On the peaks of mountaineering culture, among mountains of books

Vintage bookshops and meetings with the authors

MontagnaLibri, the International Mountain Books Festival, has been organised for the past 23 years in parallel with the TrentoFilmfestival - a sort of “festival within a festival”: it is the main European book fair specialising in mountain, exploration and adventure. This year the large exhibition areas in Piazza Fiera will open before the TrentoFilmfestival on Tuesday 21st April.

The exhibition will be organised by Luana Bisesti and the protagonists will be the 1,100 books of 420 publishers from 35 European and extra-European countries. Guides, novels, photo books, manuals, studies and research on environment, wildlife, geology, archaeology, history, war in the mountain, economy and social phenomena, environmental policies, tourism, art, crafts, ethnography and correlated topics, specialised magazines from all over the world and new multimedia collections: all this material will be enjoyed by an audience that in the past few years has grown to more than 15,000.

Throughout the exhibition, MontagnaLibri will also host MontagniLandia, a play- space entirely dedicated to young readers, as well as the “Libreria della Montagna”, a point of purchase for classic and new publications in this genre of literature.

In the final weekend, on 1st and 2nd May MontagnaLibri will also host the 14th Fair of the Antiquarian Bookshops specialising in mountains. This is a unique opportunity to leaf through, look up and buy vintage and precious mountain books, but also postcards, photos, prints, etchings, posters and curiosities related to mountaineering.

And then a rich schedule of Meetings with the authors, presentation of new publications and special events such as literary marathons, readings at night and music recitals in some of the most prestigious locations in town, from Palazzo Calepini to Palazzo Roccabruna, to the charming archaeological sites of “Tridentum romana” (Ancient Roman Trento).

On the occasion of this exhibition, the literary prize 38th ITAS Prize for the Mountain book will be awarded: the “Cardo d’Oro” is its most prestigious prize and this year it is dedicated to Mario Rigoni Stern, President of the jury for this prize for several decades.


“Emozioni tra le pagine”, the literary events
 Palazzo Sardagna, Palazzo Roccabruna, Palazzo Calepini, Palazzo Lodron and the Sass Archaeological site, will host one or more author meetings, presentations and roundtables on the topics of the TrentoFilmfestival, but from a more “literary” point of view. The evening meetings, “Emozioni tra le pagine”, are one of this year’s the new entries. 

The first meeting will be on 21st April at the Tridentino Science Museum with Giorgio Odifreddi, who starting with his latest book, will talk about Darwin and the debate on evolutionism. In the morning of Wednesday 22nd April there will be a meeting with Sylvie Coyaud author of “La scomparsa delle api” and in the afternoon with Marco Aime author of “Il lato selvatico del tempo”; in the evening the archaeological site of Palazzo Lodròn will host the full reading of Beppe Fenoglio’s book, “Una questione privata”.

In the mornings of Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th there will be a meeting on travel literature, publishing and advertising in tourism: this meeting, named “Viaggiare con la parola, viajar con la palabra”, is promoted by the University of Trento. On Thursday evening a meeting with the journalists of the Corriere della Sera Lorenzo Cremonesi and Gian Antonio Stella will retrace the history of the great correspondents of the Italian newspaper, with reports, explorations and war correspondence. On Friday 24th April the book about Erich von Stroheim edited by Paolo Caneppele for the Audiovisual Centre of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano will be presented and in the evening at the Sass archaeological site the presentation of “In montagna sarò tua”, literary charms at high altitude, with readings, music and images. On Sunday 26th April, the presentation of the book “In silenzio tra gli Alberi” with its author MaxSolinas and in the evening at the Sass archaeological site, for the first time in Italy, the book “Montagne ribelli, passeggiate letterarie sulle tracce dei partigiani” will be presented with its author Paola Lugo. Fiorenza Aste, author of “Il montanaro”, will be the protagonist at the afternoon meeting on Monday 27th April. On Tuesday 28th April the Arctic region will be the topic of the meeting: in the morning Davide Sapienza will present for the first time Jørn Riel’s book “Prima di domani” from which the homonymous film was made, which has been entered in the TrentoFilmfestival competition. In the afternoon the meeting “Artico oggi. A caccia di risorse nel Grande Nord” dedicated to the geopolitical changes in the Arctic, with Ezio Ferrante, Gianluca Frinchillucci and Aldo Scaiano; finally in the evening at the Sass archaeological site the reading by Davide Sapienza and Francesco Garolfi “Il signor Loci, presumo? (l’ultimo esploratore)”. On Wednesday 29th April the morning meeting with “The history of skiing in the Alps” by Pierpaolo Mistri and in the afternoon the book dedicated to Patrick Berhault written by Michel Bricola and Dominique Potard with the participation of Patrick Edlinger.

Two very recent books dedicated to the Eiger (“L’ossessione dell’Eiger” by John Harlin Jr. and “Il prigioniero dell’Eiger” by Giorgio Spreafico) will be presented by Mirella Tenderini on Thursday 30th April.
Friday 1st May two meetings in the afternoon: the first dedicated to Bepi Magrin’s book on the “greatest battles” of the First World War and the second about the book by Alessandro Gogna, Laura Melesi and Daniele Redaelli that retraces the life of the legendary Italian mountaineer, Riccardo Cassin, and is a homage to his 100th birthday. Finally on the final day of the 57th TrentoFilmfestival the last three meetings: in the morning with Alessandro Gogna and Italo Zandonella Callegher authors of the book “La verità obliqua di Severino Casara“; in the afternoon with Alessandro Anderloni and Attilio Benetti, authors of the “Fiabe della Lessinia” and concluding with the mountaineer Kurt Diemberger author of ”Danzare sulla corda”.

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