A minute of absolute silence, with hundreds of swimmers forming a human chain on the shoreline, followed by another sixty seconds of thunderous applause and capped by a dip in the sea. This is the initiative with which the beach of Cannigione—a hamlet of Arzachena—commemorated the 43 victims of the Morandi Bridge, seven years after the tragedy in Genoa on August 14, 2018. The ceremony took place at precisely 11:36 a.m., the time the bridge collapsed, in a deeply felt moment and with great participation from those present.
"The idea came to me spontaneously in 2019, because I lived in Genoa for twenty years and wanted to remember the victims of the tragedy," explains lifeguard Luca Sestri, originally from Oristano and a lifeguard at the Isuledda campsite in Cannigione. " Every year since that fateful August 14, 2018, wherever I work as a lifeguard, I form a human chain along the shoreline, observing a minute's silence and, at the end, giving a thunderous round of applause for the victims of the Morandi Bridge disaster."
The commemoration was repeated this morning. Shortly before 11:36 a.m., Luca Sestri used a megaphone to call on the beachgoers to participate. At 11:25 a.m., they formed a human chain along the entire shoreline of Cannigione beach . The initiative was a perfect success: during the minute's silence, only the sound of the waves could be heard, with absolute silence from those present. "But what struck me most was the applause, which lasted a long time: it almost moved me," Sestri noted.
The human chain to remember the victims of the Morandi Bridge reached several beaches in Gallura, the ones where Sestri worked. The first time, in 2019, was in Santa Teresa Gallura, then in 2020 and 2021 in San Teodoro, and finally in 2022 in Vignola. Since 2023, the commemoration has taken place in Cannigione, with beachgoers who have always shown great sensitivity and participation. "All this in memory of the 43 innocent victims of the tragedy," Sestri concludes.