TO An hour by car from Milan, among the Piacenza villages and hills, the Valley of booksmetamorphosis of a territory through the book and the written word. We are in Val Luretta, Val Trebbia and Alta Val Tidone and here they are sprouting thematic bookcases widespread where thousands of books otherwise intended for pulp are rescued.
What is all new – in fact, nothing has been seen in Italy yet – is The model: through the widespread bookcasehere are the books used and donated by private individuals and are saved, together with them, territories that have been a little let themselves go and who today seek the opportunity of the restart.
The dream of the Valle dei Libri
The dream of the Valle dei Libri is the dream of two race journalists, who are also friends and both have roots in the Piacentino. What had the idea and studied it first is Lanfranco Vaccariformer director of The European And The XIX century; the other is Giangiacomo Schiaviwriter and former deputy director of Corriere della Sera And when the first – two years ago – confides that he cannot get out of his head the Village du Livre et des arts French – Economically depopulated and desertified towns that have reinvented themselves thanks to books and the arts And that today on books and arts live, to the point of having already become fifty in the world – the other replies that together they will find the right step to make it happen also in Italy.
In the ancient village of Rivalta di Gazzola there is the forms bookcase.
The Valle dei Libri, a stimulus to open artisanal activities
Giangiacomo Schiavi tells that a job with bare hands begin to put the crazy idea on the ground: to meet mayors, businesses, institutions, citizens to explain to Valli’s dream regenerated by the written word and stories; Doing search for spaces and places where those bookstores – the ideal is that they open about fifteen – can be born; knocking on the gates of those who can give matter to a dream so high with the money it deserves. The Emilia Romagna region bets us and gives the first contribution, the Foundation of Piacenza admits the Valley of the books to a call for significant funding.
In the ancient village of Rivalta di Gazzola there is the forms bookcase.
The members also put them. Yes, because immediately the idea of the two friends to make the territories shine through the books is a virus and the members quickly become eight. In addition to the two journalists, there is Fabrizio D’Angelo, long -term editorial manager, Noris Morano, an important name in Italian public relations, there is Giovanna Frossi, Globetrotter and owner in Milan of a historic shop of ancient and ethnic objects. And there are Claudio Serra, also a journalist, Gian Matteo Terruzzi, accountant, the entrepreneur Edoardo Corvi Mora. Eight founded the association of friends of the Valle dei Libri, without profit, then the social enterprise La Valle dei Libri.
«The thought is: if We give a second life to books that risk ending up in the landfill, we can give one New life in dormant villages and a little forgotten»Says Giangiacomo Schiavi. «Young people do not remain in the countries, different activities close: it would take more opportunities, it would take more culture. We believe that, in the local communities, on the push of bookstores young people can feel stimulated to open workshops of artisan and creative activities related to the book and culture: I think of engravers, bounders, illustrators, crafts that can merge with the wise manual skills that in these territories has expressed the artisanal processing of iron and wood and that in hyper -technological society retain a strong sense. And since we have chosen to privilege everything that is local, we will enhance the territory by also enhancing its food and wine excellence ».
The model is the village of Montalieu, in southern France, which has 800 inhabitants and about fifteen bookstores and whose life is marked by the activities around the world of the book, the antiques, the calligraphy and miniature laboratories, the meetings with the authors. But if there is the scheme of the bookstores that are born in a single place, here the scheme of the Diffuse bookshop disseminates them along a vast territory.
From yellow to comic
At the moment, There are three bookstores set up and the Valley of the books continues to generate networks and relationships in the sign of doing together. In the municipality of Gragnano Trebbiense, 4600 inhabitants, Dado Maserati, former firefighter, former mechanic, a florist, has rented his former workshop today converted into the library Yellow pagesspecialized in police, thriller, horror, science fiction: inside there are specimens of the Mondadori yellows of the 1930s and Perry Mason of the forties, an immaculate expanse of Georges Simenon and then Stephen King, Camilleri, Scerbanenco, Ian Fleming, Asimov. Five hundred meters from there, on the central via Roma, he is preparing for his debut First rowthe library dedicated to the world of cinema, theater, music (there will also be vinyls), which has found space in the former cinema just restored by the administration, on whose facade the muralist Neve has left a powerful image that is now a place icon.
First row will open in May in Gragnano Trebbiense in the former Cinema Italia, a bookcase of music, vinyls, entertainment, theater, cinema. Street artist Danilo Pistone in Arte Neve has revived the dream of the old cinema in the spaces recovered today and used as a cultural center thanks to private funds and public funds PNRR.
[i darticle id=”2548184″ title=”4 libri da leggere per bambini e genitori”]
Excellent donors and bibliophiles
Meanwhile, the Valle dei Libri van goes up and down to deliver boxes chock full of volumes At the deposit of Andrea Il Vietnamese, which has a mechanical turning and has made available a space of the industrial warehouse. THEThe first step is to free the books from the dust: then, you need to select, catalog, take it. Cooperatives almost all rooms mount the book chain. The Milanese study of Architecture Beretta Associati draws pro bono the shelves, the artisans of the place build them, while Carpenters, Impresari Construction, Electricians, Hydraulic, Painters give life to the environments that will change gradually in bookstores. The artistic couple Lorenzo and Simona Perrone gives some works, they who created the White books Starting from books saved from the waste on which they intervene with chalking and white paint. And since the mantra of the project is “a book, a face, a story”, here is printed on each volume an ex libris with name and surname of those who have kept it for years and then left here, to become another. The first donor was Carlo De Benedetti, but among the pages of Biagi, Pisapia, Jucker, Del Buono, Crepax and less popular surnames.
White books sculptures by Lorenzo and Simona Perrone, they are present in every bookstore of the Valle dei Libri, we share with them the same mission “Save books from the pulp” name of the work: the balancer.
In Rivalta di Gazzola, in the bookcase Forms couples and families enter who come to see the castle or point straight inside the medieval village, toAncient Taverna del Falcowhich would be worth the visit alone: meet us journalists, communicators, creatives who took the house among these valleys so close to Milan. The accounts Zanardi Landi, who still live the majestic residence, have rented a space in the valley of books. «Here there are volumes dedicated to art, architecture, fashionable, design. At this moment there are a thousand »says Francesca Poggi, interior furniture, who is taking care of the opening of the bookstores and follows firsthand forms. «People pass, browse, buy. Recently a gentleman from Cremona fell in love with a collection of rare illustrated volumes of botany and purchased the entire showcase. For the summer we aim for meetings with authors and, later, to artistic workshops connected with the size of the book ».
Gulp! Library comics and boys in Agazzano
Sustainability over time
At the Castle of Agazzano, which overlooks the dazzling green of the hills of the Val Lurettathe Gonzaga principles of Vodice gave the loan of the books of the books of the carpentry shop on loan of books because the bookcase dedicated to the novel was born, while at a fist of minutes from there, on Piazza Europa, here is Gulp!, the space dedicated to the world of comics. In Calendasco, paths are expected to come to life, the library of the paths: it will be born at the Caupona Osteria, on the Guado di Sigerico, the first stop on the Emilian territory of the Via Francigena and the only river crossing of the journey, which pushes two thousand pilgrims here every year.
“We have given each other for three years to the dream of the Valley of the books is rooted, beyond which we count that a foundation or a local institution takes the project to heart and systemally food, building sustainability over time and thus continuing to carry on the idea of promoting the territory through bookstores” says Giangiacomo Schiavi, who in the meantime has conceived literary Jukebox, where instead he listens to a song. Book selected from one hundred available.
The idea has already made the jump to become real. «We recovered a seventies Jukebox. IBM has created the software to allow the reader to choose on the basis of the literary genre; Actors of the Franco Parenti Theater, of the Piccolo, of the CTA of Milan will read the incipit and I hope that even Giancarlo Giannini, with ten readings, will be with us, together with the two literary critics of Corriere della SeraAntonio D’Orrico and Paolo Di Stefano, and their author synopsis. It is, if we want, a small start -up, another piece that comes true of that flicker of the imagination that is the valley of books ».
I woman © RESERVED REPRODUCTION