The memory of a difficult childhood is in a faded photo kept in a drawer of what is finally her home. Valentina Giorgia Perra, 18, is sitting at the table with her siblings in a foster home run by nuns in Quartu. She entered the home as a newborn and lived here until she was eight. Pampered and loved by everyone, but without a bedroom of her own, without posters on the walls, without the silence of a room all her own.

A difficult childhood. "My mother didn't have a job, and living in the foster home was the only way we could all be together," she says. "So, as soon as I was born, I stayed there with her and my little brother and two sisters. There were so many children and so many nuns. I remember that in the summer they took us to the community by the sea in Flumini. I called the nuns grandmothers; they always loved me. But it wasn't easy. I still have good memories and bad ones. In any case, you're not at home; you're surrounded by so many other people; you don't have any privacy."

Valentina found the strength to overcome all this in boxing. She started fighting at eight years old, then last year she won the gold medal at the regional and interregional championships and the silver at the nationals, becoming the first Sardinian woman to win medals, under the close guidance of her coaches Gianluca Murgia, Alessio Borea, and Alessandro Pau of the University gym.

Redemption. "The first time I went to the gym I was eight years old," she says, "my mother's partner had brought me, mostly so I wouldn't be left alone at home because he had to train." Passion ignited instantly, overwhelmingly: "I was fascinated, and in that moment I knew it was what I wanted to do."

It was around that time that Valentina finally had a home of her own, along with her mother, brother, sisters, and her new partner. A family, in short. "It was a fantastic feeling to finally have my own room, my own privacy, a full life." Full of sports, too. "At first, Mom didn't want me to fight. She'd say, 'Are you sure you don't want to do anything else?' She was afraid I'd hurt myself. Now, however, she's trusting me more."

Courage . Valentina, on the other hand, is fearless: "I never feel fear, I just feel the adrenaline when I put on my gloves and step into the ring. I always want to do more and improve." Next to her is one of her instructors, Gianluca Murgia, a retired non-commissioned officer from the Sassari Brigade: "When we saw Valentina, we immediately believed in her potential," he says.

"She's a girl with a difficult past, but she's found a lifeline in sport. I'm sure she can reach the top. We're now preparing her for the interregional championship, where she's the only Sardinian woman. Here in Sardinia, at a competitive level, there are few girls who want to try this sport, unlike, for example, Lazio and Sicily."

Dreams . "My true dream," Valentina continues, "is to win as much as possible, but without rushing things. Because deep down, I've already achieved my greatest dream, that of owning a house, and it's the best thing that could have happened to me."

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