If you like travelling and would like to visit one of the most beautiful and charming city in the world… you cannot miss the 2011 Travel Festival (Festival del Viaggio) in Florence, Italy!
This year, the Festival  will happen as a round-trip.
The first leg started on Wednesday, June 8th with the opening of the photo-exhibition BOLIVIANS by Pietro Paolini at Studio Marangoni: a photograpic path through the less known spots of South America. Right after, the presentation of the book “Honolulu Baby” dedicated to the Hawaiian adventures of Alessandro Agostinelli (published by Vallecchi) took place.
On Friday, June 10th, Palazzo Medici Riccardi hosted the first edition of the Award for Best Travel Guide: with the participation of travel Editors such as Mondadori, Morellini, EDT-Lonely Planet, and Routard. Theme of the context was the city of Istanbul, and – among others, – the jury was composed by Umberto Cecchi (former Director of  La Nazione), Roberta Ferronato (Professor of  Tourism Economics), and Marino Sinibaldi (Director of  Radio Tre). Senator Ignazio Marino and Professor Gianni Mattioli spoke at 7.00pm about the topic From the Chernobyl accident to Fukushima – Journey into nuclear energy, while a relevant documentary was afterwards presented. The video was by Japanese photographer SatoshiUeda, who documented the post-Tsunami period, when he was in search of his mother.
Saturday, June 11th Professor Renato Stopani led a walking tour from Porta Romana to Piazza del Duomo through the ancient urban medieval hospitals – within the project ‘vie Romee’.
The returning leg of the 2011 Festival del Viaggio (this year at its sixth edition) will take place on  September, 8th, 9th, 10th 2011 when several travel movies and documentaries will be presented, as national Italian premieres. An example? The last works by Riccardo Pangallo; and Il primo viaggio - a documentary with, among others, Francesco Guccini, Ezio Mauro, Luis Sepulveda, Pino Cacucci, Alessandro Bergonzoni, Paolo Poli.
But the September leg of the Festival will also consist of events dedicated to Emilio Salgari, to the A1 motorway, to Madeira, to Morocco, and to responsible tourism. Moreover, between June and September anyone can send his/her own honeymoon’s best pictures: all photographs will be part of a specific exhibition to be held at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in Florence, and aimed to document past and present Italians’ honeymoons! Additional information can be found at www.festivaldelviaggio.it.
The Festival is organized in collaboration with: Regione Toscana, Provincia di Firenze, Comune di Firenze, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale, Gabinetto Vieusseux, Fondazione Marangoni, Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco®-Life Beyond Tourism®, Fondazione Sistema Toscana – Mediateca Regionale, Rai Radio Tre, Vallecchi Editore.

Text by Festival del Viaggio 2011 – Translation by Alessandra Brignola