Ambassador Luca Franchetti Pardo yesterday inaugurated the Warsaw International Book Fair, which this year sees Italy as the Guest of Honour, together with the Polish Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Henryka Mościcka-Dendys, the Director General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Alessandro De Pedys, the Deputy Mayor of Warsaw, Aldona Machnowska-Góra, and the Director of the International Book Fair, Jacek Oryl. It is one of the largest literary events in Europe and the most important in Central and Eastern Europe. With an average of 90,000 visitors in previous editions, the International Book Fair is a key meeting point for publishers, authors and readers from all over the world.
Italy’s high-profile participation in the 2024 edition testifies to the deep cultural relations between the two countries. Ambassador Luca Franchetti Pardo, recalling that Poland is the third largest destination market for Italian publishing, noted that the Warsaw International Fair “represents an extraordinary opportunity to further strengthen our collaboration and to share the richness of our literary tradition with the Polish public.”
The Italian pavilion, set up inside the prestigious Palace of Culture and Science, offers a wide selection of books in Italian and translated into Polish, also for children and young people, reflecting the growing interest in Italian literature in Poland. Two exhibitions enrich the Italian presence: one dedicated to the illustrations of the covers of masterpieces of Italian literature and the other in honour of the centenary of Gianni Rodari’s birth, with the presentation of the covers of his most famous works.
