This year, the choice of location for the presentation of the upcoming calendar was inspired by a reflection sparked by a quote by Julian Barnes:

"Poets still dream of exotic places without ever leaving, so the dream of escape rots within a poem."

I am not a poet, and unlike the writers Barnes refers to, I am constantly on the move. It is only through travel—and through the illusion that there is still somewhere else to discover, a place that might reveal a part of myself—that I sometimes manage to dream and imagine.

The choice of Tangier, a city that has inspired writers, painters, and poets, felt natural. Here, Paul Bowles captured the unease of the encounter between the Western world and the Arab world, while Matisse found a light capable of crossing continents.

The short stretch of sea that separates the two shores of the Mediterranean foreshadows an encounter with a world different from our own—one in which to reflect on both the connections and the contrasts between Naples and Tangier, crossroads of cultures suspended between memory and modernity.

In Tangier, the light rests upon white terraces and the Strait, while in Naples the sea reflects centuries of history. Both cities nurture the promise of encounter after so many divisions.

The images of the calendar, and of the journey itself, will help create a dialogue between architectures, landscapes, urban details, and subtle correspondences between two cities that, though so different, remain deeply connected.

Generoso di Meo