A day entirely dedicated to women, the third of the Bancarella 2021 Eastern Adriatic Book Fair, the event organized in Trieste by the Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian culture (CDM) in synergy with the Provincial Committee of Trieste of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia.

“Queen” of the women of the Eastern Adriatic (Saturday’s theme) was chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, received in the marquee of Piazza Sant’Antonio in Trieste like a real star. Young and old, young and old crowded (as much as possible given the period) the inside and the immediate outside of the structure and, at the end, there were many requests for a souvenir photo or a simple autograph. Also present at the meeting moderated by journalist Francesca Angeleri was a class from the Graziadio Isaia Ascoli middle school in Gorizia, recent winner of the national school competition “10 Febbraio” (announced by the Working Table of the Ministry of Education – Associations of Istrian, Fiuman and Dalmatian Exiles) with the video clip “Ricette di vita”.

Lidia Bastianich told her life story, well summarized in the book “Il mio sogno americano” published by Solferino, ranging from the times of her youth in Pula occupied by the Yugoslavs to her new life in New York, passing through the two years spent in the refugee camp of San Sabba, in Trieste. From the fear of the immediate post-war period to the risks experienced to reach Italy, to the wait for the green light to reach the United States. Up to the successes of the following years, the result of the sacrifices and hard work of her and her husband Felice.

Before the event with Lidia Bastianich there was time to attend the round table dedicated to the art of the Eastern Adriatic in Rome and Lazio from the 5th century to today, with Donatella Schürzel, Barbara Vinciguerra and Maria Grazia Chiappori, co-authors of the catalogue of the exhibition of the same name, a valuable work that won the Tanzella Prize 2020. Great attention in this case too from the public for an original theme, with respect to the geography of the Adriatic, in which the great contribution that artists originally from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia have made to the history of art of Rome and Lazio since the fall of the Western Roman Empire was illustrated.

In the early afternoon we talked about the women in eastern border literature, together with Cristina Benussi and Donatella Schürzel herself. The rich contribution of the female gender in the Istrian-Dalmatian world was narrated, an original and precious contribution in the socio-cultural and professional context in which the Julian-Dalmatian women writers and the protagonists of fiction and real life have operated.

A story that had its fil rouge in the following round table “Italians between the two shores: projects for today” with Donatella Schürzel, architect Elisabeth Foroni, Elena Uljančić (Museum of the Poreč Territory) and Roberta Ugrin, president of the Italian Community of Rovinj.

The day ended in the evening with a new change of geographical perspective, with the presentation of the Egea project linked to Fertilia dei Giuliani, the town near Alghero (Sassari) where several thousand Istrians took refuge at the end of the 40s. They spoke with the journalist of the Corriere della Sera Francesca Angeleri, the director Cristina Mantis, who directed the documentary film “Fertilia istriana”, the director of the Egea museum, Mauro Manca (who chose as his icon a very well-known female figure: the little girl with the suitcase, alias Egea Haffner) and the film critic Alessandro Cuk.

 

The works of the fourth and final day of the Bancarella 2021 will be dedicated to the theme "From memories to history" and visible live on the sites www.anvgd.it e www.arcipelagoadriatico.it

The morning meeting will connect Istria and Puglia, as the books “Aldo Pugliese, from Istrian refugee to union leader” with Aldo Pugliese himself and “From Istria to Taranto to stay Italian” by Prof. Vito Fumarola will be presented. The theme of the Exodus will also be at the center of the first afternoon session, during which “La Patria perduta” by Elio Varutti will be presented (concerning the Refugee Collection Center of Laterina, in the province of Arezzo), “Vita a Palazzo Silos” (the memoirs of Anna Maria Marsi, a refugee in Trieste) and “I 60 anni del Villaggio San Marco a Fossoli” (work edited by the Modena Committee of the Anvgd, winner of the Tanzella Prize 2020). And the various faces of terror that characterized the consolidation of Tito's communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia will be discussed later with Paolo Sardos Albertini (President of the National League and of the Committee Honoring the Martyrs of the Foibe) and the journalist Andrea Romoli, author of reports dedicated to the foibe and mass graves recently discovered in Slovenia. Matteo Carnieletto will instead present the report dedicated to the "re-education camp" of Goli Otok that he wrote for the online newspaper InsideOver thanks to a crowdfunding that the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmazia also joined; together with him, the journalist Fausto Bilosavo and Prof. Giuseppe Parlato, President of the scientific committee of the CDM, will speak.

 Goli Otok 

We return to the Italian Regency of Gabriele d'Annunzio's Carnaro in Fiume with the essay "Quis contra nos" which will be presented by the author Federico Lorenzo Ramaioli together with Marino Micich (Director of the Historical Archive Museum of Fiume), Giuseppe Parlato and Alessandro Agrì (UniMoRe). The review will close with a tribute to Alida Valli, whose birth centenary occurs this year: the film critic Alessandro Cuk will present together with Mimmo Verdesca (director of the highly appreciated documentary "Alida") and Pierpaolo De Mejo (grandson of the diva from Polesano) the new initiatives that the Anvgd intends to carry out to celebrate the great Istrian actress.