“My Romagna… I won’t be able to forget you, my house… when I think of you, I would like to go back to my beauty, to the farmhouse”. It is no coincidence that in the most original of texts written on our land, in so few words there are two significant references to the domestic hearth, a sacred place for every person from Romagna, violated by bad weather in May 2023: houses flooded by the flood of the river, isolated farmhouses from landslides and mudslides. Romagna hit and sunk? Well certainly hit, sunk (in the mud) as well. But in this tragic “naval battle” with the weather, Romagna and the people of Romagna emerged proud, united, never tamed, much less defeated.
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In fact, they immediately mobilized in a way that was not at all imaginable and in a short time the affected areas were teeming with volunteers, without distinction of sex, age, social class, cultural, linguistic or religious ethnicity, in an indistinguishable mud-coloured mass, united by the same affinity: to make themselves useful, determined to lend a hand to people in need of solidarity and above all arms. They were our mud angels, or rather “i burdel de paciug”, because as good proud but also a little touchy Romagna people, we could not borrow other definitions and even in this difficult situation we had to have our unmistakable identity.
Flood one year later, all the testimonies
Libertas Atletica Forlì also took to the field, but it wasn’t the “Gotti”, the sacred temple of training. In a short time, shoveling teams composed of technicians, instructors, managers, athletes, parents and even children were organized. The colorful red-white brigades with gloves, boots, brooms, shovels, but also with a lot of joy, went to the areas affected by the flood in different parts of the city, sometimes in several places at the same time, bringing hope and confidence in the future. No more jumping, throwing and running, no more technique and repetition, but a lot of strength to fight mud and desperation. Forlì calls, Libertas responds! Here they are our heroes, muddy, tired, but always smiling. Eloquent images, without words, without comments… so as not to forget.
Libertas Athletics
FLOOD, LEST WE FORGET
On May 16, 2023, Romagna found itself in the drama of the flood within a few hours. ForlìToday collects and publishes readers’ memories and testimonies about what happened in those days. The aim is to build and keep alive the collective memory of those facts.
If you want to participate with a memory of yours, send:
> a text of at least 1,500 characters,
> it is possible to send photographs or videos together with the text.
Send via e-mail to [email protected]
