Since 2006 with the pibinko.org network we deliver projects related to protection and promotion of lesser-known assets, places, and people. We work with a diverse range of stakeholders, mostly private or non-governmental organisations.

We propose an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural intertwining of situations. This is perceived as confusing by most people, intriguing by many, and useful by some. We can help “many and some” with services which take the shape of creation or management of events, promotion, training, support to import/export or logistic, live music, etc. This is detailed in https://www.pibinko.org/services/. If you are in a hurry, please note our 2026 starting keywords (rivers, samurai, books) and our contacts micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

If you have time for a cup of tea, below you will find a showreel of things we did in 2025…with some phrases, some pics, and some links to review all of our blog posts (for this year we have almost 450, summing up material from our sites pibinko.org, unirural.org, jugbandcm.it e mappare.org).

A note on translations: historically (since 2006), we have always maintained a parallel (Italian/English) version of all our web sites. In the past few months we have started to reduced the “to English” translation of our Italian content as a part of the uni*rural* cultural mediation approach. This means that when you are on the English version of our sites, you will tend to lose a lot of cool blog posts, videos etc. We encourage you to stay on the Italian version of our sites (unless we are collaborating on some international initiative). If you require more information on any Italian-content page, we will be happy to provide it (just write or call).

January: Taking it Easy

The “Low Pressure Rider” lyrics were written. Initially this was fitting in a “Riders of the Storm” by the Doors groove. Then Wolfgang said this was too slow, so it became more of a country-Johnny Cash kind of thing! A couple of gigs with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere. Relatively calm: https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/01

February: Tattistampa ruleZ

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/02 – A lot of Tattistampa promotion (always using Simone Sandrucci’s JBCM title track), plus some promotion for other friends of the network. palla a 21/palla eh! tutorial in the Gavorrano (Southern Tuscany) secondary school. This was for an Erasmus project involving students from the Canary islands (in collaboration with friends from Vetulonia).

March: Tattistampa in the press, once again…

Once more we supported Tattistampa in his open day for the “Tag der Druck Kunst”. This was extensively featured in the local press (https://www.pibinko.org/tattistampa-tirreno-20250315/). More promotion for network “associates” in Tatti and Livorno. Final events for the “CIRCOLARE” project, where pibinko was hired in 2024 to provide mapping support and consulting. https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/03

April: Come she will, with ball games and impromptu biographies

There was the second ball game tutorial in Gavorrano, spawning a TV interview (April 10, TV9), plus more palla-related meetings in Sassetta. “A piedi nel Far West, Itinerari enogastronomici maremmani” by Irene Pellegrini, a book on hiking and eating in Maremma (Southern Tuscany/Northern Latium) was published. The book actully contains pibinko’s biography in four pages (although he didn’t realise this was coming when he was interviewed in 2024 by the author): https://www.pibinko.org/a-piedi-nel-far-west-itinerari-enogastronomici-maremmani/

Overall: https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/04/

May: Approaching warp speed

Between april 30 and May 1st creative and performative energies were split between Le Rose Selvatiche (the Tatti May singers) and the traditional May celebration in Torniella. The Jubel Tour was announced. “111 Luoghi delle Maremme che devi proprio scoprire” was published, containing more “slots” covering parts of the pibinko network components (Palla a 21, featuring a photo shot by pibinko, and Tattistampa). The first Maremma Cross-Border Hiking Festival was announced. This came from an idea by Irene Pellegrini and was promoted with the support of the pibinko.org network. We had a non-casual afternoon studio recording session in Sesto Fiorentino with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere. This was for a track with Dario Canal and his solo project (https://www.pibinko.org/pomeriggio-da-shed-626/). The production of a documentary featuring Wolfgang (whom in turn involved the Jug Band Colline Metallifere) begin. We also started the collaboration with Riccardo Franchini, a young anthropologist at the beginning of his PhD in Siena, triggered by his contact with ASBUC Tatti.

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/05

June: cross-border festivals, ball games, and German tours

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/06 – FTEM, Jubel Tour, S. Giovanni palla tournament in Sassetta (the first after decades)

July: mapping folks, promoting project results, and events in the Pisa area

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/07

August: Photo editing, updating our presentations, and place name studies

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/08

September: “…you know from the beginning that it would end like this”

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/09 – a lot of focus on the Jubelfest, but also some Farma Valley m(‘)appare with former colleagues. Random kittens. The idea for the fourth Farma Valley Winter Fest was launched (with an e-mail on Sep. 15)

October: smiling railways, and challenging olives.

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/10 – Having shared the idea, the preparation for FDIVDF4 starts rolling. This is in parallel with more research and projects (including olive harvesting), always with a soundtrack. The uni*rural* project is launched (https://www.unirural.org/en/project/).

November: almost all the leaves are brown, but the sky is not gray

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/11 – ….and, following https://www.unirural.org, also https://www.mappare.org, is launched. This is the site dedicated to m(‘)appare with the pibinko.org network.

December: “No Sleep Till Booking!”

https://www.pibinko.org/it/2025/12 – things keep flowing, at (at least) two latitudes. We start with m(‘)appare Tilane, while the GuidAgenda on which we worked in August and September is published. The Farma Valley Winter Fest will require a dedicated report, which will be available by mid January.

…and what about 2026?

Since September 2025 we are at work on a calendar of activities running through Sep. 2026. Unless weird or ugly things happen, it should be more or less like 2025, but with improvements (for all). Starting keywords are: rivers, samurai, books.

If you liked our 2025, and would like to be part of 2026 with the pibinko.org network, you may first of all support our activities (https://www.pibinko.org/support), and/or request one or more of our services (https://www.pibinko.org/services).

For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

Sigla:

In the pibinko.org network we like multi-cultural approaches, and trying to relate to different languages is step 1. For a start, we normally work in four-five languages (Italian, English, French, Portugues, and German rising in the past ten years). But this is not enough, and we keep challenging our team…e.g. over the past five years Albanian is trending for some of our projects.

To date, our flagship initiative in terms of multi-language production is the translation for “The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombies” short movie back in 2006-2007. The movie is in Italian, and has English subtitles in the DVD. We then managed to get the German translation (but did not make it to add it to the subtitles). However, we did manage to get the translation of the title in 29 versions, combining languages, dialects, and including very peculiar scripts such as Egyptian hyeroglyphs. This was all done without using internet resources or mailing lists. All by direct physical interactions.

For Japanese, our colleage Claudia Ceroni proposed:

So now you have a little context…and this is our next task:

We would like to find the best Kanji representation to express the concept of a “musical samurai”. A musician who sees music and art has his/her masters and serve them to the benefit of the land…kind of.. (for the persona we have in mind we don’t need to be too strict on the analogy to the mission of a samurai).

We did a little bit of non-AI-supported internet homework, and found the combination that we are showing in the header image, but we are not sure.

We are reaching out to Japanese folks to check if this could be ok, or if you could kindly suggest a more appropriate representation.

Please write to segreteria@unirural.org for any feedback. We will be glad to credit any productive response, and to compensate it with something typical from Tuscany (with the type of product to be defined depending on the country where you reside, as there are limitations to shipping food and beverage to certain locations).

p.s. An interesting, albeit a bit warped, case of the character we are developing is told in the Six-string Samurai movie. We have a DVD copy of this in the pibinko.org stuff-o-theque.

He has an MS in environmental engineering (1993) and a PhD in Hydraulic Engineering (1997), both from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is specialized in geographic information systems and environmental data management with a track record of numerous of research and engineering projects spanning from local to international scales. Since 2006 he has started to develop a series of original projects, which have been considered very creative, in the sectors of culture and territorial promotion. He works primarily in four languages (Italiano, English, French, and Portuguese) and has always a priority on multicultural and social impact aspects in his activities. Below is a list of some of his main projects.

“Engineering” projects

Among others:

• he was part of the design team of the largest remediation wetland in Europe, 100 hectares in Fusina, south of Venice,
• he has managed utility surveys in large industrial facilities (e.g. Porto Torres, in Sardinia)
• he has provided GIS and data management support to studies on contaminated site remediation in Italy (e.g. Campiano, Tuscany) and abroad (e.g. industrial landfill in Lauterbourg, France).
• he has worked on several projects in the tourism sector (between 2016 and 2025 he was part of the design and implementation team for about 2000 km of hikes and trails in Tuscany).
• He has designed and managed the fast-track georeferencing of about 10000 garbage collection points in the provinces of Grosseto, Siena e Arezzo (to support the subject which is currently providing the waste collection service in Southern Tuscany).

In his capacity as an engineer and a researcher he has been invited in various occasions to provide support to policies, regulations, and governance reviews, including research ethics. E.g., he has collaborated with the European Commision as a facilitator for the development of the INSPIRE Directive on spatial data infrastructures, and as an expert in the definition of the EU position with respect to the Digital Earth initiative (2010).

Creative and innovative projects

Since 2006 he started to develop a line of work which was initially considered “out of the box” of this STEM career, although the same activities are today fully integrated in his engineering and research work:

• he wrote the script for a horror movie, The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombies, which was the co-produced with Lucio Monocrom as a director. The production involved aroun 35 people and five location around Milan, Italy (2006-2007)
• he organized the mission of a crew of twenty players of an ancient ball game from Southern Tuscany to Chicago, Illinois (2007)
• he launched in 2008 a citizen science project on light pollution and night sky quality monitoring (BuioMetria Partecipativa), preceded by m(‘)appare Milano, a crowd-mapping campaign of the city
• During the first lockdown (March-May 2020), he designed and managed the Participatory Lithology project (with 20 participants from five Italian regions)
• In 2024 he launched the first national survey of hand-made crochet Christmas trees (the second survey will be out soon).
• With the stage name Jack O’Malley, in 2017 he started, with Dario Canal, Simone Sandrucci and Wolfgang Scheibe, the Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere, an international and inter-generational project combining music and territorial promotion, including four tours in Germany, over a hundred events in Italy, and providing “musical facilitation” services.
• Counting from Spring 2007 he has organized, co-organized or supported many (at least 200) events on different scales (from small snacks in bars to multi-day festivals), including a mini-soccer match in Edinburgh

Pibinko’s creative projects have been frequently covered by Italian national media, including: RAI 3, RAI 2, RAI Radio 2, Radio 24, Radio Montecarlo, Topolino (Mickey Mouse magazine), La Stampa, Grazia, Radio Popolare Milano (just to mention the main ones, please see: https://www.pibinko.org/in-the-media/), and have received attention by international media. They have also received prizes and recognition (again, in Italy, and internationally).

The uni*rural* projects

Most projects developed since 2007 have been based in marginal rural areas. This has led to develop a line of work which is not, in fact, oriented to promote rurality as a bucolic enviroment or as an escape destination for city dwellers, but to contribute to the creation of a new awareness on the relationship between cities and countryside..

Most of these projects have started in Souther Tuscany. However, this was not done with a logico of “local promotion”. Rather, this area for the pibinko.org network is a sandbox for activities which have worked well for the Tuscan communities, but can easily be replicated annd adapted in other settings, ideally as a part of an exchange program, and not as an “export” activity.

As a consolidation of these activities, in October 2025 pibinko launched the uni*rural* project. This is a non-formal education course with six subjects (games, landscapes, arts, very-applied acoustics, physical education and “cynic” education). This will take place between December 2025 and June 2026, with various connections to universities, research institutions, and various local communities: https://www.unirural.org/en/project/.

For more information

• To know more about the services offered by pibinko and his network: https://www.pibinko.org/services
• To have an idea of the effects of these services: https://www.pibinko.org/effects-of-the-pibinko-org-network/
• If you are interested in “civic-environmental” engineering services with a synaesthetic approach: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +3317539228

Photography and graphics credits

• header image: pibinko with some of his collaborators (left to right, Guimaraes, Dante, and Mauro Tirannosauro), plus various props (Nov. 2, 2025) -thanks to KJD.
• Logo: The fifth quadrant (created by pibinko in 2006)
• Middle photo: the Hungry March Band from Brooklyn in Cagliari, Sardinia, 2005, by pibinko
• third image: part of one of the “rural triptychs” by Wolfgang Scheibe, aka Tattistampa

This is for those who want to attend, for those who would like to attend but cannot make it, and for those who do not want to attend. The data collected will be used for statistical purposes. If you fill in the form by Friday, Sep. 19 11:59PM (CET), come to the fest, and go to say hello to Wolfgang (aka Tattistampa) you will receive a cool souvenir.

For more info on the Jubelfest: https://www.pibinko.org/jubelfest, micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228

IRIS Ambiente is an environmental engineering and consulting company which has been active for over 30 years, based near Florence, Tuscany. One of its key business lines is the design and development of ecotourism solutions. In the map you find a selection of trails and hikes designed by IRIS Ambiente, with the collaboration of the pibinko.org network since 2016.

For more details (in Italian): https://www.irisambiente.it/esperienze/ecoturismo. For inquiries in English: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

PLEASE NOTE: this map provides an overview of the designed trails, but it does not certify the current conditions/maintenance of the trails. We encourage you to contact the subjects in charge of the trail maintenance for more information (or contact us at micalosapevo@pibinko.org o 3317539228).

For other maps in the pibinko.org network.org: https://www.pibinko.org/maps

Photo credits: Maurizio Bacci/IRIS Ambiente

With two more dates in addition to the ones initially announced.

• 20-6 – Poppenweiler – private event
• 21-6 Munich – Vits Cafe
• 22-6 Munich – Pineapple Park/Midnight Bazar
• 24-6 Marbach – Café Provinz
• 25-6 Bartenstein – Löwen
• 26-6 Alt-Hoheneck (Ludwigsburg) – Krone
• 27-6 Backnang – Waldheim bei Vesna
• 28-6 Erdmannhausen – private event
• 29-6 Stuttgart – Tatti Stay and See

• Listen to some of our songs: https://open.spotify.com/album/0Gbs7cj3s9VSmmyqRigT51)
• For more information and booking: jugbandcm@pibinko.org or +393317539228, and http://www.jugbandcm.it

Roccalbegna is the most representative village in the upper Albegna valley, with narrow alleys overlooked by the Aldobrandeschi family fortress. Once a very important locality (actually with more population than Grosseto until the beginning of the 20th century), Roccalbegna is currently the third last municipality with respect to population density, and the last in Tuscany with respect to average pro capita income.

Roccalbegna has an important role in relation to our festival, with Ugo Contini Bonaccossi and his wine production, the restaurant La grotta, and lodging with the cooperativa di comunità David Lazzaretti and albergo La Pietra.

For more information on the festival:

• Presentation: https://www.pibinko.org/ftemaremme-presentation/
• Programme: https://www.pibinko.org/ftemaremme-schedule/
• Registrations and more information: festivalescursionismomaremme@gmail.com or phone/whatsapp +393287178272.

The festival comes from an idea by Irene Pellegrini –travel and migration sociologist, hiking guide, and writer- who also acts as the festival director. The event is supported by municipality of Semproniano, the social promotion association La Piazzoletta, Sentieri Liberi – Murci and by the pibinko.org network.