Bucharest: Festlettura

On Tuesday, 3 June 2025, at 6 p.m., the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest (Aleea Alexandru 41) will host the award ceremony for the 14th edition of FESTLETTURA, the national festival of young readers of Italian literature. Since its inception, the festival has aimed to promote Italian language and culture in Romania through the reading of works by Italian writers. An implicit goal has been and continues to be to educate young people to read and, with the guidance of their teachers, to develop their critical judgement and interpretative skills. Another goal has been and continues to be to expose young Romanians to another social, political and cultural reality, that of Italy, in order to provoke a comparison between experiences and cultures in the new society of a united Europe.

From the outset, the Festival has enjoyed the appreciation of the Italian Embassy and the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest. For several years now, it has also received direct support from two prestigious Italian publishing houses, Marsilio in Venice and Piemme-Mondadori in Milan, which provide the books for the Romanian competitors free of charge.

Established in 2012 for four Romanian high schools offering intensive Italian language courses, the festival has grown rapidly, spreading throughout Romania and to all levels of national education where Italian is studied. For several years now, the festival has therefore comprised three sections: middle school, high school and university. Each section is given readings and topics to work on that are appropriate for the age and level of Italian language proficiency of the participants, and the entries are evaluated by three national juries, one for each of the three sections.