"I started almost by instinct, realizing that there was a huge wealth of memories and experiences that very few knew about." So says Viviana Facchinetti, journalist and writer, director of the monthly magazine of the Association of Italians of Pula and Istria – Free Municipality of Pula in Exile. The Pula Arena, recounts the long research and dissemination work dedicated to the history of the Julian-Dalmatian exodus around the world, illustrated to the Chamber of Deputies during a press conference on the eve of Remembrance Day.

Facchinetti, author of numerous investigations, publications, and documentaries on the eastern border, recalled how it all began in 1985, on the other side of the world. "I started by going to Australia and realized how many stages the lives of these people had gone through," she explained, "and how little was known about them. At most, people knew there were Italians on the other side of the ocean, but not their story."