Can you imagine what it would feel like to fall far away from home, and landing right on top of a cactus? This is what happens to the little blue alien in From Here to Far Away, who finds himself in the middle of a garden and immediately draws the attention of a group of insects gathered for the Spring Festival. Luckily for him, these are the wonderful Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle in Merano, a perfect distraction from the nostalgia he feels for home. After a day of discovery, the alien startles his new friends with a secret, when at nightfall he reveals that you just have to light a match to start telling never-ending stories. One story after another, the longing for Far Away is felt: how can the alien return to his planet? How can he get so high up in the air? Perhaps the answer - as often happens - can be found in the library. Noemi Vola takes us to a colourful world of very small creatures and extraordinary plants, showing us how to discover things which are close to us and how to take off for distant places. Da qui a Molto Lontano is the fifth book in the series to mark "Primavera a Merano", an event that focuses on the extraordinary natural and cultural heritage of the area, to discover - or rediscover - Merano in a new and engaging way. Following stories by Harriet Russell (2015), Katrin Stangl and Michael Heinze (2016), Steven Guarnaccia (2017) and Alessandro Sanna (2018), Noemi Vola tells the story of the city from the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle. The project is inspired by the heritage of Ópla, the Children’s Book Archive of the Civic Library of Merano, which celebrated its 20 year anniversary in 2017.

Noemi Vola - was born in Bra (CN) in 1993; she graduated in 2016 in Comics and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and she is currently attending the Illustration Publishing Course in Bologna. Founder in 2014 of Bianca, a self-produced magazine for children that collects comics and illustrated stories. In 2017, together with Martina Tonello, Noemi founded MaPerò, a collective that deals with grammatical and non-grammatical injustices. Among the various collaborations, the most recent with Vogue Bambini and Biancoenero editions. With Corraini Edizioni she published Bear with me (2017), winner of the Nati per Leggere prize, A book of horses* (*revolutionary ones) (2018) and “L’arrivo di Santa Lucia” with Andrea Antinori.