Three days of history, memories, life experiences, of great writers or simply of people who wanted to leave their own testimony. This is how the 2020 edition of “La Bancarella”, the Eastern Adriatic Book Fair, can be summed up.

An event that returned to the center of the city of Trieste after six years, and two years after the last edition in a reduced version, held in 2018 in the splendid setting of the Verdi theater. An event that was also renewed in its appearance, with an event dedicated not only to those who decided to physically attend the events over the three days. The most important novelty of this edition, in fact, concerned the possibility offered to all interested parties to attend the book presentations and debates thanks to the live streaming of all the events. To do so, it was sufficient to connect to the site www.arcipelagoadriatico.it. A way to bring together those who live far away and at the same time to respond in the best possible way to the difficulties that the restrictions due to the Coronavirus impose.

The main theme of the renewed Bancarella was the same as always: keeping alive the history and passions that have united the people of Venezia Giulia, dealing with the times of yesterday and today that concern Trieste, Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia, lands that history has divided and that are found today in many pages of books. The vast family of Julian-Dalmatian associations met between Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 September in in-depth discussions with cultural and historical-scientific institutions, public and political figures on editorial news and to delve into testimonies of the past and present, one hundred years after the Treaty of Rapallo that assigned Venezia Giulia to Italy.

The most important event, which attracted the greatest turnout of public both in person and remotely, was the round table organized with the presence of 9 historians and moderated by the president of the National League, Paolo Sardos Albertini. It was a lively debate focused on the last hundred difficult years of the Upper Adriatic. The discussion was attended by academics Diego Redivo, Stefano Pilotto, Raoul Pupo, Donatella Schurzel, Egidio Ivetic, Giuseppe Parlato, Giuseppe de Vergottini, Igor Pellicciari and Joze Pirjevec: some remotely and some in person contributed to triggering a frank and candid debate, also characterized by moments of heated dialectic that ended with the hope of meeting again in the next editions of the cultural event to continue to discuss.

And while the next edition of the Bancarella is already scheduled for spring 2021, Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian Culture would like to inform you that the programme of this edition can be reviewed in its entirety on its website Youtube channel from next week.

The CDM Press Office