Time for books also for the Defense, present at the Milan Book Fair (8-12 March) with a dedicated stand. Publications, those related to the Armed Forces, institutional, historical, particular and detailed, appreciated for the most part by an adult audience who approaches the stand with a determined and interested look.
We start the visit with "365. A year with the Armed Forces": A photo gallery of 365 images, the result of the shots of military photographers and a work curated by the 1 ° Marshal Antonio Morlupi, which captivates, intrigues, informs and excites. The story of the activities that the women and men of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Carabinieri perform daily: institutional and sporting events, emergency and rescue activities, international missions and operations on the national territory. A storytelling that wants to have an even deeper message: that of dedication, of body spirit and love of country that the soldiers have always shown. It is no coincidence that the volume begins the 4 November 2016 and ends the 4 November 2017, Day of National Unity and Day of the Armed Forces. A book with texts and captions in Italian and English because the Culture of Defense can get there where Italy has been and is present.
La Grande Guerra. Several publications that want to celebrate the centenary since the end of the First World War. Between these "Flowers of the Pietraia"By Flavio Russo, military historian and collaborator of the Historical Office of the General Staff of Defense. In the monograph, the Great War is presented as a technological and social advancement that contributed to the transition of society from the agricultural world to the current advanced civilization. It is legitimate to ask how flowers are born in a stone quarry, just as it is legitimate to re-evaluate a period of regression and decline as one of the most fruitful for inventions and technological developments.
Always at the Great War is dedicated "The gray-green uniform. 1909-1918"Of the Historical Office of the Army General Staff. Curated by Italian costume designer and essayist Andrea Viotti, the book traces, through 24 color plates, a period of time essential for the entry of gaudy uniforms useful to recognize friends from enemies, but with a first approach to mimicry.
The Great War, but also the Great Beauty like that of "Palazzo Marina"Better known by the Romans as"The Palace of Anchors". A monograph, published by the Historical Office of the Navy, presents the Palace, designed by Giulio Magni as the seat of the Ministry of the Navy and inaugurated in 1928, as a homogeneous set of architecture, figurative art and applied arts, in which all the elements respond an iconographic program focused on Italian glories on the sea, from antiquity to the Great War. It is no coincidence that the entrance to the Palazzo, which also enjoys a unique view of the Lungotevere delle Navi, is enriched by the anchors of two Austrian battleships: the Viribus Unitis sunk during the First World War and the Tegetthoff, war prey delivered to Italy in the 1919 and dismantled, in the 1925, in La Spezia. The volume describes environments such as that of the Library, one of the most evocative places in the Palace; the Sala dei Marmi, with paintings and sculptures by artists who have succeeded one another over the years; and then ornaments and furnishings in maritime style, sarcophagi with flags and the office of Admiral Thaon of Revel, the architect of the Italian victory over the sea in the Great War.
From books to fiction. However, the Armed Forces are not just in books. In fact, more and more, they are the protagonists of TV fiction. And at the Defense stand the visit of Nino Frassica who from the 2000 plays the role of the Marshal of the Carabinieri, Nino Cecchini, could not miss. A figure that the Italian public has learned to appreciate over the years, on the other hand, the current one is the eleventh edition of Don Matteo, but not the only one, as the book recalls "Carabinieri on television"Published by the homonymous Arma. Suffice it to remember the very popular Marshal Rocca by Gigi Proietti, Carabinieri with Manuela Arcuri or to go back in time The stories of the marshal by Mario Soldati. And if you are wondering why so successful, you can find the answer in Proietti's statement: "The carabinieri on TV have become popular heroes because they embody Italianness. Everything, from the uniform to the attitude, to the way of doing, is Italian in them".
And if there is an important time for books, it is the time for children. They are dedicated to them "The manual of the little aviator"Made by the Italian Air Force in collaboration with Puntidivista, a publishing house specializing in the re-elaboration and adaptation of texts for children with sensory and cognitive disabilities. An unprecedented project for those who like Aeronautics are accustomed to Armed Forces publishing rather than books for children. A challenge accepted and won. In the book there is everything: from the origins of the flight to the birth of the Air Force; and then the emblem and the motto, that "with value towards the stars"Which summarizes the courage, skill and sacrifice of all Italian aviators. And it's nice to imagine the children distinguish a T-346A from a Predator or know the difference between an altimeter and an anemometer. And why not let them dream with the Frecce Tricolori comics or let their imagination take them away, in space, like Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano. Notions, stories, drawings, but also games and a small final test: ten questions passed which you receive the certificate of the little aviator. On the other hand, those who start well are half of the work!
