As part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Grazia Deledda, the Sardinian writer Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926, the Province of Nuoro and the artistic director of the committee for the Deleddian celebrations Anthony Muroni have focused strongly on innovation.

This is how the Alexa skill “Words of Grazia” was born. A service that allows you to listen to literary passages and get to know the places of the writer through a selection of voice messages accessible from all over the world. It is a historic achievement: after Dante Alighieri and Pope Francis Grazia Deledda is the third important personality of international importance to go on artificial intelligence.

“The audio contents are easily accessible with a voice command that can also be activated from your smartphone,” explains Muroni. “We thought that in this way we can bring the woman and the artist back to life, through an oral and listening experience, while creating a tourist and literary guide available to enthusiasts and tourists”.

“There are in fact three experiences of use of the application” explains the extraordinary commissioner of the Province of Nuoro Costantino Tidu, “diversified according to the interests of the user. An invitation to travel: a literary tourist guide in which the user can query “Words of Grazia” about each of the deleddian places mapped. An invitation to read: an introduction to the works for those who want to venture into the literary world of the author. And finally tell me about yourself, where Deledda tells Grazia. In other words, we will discover the life and personality of the author by listening to the words taken from some autobiographical passages”.

“In this way an artificial intelligence system is put at the service of culture” addsFabrizia Sanna, Executive of the Province of Nuoro..

The audio contents with the writer’s songs can be listened to in Italian and English, to reach the public of tourists or international readers scattered all over the world, and are read by professional speakers including Marisa Serra, the actress who plays Grazia Deledda in Daniele Maggioni’s film “Cercando Grazia”. “Parole di Grazia” was technically created by the company Netsoul of Cagliari, specialized in the development of innovative systems.

To date, there are more than 100 million Alexa-enabled devices worldwide, including smartphones, PCs, tablets, smart speakers, smart TVs, and displays in cars.