Storie in Battigia – il Respiro del Mare

There is a place on Elba Island where the sea meets the land: the shoreline. A thin, ever-changing line where every wave brings something ashore and every retreating tide carries something away. In this space, the fifth-grade pupils of the G. Giusti Comprehensive Institute in Marciana Marina and Marina di Campo learned to truly observe: to collect, classify, and name. And then to imagine.

This is how twenty stories came to life.

Each one different, each one true in the way that only stories written by ten-year-olds can be. With original illustrations, fresh and precise language, and the care of those who have something worth saying. This book is the result of the Blue Schools 2024–2025 project of the G. Giusti Institute, supported by the Acqua dell’Elba Foundation within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (UNESCO-IOC). A journey that brought together art, writing, ecology, and active citizenship.

All proceeds from sales, after printing costs have been deducted, are returned to the book’s young authors and illustrators through periodic contributions that the Acqua dell’Elba Foundation transfers to the G. Giusti Institute on behalf of those who wrote and illustrated these pages. It is a tangible way of showing younger generations that culture has value—and that creating it is worthwhile.