Italy
Marco Meneghini, born in Gorizia (Italy) in 1973, has been practicing caving since the age of nineteen; he graduated in Cultural Heritage -Archaeological address, at the University of Trento.
He is particularly interested in artificial cavities and, specifically, in the hypogea of the Great War of the Isonzo front and in Trentino (Italy), where he lives since 2003.
He participated in several speleological researches, in Italy and abroad. The results have been published in books and national magazines including Focus and National Geographic.
Member of the National Commission of Artificial Cavities of the Italian Speleological Society, for which he edited the National Catalogue of Artificial Cavities (CA).
In 2004, he promoted the establishment of the Regional Artificial Cavities Catalogue of Trentino Alto Adige for the Society Alpinisti Tridentini (S.A.T.) and the Society Speleologica Italiana (S.S.I.).
He took part in the speleological research project on the Judrio Valley (in the Julian Prealps, in Friuli – Venezia Giulia, on the border with Slovenia), of the Carsic Research Center “C. Seppenhofer “of Gorizia, dealing with the catalog of the caves and artificial cavities present in the area, published in the volume” La valle dello Judrio – Progetto Judrio 2000 “.From this last research activity, Marco Meneghini drew the narrative ideas for the tale “The chink in the Valley”, published in 2008, and for other tales.
I’d like the prawns returning into the river
Mi piacerebbe che tornassero i gamberi, nel fiume
Short tale, 23-1-2022
The short tale comes from personal experience and from some real events from which the author takes inspiration. The author is convinced that speleological research has its full meaning if it involves local communities, as an active part in research and for the presentation of results, through the institutions that represent them.
All protection, including those of the underground environment, passes through the documentation and dissemination of the results, at all levels. Damage to the environment is often caused by superficiality and lack of knowledge of the environment in which one lives, as in this particular case of groundwater, as for this tale.
The motivation to participate in the competition is to strongly emphasize how the dissemination of research results is an ethical duty for those who study the underground world, an important part, like all of them, of our delicate natural environment.