Tuesday 5 July, 6.30 pm, at the ELI Library in Rome, presentation of the book ‘Twenty-sixth floor’ by Tiziana Gazzini. Leonardo De Sanctis, writer and publisher, and Neva Sbrissa, witness of the facts told in the book, will talk with the author. Journalists Anna Maria Giordano and Simonetta Robiony will speak. Readings by Giuliana Lojodice. Moderated by Piero Spila.
The book is a tribute to Annamaria Rapetti and Alessandra Santonocito, two lawyers from the Lombardy Region, who were killed by the small plane that crashed into the Pirelli Skyscraper on April 18, 2002.
Annamaria Rapetti and Alessandra Santonocito are forty years old, they are brilliant lawyers, they are at work in their communicating offices on the 26th floor of the Pirelli Skyscraper. At 5.47 pm on April 18, 2002, the Rockwell Commander 112TC tourist plane crashes into the building, the point of impact on the twenty-sixth floor. On board the aircraft there is only the pilot, Luigi Fasulo, 67 years old and 4,000 flight hours. Alessandra and Annamaria die overwhelmed by the explosion and the pilot also loses his life. Seventy were wounded. The plane crash comes 7 months after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York. The attention of the media is immediately very high. Several hypotheses: terrorist attack also in Milan, pilot suicide, accident.
‘Twenty-sixth floor’ painstakingly reconstructs the moment and the consequences of the impact, with unpublished testimonies, but it is not, and does not intend to be, a counter-investigation into the accident and the controversial figure of the pilot of the plane. The results of the technical and judicial investigations are enough to sanction the singularity of an event that has remained mysterious in any case. The protagonists of the book are Alessandra and Annamaria and their regular and precious lives, torn in the most irregular of ways. Two exemplary stories that remind us how every interrupted life brings with it inestimable damage.
The author, Tiziana Gazzini, journalist, art critic, communication and image expert, has a degree in Philosophy and has carried out an intense non-fiction and publishing activity, mainly referring to themes of art and general culture, collaborating on various newspapers and periodicals (Paese Sera, Il Tempo, Il Piccolo, Abstracta, Reporter, Dolce Vita, SUD, CineCritica, etc.). You have curated art volumes for various publishing houses and designed, curated and organized numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad. She is the author of the volumes: Kokocinski. Extraordinary life of an artist (2017) and Visionaries. Aesthetic symbolists dandies and other dreamers (2019).