“GRADARA LUDENS” 2024 AWARD
TO DARIO DE TOFFOLI
Saturday 21 September 2024 – 8:30 p.m.
Courtyard of Gradara Castle
On the evening of Saturday 21 September, in the beautiful setting of the Gradara castle courtyard, the event’s Scientific Committee awarded, as it does every year, the Gradara Ludens Prize to four personalities who have distinguished themselves in the gaming sector.
This is a coveted recognition, which over time has reached and awarded important figures in the world of games and Italian culture, including Alex Randolph, Michele Serra, Giampaolo Dossena, Umberto Eco, Stefano Bartezzaghi, Edoardo Sanguineti, Alessandro Bergonzoni, Moni Ovadia, and David Riondino.
In this 2024 edition, the prestigious prize was awarded to Dario De Toffoli as an author, writer and journalist who has dedicated his life to the game.
Together with him were awarded Enrico Di Ciolo, great fencer and coach of the National Fencing Team since 1994, Knight of the Italian Republic for sporting merit, and Lucia Biagiotti and Ilaria Santoni, heads of the Engineering of Good Solace, an association that for years has promoted the game as social cohesion and a tool for healthy growth, and finally Arnaldo ‘Bibo’ Cecchini, one of the greatest experts in game simulation, who received the new Sublime Award.
According to tradition, it was the winners who self-motivated their victory, explaining what (in their opinion) were the reasons why they deserved the coveted award.
On this page, the full video of the awards evening and some photos.
De Toffoli commented as follows:
It was beautiful. In fact, beautiful!
Receiving this Gradara Ludens award, in the courtyard of the Rocca, re-embracing so many old friends and remembering others who are no longer with us was an emotion that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Thanks therefore to Mayor Filippo Gasperi, who as a young boy had his playful imprinting precisely during our Festival of Games; to Beniamino Sidoti, who now directs it all with grace and culture; to Bibo Cecchini, who had all too generous words of appreciation; to Angela Bulzinetti, the very efficient games councillor; to Sandro Sorbini, the mayor who started it all in the early 1990s; to the many others who collaborated in the event; to the other award-winners; and also to the many friends near and far whom I had the pleasure of meeting again.
A characteristic of the award is that the awardee has to give the motivation himself, which is both difficult and playful at the same time… this was mine:
I deserve this award because I was able to combine, perhaps more than anyone else, two different aspects of the ludic universe: on the one hand the game as a profession, on the other the game as a player.
But Gradara Ludens was also made up of many other initiatives, one more beautiful than the other. Really!
Remember it next year!