Author of short stories and organizer of literary prizes, Florentine journalist Paolo Mugnai presents the collection he edited, Viaggio in libreria. Tredici racconti ambientati in Toscana (Felici Editore). Joining him on stage will be Silena Santoni, the author of one of the stories, set right in our own Giunti Odeon, and the actress Sandra Vigiani.

The book:

Let the journey into the bookshop continue. Step inside, browse, breathe in the scent of printed paper. Let it envelop you, leaving behind the feeling that something in you has changed. You will be welcomed by booksellers: hospitable, warm, knowledgeable hosts, and above all empathetic toward you and anyone who crosses that threshold from reality into imagination.

The authors featured in this collection draw from the true — or perhaps imagined — history of the bookshops they have chosen, tracing fictional yet believable paths, because the booksellers are real and, perhaps, so is everything written in these thirteen stories spanning every genre.

Leonardo Gori’s historical tale set at Seeber in Florence is followed by stories by the book’s editor Paolo Mugnai, set at Farollo e Falpalà in Florence, and by the other authors: Alessandro Agostinelli at Pellegrini in Pisa, Alessandro Scarpellini at Blu Book in Pisa, David Basevi at Gioberti Le Cure in Florence, Dianora Tinti at Mondadori in Grosseto, Ezio Alessio Gensini at Capitolo 7 in Barberino di Mugello, Fabrizio Altieri at Libreria dei Ragazzi in Pisa, Francesco Russo at Rinascita in Sesto Fiorentino, Lino Addis at Cino Ubik in Pistoia, Massimiliano Scudeletti at Libraccio in Florence, Roberta Capanni at NessunDove in Empoli, Serena Rapezzi at Centro Libri in Florence, and Silena Santoni at Giunti Odeon in Florence.

The festival Naturalmente Pianoforte comes to Florence with a special event that is at once a concert, a story and a vision.

Piano di Natura is a mini live experience built around the music of Carlo Cialdo Capelli, composer, pianist and sound experimenter connected to the history of Italian theatre, and for years the poetic soul of the festival. He will perform a selection of original compositions born from his musical universe: soundscapes suspended between memory, imagination and contemporary vision.

Between pieces, artistic director Enzo Gentile will guide the audience through the journey of Naturalmente Pianoforte 2026 — from 11 to 19 July — nine days in which the Casentino and the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesibecome a vast, widespread stage for concerts, contemporary art, encounters, walks, words and dawn performances.

A collective story made of live music and short conversations with some of the festival’s protagonists: institutions, artists and cultural organisations that help shape its identity.

At GO, a lectio by Annie Cohen-Solal. The historian, essayist, exhibition curator and distinguished professor at Università Bocconi di Milano will present her Mark Rothko: come riparare il mondo (Einaudi), in conjunction with the successful exhibition dedicated to the artist currently on view at Palazzo Strozzi until 23 August 2026.

The book:

Born Marcus Rotkovitch in Dvinsk, in the Russian Empire, Mark Rothko emigrated to the United States at the age of ten. He brought with him to the New World his Talmudic education and the memories of pogroms seen through the eyes of a child.

It was the experience of displacement and the stigma of being an immigrant that would later become the driving force behind the aesthetic subversion the artist introduced into the heart of modern society. Celebrated as a pioneer of abstraction as early as the 1950s, Rothko never settled for a purely formal achievement. In fact, he never stopped grasping, earlier and more profoundly than anyone else, the sense of disorientation of a world constantly on the brink.

One need only think of the dark austerity of the Rothko Chapel, perhaps his most majestic and complete work, inaugurated in 1971 in Houston: a place of meditation that seems to emanate the anxieties and the need for hope of a dark era.

What remains in 2026 of Rothko’s relentless search at the borders of art, of his political thought, of his sense of the sacred, if not the artist’s invitation to keep going, to move forward between tragedy and hope, in an attempt to repair the world at all costs?

In these pages, Annie Cohen-Solal reveals every facet of what may be the most significant artistic personality of the twentieth century: a multidimensional intellectual, politically engaged, whose spiritual aura must be understood through the deep roots of his personal history.

The author:

Annie Cohen-Solal was born in Algiers and lives between Paris, Milan and Cortona. A historian, essayist and exhibition curator, she is distinguished professor at Università Bocconi di Milano. After earning her PhD at the Sorbonne, she taught at universities in Berlin, Jerusalem, New York and Paris, and served as cultural counsellor at the French Embassy in the United States.

Among her many books are the internationally published biographies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Leo Castelli and Mark Rothko. In Italy, her works include Sartre (1986), Americani per sempre. I pittori di un mondo nuovo (2006) and Leo & C. Storia di Leo Castelli (2010). Picasso. Una vita da straniero won the Premio Femina per la Saggistica 2021 and is being translated in many countries.

The exhibition L’Eco di Pinocchio (2019–2026) will be inaugurated in the Sala degli Specchi at Giunti Odeon (1st floor): an extensive exhibition dedicated to the reinterpretations of Carlo Collodi’s masterpiece created by the students of the Two-Year Illustration Programme at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, as part of the course led by Professor Alessandro Baldanzi.

The exhibition (with free entrance) presents over one hundred original plates from editorial projects developed over the past few years, during which more than 150 students engaged with the extraordinary narrative legacy of Pinocchio. This creative experience has, in several cases, also found concrete editorial expression through published works.

L’Eco di Pinocchio offers the public a rich and surprising perspective on the vitality of Collodi’s work: a plurality of languages, sensitivities and visions that testify to the story’s ability to continually renew itself while preserving its evocative power. The works on display stand out for their technical quality, interpretative depth and coherence with the original text, creating an exhibition path of great visual and emotional impact.

On the occasion of the inauguration, the exhibition catalogue, published by Giunti Editore with the collaboration of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, will also be presented at 6:30 p.m. The 192-page, full-colour volume retraces the story of Pinocchio chapter by chapter through the eyes of around 60 students, composing an extraordinary gallery of images capable of conveying all the contemporary relevance, poetry and imaginative power of the famous puppet.

The exhibition and catalogue are part of the programme of celebrations dedicated to the bicentenary of Carlo Collodi’s birth, paying tribute to one of the most important authors in Italian culture through the creativity and talent of new generations of illustrators.

At GO, another tribute to the bicentenary of Carlo Collodi’s birth. On stage, the presentation of the catalogue for the exhibition L’eco di Pinocchio, published by Giunti Editore with the participation of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.

The 192-page, full-colour volume retraces the story of Pinocchio chapter by chapter through the eyes of around 60 students from Professor Alessandro Baldanzi’s course, bringing together an extraordinary gallery of images capable of conveying all the contemporary relevance, poetry and imaginative power of the famous puppet.

In this collection, Pinocchio is no longer merely a character, but becomes a narrative device: a shifting figure through which to question the present.

“The puppet moves through different languages, aesthetics and sensibilities, transforming each time into symbol, story and vision. From the most traditional mark-making to the boldest experiments, each work builds an intimate dialogue between the original text and the artist’s imagination, giving shape to a web of interpretations that makes visible the inexhaustible vitality of Collodi’s work.”

From the day of the presentation, you will be able to visit the exhibition free of charge on the first floor, in the Sala degli Specchi.

If you think your life is strange… wait until you read NIK’s diary! Nicholas Ori, aka Nicopuntoit, comes to Giunti Odeon to present Benvenuto a casa, Nik! (Sillabe), in conversation with Giulia Perni, Editorial Director of Sillabe Editore.

The book:

NIK is 11 years old and has a family that calling “disastrous” would almost be a compliment — and the school he attends is no better. In fact, the headteacher has had the brilliant idea of hiring two world-famous painters with sky-high fees, bringing the school to the brink of financial collapse.

In this apocalyptic scenario, Nik and his friend Anita — the only one with a shred of common sense — decide to improvise as event organisers in an attempt to save the school from its sad fate. The result is a catastrophe of epic proportions, but at the same time so unique that it attracts enough media attention to raise the money needed to solve the problem.

Unfortunately, while his classmates enjoy the seaside, Nik will spend the whole summer clearing away the rubble to make sure the school can reopen in September. And yet, he feels happy because, together with Anita, he has discovered what it truly means to be a team.

We often worry about things that may seem insignificant, although, truth be told, nothing ever really is. Each of us lives with our own ups and downs, but Nik is different: he is the kind of person constantly swept up in a thousand difficulties. And what about you? Do you still feel like the unluckiest people in the world, or do you think that, by comparison, someone else might be facing even greater challenges? This new series will tell of infinite worlds and ways of feeling, living and smiling.

The author:

Nicholas Ori, aka Nicopuntoit, born in 2016, is a very young and multifaceted talent who performs alongside Paolo Ruffini in the theatre and stands out for his spontaneity in the show Il babysitter. He plays the role of the Little Prince in the stage production of the same name, bringing rare depth and sensitivity to the stage.

Described as an old soul, Nicholas combines his passion for Puccini with the creativity of a budding singer-songwriter. With his quick-fire logic, sophisticated vocabulary and gentle irony, he surprises audiences, revealing wisdom and talent that are truly out of the ordinary.