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Festivalletteratura - Mantua, Italy


Eleonora

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Festivaletteratura’s first edition took place in 1997. The idea behind the festival was to create something inspired on the famous Hay-on-Wye, Wales, and Mantua, with all the hostorical places and art, was the final choice.

It's a festival with loads of cultural fun, five days of meetings with authors, readings, shows, concerts of artists coming from all over the world. Festivaletteratura is now one of the most acclaimed cultural event: every year, at the beginning
of September, writers, readers, thousands of people round up in here.
Internationally famous narrators and poet, the most interesting voices of emerging literature and of the younger generations of writers, essayists, musicians, artists will take part in Festivaletteratura. Scientists will take part as well, according to a wider and more curious notion of literature, reaching as far and wide as the distant languages of traditional canon.

Since its very beginning, Festivaletteratura has tried to build a more direct connection between readers and writers. In addition to the more traditional events, throughout the years guided tours of Mantua’s historical and cultural heritage have been organized, theatre performances by important authors, poetry readings, events in the original languages, public speeches, brief meetings with authors revealing newly-sketched ideas and unknown interests. Special attention is given to children and teenagers: shows and workshops are specially designed for teenagers or for both adults and teenagers. Big writers are encouraged to meet their little fans.
 

Let me add something about the city, because it's really wonderful!

Mantua is the Festival’s backdrop. Its squares, theatres, the interiors of the beautiful buildings, add an incredible value to the whole event. Mantua’s cosy atmosphere brings readers and authors closer.

Here are some pics:

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7gHVVLvHARNUeEDY3UHxzt_xkPwKGXb0QuKlw41wh2TQBFBmB

 

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTtOOWNDje1WPyNrW1fI6HFq92RJTlUEFZ9lI7INGOuXo0gGoovWw

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That is simply fabulous!  What a beautiful idea, and the surroundings!  Wow. 

Wouldn't it be great to travel all around the world, just visiting all the wonderful book fairs, Literature Festivals and seminars?  /sigh/   You certainly have a beautiful one there. Is it fairly close to you?

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Yes, I'll go there because is just 50 km from my place and the events are not so expensive. It's a great event in a wonderful city. I've just checked the dates and it will take place from 4th to 8th september. I know it's far, but consider yourself invited!!

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It sounds great! I couldn't go to such a thing with my condition (it would be too busy and noisy I think) but I like the idea. I hope you have a lot of fun :).

 

I'm so sorry for you, Athena, I know what it means. I'm living a good period right now and if things don't change, I'll go there in September and I'll try to make you feel the experience through my words and descriptions, ok? :friends3:

 

 

That sounds like a wonderful event in a beautiful location.  Many thanks for the information, Eleonora!

 

You're very welcome!

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Yes, I'll go there because is just 50 km from my place and the events are not so expensive. It's a great event in a wonderful city. I've just checked the dates and it will take place from 4th to 8th september. I know it's far, but consider yourself invited!!

Yeah, you are very near! 

 

In that period, anyway, I'm going to go in England for 3 or so weeks (I don't know yet, if this is so, but I wish ardently).

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I'm so sorry for you, Athena, I know what it means. I'm living a good period right now and if things don't change, I'll go there in September and I'll try to make you feel the experience through my words and descriptions, ok? :friends3:

x

Thank you, I'd love that :friends3:.

Edited by Athena
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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is the list of the artists and writers of the 2013 edition I know you don't even ever heard of the half of them, but you can see how huge the festival is by this list.

 

Francesco Abate,
Eraldo Affinati, Simonetta Agnello Hornby, Jim Al-Khalili, Roberto Andreotti, Antonella Anedda, Josephine Angelini, Carlo Annese, Giuseppe
Antonelli, Marco Archetti, Antonia Arslan, Corrado Assenza,


Liliana Babbi

Cappelletti, Eugenio Baroncelli, Luca Beatrice, Marco Belpoliti, Anna Beltrametti, Alfonso Berardinelli, Alessandro Bergonzoni, Stefania
Bertola, Riccardo Bertoncelli, Laura Bettini, Enzo Bianchi, Giovanni Bietti, Stephanie Blake, Giuliano Boccali, Shani Boianjiu, Anouk
Boisrobert, Ginevra Bompiani, Achille Bonito Oliva, Stefano Bordiglioni, Dario Bressanini, Terry Brooks, Andrea Buffa, Giulio Busi, Annarosa Buttarelli,

 

Atilio Caballero Menéndez, Massimo Cacciari, Miriam Camerini, Peter Cameron, Chiara Carminati, Paola Caridi, Maite Carranza, Emmanuel Carrère, Luciana Castellina, Francesco M. Cataluccio, Carmine Catenacci, Marco Cattaneo, Cristiano Cavina, Davide Ciccarese, Luigi Ciotti, Massimo Cirri, Gianni Clerici, Chiara Codecà, Gabriele Coen, Paolo Cognetti, Luca Colombo, Federico Condello, Matteo Corradini, Francesco Costa, Lella Costa, Pino Costalunga, Guido Crainz, Matali Crasset,

 

Azzurra D'Agostino, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Andrea De Benedetti, Luca De Biase, Maurizio De Giovanni, Diego De Silva, Marco Del Corona, Tijana Djerković, Sékou Ogobara Dolo, Paul Doswell, Corrado Dottori, Margaret Drabble,

 

Mathias Énard, Francesco Erbani,
 

Vittoria Facchini, Maurizio Ferraris, Edgarda Ferri, Giuseppe Festa, Luca Ferrieri, Laura Fidaleo, Enrico Fink, Peter Florence, Alessandro Fo, Giuseppe Fochi, Marcello Fois, Ivano Fossati, Enrico Franceschini, Tiziano Fratus, Carlo Freccero, Andrea Fumagalli,


Chicca Gagliardo, Sofia Gallo, Bruno Gambarotta, Santiago Gamboa, Silvana Gandolfi, Marco Garzonio, Fabrizio Gatti, Stas’ Gawronski, Fabio Geda, Marta Gerardi, Paolo Giordano, Gene Gnocchi, Silvino Gonzato, Almudena Grandes, Silvana Greco, Delphine Grinberg, Franca Grisoni, Giorgio Grossi, David Grossman, Wendy Guerra, Gustavo Gutiérrez,

 

Mohsin Hamid, Jamila Hassoune, Chris Haughton, Clinton Heylin,

 

Antonio Imbasciati, Maarten Inghels, Luce Irigaray,

 

Francesco Jodice, Mimmo Jodice, Meirion Jordan,

 

Nadine Kaadan, Sam Kean, Moussa Konaté, László Krasznahorkai, Tuomas Kyrö,

 

Jhumpa Lahiri, Anna Lavatelli, Alessandro Leogrande, Stefano Levi Della Torre, Davide
Longo, Francisco López Sacha, Carlo Lucarelli, Dan Lungu, Sergio Luzzatto,

 

Makkox, Elia Malagò, Marco Malvaldi, Marco Mancassola, Stefano Mancuso, Dacia Maraini, Andrea Marinelli, Giacomo Marramao, Michela Marzano, Christian Mascheroni, Beatrice Masini, Alexander Masters, Francesco Mastrandrea, Ángeles Mastretta, Paola Mastrocola, Luisa Mattia, Beatrice Mautino, Peter May, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Melania Mazzucco, Luca Mercalli, Barry Miles, Luciano Minerva, Mauro Minervino, Renato Minore, Robert Misrahi, Damiano Modena, J. R. Moehringer, Luca Molinari, Tomaso Montanari, Marissa Morelli, Antonio Moresco, Elisabetta Mori, Matteo
Motolese, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Marie-Aude Murail, Michela Murgia,

 

Piero Negri Scaglione, Andrés Neuman, Giovanni Nicolini, Nadia Nicoletti, Marino Niola, Anna Nogara, Paolo Nori, Alberto Notarbartolo,
 

Piergiorgio Odifreddi,

 

Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Boris Pahor, Piersandro Pallavicini, Riccardo Panattoni, Raul Pantaleo, Federica Pedriali, Federico Pedrocchi, Cyril Pedrosa, Jordi Pérez Colomé, Marco Petrella, Per Petterson, Giovanna Pezzetta, Daniele Piccini, Paolo Piccirillo, Marilia Piccone, Massimo Picozzi, Kari Polanyi Levitt, Gérard Pommier, Karen Press, Antonio Prete, Giovanni Previdi,

 

Guido Quarzo,

 

Liliana Rampello, Jørgen Randers, Luca Rastello, Carlo Ratti, Massimo Recalcati, Louis Rigaud, Andrea Rodighiero, Stefano Rodotà, Riccardo Romani, Max Rommel, Giuseppe Rosolini, Valerio Rossi Albertini, Nella Roveri, Luca Ruini, Paolo Rumiz,

 

Farian Sabahi, Alessandro Sanna, Stefano Scansani, Laura Scarabelli, Giorgio Scaramuzzino, Luca Scarlini, Francesca Scotti, Taiye Selasi, Will Self,
Salvatore Settis, Beppe Severgnini, Vandana Shiva, Giorgio Signoretti, Massimo Siragusa, Ahdaf Soueif, Giovanni Sofri, Flavio Soriga, Paola
Splendore, Elena Stancanelli, Guy Standing, Ulf Stark, Benjamin Stein, Felix Stephan, Karla Suarez,

 

Federico Taddia, Massimiliano Tappari, Bianca Tarozzi, Antonella Tarpino, Massimo Temporelli, Marina Terragni, Lilian Thuram, Emanuele Torquati, Mario Tozzi, Sandro Triulzi, Hans Tuzzi,

 

Clara Usón,

 

Chiara Valerio, Giulia Valerio, Andrea Valente, Pia Valentinis, Roberto Vecchioni, Juan Villoro, Serena Vitale, Andrea Vitali, Francesco Vitelli,
 

Binyavanga Wainaina, Günter Wallraff, Ronaldo Wrobel,

 

Kim Young-ha,

 

Piero Zardo, Zerocalcare, Mary Zournazi.

 

The meetings are usually translatedin english.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wow, it sounds amazing and I really, really envy you that you get to go :lol: But I'm also super happy for you! Like you said, I don't really know that many authors from the list, but I see Margaret Drabble's coming, I was going to do my thesis on one of her books actually :D Please go to her and tell her I'm very sorry but it's not happening :giggle2:

 

And Luce Irigaray... I can't remember where I learnt about her, but she's really something, she's dabbed into so many different things in the academia...

 

And you know what? There's also one Finnish author I spy!!!! :D Tuomas Kyrö!!!  I can't believe he's going! :D I've read one book by him and I absolutely loved it, and I really want to read the sequel to it. Say hello from me if you bump into him :D

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This is an annual festival, right? I met my friend who lives in Italy today, and mentioned to her the Mantua literature festival and she said it's close to where she lives (Milan). She said I was always welcome to visit... I asked her about the flying and the costs, and it appears that Ryanair does flights from Lappeenranta straight to Milan (and Lappeenranta is only about 2,5 hours from Joensuu by train!), and that the plane tickets costs vary a lot, depending on how early one books the flight, and what time of the year it is... But she said she'd once managed to fly to and back for only 70e, which is what a student pays for a train ticket from where I live, Joensuu, to the Finnish capital, Helsinki!!

 

This is not to say that I would now come and attend the festival this year, but I'm thinking that if it isn't any more expensive than that, I would definitely like to visit Milan and Italy some day! :) My friend and her fiancee have cats, but she said she has a studio in the same building and I could sleep there (I'm allergic to cats). Sheesh, I wish I could fly over right this minute :D

 

Edit: If I ever do come and visit, maybe we could meet each other, Eleonora! :)

Edit: I'm a nice person, not anything to be scared of, I think our forum's Kylie can vouch for me :D

Edited by frankie
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Ryanair's prices are usually pretty good when we use them (we mainly fly from Eindhoven to London and/or back)! My boyfriend's had a flight of 5-10 euros before (of course, Eindhoven to London is a shorter distance than from Finland to Italy). If you book a bit in advance (for London at least a month or so) then prices are pretty reasonable to excellent (unless it's holidays), in my opinion. I hope you get to visit Italy some day :). I've been there twice I believe (and once passing through) and really liked both times (I've been to Tuscany and the Rome area).

 

PS. I'm also allergic to cats.

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I can't help you with the flight, I'm not an expert of ticket prices and stuff.. I've even never flown :lurker: but it would be great to meet you, Frankie. Obviously it would be great to meet any other BCF member!! .. Did you hear me, Athena??!!

The festival takes place every year in four of the first ten days of september, it's in Mantua, a wonderful historical city not too far from Milan (your friend is right, Frankie) or Venice ( only 2 hours train). There's a lot of art and the food is so wonderful that it would be great to visit it even without the book fest.

In the period of the festival, though Mantua has a sort of different beat.. and it's great.

Frankie, if you could come and we could meet, I will be one of the happiest girl in the world!!! But if you won't come.. I'll refer everything you want to anybody!!

Athena, Tuscany and Rome are so great.. well, Italy is great, but it's a shame it's full of italians!

Sorry girls I couldn't invite to my home, though: I have cats.

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