Stories Brings Friends Together at Palazzi Community Center

Letture in Giardino: “Noi Dove”

A group of friends convened for a relaxing evening at the Palazzi Community Center to celebrate the passion that brought them together: writing. The authors gathered to share works from their new anthology book Noi Dove, a collection of poems and short stories with the central theme of places.

 

“Places could be places of the mind, places of the heart; we are places,” said Stefano Gidari, one of the authors and host of the event. “This is why the title is ‘We Where’.” The book, edited by Zelda S. Zanobini, is the result of years of camaraderie and collaboration from this group of creators. What began as burgeoning friendships within writing classes has now coalesced into a cohesive amalgamation of stories, with 23 different author’s works featured.

 

Noi Dove is the second anthology book to come from this circle of writers. In 2021, the group put out Animalia, a similar trove of short stories and poems with animals as the connecting idea. Writing is the glue that holds these friendships together, and they make sure to keep it that way.

 

“Recently, we decided that we should avoid becoming too normal of friends,” Gidari revealed. “You end up talking too much about your own problems, your own things, while we should concentrate more on going back to the beginning … What is the reason we are friends? It is writing, it is reading.”

 

The event began with introductions by Gidari, Alberto Befani, and Nicoletta Manetti, two other contributors to the book. Then, the audience of around a dozen authors took the chance to read their stories to the group and share their personal narratives. Some pieces focused on places influential to the writer’s earlier years, like memories of their grandmother’s house or the sights and sounds of their home country. Others interrogated the nature of the places around them through characters like a man made of elastic.

 

Gidari shared details of the short story he contributed to Noi Dove. He described how his grandfather found himself in trouble during Italy’s fascist age prior to World War II, and how his love for his home country and its culture gave him the strength to keep going even during his toughest times.

 

“It’s a place that is very uncomfortable to be … it’s not with anger or with violence that you will resolve problems,” Gidari shared. “It is only by teaching, or by making sure that everybody is aware of what’s going on, that you will resolve the problem.” 

 

In many ways, Gidari and his fellow Florentines are emulating that lesson with their writing collaborations. Between the completion of Animalia and Noi Dove, one of the authors within their circle of friends passed away. It became a roadblock for the group as they decided how to move forward, but they ultimately decided it was important to bring each other comfort and strength through their art. 

 

“That was kind of creating an obstacle to think of new things, but now we decided we must, of course, not hide from the point,” Gidari said. “Friendship is the beginning of anything, that’s more important even than writing.” 

 

Gidari says they hope to do a third book in the future, though they will need to decide on a new theme first. Whatever they decide to do, the group will be welcomed back to the Palazzi Community Center at Via Ricasoli, 21 to host their next event.

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