The “Tuscan Readers’ Train” will leave on Saturday 11 May from the Florence Santa Maria Novella station to arrive at the Turin Lingotto station. For the first time, Tuscany is organizing a free rail transport service with a charter train, aimed at 450 Tuscan citizens, to participate in the Turin International Book Fair. The trip is financed by the Regional Council and Council as part of the initiatives linked to the Show, where the Tuscany Region, like every year, will be present with its own stand.
The idea was born within the projects to support reading and the book supply chain, launched within the path of the General States of Culture, in collaboration between the Culture Commission, the Council and the Council.
The ticket can be booked from Wednesday 24 April until Wednesday 8 May on the Unicoop Firenze platform, which supports the initiative, at this link
Fifty tickets will be reserved for Unicoop Firenze’s ‘Under 30’ project, aimed at young people aged 18 to 30, who will also be able to take part in a dedicated tour of the Book Fair. Book at this link.
This special train, which brings a popular and highly participatory soul to Turin, as the President of the Region had the opportunity to say, is the sign of a Tuscany that sees in publishing the possibility of promoting books and with them the vocation intrinsic to its history that publishing companies have always contributed decisively to growing from the point of view of cultural quality; Tuscany is also home to and promoter of prestigious awards that enhance books and reading. Being present therefore in Turin, where the Fair represents the main reference point for publishing in Italy, is an original and positive initiative in the most authentic tradition of Tuscany of books and for this reason the hope and commitment are that it will continue even further and after this experience.”
The president of the Regional Council, after thanking the president of the Culture commission, underlined how the legislative assembly has strongly supported the participation of many important Tuscan publishing entities in the Turin Book Fair, and added that the Readers’ Train will give hundreds of Tuscan towns and citizens the opportunity to be present at the Book Fair.
The president of the Culture commission of the Regional Council reiterated that the initiative was born from a reflection made during the General States of Culture and from meetings with many associations, communities of operators in the world of culture and above all with publishers. You then underlined that the initiatives linked to the Book Fair have a double objective: to promote the practice of reading as a tool for restoring one’s well-being, for recovering energy and vision of things; and support Tuscan publishing houses, both those that will not have their own stand, hosting them in the Tuscan one, and those that participate independently and that need support from the institutions.
Gabriele Ametrano, president of the Wimbledon association, explained how the entertainment on the train will be organised: the voices of the passengers, from the representatives of the institutions to the representatives of the various projects, will take turns to create a sort of “Tuscan readers’ radio”, which they will then be protagonists of the program that will take place at the Region’s stand. Among others, Animae Loci and La Toscana delle Donne will be present on the train and at the stand.
Tommaso Perrulli, head of social projects at Unicoop Firenze, reiterated how Unicoop Firenze enthusiastically joined the initiative promoted by the Region. He also recalled that the commitment to the topic of books and reading began in 2010, with the Bibliocoop project, developed in collaboration with the Region and municipal libraries, which today has forty book lending points in Coop supermarkets.
On the train there will be initiatives to delve deeper into the Tuscan literary panorama. During the journey, a “Tuscan readers’ radio” will be set up: from the microphones of the carriages the authors protagonists at the Region’s stand in Turin will talk about events, fairs and experiences linked to the book supply chain in the region. The entertainment program will be organized by the Wimbledon Aps association. The “Dieci” social cooperative will document the journey with videos, photos and interviews with the participants which will be published on the social channels of the Regional Council and Council.
“The Train of Tuscan Readers” is not the only initiative promoted to strengthen Tuscany’s participation in the Book Fair and to encourage publishers to take part. In the Region’s stand at the Fair which this year triples its space reaching 150 square metres, which will host publications from the four Tuscan Unipresses and the Gabinetto Scientifico Literario Vieusseux, there will be a choice of titles from thirty-three small and medium-sized Tuscan publishers selected in the scope of the public notice.
In recent weeks, the Regional Council and Council have in fact published two public notices, adopting innovative measures aimed at supporting the world of local publishing and encouraging its presence at the Show. The first notice included a selection of titles and initiatives, making thirty-three exhibition spaces available to small and medium-sized Tuscan publishers, who will receive a flat-rate reimbursement for their participation in the events. The second notice established a fund aimed at contributing to the expenses of Tuscan publishers present at the Fair with their own stand. There are 14 Tuscan publishers who submitted applications.
Debates, presentations and entertainment activities are planned at the Salon in collaboration with the Tuscan publishers protagonists of the stand. Among these, in collaboration with the University of Pisa, the meeting with Aldo Cazzullo “Giacomo Matteotti – Portrait for Images”, moderated by Maurizio Degl’Innocenti, which will be held on Sunday 12 May at 11am in the Sala Oro.
Tuscany’s commitment to reading promotion policies is constant.
There Regional Council has allocated over one and a half million euros in 2024 to support the ordinary services of the 12 Tuscan documentary networks of libraries and archives in Tuscany (1.2 million euros) and the additional regional services of specialized Tuscan library institutes (310 thousand euros ).
This is an intervention of an ordinary and structural nature which ensures, through an economy of scale at a regional level, broad, widespread and widespread access to information and reading by users of Tuscan libraries and archives and potentially throughout the whole citizenship, even of the weakest and most fragile areas of the 12 Networks that territorially cover the 10 Tuscan provinces (one for each province, with the exception of that of Florence which has 3).
This ordinary regional contribution guarantees daily access to the networks’ catalogues, to the BiblioToscana Tuscan catalogue, to the book and digital material loan service, including interlibrary ones, to the various cultural promotion activities in the archival and library sector, and in general to digital, intercultural services. and for children and teenagers.
In particular, the regional services available to all are: the regional service center for children’s libraries in Tuscany, managed by the Terzani Library of Campi Bisenzio, hit hard by last November’s flood; the regional intercultural documentation hub, which is part of the Lazzerini cultural and documentation institute in Prato, which ensures consultancy and professional updating regarding intercultural library and documentary services, the loan of books in the languages of migrants even in prison libraries; the “Libri in rete” project, which organizes interlibrary loans between the Tuscan documentary networks, coordinated by the Municipal Library of Empoli; the Tuscany Digital Library Project, managed by the Lazzerini library of Prato and by the Integrated Documentary System of the Florentine Area of the Municipality of Florence; the “Social Library in Prison” project, carried out for years by the Municipality of Florence-Florentine Libraries in the Sollicciano Prison.
The Regional Council through law 4 of 2023, it has allocated important resources for initiatives aimed at supporting reading, in which over 80 municipalities have joined. With a view to strengthening this practice from the younger generations, the Tuscan Legislative Assembly also approved, on the proposal of the president of the Culture commission, “Reading freely. Read everyone”, a law addressed to the Italian Parliament with the aim of introducing a space for free and silent reading within the school calendar.
The initiatives linked to the Book Fair follow the meeting last November of the States General of Culture with all the regional publishing entities, in which needs and proposals on the Tuscan presence at the Fair were collected. Furthermore, last February, the Tuscany Region and the States General of Culture organized an initiative at “Testo Firenze” in which the director of the Book Fair Annalena Benini also participated, on the role of institutions in promoting reading in national contexts and international and on the importance for publishing companies of taking part in book fairs.
The small Tuscan publishers who will exhibit at the Tuscany Region stand are: All’Insegna del Giglio; Anthology Digital Publishing; Antonio De Rosa Publisher; Arnaud Projects and Experiences; Betti publishing house; Amaranth Cards; Cinquesensi publishing house; Publishing house Compagnia dei Santi Bevitori; Leo S. Olschki Publishing House; C&P Adver Effigies; DreamBook Editions; AAM Terra Nuova publishing house; Cantagalli Editions; ETS Editions; Federighi Editori SNC; Helicon Editions; Aska Editions; La Bancarella Editrice; The Editorial Letters; Leonardo Books; Mainz Publishing; Mandragora Publishing House; Maria Pacini Fazzi editor; Masso delle Fate Editions of Nova Arti Grafiche; MdS Publisher; Methylene Editions; Moroni Publisher; Nardini Editore; Pagnini Publishing; Solomon Belforte; ARA Archaeological Cooperative Society; Tralerighe books; Vallecchi Florence.
The Tuscan Unipresses are: Edizioni della Normale, USiena Press, Firenze University Press and Pisa University Press
NOTE. The press release was drafted in an impersonal form in compliance with the provisions on equal conditions adopted with the calling of the electoral rallies for the European and administrative elections of 8 and 9 June 2024.
Tags: Book Fair Tuscan Readers Train leaves Florence
