🌿 Italia XXV

📸 EPI Hub: With Eleonora Fossali (left, marketing) and Andrea Piol (right, president as well as son of Elserino Piol)

Italia XXV is the new section of my website dedicated to the activities related to my first book, "Italian dream" which will be out on Nov. 18 published by Oscar Mondadori. The presentation will be two days after in Rome (more in the event section of the website or Linktree).

Here are 5 interesting things about this new chapter:

I. Remember remember the 5th of November

As our skies are graced by the supermoon, I find myself writing this post about Italia XXV. The night of the 5th of November is a special one not just because of the beauty of the moon, but also because it comes after November 4th: a day which marks independence and victory in Italy.

This is relevant because to me values are more important than picking sides: to me beauty and culture are already a victory and I will choose them whether they come from the left or from the right. Italia XXV is about unifying the country, by mixing past and future.

Canova, an Italian sculptor created famous statues including the "Venus italica" which I used to create the art cover of my book (an art piece of my creation, which I am working to display in art galleries in the future) and the "Venus victrix". The essence of this new part of the website can actually be summed up by the titles of these statues: Venus italica, Venus victrix.

II. The supermoon

Looking up at the sky again, another Latin motto comes to my mind: Per aspera ad astra. I adore this phrase and the people who use it because it encapsulates who difficult yet liberating it is to work hard for what you want. As a woman it is not easy to chose to work for what you want, beauty is something that prevents many women from expressing their true intellectual potential, but once you realize that is freedom that makes you beautiful you never go back. I think most women in our society get stuck in a victim mentality and still wait for prince charming to rescue them. Even if there was a prince charming, is just unfair to expect someone to do the work for you, especially while you keep asking to be seen as an equal. The real victory is to become independent: this is the road to true happiness, love and making your dreams come true. I am willing to give (and already have given) my blood, sweat and tears for my career goals as I am fully aware that no pain, no gain.

III. The Great Gatsby of Italian tech

The next point is actually a thank you note to Eleonora Fossali and Andrea Piol: the people who supported me in writing my book and, in particular, Andrea wrote the final remarks to my book. I chose to have them with me in this journey as for me their work in supporting young Italians in making their dreams come true is outstanding and I hope that more hubs like theirs will open in the coming years.

I went to the opening to the one in Valmorel (Belluno) last September and it was amazing: meters and meters of bookshelves from the Olivetti archives had been moved to Belluno, so that young people there could learn more about Andrea's father, Elserino Piol. To me he was like the Great Gatsby of Italian tech: someone who, from behind the scenes, changed the game. He was a visionary in the industries were he worked and it was also his idea to open the hubs such as the one in Belluno, so without him I would not have had someone believing in my ideas right away and supporting me with the book journey. This is why I really just want to say thank you.

IV. Polaroids make great bookmarks

As you probably noticed, my book only has 224 pages: I think that one should always add a bookmark to a book, that'd be the 225th page. A polaroid picture could be perfect in this case.

V. 🌿 Call for ambassadors

Lastly, in the Italia XXV section you will see that there are two calls: in this case I'd like to focus on the one for ambassadors, the first one, as the legal task force is something I'll develop later. Please, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn to be added as an ambassador, I can't wait to listen to what's your dream for the future of Italy or ItaLia.

Love,

Elena