The Italian Job

Coffee in Italy... the morning routine.






I'm back to the USA now, after a whirlwind tour of the Italian bouldering scene. We filmed at a few awesome places... Sassofortino was the first stop. This area hosts large grey boulders in a shady forest. Not a huge area, but it provided our crew with plenty to work on for the five days we spent there. Every day we hung out in the forest, filming and bouldering. Every evening we chose a different pizzaria to feast at. I managed to repeat my proud achievement of sucking out a candle... but the big award goes to Irene who on-sighted the feat. Rumor has it she can suck-start a Harley Davidson.


Sucking out a candle. Photo by Michele Caminati

Before leaving Tuscany we headed down to some natural hot springs called Saturnia. I accidently filmed a topless girl while doing a camera test. Honest. Then we filmed the conclusion of the film, with Cody signing off from Tuscany and making a very surprising announcement.


Hot Springs in Tuscany

Following this, we trucked up to northern Italy in Klemen's van. Klemen is from Slovenia and he owns a hold company called Samsara. He is one of Cody's long time friends and his company on the trip was really great. I'm a big fan of anyone who wakes up early and motivates people to get out to the crag, cause a movie about people sleeping in till noon is not going to be very exciting.

After we drove north from Tuscany, we needed a place to sleep for the night. Under normal conditions I would have just bivied on the ground, but on this night it was raining buckets and the wind was howling. There was - literally - no room at the inn, and so Klemen generously offered that we could all sleep in his van. I added his name onto the long list of people I owe a huge thanks to.


Nelson wakes up and does some break dancing.


Klemen wakes up after a long night in the van.


We went to Ceriola and collected footage of the sandstone blocs there. Ceriola is an area developed in part by Michele Caminati, whose enthusiasm and skill were a true pleasure to record. He is one of the most technically gifted climbers I've ever come across.


Early morning dew in Ceriola.


Stephanie Marvez and Cody warm up in Ceriola.


Great rock at Ceriola.

Over the next few days, we filmed with Lucas Preti, who has been buildering around his home in northern Italy for some time. I'm not going to give too much detail here, but, yes, that is a real Ferrari in Stephanie's glasses.


Lucas Preti



I'm starting to work with the footage now, laying out some rough edits. Still trying to figure out a title for the new video... I have a concept but not the exact word yet. I still have to do a bit of filming around the western US to complete the work, but I definitely feel like I'm on the home stretch now and am getting closer to catching the carrot.

Cheers,

Chuck