Dialogues in the Quarto di Luna: Turin, the City of the Book, Shines with Paola Gallo and Sergio Bestente
April 8, 2025, 2:11 AM PDT — Turin, Italy’s literary heartbeat, took center stage Tuesday as La Stampa hosted “Dialogues in the Quarto di Luna: Turin, the City of the Book,” an hour-long celebration of the city’s storied publishing legacy. The event, streamed live from the historic Quarto di Luna room and available in full online, featured Paola Gallo of Giulio Einaudi Editore and Sergio Bestente of EDT-Lonely Planet unpacking Turin’s unique role as a global ambassador of ideas. Against a backdrop of Trump’s tariff-driven market chaos—a $5 trillion S&P 500 wipeout—the discussion offered a grounding reminder of the city’s enduring cultural clout.
A Tale of Two Titans
Moderated by La Stampa’s editorial team, the 58-minute dialogue spotlighted Turin’s knack for blending tradition with innovation. Paola Gallo, editorial director at Einaudi—one of Italy’s most prestigious publishing houses—traced her firm’s 91-year journey from its 1933 founding by Giulio Einaudi to its current status as a literary powerhouse under Mondadori. “Turin has always been a city that exports its excellence,” Gallo said, pointing to Einaudi’s role in shaping modern Italian culture with authors like Primo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, and Cesare Pavese, whose La luna e i falò remains a touchstone. She highlighted the publisher’s global reach, with translations in over 40 languages, as proof of Turin’s ability to “bring the world here and take Turin abroad.”
Sergio Bestente, head of EDT, brought a contrasting yet complementary perspective. EDT, founded in 1977, carved its niche with Lonely Planet’s Italian editions, turning travel into a narrative art form. “We’re a younger story, but deeply Turinese,” Bestente noted, crediting the city’s intellectual ferment for fostering a startup that now boasts over 1,000 guidebooks and a digital app with millions of users. From its base near Turin’s Mole Antonelliana, EDT has grown into a €20 million enterprise, per 2024 estimates, exporting the city’s curiosity-driven ethos worldwide.
Turin: The City of the Book
The Quarto di Luna, a Baroque gem within La Stampa’s headquarters, set an apt stage for the discussion. Its name—evoking the moon’s quarters—nodded to Turin’s literary mystique, a city dubbed “the Italian Athens” for its 18th-century Enlightenment roots and home to the Salone Internazionale del Libro, Europe’s largest book fair. Gallo and Bestente framed Turin as a literary crossroads, where ultracentenarian institutions like Einaudi (born from antifascist ideals) coexist with agile players like EDT, all thriving beyond metropolitan borders.
“Turin’s excellence isn’t just in its past—it’s alive,” Gallo argued, citing Einaudi’s recent coup: securing rights to Sally Rooney’s next novel, set for a 2026 Italian debut. Bestente echoed this, detailing EDT’s pivot to digital travel tools amid a post-pandemic boom, with app downloads spiking 30% in 2024. Their tales of success—Einaudi’s 2 million annual sales and EDT’s global footprint—underscored a shared theme: Turin’s knack for turning local genius into universal impact.
Voices of Resilience
The dialogue wasn’t all rosy retrospection. Gallo addressed publishing’s modern woes—rising paper costs (up 15% since Trump’s tariffs) and digital piracy—yet stressed resilience. “We adapt, like Turin always has,” she said, referencing Einaudi’s shift to sustainable printing and e-books, which now account for 18% of revenue. Bestente, meanwhile, tackled travel’s turbulence—climate concerns and tariff hikes inflating costs—praising EDT’s lean model: “We’re small, but we punch above our weight.”
Posts on X captured the event’s buzz. “Paola Gallo and Sergio Bestente at Quarto di Luna—Turin’s book soul laid bare,” one user wrote, while another quipped, “Einaudi and Lonely Planet in one room? That’s Turin flexing.” The full video, embedded on La Stampa’s site (58:51 runtime), drew thousands of views by midnight PDT, its reach amplified as fans shared clips of Gallo’s Levi anecdotes and Bestente’s ode to Turin’s “quiet ambition.”
A City’s Literary Legacy
The event doubled as a love letter to Turin’s dual identity—historic yet forward-looking. Gallo traced Einaudi’s antifascist origins, noting how Giulio’s circle, including Pavese and Leone Ginzburg, defied Mussolini’s censors to publish truth. Bestente tied EDT’s rise to Turin’s 1970s industrial shift, when a city of Fiat workers birthed a creative class hungry for the world. “We’re different beasts,” he said of their firms, “but united by Turin’s spirit.”
That spirit shone as they fielded questions on the city’s future. Gallo pushed for more youth literacy programs, citing Turin’s 2023 UNESCO Creative City nod, while Bestente urged investment in digital storytelling to keep pace with global rivals. Both agreed: Turin’s literary torch—lit by centuries of printers, poets, and pioneers—burns bright, even as economic storms loom.
Beyond the Broadcast
As the U.S.-Russian ISS crew launch and King Charles’s Rome visit dominate headlines, “Dialogues in the Quarto di Luna” offered a quieter triumph—a testament to Turin’s soft power. With Einaudi’s classics and EDT’s guides in hands worldwide, the city’s voice resonates far beyond Piedmont. The full stream, at lastampa.it/torino/2025/04/08/video/, invites viewers into this narrative, a 58-minute capsule of why Turin remains, as one X post put it, “the city of the book, unbowed.” In a world of chaos, Gallo and Bestente proved its pages still turn.
