by InTrieste
A port city long known for its literary heritage, Trieste has taken first place in Italy’s 2024 national “Città che legge” competition, a government program that rewards innovative strategies for promoting reading. The winning project, L’Officina della Lettura (“The Reading Workshop”), secured €70,000 in state funding, with an additional €10,000 provided by the municipality.
The award was granted by CEPELL, Italy’s Center for Books and Reading, in the category for cities with more than 100,000 residents. The jury ranked Trieste first nationwide for the scope and coherence of its proposal, which aims to strengthen reading as a cultural, educational and civic practice across the city.
The project was designed by Mavis Toffoletto, coordinator of Trieste’s Reading Pact and head of the Fulvio Tomizza newspaper and periodicals library. It brings together the city’s entire municipal library system with an established network of partners that includes schools, universities, bookshops, publishers, cultural associations and reading groups.
Among them are the University of Trieste’s Department of Humanities, the Teatro degli Sterpi, and dozens of primary and secondary schools. The collaboration gives Trieste a central role in Italy’s national policies for reading promotion, officials said.
A year-long program
Unlike one-off literacy campaigns, L’Officina della Lettura is structured as a year-long program combining professional training, workshops, public events and research. The aim is not only to increase reading but to place it at the center of lifelong learning, intercultural dialogue and civic participation.
The project is organized around six main areas of activity, beginning with the expansion of the city’s “Biblioteca Diffusa,” a network of small reading hubs in schools, associations and community centers. Participants will receive training in lending systems and cataloging, supported by 70 hours of tutoring, with activities continuing into 2026 to ensure long-term sustainability.
Training for teachers and librarians
A substantial part of the program is devoted to professional development for teachers, educators, librarians and volunteers. The training cycle opens with Chiara Carminati, a leading Italian children’s poet and writer, who will lead sessions on poetry and conduct workshops for elementary-school students.
She will be followed by Marcella Terrusi, a scholar specializing in visual storytelling and wordless books, and by Diletta Colombo and Marta Sironi, nationally recognized figures in book illustration and visual narrative, who will lead a laboratory devoted to illustrated books.
Schools as laboratories
Secondary schools will participate in a wide range of activities, including debate clubs, science journalism workshops in partnership with SISSA Medialab, reading groups devoted to Greek classics, and a thematic program on The Lord of the Rings.
The Tomizza Library will host a workshop on critical reading of newspapers and magazines, focusing on how information is framed and interpreted — a response, organizers said, to growing concern about media literacy among young people.
Reading for the wider public
The initiative also includes a public program of literary workshops. Olmo Calzolari, a scholar of contemporary poetry, will lead a cycle of meetings with Italian and international poets hosted at the Museo LETS, Trieste’s literature museum, paired with creative-writing sessions.
Giulio Mozzi, a prominent Italian writer and editor, will conduct a course in autobiographical writing. A philosophical reading group led by David Watkins, a doctoral researcher in comparative literature, will use literary texts to explore ethical and social questions in an intergenerational setting.
The program will also feature a photo-reportage workshop with Monika Bulaj, an internationally recognized photographer and writer whose work focuses on borders, minorities and cultural identities.
Strengthening reading communities
Funding will also be used to support Trieste’s existing reading groups through the purchase of both print books and audiobooks, with particular attention to readers who have difficulty accessing traditional formats.
Among the groups involved are the Ulysses Reading Group, devoted to James Joyce; Le Voci, which focuses on local women writers and gender issues; and Paideia, a group dedicated to educational and social-care topics.
Research led by students
A distinctive element of the project is its research component. In collaboration with Italy’s national statistics agency, ISTAT, a survey on youth reading habits will be designed and carried out by high-school students themselves, turning data collection into an exercise in active citizenship.
The findings will be presented at the Convegno dei Ragazzi (Youth Conference), where students will serve not only as speakers but also as members of the scientific and organizing committees. A subsequent academic seminar organized by the University of Trieste will examine the impact of reading across the lifespan, including its cognitive, emotional and social dimensions.
A citywide cultural strategy
By linking libraries, schools, universities and cultural institutions, L’Officina della Lettura positions reading as a shared civic practice rather than a private activity.
For Trieste — a city associated with writers from Italo Svevo to James Joyce — the project builds on a long literary tradition while adapting it to contemporary challenges, from digital media to declining reading rates. As Italy looks for new models to strengthen cultural participation, the Trieste initiative is now being watched as a possible template for other cities.
