Opening a bookshop, these days, is an act of courage. And doing it in an unknown and remote village is definitely not for the faint of heart.
But sometimes these acts of craziness are rewarded because they change people’s lives, and this is exactly what happened to Alba Donati and her Libreria sopra la penna.
The Libreria sopra la penna is a tiny bookshop (the tiniest bookshop I have ever visited, undoubtedly) located in Lucignana, a remote village in Garfagnana, an area of Tuscany that is really beautiful yet still outside the main tourist roads. You cannot simply pass by Lucignana; you have to go there on purpose, driving up a road full of hairpin bends, so opening a bookshop there can easily be considered a commercial suicide.
But this shop is more than just a business; it is a project that involves the whole village. In fact, Alba Donati, a poet and literary critic who lives in Florence, was born in Lucignana and, in 2019, decided to do something to bring her tiny village back to life. In fact, there are only 180 inhabitants in Lucignana, and, as is often the case in many remote areas of Italy, it lacks basic services.
So Alba created an association, called Comitato per la riqualificazione culturale e urbanistica di Lucignana, with the aim of revitalizing the village. The project is quite ambitious because it includes the restoration of the local theatre, the opening of a restaurant, and of an albergo diffuso with rooms across the village, and many other activities. The starting point, though, is a bookshop.
The bookshop is nestled in a tiny cottage in a garden overlooking the valley. The shop, which has a small garden as well, with a fairy-like atmosphere, opened in September 2019, a few months before COVID. Yet, before facing a global pandemic, there was another huge challenge that Alba Donati had to face: On the 30th of January, 2020, a huge fire destroyed part of the shop.
However, the poet did not surrender: She set up a crowdfunding project and, with the help of friends and locals, the Libreria sopra la penna could reopen in just a few days, only to close down in March due to the pandemic. We can read about these challenges in Donati’s book La libreria sulla collina, which was published in 2022 (it is available in English as Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop).
Written as a diary, the book tells the story of six months in the life of the shop, from January to June 2020. Each diary entry tells about the daily life at the shop, but also contains personal thoughts about life and books. A personal favorite, being an avid reader as I am, was the list of books sold on each day, which ends each daily entry.
If you like books and dream of a life in a secluded village owning a little shop, La libreria sulla collina is the book for you. The only downside is that one day you’ll find yourself driving up a hill in Tuscany, asking yourself why you are doing it – which is exactly what happened to me. But I was dreaming of visiting the shop since I read the book in 2022, so I am glad I took the effort of going up there because it is a dreamy, unique little place that infuses you with a sense of peace.
[If you plan on visiting, though, plan carefully because the bookshop and a cafè are the only two businesses in the village. Also, the shop is very, very tiny, so it can become very crowded quite easily. We went there early in the afternoon, right when they opened, and it was not crowded, but I had the feeling that more people would arrive soon.]
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