Hello, bookish friends! Today I didn't write a review - I have something better. As an early birthday present, some friends took me to a big city yesterday near where we live and we went on a bookstore tour: I ended up visiting nine different bookstores and a public library (in approximately seven hours)! Each one was unique and had something that set it apart, so I'm going to take you on a "digital tour" in this post. Also, fun fact - We looked for I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni (The Betrothed in English - all Italians study this in high school, the American equivalent could be To Kill a Mockingbird) and Harry Potter in each location, and found them both in five out of the ten! Other popular titles included Colleen Hoover's whole backlist (in multiple languages) and Nike Nike Nike Nike by Sam Grawe.
1. Giunti al Punto Librerie
This chain bookstore (whose name translates to "To the Point") was small but cute. There was both an upstairs and a downstairs, and the shelves were positioned in a way that you could browse without the employees staring at you the whole time (a common small bookstore problem). They had a book that at first glance looked like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - but was actually Fantastic Beasts and How to Eat Them (unrelated to Harry Potter)! I love Italians.
2. Libreria Docet
This was the most unique addition to the list: an antique bookshop featuring floor-to-ceiling shelves overflowing with leather-bound tomes. As soon as we walked in, that old-paper smell flooded the air - guys, it smelled amazing. That is definitely not a picture of me taking deep breaths through my nose. Nope. Anyway, another cool thing was that this store didn't just have books, but old maps, gadgets, and sculptures as well. A historian's paradise.
3. Libreria Libraccio
The third stop was the largest bookstore so far, and the first to have a small English section! Even though I can read in Italian I usually prefer English, and it's not always a guarantee that Italian bookstores will have foreign language sections, so this was a win. They had some early editions of Harry Potter (you can surely guess how much they cost) and even a single paperback of These Infinite Threads by Tahereh Mafi, which just came out on February 7th! It has the prettiest cover, and I loved This Woven Kingdom (the first book in the series), so of course she had to come home with me.
4. Librerie Coop Ambiasciatori
A bookstore x Eataly? Yes, please. This stop had the bottom floor of a bookshop and the top floor of a restaurant. This did mean it smelled quite fishy (as in literally fishy - not strange fishy), but it did have games and socks/tote bags/mugs along with the books. There was a modest English section, but they only carried the TV covers of Shadow and Bone. Boo. I found a table of stunning classics though! A pink bind-up edition of Little Women and Little Men with silver-sprayed edges had me tempted.
5. Tesori di Carta
This tiny used bookstore's name translates to "Paper Treasures" and had a cozy feel, as the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves held numerous little nooks to get lost in. They had an impressive comics/manga section, and though the genre isn't my cup of tea, it was cool to see what a wide range was brought in!
6. Libreria per Ragazzi Ottimomassimo
Stop number six was a children's bookshop, and I have to say, even if you're not a kid anymore, I hope you still visit children's bookstores. It was cute, colorful, and had everything from board books to an extensive middle grade section to student encyclopedias on many different subjects. But the best element by far were the SLIDING BOOKSHELVES. I think the employees were about ready to kick me out by the time we left, because they were so fun to slide around.
7. Libreria Nanni
This was a half-new, half-used bookshop, with a lot of school textbooks. Not the most unique of the stops, but they did have a used book wagon!
8. Biblioteca Salaborsa
A public city library in an elegant, airy building, Salaborsa seems like an ordinary establishment until yu look down and see you're walking on ancient Roman ruins! You can go down and walk around them on those metal walkway thingies, or plop down in a squashy armchair and read a book about the Roman civilization's history and mythology while literally sitting on top of it (I did both). Also, fun fact - I found the first Italian editions of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events I've ever seen!
9. LaFeltrinelli Libreria
Feltrinelli is one of the biggest Italian bookstore chains (think Barnes & Noble), and consequentially, they had the largest English section of all the stops on this tour, but also that I've ever found in Italy. Because of that, it was one of my favorites from this list. They had all the popular Booktok and Bookstagram titles, the classics, and much more. They even had some pretty recent releases, which is how I ended up buying Stardust in their Veins by Laura Sebastian (I got an e-ARC, but the cover is so pretty, and I liked it so much, there's a good chance I'll reread it someday).
10. Libri Liberi
The name of this bookstore translates to "Free Books," (free in the sense of "opposite of chained" not like "they don't cost anything") and it's a play on words, because this unique establishment works like a Little Free Library on steroids, where you trade in one of your books for one of theirs. Sadly we didn't go inside because we had to catch the train home, but I got to check out some tables they had outside full of all sorts of random titles. It was a super cool setup!
That's all for now, but I hope you enjoyed learning about Italian book distributors! If you had to pick one location off the list to visit, where would you go?
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