Lanuvio LibrIntorno

A book festival in the heart of the Castelli Romani

LibrIntorno is the cultural and literary festival that has been enlivening the summer in Lanuvio—a small town in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital overlooking the Alban Hills in Lazio—for over five years. Founded in 2020 by the Castelli Cult ETS Cultural Association and grown edition after edition with the support of the Municipal Department of Culture, the event has built a loyal audience of local readers and curious visitors traveling from the Castelli Romani and Rome for a unique weekend.

The formula is simple and successful: two days of meetings with authors, presentations of newly released books, and dialogues with journalists, scholars, and well-known entertainment figures, all with free admission. At the end of each presentation, attendees can purchase the book and stay for a signing, fostering the direct and informal connection with writers that has become the festival's hallmark.

The venues: historic villas, squares, and underground chambers

One of LibrIntorno's strengths is the choice of venues, all located in the historic center and within walking distance of each other. The meetings are distributed across:

• Villa Sforza Cesarini, with its park and the Sala delle Colonne, the green heart of the festival and host to most of the events;
• Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore, where opening ceremonies and the most communal moments take place;
• The Dungeons of Palazzo Colonna, evocative and cool underground spaces, perfect for meetings during the hottest hours;
• the Fontana degli Scogli, a scenic 17th-century monument used as a backdrop for some evening events.

In case of bad weather, events are moved inside the Sala delle Colonne of Villa Sforza Cesarini, ensuring the program proceeds without cancellations.

A deliberately diverse program

LibrIntorno is not a specialized festival: the cultural direction has chosen from the start to blend different genres and styles. Over the years, the program has featured archaeology essays and contemporary fiction, investigative journalism and books on cinema, biographies of Italian music icons, and volumes dedicated to popular television, alongside forays into technological current affairs and artificial intelligence.

Alongside the presentations, there are free exhibitions—such as the art print display curated by the Calcographic Laboratory of the Abbey of San Nilo in Grottaferrata—creative workshops for children, and musical moments, making the festival suitable for families. The connection to the area's food and wine tradition is also present: Lanuvio is a land of vineyards, and the festival evenings naturally lend themselves to a stop at the local wineries and bars in the center.

Lanuvio, a destination to discover

Perched at just over three hundred meters above sea level, Lanuvio preserves the traces of ancient Lanuvium, famous in the Roman world for the sanctuary of Juno Sospita. The Lanuvio Civic Museum and the local museum network tell the story of this stratification, which often enters the festival program through archaeological and historical discussions. Participating in LibrIntorno also means visiting a Castelli Romani village less frequented by mass tourism, offering views over the Lazio coastline and the woods of the Alban Hills.

Why attend

• Free admission to all meetings, with no mandatory reservations;
• prominent national guests in an intimate setting, where dialogue with the audience is genuine;
• charming historic venues, all within walking distance;
• activities dedicated to children and families;
• the opportunity to combine the visit with the area's archaeological heritage and wineries.