Emotions among the pages: La via degli dei di Wu Ming 2, ed. Ediciclo

La Via degli Dei by the Wu Ming 2 collective is the tale of a walking trip from Bologna to Florence through the Apennines of Emilia and Tuscany, an area that is increasingly threatened by a high-speed train (TAV) network, a motorway and scattered quarries that have gouged huge craters into the mountains. Although it is becoming a concrete jungle, this area is still home to wild boar, beech trees, and deer that graze beneath the viaducts. What do we stand to lose in order to gain 20 minutes on a journey from Bologna to Florence? To find out, the distance was covered on foot along Via degli Dei (The Road of the Gods), a route that has been used since Roman times. The journey from Piazza Maggiore in Bologna to Piazza della Signoria in Florence took five days and was done at 5 km an hour; it took its protagonists through encounters and legends, environmental disasters and silent beech groves. This book is a cross between a guide, story, investigation and narrative invention.

Wu Ming 2 was founded in January 2000 after it had been named Luther Blisset for five years and a host of other things for about twenty. It has taken part in the collective writing of novels Q, Asce di guerra, 54, Manituana and Altai, which are published by Einaudi Stile Libero. Its solo works include Guerra agli umani (Einaudi 2004), a story of escapes, crimes and radical ecology inspired by a first walking trip along the Via degli Dei.