Good afternoon everyone, happy Saturday, thank you for being once again on Alessandro III of Macedonia – your resource on Alexander the Great! Today, a happy Elena is writing you because in the yesterday edition of the Giornale di Arona the article by Anna Carluccio was published, dedicated to my work on Alexander.
It all started with a meeting of the Combriccola dei Lettori, the reading group of the Library of Stresa, thanks to Valeria Capucci who spoke of the wonderful initiative by Sabrina Vecchi Words that You Eat, where every month she publishes a story she distributes in her restaurant La Cascina (Arona, No) (site HERE). So one afternoon in May I wrote “Il più grande” (which you can read HERE and was also translated into English “The Greatest” by Francesca Rossi HERE) and was published as a guest story in September. Sabrina is in contact with Anna from the Giornale di Arona because Sabrina often promotes new beautiful projects, both in terms of art and solidarity (see the right column of the article which talks about her choice to support the Lene Thun Foundation).
So yesterday my interview came out and Anna did a wonderful job, she wrote a great article that I love! Here’s the article and then the english translation of the article! Hope you’ll enjoy it!
«So I give voice to my great love for Alexander the Great»
Elena Ragazzoni from Massino Visconti is the author of the September story of the literary project «Words that You Eat» conceived by Sabrina Vecchi.
ARONA (crn) The family of the literary project «made in Arona» is baptized by its creator Sabrina Vecchi «Words that You Eat». The project is closely linked to the restaurant and cenacle of the arts «La Cascina» in Arona that Sabrina manages together with her husband. A place to enjoy not only dishes but the multiple flavors of a series of initiatives dedicated to art, culture and solidarity. One of these is «Words that You Eat», a small periodical publication with short stories that make the time between the ordering and arrival of the courses spend in a productive and pleasant way and at the same time circulate the pleasure of reading and writing. Publications that then travel around the world according to the book crossing principle, which in this case becomes «crossing flyer».
The project makes use of some permanent collaborators but over time it has opened up to new pens, as in the case of Elena Ragazzoni from Massino Visconti, author of the September story dedicated to the extraordinary figure of Alexander the Great. But how did this synergy come about? To act as a trait d’union was the Stresa’s Combriccola dei lettori: «I have been attending meetings for some time – explains Ragazzoni – and one day we were told about this literary project and we were invited to test us by writing a short story… I was immediately fascinated by the proposal and I liked very much the idea of bringing people together in such an immediate and effective way to reading and to different literary genres. I don’t consider myself a writer, writing that story wasn’t easy, on the other hand I am a great reader». But the difficulty of grappling with writing was certainly diluted by the object chosen for his story: «One day when I felt inspired I started writing about what my great love is, to which I have dedicated myself with passion for a long time: the figure of Alexander III of Macedonia». A deep interest fueled over the years by Ragazzoni through research, reading of historical texts, collection of material: activities culminating in the creation of the website (and of the Facebook page) “Alessandro III di Macedonia- Your resource on Alexander the Great”, a large container of information on the character constantly updated. «Obviously I studied him at school – Ragazzoni tells us on the site but I discovered it by chance when I was little thanks to the Japanese anime and I wanted to know more about him. Since then I try to take all the books (at least the ones I can) and all the material I find about him. Thanks to my passion for reading I can slowly build my “vision” on this character who lived more than 2300 years ago. I like to think that every book, every article I read, every contribution in general, constitutes in my mind a new part of the map that I created on him or that better defines an already existing part. I collect books about him you can tell from always and even if for a long time I haven’t read his biographies anymore I have always continued to take them. I’ll publish reviews of what I read, hoping to offer you a bibliography on this incredible character as complete as possible». A place where enthusiasts or simple curious can meet and discuss, exchange ideas and information: «Since I’ve got the site – the story continues – a world has opened up to me: I was able to get in touch with university professors, historians, editors, specialist magazines that support and send me materials. And study never stops, I’m always looking for new books and, even though I don’t know English perfectly, at a certain point I started reading those too, because I realized that there are so many books on the subject that aren’t published in Italy and this is a shame».
And returning to the collaboration with Sabrina Vecchi’s project: «I was very happy, for me it’s a great pleasure far away from such a beautiful project of cultural promotion». Satisfaction shared also by Vecchi: «I am pleased and I thank, in addition to Elena, Valeria Capucci of the Library of Stresa, who spoke about our project and is the precious intermediary».
Anna Carluccio
WITH THE LENE THUN FOUNDATION
“Happy to support laboratories for children with cancer”
ARONA (crn) This month of September brought another important novelty in the menu of La Cascina. The restaurant will soon be the Ambassador of the Lene Thun Foundation, promoter of important solidarity projects. For each tax receipt, the restaurant will donate 1 euro in favor of the sustainability of ceramic-therapy laboratories in pediatric cancer hospitals operating on the Italian territory. «I’m very satisfied, motivated and also excited – the comment is Sabrina Vecchi – I learned about the activity of the foundation thanks to a television program and I went to read up on their website. So I wrote an e-mail interested in the solidarity lab project. I was contacted by telephone and the tuning was immediately started; then the meeting in Thun followed, we saw the huge store but also the workshops, met the volunteers and much more… So the idea of participating in the “Color for a friend” project, which wasn’t yet possible but considering that we can do it in the future, we have added a more viable idea in the immediate future, namely to devolve quotas to the laboratory. We’ll provide information material to customers, we’ll try to raise awareness, a way to start creating an interest. It’s a project that has taken my heart, which transmits sensations of beauty, of art and of good achieved».
What do you think? I hope you like it!
Thank you for the reading, have a great week-end!
Best regards
Alessandro III di Macedonia 
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