Armando Morbiato’s book, L’incanto del viaggiatore was edited by his brother, Luciano Morbiato, a professor in the history of popular traditions at the University of Padova. It depicts Armando as an “enchanted traveller” an inquisitive emigrant, but above all as someone who faced life by embracing its infinite possibilities. The book retraces the various stages of Armando's life, from his childhood in Camin to his first encounters with cartography; from his experiences in artisanal workshops to the long journey as an emigrant, to the passion for the collecting and trade of ancient geographical maps, which he would turn into a profession. 

The book, which brings together diaries, letters, photographs and memories, is not only the parable of a man’s life but is also a valuable testimony on the life of an Italian emigrant in the fifties and sixties. At the same time, it describes fragments of life in remote places, provides food for reflection of an anthropological as well as geographical nature as well as curious glimpses of social customs and habits. 

In addition to being a testimony “from the field,” the book becomes an inspiration to take action: Armando’s resourcefulness and his curiosity for what was around him are contagious and motivating, urging us to rediscover all the beauty of life and to accord rightful importance to everything that fills it with meaning:

I thought of nothing but the return journey, not of the return, but of the journey!

Introducing the story, and enriching it with resonance and geographical points of reflection is the preface by Francesco Vallerani with the evocative title From the Elsewhere of Dreams to the Geographies of Memory.

The interactive map that follows details the main stages of Armando Morbiato’s journey from 1957 to 1967, as described in the book, and it includes valuable photographic testimony that will enrich the virtual journey of those setting out to explore the exhibition.