Read Bormio:

Read Bormio

The Department of Culture organizes "Read Bormio", a series of meetings with various authors.

Reading and discussion of the book "Le donne di Cortina" (The Women of Cortina) by Antonella Stelitano and Adriana Balzarini, published by Minerva, 2025.

Plot

Thanks to thorough research, Antonella Stelitano and Adriana Balzarini offer an unpublished account of the 1956 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, through the stories of the women who participated in that event in various ways. They were few, but they were present not only as athletes.
These are women about whom little was written then and even afterwards. For this reason, on the eve of the return of the Olympic Games to the Ampezzo valley, it seemed right to remember them as well.
There are women judges, team leaders, coaches. There is a torchbearer who accompanies the torch's journey on skates, a woman speaker, journalists. And then there are interpreters, secretaries, young women responsible for award ceremonies and cultural or musical projects, the patroness. But also the one who will guard for fifty years the flag that flew at the stadium and the woman who took care of editing the film dedicated to that event. Female faces appear on stamps, coins, and posters. There is also a woman designing the integrated imagery of the Olympic Cortina. There are wives of officials, spectators, crowned heads, and other illustrious guests who help make the event a social occasion as well. And finally, the women of the village, engaged in presenting these places in the best light.
This book has gathered their stories, anecdotes, and memories from the protagonists still alive to recount the 1956 Winter Olympic Games from a different perspective.

Preface by Deborah Compagnoni

Upcoming events with "Read Bormio"

Saturday, December 20, 2025 | K2. Due amici e un sogno (K2. Two Friends and a Dream) | by Marco Majori, Federico Secchi, and Etore Zorzini, Rizzoli, 2025
Sunday, January 4, 2026 | Cortina 1956. Un'Olimpiade tra Guerra fredda e Dolce vita (Cortina 1956. An Olympics between the Cold War and Dolce Vita)| by Andrea Goldstein, Rubbettino, 2025
Saturday, March 21, 2026 | L'arto fantasma e le mie paure (The Phantom Limb and My Fears) | by Moreno Pesce, moderated by Tiziana Compagnoni, Michael Edizioni, 2021

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