Bologna Children's Book Fair 2025 3/4

Place

Dear Reader,

part three of my write-up of this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair is a quick look into Place. The magic of the fair is a mix of the enormous and wonder-filled venue but also the backdrop of the beautiful city of Bologna in which it is held.

The Book Fair

It’s huge. Really. You could get lost in there for days. This was my fourth visit and I think I almost know my way round now. This is a map of the various halls, which is a misleading plan because it looks fairly empty, but in fact all of those blank buff areas are explodingly full of stands. And books. Wonderful, absorbing books. And people.

To give you a sense of size, see that magenta strip on the centre left of the plan? And the small connecting buff portion leading to the orange rectangle marked 16 and 17 and into the next hall? This pink carpet below is just one small section of that magenta strip and the connecting portion on the right of the photo is that small buff-coloured connecting strip. There are stands and signs and things to see EVERYWHERE! I think there are so many photos in my Bologna Fair posts overall that I’ll just give you a few examples here.

The hanging-book displays are a favourite of mine at the fair as they always look so dramatic and are a delight to wander through. Like gentle pushing your way amongst a sea of open and alluring books.

This publishing stand from the Czech Republic caught my eye first for the collage artwork on the walls and panels. Although many stands have a reception desk area, a books-on-shelves are and then seating areas, the satnd-holders go to great lengths to try and make their area look interesting, memorable and on-brand.

This short little 360 degrees film shows the illustrators exhibition and ‘cafe’ in a quiet moment at the end of the day. Estonia had an extra special and large exhibition area because they were the focus country for the fair this year.

Bologna

This was the view from the roof-top terrace of the flat we rented. It was such a different world from my usual one; all of that hotch-potch yet uniform terracotta topping buildings of all different colours. There was one roof-top almost within arms reach of our terrace and for some reason it was covered in weeds growing between the tiles. Why did that roof have weeds but none of the others? Was the home-owner simply negligent? I imagined the owners of the other houses diligently climbing out onto their perilously sloping rooftops every weekend, just to weed the tiles. Perhaps spending so much time during the day looking at and talking about books full of imagined worlds had made this seem like a perfectly sensible line of thought. Perhaps there is a story there; the rooftop weeders of Bologna.

What I meant to say here was ‘Bologna is really beautiful.’ Just going to the bus stop in the morning, or buying bread or phone-charging cables (my sneaky children left me with the broken one!) leads you along bustlingly busy and dramatic streets and quietly elegant hidden squares. One local warned me not to bother trying to use the towers to find my way around as there were too many of them and I wasn’t there long enough to learn the difference. In my case I think it was good advice. There was so much to see, to linger over and to enjoy without having time to visit anywhere other than the fair. Bologna was wonderful without me (sadly, as I would love to see more) setting foot in a single library or museum or gallery. So much history to walk through that I unfortunately know so little about.

A sunny square and cafe tables to sit at and sketch. A glance upwards whilst rushing home to leave my days luggage before an evening engagement and the unexpected frescoes drew me to a halt so suddenly that another pedestrian walked straight into me.

The floodlit Piazza Maggiore has to be one of my favourite parts of the city though. It feels so welcoming and warm and safe with so many people out and about just enjoying the evening or walking home after dinner. In the daytime it is crowded and bustling and busy, but in the night it’s just calm. The odd quiet musician left strumming without amplification and an unhurried atmosphere. This was the perfect tonic to the hectic and schedule-filled day at the fair.

Maybe one of my children will want to study in Bologna someday, then I can visit more often and without the rush of the fair to wear me out. Who knows.

That’s all for today, quick stop before I become melancholy! Next week is the last instalment of my Bologna Fair posts, which will be the most lasting element: People.

Bye for now and thank you for being here,

Hannah xx

P.S.

Did you know that I had my first solo exhibition in Trieste at the end of 2024? You didn’t? And you’d love to know more? I have a video tour of my exhibition free to view up on Youtube, you can view it here.

Many thanks to Michael Munnik for allowing me to use his beautiful music in the background of my tour video and also alongside my time-lapse video here, go and listen to his songs on Bandcamp here.