Books – “TUSCANY IN 120 SQUARES”

At Caffè Il Palcoscenico, Goldoni square, next to the fascinating city theater in the city center, just steps away from the Medicean canals and the main shopping streets, there will be an event dedicated to Elisabetta Arrighi’s book “LA TOSCANA IN 120 PIAZZE” (Editoriale Programma). The author and the book will be presented by Cristina Lucetti.

In this volume, starting from the coast and spanning the entire territory, through the description of 120 large and small squares, sometimes famous and sometimes almost unknown, fragments of Tuscany are told, reconstructing as many local stories following the thread of centuries and collective memory. Stories that represent the pieces of a mosaic where the beauty of the Renaissance follows the darkness of the Middle Ages and anticipates modernity, where the genius loci has managed to create great masterpieces, where the people have suffered but also rejoiced. Squares often dedicated to illustrious figures, born in the same places where they are remembered with monuments or plaques, sometimes quoting Dante and the Divine Comedy, but also verses by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Curzio Malaparte, Giorgio Caproni, and local authors who have reconstructed stories and anecdotes in their writings. 120 squares where, still today, in the beautiful spring and summer evenings, people go for a walk. The square represents social life and citizens are attached to their squares because they have the almost magical power to tell us who we were, who we are, and who we will probably be in the future.

Every square mentioned in the book, which goes beyond a simple guide, is also described through color images.

Elisabetta Arrighi, a professional journalist, has been a reporter, correspondent, and finally head of the Culture, Society, and Entertainment section of the daily newspaper Il Tirreno di Livorno. She is the author of three books on the Moby Prince ferry disaster: an instant book published in the mid-1990s, followed after 25 years by “Novemila giorni senza verità” (ed. Ets) in 2016, and finally “Moby Prince. 1991-2022. La nuova verità” (ed. Ets) in 2023, following the conclusion of the second parliamentary inquiry commission, that of the Chamber of Deputies.

Arrighi has also published: “Mani che lavorano. Creatività, moda e artigianato nella Toscana che guarda al futuro” (2014, Edizioni Erasmo); “All’opera. Viaggio nei teatri di Livorno, Lucca, Pisa, Torre del Lago”, co-written with Lisa Domenici, winner of the Pisa Radici del territorio prize – 2019, published by Editoriale Programma. With Ed. Programma, she has also released: “Isole toscane. Guida alle sette perle dell’Arcipelago” (2020) and “Fari della Toscana e della Liguria” (2021), a project realized with photographer Biancamaria Monticelli.

Arrighi has also authored the “Dizionario dei livornesi” (Editoriale Programma) published in two volumes in 2021.