The story
Festivaletteratura Mantova in Mantua
A literary festival held in Mantua each September since 1997, using the city's Renaissance palaces, courtyards and piazzas as its venue network for readings, conversations and workshops spanning fiction, poetry, nonfiction and children's literature, with major international authors and multilingual programming across roughly five days.
Festivaletteratura began in Mantua in 1997, founded by a group of local organizers rather than a national publishing institution, and grew within a decade into one of Europe's most significant literary festivals, drawing both major international authors and a large general public to a small Lombard city best known for its Gonzaga-era palaces.