Opening dedicated to Fiume on the third day of the Stall. Eastern Adriatic Book Fair currently underway in the prestigious setting of the 38th edition of the Turin International Book Fair. After presenting Massimo Superina's publication the previous evening in collaboration with the Turin provincial committee of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia River at Work: Industries, Shops, and Crafts between the 19th Century and 1946 At the Istrian, Fiumani and Dalmatian Cultural Circle in the Piedmontese capital, the Fiumani Italiani nel Mondo Association brought to the attention of the book review the publication edited by the journalist and writer Rosanna Turcinovich River, cloud city. Dust of our thoughts. Gino Brazzoduro – Paolo Santarcangeli correspondence (1981–1984)Published by AFIM together with the Italian Community of Fiume, the correspondence between the two great exiled Fiume intellectuals represents a reflection on Fiume's identity and the consequences of the urbicide that unfolded from 3 May 1945 onwards.

On this occasion the curator of the work, who is the director of the bimonthly association The Voice of the RiverHe also gave a more detailed overview of AFIM's publishing output and its increasingly close collaboration with the institutions of its home city. In the context of the capital of the Carnaro region, Papetti was particularly pleased to reiterate that "the Rijeka dialect has been recognized as an intangible cultural asset of the Republic of Croatia. When the mayor announced this in the city council, speaking in dialect, there was a round of applause. This is a very important recognition for the linguistic aspect of Rijeka's Italian identity."

Cross-border collaborations also extend to the educational sector, partly through the initiative of Julian-Dalmatian exiles and their descendants, who have joined together in the Mailing List Histria association, which promotes a literary competition for students of Italian-language schools in Istria and, more generally, the eastern Adriatic, including Montenegro. Rovinj exile Eufemia Giuliana Budicin recounted the history of the association, while third-generation exile Giulia Cnapich reported on the growing enthusiasm surrounding the competition. "At first, we feared it would be a flop, but soon, especially the section entitled 'Our Old Men Tell Us', stimulated a sharing of testimonies, memories, and reflections among the very young, strengthening the identity of the indigenous Italian community."

In Italian schools, however, there are training activities for teachers and the Remembrance Day competition for students promoted by the Ministry of Education and Merit – Associations of Istrian, Rijeka, and Dalmatian Exiles Working Group, whose progress was proudly presented by Dr. Caterina Spezzano (director of the MIM). Professor Maria Elena Depetroni, ANVGD representative at the Working Group, gave a more detailed presentation of the aims and objectives of the competition, which is "widely inclusive, with the title annually linked to an anniversary or a specific aspect of the history and culture of Italianness in the Eastern Adriatic and then structured in such a way as to allow students, from primary school to high school, to be fully involved." The awards ceremony for the 2025-26 school year took place alongside the official ceremony on February 10th at the Chamber of Deputies. One of the winning classes came from the Comprehensive Institute Leonardo Da Vinci from Rome and was present at this panel with a delegation of teachers and students who proudly presented their papers.

The first afternoon appointment is the presentation of the collective work promoted by the ANVGD Identity Beyond Borders: Generations Meet for a New Adriatic Frontier (Baldini+Castoldi, Milan 2026), which featured speakers not only from some of the book's authors, but also from the Vice President of the Piedmont Region, Maurizio Marrone, who noted the coincidence that a program dedicated to Piedmontese students, which frequently references the history of Italy's eastern border, shares the same name as the book. A plurality of voices, impressions, and experiences that come together to define a history and an identity: this is the spirit of the book, which was conceived as a continuation of a conference for professionals coordinated by Mauro Manca (director of the Egean Ecomuseum in Fertilia and a leading cultural figure), held in the context of Nova Gorica, European Capital of Culture 2025, along with Nova Gorica.

"This work features contributions from exiles who have experienced the history of the Adriatic border firsthand, children of exiles who have continued their testimony and awareness, young leaders of the Italian National Community in Istria, and two professionals who have only recently discovered the dramatic complexity of these events, have understood it thoroughly, and support the need to make it known," Professor Davide Rossi (University of Trieste) stated. The author of the book's preface is Rodolfo Ziberna, the mayor of Gorizia, son of Istrian exiles and a longtime leader of the ANVGD. He passionately defends the work he does both as an administrator and as a representative of Adriatic exiles, aiming not to achieve a shared memory, but rather to understand and respect the memories that confront one another in the eastern Adriatic: "Where there was a wall that divided Gorizia following the Peace Treaty of February 10, 1947, there is now once again a square where people can walk freely, even if on one side it is named after Europe and on the other after the Transalpine railway: everyone has their own perspective, and the interlocutor recognizes and respects it."

Professor Maria Elena Depetroni reiterated the importance of the work carried out by the Working Group of the Ministry of Education and Merit – Associations of Istrian, Rijeka, and Dalmatian Exiles, where she represents the ANVGD. She was encouraged by the intervention of a student in the large audience, who demonstrated the interest and curiosity young people have for these pages of history finally returned to the public domain. Similarly, Lorenzo Salimbeni (Communications Manager for FederEsuli) emphasized the importance of working within the school system and highlighted the multimedia projects that are reconstructing a "virtual Venezia Giulia" to reconstruct what opposing nationalisms and totalitarianisms have destroyed.

The establishment of Remembrance Day was the first decisive step towards achieving these results, and some Regions in particular have sought to implement the spirit of Law 92/2004 within their sphere of influence. Professor Rossi, who is also vice president of FederEsuli, then coordinated a roundtable discussion in which the aforementioned Piedmontese councilor Marrone, the Vice President and Councilor for Culture of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Mario Anzil, and the Liguria Regional Budget Councilor Claudia Morich, a descendant of Dalmatian exiles, expressed their views on the matter.

Marrone recalled that, in addition to the work he carried out with hundreds of municipal administrations to promote Remembrance, he promoted a law that also allowed the children and grandchildren of exiles to receive preferential credit for Piedmontese public housing built in the neighborhoods where the Julian-Dalmatian community in exile settled.

Councilor Morich then passionately recalled that Liguria was among the first regions to promote a competition for schools, with the prize being a trip to the eastern borderlands: "Our intention is to find the resources to extend the trip and allow the students to reach Zadar. However, we must also adequately prepare the tour guides, because, accompanying this year's school group, I had to respond to an explanation of the foibe that was almost denialist in tone."

Anzil noted that Friuli Venezia Giulia regularly supports the work of Adriatic exile associations based in the region, specifying that additional funding opportunities are also promoted for specific anniversaries. This year, for example, funding is being provided to projects commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Vergarolla massacre, which occurred on August 18, 1946, in Pula. "It was the first massacre in the history of the Italian Republic, and it is still the one with the most victims, yet it is the least known."

However, Adriatic Italianness is an indigenous presence rooted over the centuries and therefore the Association of Istrian Communities has promoted a series of documentaries dedicated to the art and territory of Istria: the vice-president Fabio Tognoni concluded the day of Stall illustrating together with Roberta Vlahov (press officer of the association and of FederEsuli) the high-value contents of Marco Tessarolo's documentary The Dance of Death in Istrian Frescoes, which can be seen on the YouTube channel of the Trieste association: