Once the beating heart of Italian streets, edicole, or newsstands, have long teetered on the verge of extinction—relics of a bygone era when gossip, information, and interaction were consumed on the streets. Now, against all odds, some are reawakening, returning in different, cooler guises, reinventing themselves as cultural lifelines and taste-defining cornerstones of the digital age—a fusion of foresight, design-savviness, and a nostalgic longing for things on paper.

Back in the day, edicole acted as portals to a world of diversified knowledge that embraced the high and lowbrow—from comics to world politics, from puzzles to collectible booklets on art history. Having grown up in the ‘90s, I experienced a familiar thrill anytime I’d find myself in the presence of one of the kiosks, mesmerized by all the words on paper they contained.