The May 16th a unique Festival in Italy has started: Urgent ubikVespa Festivala tour on two wheels of a Vespa that will cross the peninsula bringing books and authors to over 20 cities in Italy.
The biker bookseller is Fabio Mendolicchio, former editor of Miraggi, who has been carrying out this project for a few years.
In 2023 he proposed to ubik the opening of a bookshop on two wheels that would bear the ubik brand, a franchise that affiliates independent bookshops and thus the collaboration was born: “When Fabio proposed to us to open a bookshop on two wheels that would reach the little ones villages in Italy where there are no bookshops, the idea immediately seemed to us to be in perfect alignment with our idea of a bookshop, inherent in our name: ubik in fact derives from the Latin ubique, everywhere, because it was born with the intention of bringing books and spread reading in every part of the country.” – says Barbara Sardella, events and communication manager at Ubik.
There are 160 Ubik bookshops in Italy today, many are located in provincial towns and touch almost all the regions of Italy, to which Fabio’s ubikVespa has now been added which after some stops in the villages of Piedmont and after having inaugurated the tour with an event in the homeland of Piaggio, at the Ubik in Pontedera with Dario Voltolini as godfather, he is preparing to face a 4,000 kilometer journey that will cross the entire peninsula. Fabio with his faithful Vespa left on May 16th and in 11 days he will visit 21 cities: 21 Ubik bookstores in Italy will be stops on the tour and will give rise to 11 meetings with authors.
The project and the ubikVespa also went to the Turin International Book Fair, where the tour was presented on Friday 10 May in the SALA ARANCIO at 2.30 pm, again with Dario Voltolini and shortly before with Margherita Schirmacher at 1 pm on her Camper Ticket To Read, in the Oval square of the Lingotto.
“The theme of this first ubikVespa tour Festival is URGENT, as you go along and cover kilometers you will understand why, but in the meantime let’s say that for us the tour is URGENT for a series of good reasons.” – She supports Fabio as he prepares to load the Vespa with books.
Urgent is to read
It is urgent to support bookshops
It is urgent to take books everywhere (even where there are no bookshops)
It is urgent to make our voice heard
It is urgent to create a community
It’s urgent to meet
It is urgent to find all possible ways to spread reading in this country.
