WALTER BONATTI – Honoris Causa 2001
Climber and Writer Walter Bonatti was born at Bergamo in 1930. In his youth he practiced extreme alpinism, starting his first ascents in the Lombardy Prealps. At just 19 years old he decided to climb the most difficult routes in the world; from then on his life was a chain of the most difficult […]
MARIO RIGONI STERN – Honoris Causa 2002
Soldier and Writer Mario Rigoni Stern was born at Asiago in 1921 to a family of ancient origins, well-known traders between the mountains and plain; his father was discharged from the infantry as a subaltern, and his mother was of Risorgimento education and spirit. Although the economic crisis of the 1930s heavily affected the writer’s […]
COMITATO “CITTADINI DI FANZOLO PER FANZOLO” – Honoris Causa 2004
Although unusual, in 2004 the Association decided to assign its Honoris Causa for the XXII edition of the Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti” Literary Prize to a group formed into a committee and not to an individual, institution or authority. The entire community – two thousand souls – of Fanzolo, a hamlet under the municipality of Vedelago, […]
PIERO ANGELA – Honoris Causa 2006
Journalist and Science Populariser Piero Angela was born in 1928 in Turin, where he attended grammar school and studied piano at the same time. His passion was jazz and he became part of several formations, playing together with important successful names. He stopped his professional musical activities when he started working for Radio Televisione […]
ANDREA ZANZOTTO – Honoris Causa 2008
Poet Montale wrote of his poetry: “poetry that takes stock and strongly influences, acting as a drug on readers’ judging intellect”. Andrea Zanzotto was born at Pieve di Soligo (TV) on 10 October 1921. After his childhood and adolescence under the Fascist regime, to which his painter and decorator father was opposed right […]
RICHARD SAMSON ODINGO – Honoris Causa 2009
Climatologist “When I retire I will be proud to have taken part in the activities of international scientific organisations, in spite of all the difficulties I faced. Although I am materially poor, I consider myself a rich man intellectually because as a result of all my work I have become an authority on the environment […]
GIULIA MARIA MOZZONI CRESPI – Honoris Causa 2012
Founder and Honorary President of Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano (FAI) “As a child I loved walking in Zelata, a hamlet of Bereguardo, where my family grew rice on an estate of 350 hectares, called le Cascine Orsine. In spring I loved listening to the frogs as I strolled through the woods. And every year […]
SPIRO DALLA PORTA XYDIAS E ARMANDO ASTE – Honoris Causa 2014
SPIRO DALLA PORTA XYDIAS Climber, theatre director, writer and President of the Italian Mountain Writers “Nowadays I climb mountains with my pen. No, I have never abandoned the mountains” Spiro Dalla Porta Xydias was born at Lausanne in 1917, but moved in his childhood to Trieste, where he graduated in Political Sciences: he taught French […]
NIVES MEROI – Honoris Causa 2019
Climber and writer “La signora degli Ottomila” “I’m a climber, and a woman. I take that distinction with me as a flag to fly on the high peaks.” Nives Meroi, born in 1961, was originally from Bergamo but has adopted Friuli as her home. She began climbing at 15 and at 17 had already started […]
DON LUIGI CIOTTI – Honoris Causa 2018
Founder and President of the “Libera” Association Luigi Ciotti was born in 1945 at Pieve di Cadore (Belluno) and in 1950 emigrated with his family to Turin. In 1965 he formed ‘Gruppo Abele’, a group of young people that initially worked in juvenile detention centres, and then set up the first reformatory for adolescents as […]
