the strength of the cooperative can really lift the future of San Leo. Each citizen is, in fact, like a pebble of a rock which, cohesive with the others, strengthens and supports the fragile spur on which the community that populates the village of San Leo stands, shine.
Pebbles of a Frail Rock is a photographic documentary on the village of San Leo (RN), made in September 2021 which aims to bring out both the fragility of a village destined to disappear, and the tenacity of the citizens and, above all, of young children, with whose commitment your beloved country finds new strength to shine.