A TRAIL OF MUSIC AND WORDS ALONG THE VIA DEGLI DEI

3 – 21 JUNE 2026
Bologna • Castiglione dei Pepoli • Marradi • Firenzuola • Scarperia e San Piero • Fiesole • Florence

From 3 to 21 June, Dei Suoni i Passi returns for its seventh edition: concerts, nature, walking routes, encounters, new listening experiences and perspectives along the Via degli Dei. Starting in Bologna and ending in Florence, Dei Suoni i Passi explores the territory through music, creating connections and telling the story of the inland areas of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.

Between Bologna and Florence, a constellation of events follows the 120-kilometre route linking the two cities, reachable in just over half an hour by high-speed train, but also on foot, along the Roman paving stones of the ancient Flaminia Militare, through centuries-old beech and chestnut forests. A journey that offers an alternative to everyday frenzy and opens new ways of looking at the landscape. Intermediate stops include Castiglione dei Pepoli, Firenzuola, Marradi, Scarperia e San Piero, and Fiesole. The programme is designed for walkers, cyclists, local residents and anyone who prefers to reach the performance sites in their own way. Featured in these site-specific events are artists Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, Monica Demuru, Peppe Voltarelli, Pierfrancesco Mucari, Vincenzo Vasi, Sebastiano De Gennaro, Naomi Berrill, Mattia Galeotti, Nazareno Caputo, Marco Dalmasso and Charles Ferris.

PROGRAMME

WED 3 JUNE 6:00 PM
Bologna | IAAD Istituto d’Arte Applicata e Design

Documentary “CICLOFONÌA”
Performance “SHUT UP ‘N PLAY YER BIKE”
SEBASTIANO DE GENNARO AND VINCENZO VASI

“Shut up ‘n play yer bike” is a celebration of the bicycle, musical experimentation, reuse, and environmental awareness within an electroacoustic performance created by two of the most interesting musicians on the Italian scene: composer Sebastiano De Gennaro (Baustelle, Daniele Silvestri, Ludovico Einaudi, Vinicio Capossela, Dargen d’Amico, Calibro 35) and multi-instrumentalist and composer Vincenzo Vasi (Mike Patton, John Zorn, Roy Paci, Tristan Honsinger, Vinicio Capossela, Eva Kant).
The bicycle becomes the protagonist from a completely new perspective through its acoustic properties, an original way to promote sustainable mobility and raise awareness of environmental issues.
The performance is introduced by the video documentary “Ciclofonia” by De Gennaro and Marcello Corti, dedicated to the history of the relationship between the bicycle and artistic performance, ranging from bicycle compositions by Frank Zappa, Mauricio Kagel and Richard Lerman to works by other protagonists of the avant-garde movements of the past fifty years. Cycle-synthesizers, polyphonic bells, resonant wheels and spokes: every bicycle with its own sonic soul. A raw and explosive art form made of healthy madness, ingenuity, recycling, movement, space and sound.

SAT 6 JUNE 6:00 PM
Castiglione dei Pepoli | Rifugio Abetaia

“BOLOGNA – FIRENZE AR”
PEPPE VOLTARELLI
in collaboration with Crinali

With “Bologna – Firenze AR”, Peppe Voltarelli tells, through music, the story of his relationship with the two cities – Bologna and Florence – through a setlist specially conceived for the occasion. The programme includes songs from his solo repertoire, tracks by Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti, the cult Italian folk band of which he is founder, lead singer and frontman, songs by singer-songwriter Claudio Lolli, with whom he closely collaborated, and selected pieces from the history of Italian music.

SAT 13 JUNE 6:00 PM
Marradi

“LA VEGLIA SIBILLA”
MONICA DEMURU AND PIERFRANCESCO MUCARI
ON SIBILLA ALERAMO, 150 YEARS AFTER HER BIRTH
produced by Toscana Produzione Musica

Thanks to the collaboration between the Municipality of Marradi, the Fondazione Marradi Cultura Dino Campana and Toscana Produzione Musica, the new production “La veglia Sibilla” will come to life. Actress and singer Monica Demuru and musician Pierfrancesco Mucari will work within some of the town’s most significant locations to evoke the complexity of the figure of Sibilla Aleramo, on the 150th anniversary of her birth. In dialogue are the voices of Sibilla Aleramo and Dino Campana, the poet born in Marradi and deeply connected to these places. Their intense and troubled emotional and intellectual relationship represents a major chapter in Italian literary history, where life and artistic creation merge inseparably. Aleramo and Campana become here both cultural and narrative resources, capable of generating new forms of engagement with the territory through attentive, slow and conscious experiences. The staged performance will reactivate literary memory as a living experience able to speak to the present. Texts and sounds will resonate with the natural Apennine landscape, evoking a setting that is not merely a backdrop, but an integral part of the artistic narrative.

SUN 14 JUNE 6:00 PM
Firenzuola | Loc. Cornacchiaia

“FESTA AL TRAMONTO”
MATTIA GALEOTTI, NAZARENO CAPUTO, MARCO DALMASSO, CHARLES FERRIS

In the beautiful Parish Church of Cornacchiaia, a convivial sunset gathering will feature drummer Mattia Galeotti, active on both the Italian and international music scenes, alongside percussionist Nazareno Caputo, creator of a unique “lithophone” percussion instrument made of stone, producer Marco Dalmasso and trumpeter Charles Ferris.
Together they will create a jam session blending sounds of nature, electronics and irresistible beats.

SAT 20 JUNE 9:00 PM
Scarperia e San Piero | Palazzo dei Vicari

“E POI SCEGLIERE CON CURA LE PAROLE”
MAURO ERMANNO GIOVANARDI

On the occasion of the Notte Romantica dei Borghi più belli d’Italia (Romantic Night of Italy’s Most Beautiful Villages), Palazzo dei Vicari in Scarperia will host Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, a refined and multifaceted singer-songwriter who has been active on the Italian music scene for more than twenty years as performer, author, producer and artistic director. Among the creators of Italy’s underground music scene, in 1993 he founded La Crus, the groundbreaking band that transformed the rules of Italian alternative music. The concert will feature songs from “E poi scegliere con cura le parole” (And then choosing words carefully), his newly released work, alongside well-known and lesser-known gems from the history of Italian songwriting.

SUN 21 JUNE 7:00 PM
Florence, Villa Il Palmerino

“SOLO”
NAOMI BERRILL

At the historic Villa Il Palmerino, between Fiesole and Florence, intimate songwriting and sonic research merge in the solo concert by Naomi Berrill, Irish cellist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer based in Florence. After completing her classical training between Scotland, Switzerland and Italy, she developed a personal artistic path using the cello not only as a solo instrument but also as an extension of the human voice. Her work combines composition, arrangement and improvisation, crossing different musical languages. This versatility has led her to collaborate with artists from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Danusha Waskiewicz, Giovanni Sollima, Mario Brunello, Vincent Courtois, Ernst Reijseger and Alessandro Lanzoni.

All events are free admission subject to availability, except for the 13 June event in Marradi (ticket price: €5).

During Dei Suoni i Passi, and especially on 5 June in Fiesole and 6 June in Sasso Marconi,  Michael Gordon’s composition “8” for eight cellos will also be presented by cellist Francesco Dillon and students from his advanced training course, in a co-production by Fondazione Fabbrica Europa and Fondazione Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

Dei Suoni i Passi is made possible thanks to the support of Regione Toscana and Città Metropolitana di Firenze, in collaboration with the Municipalities of Florence, Castiglione dei Pepoli, Marradi, Scarperia e San Piero and Firenzuola, Fondazione Marradi Cultura Dino Campana, Dino Campana Literary Residency, Pro Loco Scarperia, Unione dei Comuni dell’Appennino Bolognese, Festival Crinali and Toscana Produzione Musica.