Antonio De Cava is a lifelong lover of reading and retired school teacher in Southern Italy. Recognizing that children in the local villages didn’t have easy access to books, he created the Bibliomotocarro, a portable library on wheels that holds 700 books.

Designed to get free books into the hands of young people, the Bibliomotocarro is welcomed with smiles and enthusiastic chatter wherever De Cava goes. When children hear the organ music of the Bibliomotocarro, they run to meet it like they would an ice cream truck.

Built in 2003, the Bibliomotocarro is a second-hand, Ape motorbike from Piaggio that De Cava modified to transport books to the children. Each month, he travels over 500 kilometers throughout the villages without compensation—purely out of a love of books and an understanding of the importance of young people having access to them.

As he says in a video interview for Zooppa, “I have always thought that children should be given the opportunity to learn interesting things everywhere, not just while they’re at school.”

##

Photo: Bibliomotocarro Facebook. Follow @CatJohnson on Twitter