Also this year the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia together with the Multimedia Documentation Centre of the Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian culture has set up, in collaboration with FederEsuli, La Bancarella. Eastern Adriatic Book Fair in the prestigious setting of the Turin International Book Fair. The stand in the Oval Pavilion showcases not only the book production of the main associations of Istrian, Rijeka, and Dalmatian exiles, but also presents the Exhibition of Dalmatian Exiles from Istria and Rijeka (MEDIF) with a summary of the multimedia installation inside the Vittoriano. A lounge has also been set up where podcasts on the history of relations between the Adriatic countries and on great Julian-Dalmatian athletes can be listened to. Among the many visitors on this first day was Jadwiga Pinderska, Director of Publishing at Auschwitz, who paused to discuss the tragic dynamics that link the events of the Adriatic border and the Holocaust.

The packed calendar of events for Bancarella 2026 opened with a meeting organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Merit, with which Julian-Dalmatian exile associations are developing projects through the MIM – Exiles' Associations Working Group. Professor Enrico Miletto (University of Turin) presented the portal developed by the Ferruccio Parri National Institute in conjunction with the National Research Council, "Atlas of Julian and Dalmatian Refugee Collection Centers," a work in progress to which the Società di Studi Fiumani has already contributed and to which FederEsuli also intends to lend its support. Engaging the student audience, Miletto also demonstrated how the presence of over 100 Refugee Collection Centers throughout Italy further cements the Julian-Dalmatian exodus as a historic event of national significance. Thanks to the training activities developed by MIM and associations of Adriatic exiles, Professor Elvira Feleppa said she discovered the existence of a CRP in Benevento, which had by then fallen into oblivion.

“The world saved by children” is the theme characterising this XXXVIII edition of the Book Fair and it is precisely to the new generations that the second meeting of the morning was also addressed, also introduced by Caterina Spezzano (MIM manager): the presentation of the App The Adriatic border and the national network of schools "Il Giorno del Ricordo." The app, illustrated by Andrea Mazzanti, is the result of a consolidated synergy between the Ministry of Education and the Adriatic diaspora, resulting in an immersive multimedia exhibition at M9, the Museo del 900 in Mestre. This is where Mazzanti Editore comes in, developing a series of metabooks that reflect the historical themes defined by the Guidelines for Teaching the Adriatic Border. QR codes allow young users to develop experiences in a modern language. From there, it was a short step to a dedicated, freely downloadable app. Professor Maria Brancati was therefore tasked with explaining the "Schools of Remembrance" network, a place for sharing best practices and educational experiences related to the history of the eastern border.

The afternoon opened with a panel dedicated to the Vergarolla massacre, the 80th anniversary of which is being celebrated this year. "Having occurred even before Portella della Ginestra, but still after the Supreme Court certified the Republic's victory in the institutional referendum of June 2nd, Vergarolla was the first massacre in the Italian Republic and the one with the highest number of victims," ​​explained Professor Marco Cuzzi of the University of Milan. "A culprit hasn't been identified, but someone certainly detonated that TNT, which physically cannot explode by spontaneous combustion, and it probably killed around a hundred people from Pola, including many children, but only 64 victims have been identified. I see all the hallmarks of the strategy of tension here." Conversing with Lorenzo Salimbeni (Communications Manager for the ANVGD), Cuzzi also outlined the uncertainty that surrounded Pola in the months between the end of World War II and the signing of the Peace Treaty.

The main consequence of this carnage and the official annexation to Communist Yugoslavia on February 10, 1947, was the exodus that emptied Pula of 90% of its inhabitants, a topic addressed a few years later in the film "The City of Sorrows." This film is also discussed in the new book by Alessandro Cuk (national vice president of ANVGD and film critic), "The Cinema of the Adriatic Frontier 1945-2025." The author himself, in conversation with Lorenzo Salimbeni, explained that after an initial focus on these topics, Italian cinema snubbed this narrative thread, "and it is curious that neorealism, so attentive to the social situation in postwar Italy, did not address the terrible conditions in which thousands of exiles lived in the Refugee Collection Centers." The establishment of Remembrance Day has also helped to bring these topics to the forefront, and they are now increasingly the focus of films, documentaries, and documentaries. "For three years now, Rai 1 has broadcast a prime-time drama dedicated to the exodus on Remembrance Day," Cuk recalled. "Egea Haffner, whose story was told in the book "The Girl with the Suitcase" and the film of the same name, continues to carry out a moving work of testimony in schools and at institutional ceremonies on February 10th."

The day concluded with a conversation between Alessandro Cuk and Edvino Jerian, President of the People's University of Trieste, an organization that has been promoting Italian culture in the eastern Adriatic since 1899: "At the time, Trieste was under Austria-Hungary, and I am proud to point out that we were founded to spread awareness of Italy's cultural roots among the people," Jerian began. "Similarly, after the war, we worked to preserve the Italian spirit represented by those who remained in the provinces annexed by communist Yugoslavia." In the new European context, the UPT now also intends to play a bridging role in collaborations between exile associations and native Italian communities in Istria, Carnaro, and Dalmatia. "Legislative differences between Slovenia and Croatia still exist, complicating the work," Jerian specified, "but we look favorably upon Montenegro's path to joining the European Union: there, too, is an Italian cultural heritage that must be safeguarded and, above all, made known to Italians." Concluding the panel, FederEsuli President Renzo Codarin expressed his hope that the joint work with UPT will also serve to raise awareness of the history of Adriatic Italianness among the wider Slovenian and Croatian public.