SELLIA COMICS MUSEUM

Perched among the hills of the Catanzaro area, where the wind of the Presila carries the scent of history, the medieval village of Sellia keeps a secret scented with paper and nostalgia. Among ancient alleys and the restorative silence of stone, an almost magical space opens up: the Comics Museum, a sanctuary of the imagination capable of stopping time and restoring the enchanted gaze of childhood to everyone who enters.

This place of the heart was born from the boundless passion and tireless research of Pierluigi Bonizzi, who, volume after volume, collected, preserved and finally donated to the community an invaluable treasure of approximately 16,000 volumes. Crossing the threshold of these rooms means undertaking an intimate journey through collective memory. It is the thrill of leafing through vintage pages featuring legends such as Tex, Dylan Dog or Martin Mystère, or of coming across authentic historical gems such as the earliest issues of Il Corriere dei Piccoli from the beginning of the twentieth century and extremely rare period issues of Topolino and Diabolik, alongside masterpieces of auteur comics by masters such as Hugo Pratt.

Small and precious anecdotes are hidden behind these walls. It is said that Bonizzi found and saved many of these volumes one by one, rescuing them from oblivion in forgotten markets and then meticulously cataloguing them by hand. In the museum's display cases, visitors can also see the marks left by great cartoonists passing through: original artwork and dedications drawn spontaneously in ink on walls and sheets of paper, left as heartfelt thanks by internationally renowned artists enchanted by this timeless place.

Amid an issue of Nathan Never, Japanese manga and the great American classics, the museum reveals its deepest soul in its reading rooms. Sitting there, perhaps in the room overlooking a breathtaking view of the Calabrian landscape, is an act of pure poetry: it means granting oneself the privilege of time. In the village's enveloping silence, with a story in one's hands and infinity before one's eyes, one discovers the ability to dream again, one panel at a time.