(May 2^nd, 2016) “The giraffe’s heart is far from its thoughts. She fell in love yesterday, and still does not know it”: a quote, among the countless opportunities, to exemplify the irony of Stefano Benni, one of the most important contemporary authors. The author from Bologna will be engaged in a series of events in Austria: on May 2^nd in Vienna at the Hartliebs bookstore and on May 3^rd at the Italian Cultural Institute of Vienna, which organised a encounter with the author (19:00) and a conversation in Italian with Barbara Mica, in collaboration with the University of Vienna and the Hartliebs bookstore. Benni has experimented with different literary genres through which he makes an excursus starting from the novel that launched him to the general public, “Sports Bar” (1976) and the his other well-known works in the field of poetry and theatre, until his recent collection “Dear Monsters (2015) from which he will read some stories. Many of his works have been translated into Germany by Wagenbach publisher. On May 4^th Benni will be in Salzburg, hosted by the Dante Alighieri Society.

ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE IN VIENNA

The Sternberg Palace is the seat of the Italian Cultural Institue of Vienna, was built in 1821-22 by Karl Ehrmann Philipp von Sternberg, probably on the basis of a previous design by the architect Karl von Moreau. The main neoclassic façade, decorated with stucco work by Joseph Kleiber (1822) opens onto a small “court of honour”. The back of the building was restored for the first time at the beginning of the twentieth century. After the Second World War, in addition to the necessary restoration work to amend the damage of war, a new wing was added containing classrooms for language courses and a large multipurpose room that seats about 200. Inside the oldest part of the Sternberg Palace, there are some remarkable architectural features such as the beautiful illusory staircase with wrought iron railing and the large mirror of the nineteenth century, Dante Hall with its fine stucco decorations and the Blue Hall with its original well-preserved wooden floors, the Brown room so name for the wooden reliefs that decorate the ceiling.