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Stories of the Adriatic border, both large and small, are featured at the Turin Book Fair with La Bancarella.
15.05.2026 – Istria, its history and the indigenous Italian community under new perspectives at the opening of the second day of the Stall. Eastern Adriatic Book Fair, organized by the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia together with the Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian culture in collaboration with FederEsuli as part of the XXXVIII edition of the Turin International Book Fair.
The morning opened with the presentation of the book by Bruno Zaro Land of Istria. A walking journey through memories and testimonies where "every house has its own story to tell." (Lar Editore, Turin 2024), in which the author, a second-generation Istrian exile, recounts his journey through family memories and the history of Italianness on the Adriatic: "I didn't want to write a political book," Zaro explained, prompted by questions from Roberta Vlahov (FederEsuli Press Office). "As a young man, I witnessed many family discussions, between those who left and those who remained: I wanted to understand, by walking across the Istrian peninsula." The rediscovery of one's roots and a new, more open and relaxed dialogue between exiles and those who "remained" actually reflect the new politics taking place along the Adriatic border, as historian Gianni Oliva has noted: "You can't achieve a shared memory, but rather a comparison and recognition of memories."
The panel dedicated to has therefore attracted a lot of interest Exodus. The silence of those who remain. (Wandering Workshop, Udine 2026), which is the translation of research conducted by Slovenian anthropologist Katja Hrobat Virloget within the Italian community in Istria, now part of the Republic of Slovenia. Conversing with Renzo Codarin (President of FederEsuli) and Fabio Tognoni (Vice President of FederEsuli), starting with questions from Dr. Roberta Vlahov, the distinguished guest recounted the difficulties she encountered at the beginning of her research: "I had to confront the wall of silence that enclosed the Italian community, which had become a minority, living on the margins of Communist Yugoslavia and still identified with the stereotype of Italy = fascist, a hard-to-die even in today's Slovenia, which founded its identity on anti-fascism."
The innovative nature of her work stems precisely from its scientific approach, which for the first time adopts an anthropological perspective, steering clear of the minefield of historical interpretation: "I didn't set out to quantify who left and who stayed behind. I started from the widespread preconception that Italians had left voluntarily. Instead, by engaging with those who remained, I discovered stories of families torn apart, divided, and separated by the traumatic choice to emigrate under the pressure of Tito's regime's violence. After a while, the interviewees would burst into tears as they finally had the chance to tell their family story, and I myself would end up being moved, overwhelmed by emotion."
The book in which Professor Hrobat Virloget collected her research gradually gained visibility, until it was presented last December in an hour-long broadcast on the main Slovenian television station: "When I began this work I was afraid, but the growing attention I received gave me courage, and I was very pleased to see the interest in the Italian edition on the part of the exile associations who wanted to have me as a guest at this prestigious event."
According to representatives of FederEsuli, the recent inauguration of the Italian-language school complex in Koper, renovated with funding from the Slovenian state, in the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his Slovenian counterpart Nataša Pirc Musar, sent a strong signal last September: "Koper is Slovenia's port, a cornerstone of its economy, where Italians have long lived in the shadows, while now relations have improved and the presence of our compatriots is finally seen as an enrichment of the social fabric."
The afternoon opened with Fabio Tognoni (Vice President of the Association of Istrian Communities and FederEsuli) and his The Julian-Dalmatian Exodus and the Eastern Border Question. Memory, Identity, and Politics between Italy and Yugoslavia (1943-1954), published last year. In this work, the author aims to provide "a primer on the history of the Adriatic border, a collection of reflections, insights, observations, and historical references intended primarily for students navigating these complex pages of twentieth-century history." In conversation with Roberta Vlahov (Press Office of the Istrian Communities) and Francesca Traldi (General Secretary of FederEsuli), Tognoni retraced his approach to the history of the foibe and the exodus, a story for which he found himself completely unprepared when he arrived in Trieste for work in the 1970s. Today, he works to ensure this history is increasingly a shared heritage, while also sharing the European spirit that gave rise to the experience of Nova Gorica as European Capital of Culture, along with Gorizia.
With great enthusiasm and taking research ideas and suggestions, Chiara Cacciavillani (University of Padua) presented the new book by Davide Rossi The Long Twentieth Century of the Adriatic Border: Institutional Transitions and Legal Changes (Rubbettino Editore, Soveria Mannelli 2025) together with the author. This volume, which aims to collect the essays that have characterized an intense research activity and dedicated to various aspects of the legal and institutional history of the Adriatic border, proves to be a text that is easy to read and at times enthralling, as highlighted by Professor Cacciavillani, who has spent important words especially in reference to the Carta del Carnaro compared to the more celebrated and contemporary Weimar Constitution, which resulted in the rise of Nazism, and to the failure of the people of Giulianova, Fiume, and Zadar to participate in the institutional referendum of June 2, 1946, even though they had every right to do so. In the pages of the Veronese academic of Istrian origin, significant biographies also emerge, such as that of Francesco Salata, an irredentist from Lussignano, but convinced of the need to safeguard the autonomist institutions of the lands annexed to the Kingdom of Italy after the First World War, however, the Savoy centralism first and the fascist authoritarianism later did not take his indications into consideration, thus contributing to exacerbate national tensions in this multi-ethnic area already shaken by the Divide and conquer between opposing nationalisms of the final phase of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
From great history to family stories: Things of Istria. The drama of the Exodus seen and experienced through the eyes of a priest. by Paolo Crippa tells a love story for a land and its people. It is about the author's great-uncle, a strong-willed priest from Vicenza, and Istria, where the priest arrives by chance and quickly falls in love with its landscapes, its sea, and its parishioners. Crippa transcribed his ancestor's diaries, providing a candid portrait of the journey that led Istria into the vortex of World War II, the foibe (foibe) massacres, and the exodus. Historian Gianni Oliva praised the emotion that shines through these pages because "this is how we can effectively convey history to young people today, even at the cost of sacrificing a measure of rationality." Don Paolo Zecchin suffered harassment from the partisans and left Istria in April 1945 only to visit a relative in Milan. The escalation of events prevented him from returning, leaving him with a profound nostalgia.
The terrible events that struck the eastern border provinces in the spring of 1945 are extensively narrated in the book by Marino Micich (General Secretary of the Society of Fiuman Studies) Farewell, Fiume! The Fiume epic from World War II to the great exodus of 1940-1954 (Mursia, Milan 2026)"Historians have focused on D'Annunzio's Fiume; the rest of its history is known only relatively briefly," Micich explained in a conversation with Roberta Vlahov. "Testimonies create memory. I wanted to write a history book using documents collected from the pioneering research I collaborated on in 1998 on the victims of Italian nationality in Fiume." The book is easy to read, but the notes and sources consulted are extensive and detailed, and in this way "it reaches a wider audience, but also the researcher finds references for further study, and the historical reconstruction based on sources from Croatia and the former Yugoslavia is unassailable." Thus, the fighting around Fiume emerges, with the desperate Italian resistance against the advancing Yugoslav army, the end of the autonomists persecuted by fascism and exterminated by Tito's regime, and the urbicide that annihilated Fiume's identity, forcing 90% of the Italian community, which represented the majority of the population, into exile. Today, however, the institutions of the exiled citizens of Fiume are relating to the mother city in the renewed climate of European cooperation, giving rise to hope for the future.
Finally, the episode that the radio programme Sconfinamenti of the Rai Friuli Venezia Giulia editorial team dedicated on Thursday 14 May to the presence of the Stall at the Salone del Libro with speeches by Fabio Tognoni, Davide Rossi (curator of the scientific program of the event), Francesca Traldi (General Secretary of FederEsuli) and Mauro Runco (organizational manager of the event):
