Lieutenant Antonello Fava, one of the 11,000 coastguards who every day patrol an area of ocean twice as big as the mainland, speaks in the firm, measured tone you would expect from a military man.
Except, that is, when the 35-year-old describes the more harrowing sights from his 13 years in the job, pulling thousands of migrants alive and dead from the waves. Then his voice rises and falls like the Mediterranean Sea.
One such scene brought Lt Fava to the attention of Pope Francis, whom he met this month as part of a delegation of Italian coastguards invited to the Vatican. Before meeting the pontiff — who has berated the EU for letting the Mediterranean become “a watery grave” amid a surge in the numbers seeking to reach Italy’s shores as conflicts flare across the sea — the young lieutenant was largely unknown.