A leudo, a typical Ligurian boat, in the middle of the Gulf of Poets becomes the stage from which to read verses, in front of an audience arranged on boats and rafts.
The frame will be the natural amphitheater of the inlet of La Spezia, with Porto Venere and Lerici at the two ends.
Music and poetry will be the protagonists of 'Sail-in', a drive-in on the waters of the sea, on 10 August, on the occasion of the night of San Lorenzo.
In the gulf loved by Shelley and Byron, but also frequented by Montale, Petrarca, Marinetti, poetry takes back a space.
'It is still a gulf for poets' is the slogan of the Mitilanti group, a play on words between militancy and mussels, the typical product of La Spezia.
The organizers are five young writing enthusiasts who have long been trying to bring poetic discourse back to the center of one of the lands, and gulfs,
which inspired and welcomed the talent of great writers.
So much so that Sem Benelli referred to the Gulf of La Spezia as the 'Gulf of Poets'.
"We don't just want to celebrate a tradition, but also to renew it - explains Filippo Lubrano, one of the Mitilanti -. The goal is to take over and make it contemporary. Poetry is a living material and there is still a great need for it".
The Sail In event had been proposed in the summer of 2020, in full pandemic, with the idea of creating a poetic show in complete safety.
This year the event will be re-proposed: about 150-200 spectators are expected who will arrive with 30-40 boats ready to approach the suggestive New Help of God leudo, which will arrive tomorrow from Sestri Levante and will be in the harbor near the breakwater of La Spezia.
Participation is free, and for those who do not have a boat, the contacts of a rental company have been made available to contact which will provide inflatable boats to reach the leudo, indicated with the coordinates in the invitation.
The appointment is at 7 pm, when Manuel Picciolo will introduce the evening with some musical pieces, after which the readings of poems dedicated to the sea will start.
There will be cameras from British TV Channel Four, which "will insert this moment into a documentary in the style of a grand tour of Italy that is under construction", explain the organizers.
Among the initiatives already carried out by Mitilanti the poetry slam, that is poetry competitions, creative writing workshops, masterclasses with writers such as Giulio Mozzi and Walter Siti (Strega prize) and the 'Poetry take away & delivery':
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/TGZ4TIGSGJFWBISZ2FULJ7BYDQ.jpg)
