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On 11 November, 2019, across the Philippines, the “PPUR - Puerto Princesa Underground River Day” was celebrated as part of the Festival of Biodiversity. Today, marking the end of the event, we presented the book on the PPUR, published by Skira editore and entitled “A Cave Between Land and Sea”, to the authorities, represented by the Mayor of Puerto Princesa, the Governor of the island of Palawan and the Chair of the Tourism Committee of the National Senate.

This is the first time that La Venta has published a book by a non-member, even though, in truth, he was a one-time speleologist and, moreover, in writing the book he availed himself of the input of an honorary member of our association, Paolo Forti. This, however, would not be a sufficient reason to justify the decision to become his publisher; that decision was based on the fact that the subject matter (a private collection of African art), while at first glance apparently rather distant from our main area of interest, on closer inspection reveals itself to fit in perfectly with our concept of geographical exploration, which must include, perhaps first and foremost, social contact and cultural exchange with the populations who live in the areas that we travel through. In this book, which is far more than a run-of-the-mill photo book, we can pick up on the empathetic relationships that the author has succeeded in establishing in his 50+ years of adventure travel, geared towards developing an understanding of the main African ethics groups. The scans of 200+ images of everyday objects – which often, however, due to the dedication and flair with which they have been made can be considered bona fide artistic masterpieces – alternate with short accounts of unusual or entirely unexpected events that occurred during his peregrinations on African soil. These tales, some written by Fantazzini and others by friends of his who share his love for exploring that continent, offer veritable “windows” on some of the aspects of African tribal culture, which is so complex and so different from our own, but in no way less rich...indeed, quite the opposite!

On Tuesday, 18 February, 2020, at the Miela Bonaventura Theatre, as part of the 30th edition of the “Alpi Giulie Cinema” International Mountain Film Festival, orchestrated by Monte Analogo, the ceremony was held for the Hell’s Bells Speleo Awards 2020, a competition set up in 2012, which arose out of the collaboration with the Commissione Grotte Eugenio Boegan (CGEB - TS) of the Società Alpina delle Giulie. La Venta received a Special Mention for its video “Namak 2019”, produced by Mattia Bernabei, which tells the story of the 2019 expedition to Iran’s salt caves. Other prizes handed out on the evening included:

- Golden Bell to the video “I claustrofili”, produced by Sirio Sechi, who collected the prize. - Silver Bell to the video “Corchia, la montagna vuota”, a historical documentary by Roberto Tronconi that charts the main stages of the exploration of the Antro del Corchia.

From 29 August to 11 October, 2020, Trieste’s Magazzino delle Idee played host to the exhibition entitled “Xtreme: Living in Extreme Environments”. Organised by the Regional Cultural Heritage Body in partnership with the Speleological Federation of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the “Felice Ippolito” National Museum of the Antarctic and the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, the multi-section exhibition described how mankind has been able to adapt in order to explore extreme environments, such as those of caves, the Antarctic and space. Multiple themes were addressed, from the history of the explorations of these fantastic places to the technologies developed over time to survive there, and from the training of astronauts in cave to hypotheses on bacterial colonies that may populate natural caves on the Moon and on Mars. The whole exhibition was enriched by images owned by the ESA, the INAF, the National Museum of the Antarctic (MNA), the National Project for Antarctic Research (PNRA) and speleological groups including La Venta, and by the displaying of equipment for speleological exploration and exploration in the Antarctic.