We sent the Milan edition of whaiwhai to the press today. You might already know that it’s called Milano Diamante. But there are some things you definitely don’t know about it. We’ll list them below. First, though, mark your calendars: on Saturday, March 13^th at 11:00am, we’ll meet in front of the Palazzo Reale in Milan to unveil this new edition. To participate, write to: assessore.orsatti@comune.milano.it. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Tourism of the City of Milan. Send an e-mail to them and they’ll give you all the information you need to participate. Now for some of the highlights of this edition:

- Milano Diamante contains 45 great stories written by Paolo Roversi, an author who knows Milan backwards and forwards and has already fascinated readers with noir novels set in the city.

- We’re experimenting with the option of customizing your adventure through the city: when you start the game, you can choose to read mainly stories related to history, design or music. After working with consultants, we decided that the myriad facets of Milan merit a division of the stories into three categories: one for historical events and legends, one for the Milanese design tradition and notable personalities associated with it, and one for opera and other stories about music.

- Milano Diamante is officially sponsored by the Department of Tourism of the City of Milan and by the world-renown opera house La Scala, with the collaboration of the Triennale di Milano design museum. So we’ve already received lots of support.

- The search this time is for a stolen diamond. You must find it with the help of an inspector, who is trying to catch the nimble thief Salai.

That’s all for now. Hope to see you Saturday!

(illustration by Giovanna Nicosia)

“Do you find walking tours too passive, like sitting through a boring lecture.  Wish they were more like “The Amazing Race,” the popular CBS reality show?” It’s the opening of New York Times article (travel section), it appeared some days ago. The famous heading spoke about us and about Selectitaly, an American tour operator that suggests WHAIWHAI to American travellers.  We are grateful and pleased. It’s a good prelude to our next edition!

Thanks to The Ruyi, we learned many Venetian secrets. But clearly, an extraordinary, historic city like Venice has a lot more surprises in store. And there isn’t a more fascinating and mysterious time of year in Venice than during the Carnival. It’s the perfect occasion to rediscover the thousand facets of the city – with or without a mask.

That’s why we’ve teamed up once again with accomplished writer Alberto Toso Fei to create a new story about Venice, a story about Casanova and the follies of Carnival. It’s called Carnivalia, and it’s the official game of the 2010 Venice Carnival. This new WHAIWHAI arrival is different from the games you’re used to: it isn’t a guidebook separated into jumbled pieces, it’s a special map, one big folded sheet of paper that contains all the stories and directs you towards the places you’ll discover. Like the other WHAIWHAI editions, though, you interact with the game via text messaging on your mobile phone. Soon we’ll have some pictures to show you what it’s like. You will be able to buy the map for 8 euros at any time during the Carnival celebrations in Venice: they will be on sale at Sensation info points and at newsstands everywhere in Venice as an add-on to the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. In the meantime, you can read this short excerpt from the prologue and see if it doesn’t make you anxious to go on this new adventure.

Giacomo Casanova never died. No, I don’t mean to say that his fame or the spirit of his era have endured to the present. I mean to say that he is actually still living in Venice. He alters his identity from time to time; perhaps you even saw him this afternoon, not knowing who he was, sitting in a café or strolling about the Rialto. Who is Giacomo Casanova? It is I. And now I wish to introduce you to the madness that embodies my city.

For more information about Carnivalia, write to carnivalia@whaiwhai.com

Carnivalia also allows a set of collective events: here the calendar

Saturday 6 February 12 a.m. - railway station Venice (Sensation info point)

Sunday 7 February 15 p.m. -  San Marco place ( IAT point - near Correr museum)

Thursday 11 February 12 a.m  - railway station Venice (Sensation info point)

Saturday 13 February 15 p.m. - San Marco place ( IAT point - near Correr museum)

Sunday 14 February 12 a.m. - railway station Venice (Sensation info point)

Our WHAIWHAI reprint presentation was put on hold. But now the time has come to complete the circle of our four beloved cities. On Friday, January 22nd at 6:15pm, we will be at the Feltrinelli International bookstore in Florence to once again meet Luciano Artusi, author of the 2054: Florence stories, and celebrate with a team challenge round the city.  As usual, following the presentation we will split up into teams and let the games begin. Each team needs nothing more than a WHAIWHAI guidebook and a mobile phone. The challenge will last about two hours and, as always, the team that finishes first will win a fabulous prize. Once the game is over, at a splendid spot we can’t tell you about yet (because you see, that would be like revealing the secret formula!), we’ll all get together for a toast.

That’s all until Friday in Florence. If you wish, you can let us know you’ll be there by going to our Facebook page for this event or by writing to info@whaiwhai.com. Hope to see you there!

On January 7th, we played WHAIWHAI in Barcelona with pharmaceutical company Dompé: 250 employees lost themselves in the ancient streets of the Barrio Gotico on a hunt for the secret of Cristobal. Thirty teams ventured confidently and enthusiastically through a rainy Barcelona. A nice way to start 2010. You’ll find the video prologue to this story below.

If you’ll be going to Barcelona, give us a shout: you might be able to play WHAIWHAI there, too.

In February 2008, the first unconventional guide called WHAIWHAI was released for the city of Venice. This jumbled guidebook, combined with codes and text messages, introduced a new way to sightsee – by discovering a city’s secrets one by one. As you know, there are now four WHAIWHAI guidebooks about four beautiful Italian cities. After having received a prize from the President of Italy for best innovation in the tourist industry, we recently joined the RCS Media Group and the Marsilio publishing company. So today we are endowed with a widespread distribution network, a new graphic format and growing opportunities to develop.

For these reasons, we’ve decided to celebrate, and we’re going to do it in style. We’re planning a special simultaneous event in the three WHAIWHAI cities: on November 20th, we will officially re-release the entire collection in three bookstores. Then, as has become a tradition of ours at such events, we will kick off a challenge for teams in the streets and squares of all three WHAIWHAI cities. As usual, all you need to do is procure a guidebook (which you can buy, hot off the press, directly at the bookstore), form a team and bring your mobile telephone, which you will use to interact with the system that will handle this challenge. The experience will last about an hour and a half, leading the teams on different itineraries. The first team to complete their treasure hunt will receive a prize.

Here are the locations and times for the event. Choose where you want to play – we look forward to seeing you there.

VENICE: libreria Mondadori, San Marco 1345, 5:00pm

Meet the author of the stories: Alberto Toso Fei will be there

ROME: libreria Voltapagina, Via Piave 18, 6:30pm

VERONA: libreria Gheduzzi, Corso Sant’Anastasia 7, 6:30pm

This is one of the events in “Veneto - Spettacoli di Mistero”, the Veneto region’s mystery festival.

Meet the author of the stories: Francesco Mazzai will be there

What is it, you ask after us? So, these numbers and these little squares are original WHAIWHAI tools!