'Libri Come' book festival sees 25,000 visitors

(ANSA) - Rome, March 18 - The 10th edition of the Rome book festival "Libri Come" (Books As) closed Sunday after four days and a total of 25,000 visitors at the Auditorium Parco della Musica.
    The festival, organised by Marino Sinibaldi, Michele De Mieri and Rosa Polacco, this year was titled "Books As Freedom", was inaugurated last Thursday in 10 Roman libraries.
    The festival involved more than 250 writers, intellectuals, artists, and scholars, including Javier Cercas, Slavoj Zizek, Franco Piersanti, Clara Usón, Antonio Pennacchi, Andrea Carandini, Tomaso Montanari, Edoardo Albinati, Mario Martone, Gianrico Carofiglio, Michela Marzano, Francesco Piccolo, Sandro Veronesi, Guido Catalano, Massimo Recalcati, Marco Missiroli, Maurizio De Giovanni, Matteo Nucci, Carlo Verdelli, Alberto Angela, Michela Murgia, Nadia Terranova, and Peter Cameron.
    "This edition was full of authors who we are betting will become the most important European writers of the future," Sinibaldi said.
    "Young people filled the Auditorium above all, in a sign of a great desire to be informed and a great thirst for knowledge," he said.
    The president of the Music for Rome Foundation, Aurelio Regina, said this year's success was the fruit of the work over the past ten years.
    "The large crowds are the clearest sign of how, in part thanks to this festival, the Auditorium Parco della Musica is proving itself as not only one of the most important multi-functional performance complexes in Europe and worldwide, but also as a space for cultural reflection essential for the cultural growth of our city and country," Regina said.
    "The big participation can be nothing other than a push to continue down this road and always do better," he said.
    This edition was also the most followed online through live streaming as well as social media such as Twitter, where the hashtag was visualised more than 46 million times and was a trending topic.
    On Instagram, 23 "social ambassadors" were selected from among the most active users on literature topics, and kept the platform updated through the foundation's participatory account for the festival, @iloveauditorium.