Dear AIPI/LCPE members, dear readers of L'ARENA DI POLA, July has been a decidedly busy month, fitting in with our constant and passionate commitment to reporting on the significant number of events we've followed, experienced, and shared. Our president Lucia Bellaspiga explains this well in her article, announcing the upcoming commemoration in preparation for the tragic anniversary of Vergarolla. Our cover title reaffirms the expression that, with conviction and heartfelt, often comes from our hearts: distant yet close. ...and this time with a phrase that is typically ours: SPARNISSADI but united, reiterating the words with which our unforgettable...

The birth of the Pula Arena on July 29, 1945, in Pula marked a defining moment in the history of the city of Pula, Istria, and its Italian-speaking population. Its publications were marked by expectations and hopes that later turned into bitter disappointments; by the harsh confrontation with a reality that grew more dramatic day by day, culminating in the tragedy of the Vergarolla massacre (August 18, 1946), then the exodus (February-March 1947), and finally the definitive transfer of our beloved city to Yugoslav administration (September 16, 1947); and, more generally, by the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Julian, Istrian,...

Dear AIPI/LCPE members, dear readers of L'ARENA DI POLA, thought up on the fly and written with all my heart, I find the title of the front page of this issue of L'Arena di Pola couldn't be anything else: UNDER THE SKY OF POLA. It comes out after the traditional June meeting in Pula, so intensely experienced by those who were there, those who missed it, and those who wished they had been. This is an issue I dare say is special, with dedicated pages and many photos documenting key—and I dare say memorable—moments. Led by the brilliant creativity of our President Lucia Bellaspiga, the 2026 Cultural Meeting of Exiles from Pula successfully made the...

Dear AIPI-LCPE Odv members and friends, dear readers of the Pula Arena, MEMORY AND FUTURE, our cover title couldn't better summarize the wealth of events and content this May. And the latest news we'd like to share almost as soon as we're going to press: from the presentation of the Barcolana 2026, scheduled for October, we learned that Mirage Blue with white details, reminiscent of Istrian stone, has been chosen for the event's official polo shirt. However, due to the well-known constraints of editorial space and time, we're forced to sacrifice details in this issue as well...

Dear AIPI LCPE Odv members and friends, dear readers of l'Arena di Pola, 22 years have passed since the law establishing Remembrance Day came into force. This was specified in the Official Gazette of April 13, 2004, an image of which is featured in the cover illustration. This is a context in which, over two decades, there has been a visible growth in projects and events, which, throughout Italy and beyond, are visibly and concretely multiplying year after year. One example is the Remembrance Trips (see the image on the front page, referring to the Roman students' stop at the Basovizza Foiba), which we report on inside. We are pleased to note...

Dear AIPI/LCPE Members, Dear Readers of L'Arena di Pola, This month's summary title and cover photo of our Arena are particularly noteworthy: 29.073 represents the sum of the days that have passed between August 18, 1946, the day of the horrific Vergarolla massacre, and March 24, 2026, the day the new memorial stone with the long-awaited list of the identified martyrs of that tragedy was placed in Pula. We report on this on page 3. As we have repeatedly stated, the information in our periodical cannot compete with that of a daily newspaper, as it must balance an in-depth monthly overview of news with the...

Dear AIPI/LCPE Odv members and friends, dear readers of the Pula Arena, HARMONY: optimizing the encounter of multiple musical notes, harmony of sentiments and opinions, prospects for a union between past, present, and future... Paraphrasing the thematic symbolism of the opening ceremony of the recent Winter Olympics—tradition and innovation expertly combined—we have titled this special issue "harmony," dedicated to the celebration of REMEMBRANCE DAY, where past, present, and future stand out, harmoniously blended. The contents also include the traditional columns (on history, itineraries, dialect, customs, and curiosities) with spaces for...

Dear AIPI LCPE Odv members and friends, dear readers of L'Arena di Pola, as is customary, there has been a shift between two calendars and in our lives. The greeting featured on the cover—and certainly meant to be expressed from the heart—has been summarized in a trilogy of images, depicting the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new year, the message from our President of the Republic, and the closing of the Jubilee of Hope. HOPE, which, in this symbolic change of date, each of us surely strengthens in our thoughts, confident that we will not be disappointed. We also discuss it in the pages of this issue of L'ARENA DI POLA, whose summary, as always, collects notes and news,...

There Was a Turning Point. The cover title and accompanying photographic synopsis for this issue of L'Arena di Pola are certainly not the introduction to a fairy tale, but the treatment of a painful page in history, our history above all, a compendium of facts and events endured by the Julian-Dalmatian people. September 15, 1947, Monday: at midnight the following day, the Treaty of Paris would come into force. 138 pages, concluding with the words: Done at Paris in the French, English, Russian, and Italian languages, this tenth day of February, nineteen hundred and forty-seven. February 10 – September 15, 1947, a watershed moment in history and in too many lives: that blink of an eye that brought...

Dear Readers of L'Arena di Pola, Dear Members and Supporting Friends of AIPI - LCPE Odv, The Torn Curtain. Why this title to summarize this month's special pages of L'Arena di Pola, extensively dedicated to the anniversary of the terrorist attack that occurred 79 years ago in Vergarolla? Because, albeit very slowly and decidedly belatedly, it seems that somehow and somewhere the curtain has been torn that obtusely, almost hermetically, closed the stage of a tragedy that struck Italy. A chosen definition because it symbolizes the opening of a hidden reality, a veil that has long concealed something uncomfortable or painful. Once again, it is...