Trani, Puglia, where stone is more than material—it is memory. Walls and courtyards, carved centuries ago, stand as silent witnesses to lives once lived. For artist Valerio Galati, these same stones have become both his canvas and his calling, a medium through which he translates a life shaped first by the sea, and now by the enduring permanence of marble and limestone.

Galati’s story begins offshore. Raised in a fishing family, the sea was his first school. As a child, he joined his father on boats even in winter, absorbing the rhythms of water and wind. By eight, he was already competing, steadily rising through the ranks of the sport. Among his greatest achievements was winning the prestigious Sailing Champions League in 2018. Eventually, he joined Italy’s Olympic sailing team, racing in the demanding 49er class. Sailing was more than sport—it was discipline, competition, and above all, craft. “Everything I do, I try to do better,” he reflects. “Even stone carving is a performance, a test against myself.”

That competitive drive, however, led him somewhere unexpected. Sailing, Galati explains, is as much about fixing as it is about racing. Young sailors learn to maintain their boats: sanding, polishing, repairing with their own hands. These early lessons with tools, combined with a family environment steeped in creative hobbies—his parents were amateur painters—planted the seeds of artistry. After retiring from competitive sailing, he found himself drawn toward manual creation. What began with wood soon transformed into stone when he joined a marble company in Trani. There, he watched artisans wrestle beauty from raw blocks and realized his true place was not behind a computer, but at the workbench.

Trani itself became his teacher. Walking the historic center, Galati began to notice details he had long overlooked: bush-hammered textures on facades, carved patterns that were at once aesthetic and practical. “I started to see how, in the past, artisans solved problems with creativity. They didn’t smooth the stone because they couldn’t—they invented textures instead.” For Galati, Trani is not a city of grand artistic schools but of artisans, where practicality and beauty intertwine. His work reflects that same grounded elegance.

Some of his sculptures emerge from careful sketches—the soaring stone sail in his studio, the dynamic whale tail. Others, like his whimsical hand clutching an ice cream cone, are born directly from imagination to chisel. He works intuitively, allowing the stone to reveal itself. “Half of my pieces are prepared on paper,” he says. “The other half are made in the flow.”

Though rooted in tradition, Galati is not blind to technology. He acknowledges that machines—CNC mills, AI-guided robots—already carve much of the world’s marble. Their precision is invaluable, yet their touch is incomplete. “The machine’s lines can be beautiful,” he admits, “but human detail requires the hand.” It is in the finishing, the refining of texture, where art emerges.

His curiosity extends to new forms as well. Recently, he has considered venturing into jewelry, inspired by collaborations with designers. He recalls making a ring from wood and shell for his partner, likening it to opening an oyster. Perhaps, he muses, stone jewelry may be next.

Yet no matter the form, Galati believes stone endures not just physically, but emotionally. “Natural materials—stone, marble, wood—connect us differently. When people enter my studio, the first thing they do is touch. Even before they know the material, they feel compelled.” For him, this instinctive desire to touch, to feel, is what will keep stone relevant even as trends shift and technologies evolve.

Trani stone itself is a story in layers. A limestone born of ancient seas, it is stratified like a cake, each slice shaped by minerals carried through millennia. Beige, khaki, and light browns dominate, with occasional flashes of red from oxidized iron. The deeper the quarry, the older and harder the stone; the upper layers are softer, younger. For Galati, this geological narrative is inseparable from his art. Each block carries its own history, and through his hands, a new chapter begins.

As we leave his workshop, the impression lingers: Galati’s practice is not about imposing form on stone but listening to it, respecting its permanence while adding a contemporary voice. His journey from sails to chisels is less a departure than a continuation—a pursuit of mastery, guided by the same wind of competition and creativity that once carried him across the seas. In Trani, he has found both anchor and horizon.

– S&P