Giardino d'Autore – Literary Café

The first literary café in Pianura

Giardino d'Autore is a literary café and meeting place founded in the Pianura district, on the western outskirts of Naples, in Campania. The venue is outdoors, nestled among plants, flowers, and a wooden pergola at the Bar La Fiorente & Flo Garden on Via Comunale Cannavino 6: an urban garden transformed into a small stage for writers, journalists, artists, and musicians. The grand opening took place on Saturday, March 29, 2025, and the series has been going strong ever since.

A project born from the neighborhood

The idea comes from a group of Pianura citizens: singer and writer Enzo Carro, who manages event production; teachers Grazia Vernillo, who handles author relations, and Teresa De Giulio, who manages institutional affairs; and entrepreneur Enzo Nugnes, who coordinates public and press relations, supported by Paolo Vernillo. Their goal is clear: to tell the story of Pianura using words other than those found in news headlines and to give the neighborhood a space where culture is free, continuous, and accessible to everyone. It is no coincidence that the organizers refer to their area as the "suburb of suburbs" and assert the district's right to its own cultural life.

What to expect from the program

The calendar does not follow the format of a festival concentrated into a few days; instead, events take place periodically throughout the year, usually on Saturdays or in the late afternoon. Each meeting blends different artistic languages:

• book presentations, with the author in dialogue with journalists and scholars;
• readings and poetry recitals performed by the members of the Giardino;
• exhibitions of paintings and photographic stories set up among the plants;
• screenings of short films and meetings dedicated to cinema;
• live musical interludes that accompany almost every evening.

Authors who have visited

Between March 30 and July 14, 2025, Giardino d'Autore hosted twenty events. Guests included journalist and essayist Pino Aprile, actress Lucia Cassini with her novel Ischia Forever, Enzo Carro with Sono appena tornato dall'aldilà, Peppe Granillo with La signora dei cani, as well as Luca Trapanese, Agostino Russo, and Emanuela Guarnieri. After the summer break, the series resumed on September 6, 2025, with a book by professor and street chronicler Ciro Scognamiglio, continuing into the autumn: on November 7, 2025, historian Mario Avagliano presented L'uomo che arrestò Mussolini alongside the president of ANPI Naples Ciro Raia, with readings by Teresa De Giulio and Giorgio Carandente and music by Anna Calemme.

2026: The series expands beyond the garden

In 2026, the meetings continued to move outside the historic venue in collaboration with other local entities. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at the ANEI Social Center on Via Comunale Vecchia 147, Giardino d'Autore hosted—together with Napoli Cultura Viva and ANEI Naples—the presentation of Careca. Un angelo col numero 9, a story by journalist Anna Calì featured in the anthology Da Amadei a Zlatan. I grandi centravanti della Serie A (Giulio Perrone Editore).

Why it's worth a visit

Giardino d'Autore has no ticket office: admission to all meetings is free. It is a different experience from large literary festivals—more intimate and closer to the life of the district, with an audience largely composed of residents, students, and teachers from Pianura. For those visiting the metropolitan city of Naples, it is also an opportunity to see a non-touristy neighborhood, just a few kilometers from the Phlegraean Fields, where culture has become a tangible tool for collective redemption.