The authors will be accompanied by Fabrizio Francischini, Professor of the History of Italian Language, University of Pisa, and Alessandro Agostinelli, writer and director of the Travel Festival. The book’s editor, Biancamaria Majorana, led the way. “The sea is the designated place of travel. It has been so since ancient times and remains so, there is no heaven or earth to compare: the original, classic journey is by sea ».

It is from this statement that the new book written by Athos Bigongiali and Oreste Verini for Edzioni ETS opens, inaugurating Gunga Din, the publishing house’s new series directed by Franco Cardini and Alessandro Agostinelli, dedicated to the theme of the journey. The book, which was available in bookstores a few days ago, is a collection of sea stories about the incredible adventures experienced by Renzo, a sailor named Il Marconi, who left the Garfagnana mountains between the 60s and the centuries. 90 years, can almost be defined as “mythical” from our present feeling.

Singapore, Patagonia, India, Canada, the Amazon, and the Caribbean Sea become the backdrop for hunts, ambushes, storms, and shipwrecks, interwoven with fights, ghost stories, apparitions, encounters with indigenous peoples, and the exploits of mythical heroes. True stories, whether they seem oral or exaggerated by word of mouth, are all true because, as the radio operator who left the Apennines to see the world says at the end of the book, “Sailors never lie.”

The evening will continue with a sea theme on the piano notes of Maura Balsini, live every Thursday during the summer in La Nunciatina garden. His music has accompanied Mediterranean cruises for years.

Athos Bigongiali, the writer, makes his narrative debut with Una Cita Proletaria (Sellerio, 1989), from which a theatrical performance was also drawn. He is the author of several books including Warnings Against Earth Disease (1990), Irish Vigil (1992), RL Stevenson Dr. A Letter to Hyde (1994) was also published. Among his many publications are Le Ceneri del Che (1996), Ballad for a Hot Summer (1998), and Once Upon a Time in Pisa. An Illustrated Story (2000), The Clown (2006) and Steve McQueen’s Last Escape (2009). Author of ten radio plays for RAI, Athos Bigongiali has contributed to the cultural pages of various newspapers and magazines and is a jury member of various literary awards. Oreste Verini, who graduated in economics and commerce from the University of Pisa, where he teaches, has lived in Lunigiana for some time, often moving to Garfagnana. In 2019 he published for Fusta Editore Madrid, following in the footsteps of the painter Pietro da Talada, with the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, and in 2021 he won the National Prize of Franco Piccinelli. He is the co-author of the radio program Pasi Pace Parole – Naracioni a Mesacosta, dedicated to the problems of the hinterland and mountain areas.