Pistoia Library Revives Rodari's Phone Fairy Tales for 2026

The Biblioteca San Giorgio di Pistoia is reviving Gianni Rodari's 'Favole al telefono' (Phone Fairy Tales) as an interactive reading project, following a successful pilot in 2024. Readers can call 0573 371600 to hear a story tailored to their age—children or adults—by appointment. The initiative is part of Pistoia Capitale del Libro 2026, a year-long program featuring around 1,500 events including themed exhibitions like 'Tracce nei libri' and 'Lost in translation', conferences on topics from Iran to therapeutic cannabis, and local collaborations with chess clubs, car racing associations, and bookshops offering wedding registries and literary speed dating. Rodari's collection, first published by Einaudi in 1962, includes seventy imaginative tales such as a mouse stepping out of a comic, a building made of ice cream in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore, and invented numbers like 'stramilione'. The stories originally appeared in 'Corriere dei piccolissimi' and became a cult classic. During the 2020 pandemic, libraries across Italy independently revived the phone-story concept to bring comfort while maintaining distance.