Vintage Italian Postcards

Valerio Scanu wins the Sanremo Festival 2010 with "Per Tutte le Volte Che"

2010-02-21T19:16:00.002Z

Per tutte le volte che is a song with a notable vocal difficulty but also with a single instantaneity..

"Each time i sing it, i think at the words thus whispered, by moment timidly sang, and on other time with a feeling of rage which comes to express a discomfort and then explodes in the refrain with this melody which falls, raises you and cut your breath. It's like looking at a small world with its details and its characteristics of every day, the troubles, fights, bad moments in the verses... And then the refrain which , on the other hand, brings you above the mounts and the clouds in a happy coasting flight...»

http://www.valerioscanu.com/

Trevi, Umbria - A week without TV

2010-01-27T12:28:00.000Z

The Italians - watch on average 28 hours of TV per person per week as compared to 28 hours of weekly viewing by the average Italian. In Italian homes there is nearly always a television in the kitchen as well as in other rooms and it is usually left on during mealtimes.

When a school in Trevi [Umbria] asked two classes to participate in a project in which not only the children but also their parents would spend one week without watching the television at all, then, the families foresaw a difficult seven days. However, 41 children between the ages of 8 and 11 and their families agreed to try, denying themselves the use of video and computer games as well, reports La Repubblica.

The project, called “Oltre lo Schermo” [“Beyond the Screen”] was the idea of Umbrian journalist and mother Giovanna Grieco, who only allows her own son to watch TV for a short time each day. He spends the rest of his free time reading stories and playing games with his family. Ms Grieco suggested games and activities that the children could do in the afternoons at school or at home instead of watching TV.

The emphasis was on interacting with the people around them.
In all, 28 children got through the “week without TV” and they kept diaries of their difficulties and discoveries of other ways to spend their time, such as helping their mothers with the cooking, reading in the school library or enjoying playing games with their parents.

“We enjoyed turning the TV off every time Dad switched it on”, reported eight-year-old twins.
It seems that the older children found the sacrifice harder than the younger ones. The school is happy with the outcome and may extend the project to include other classes in the future.

"What’s Fashion About?”

2010-01-14T22:06:00.000Z

"What’s Fashion About?” is the title of the 77th Pitti Uomo [Pitti for Men] Fashion Show which is taking place at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence until 15th January. This is the event that opens the international fashion fair season every year and exhibitors from all segments of the fashion industry participate, including textile manufacturers, garment makers, textile machinery and technology manufacturers, embroidery companies, makers of trimmings and accessories and even laundries. In all 730 exhibitors and 905 brands are participating.

The organisers say that, because of the recession, all fashion houses have been rethinking their strategies and Pitti have reflected this by breaking with tradition in the design of this year’s exhibition space. Spanish designer and architect Patricia Urquiola has revolutionised the design of the main pavilion and, on the lower floor, she has created a “fashion district”. Here the exhibitors’ stands are smaller than in previous years so that there is more space between them to encourage people to stop and talk. “Give up a little of your space so that there is room for all” is the message.

Exhibitors hope that the autumn-winter 2010 – 11 collections will mark a turning point for the industry as it comes out of recession but everything depends on the army of international buyers – 22,000 of them attended the last winter fair - who can make or break a brand. The upturn in the industry’s fortunes is expected to begin with the export market which decreased by 19.6% last year. The fashion companies particularly hope to be able to export their goods to the USA.

Yesterday Lars Nilsson showed elegant outdoor wear for men along with brightly patterned scarves. The waistcoat is definitely back in his suits and evening jackets featured a Bogey cut. Japanese designer Jun Takashaki showed in Italy for the first time in the setting of the Boboli Gardens in the evening. Corleani are showing at the Pitti for the first time. Pitti_W Woman Precollections are showing simultaneously at the Dogana. These are collection previews taking place in an exhibition space designed by Oliviero Baldini.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/firenze/whats-fashion-about

Darwin Day - Perugia 2009

2009-12-07T11:31:00.000Z

To commemorate the centenary of Darwin's Evolution of the Species theory, the Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti di Scienze Naturali, the Centro di Ateneo per i Musei Scientifici have scheduled a long series of events throughout Umbria for Darwin Day from February through to December.

Email: segreteria@perugiasciencefestival.it

Forget Van Gogh's ear - it's Galileo's molar

2009-12-07T11:18:00.001Z

A private art collector who recently purchased a seventeenth-century box containing unidentified “artefacts” must have had a gruesome surprise when he opened it, for it contained a human tooth, a thumb and a middle finger, later authenticated as having belonged to none other than Galileo Galilei [1564 – 1642] who was condemned by the Vatican for claiming that the Earth moved around the Sun.

The collector contacted the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence and the Museum’s director, Paolo Galluzzi, pieced together the story:
when Galileo died, those close to him feared that the Church would refuse him burial in consecrated ground because of his “heresies” so his body was taken to a small room beneath the bell tower of Santa Croce.

In 1737, 95 years after the astronomer’s death, his body was removed from its “temporary” grave and placed in a monumental tomb in the Basilica itself. It was during this process that Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, chief physician of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova Gualtieri, removed the tooth, two fingers and the thumb from the right hand and the fifth lumbar vertebra. He wrote that he found it difficult not to yield to the temptation to remove the skull too, for it “had housed such extraordinary genius”.

One of the fingers was kept in the Science Museum in Florence and the vertebra was conserved at the University of Padua, where Galileo had taught.
The other body parts, however, were kept in a blown-glass vase inside a wooden container and this was passed down the generations of a noble family. Eventually, no one in the family knew what was in the container and they sold it. All trace of it was lost by 1905. Then suddenly it turned up at auction.

The rediscovered relics will be displayed in the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence when it reopens next year as the Museo Galileo.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/

Wine of the Month: Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia

2009-11-16T12:16:00.000Z

Ten years old and still going strong. First made in 1997 and released in 1999, Le Serre Nuove is a complex aromatic red by the acclaimed Tenuta dell’Ornellaia winery in Tuscany.

One of the Tenuta’s three wines, it came 12 years after the flagship Ornellaia and, like its big brother, it quickly garnered international praise.

Le Serre Nuove is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, mainly made with grapes from younger vineyards. Technically, it is a second vin, a byproduct of Ornellaia, because it is produced with base wines that don’t make the cut during the flagship wine’s extremely rigorous selection process.

But second vin doesn’t mean it is a second rate wine. Its combination of intense aroma, structure, balance, but also freshness, softness and approachability captured critics’ interest from the very early days.

Each of the base wines is fermented and aged separately, first in stainless steel vats, then in barrels. After 12 months, the blending takes place. Once blended, the wine is aged in barrels for three months, and in bottle for six more. The end result has been described as “gorgeous”, “mellifluous”, “very rich”, and “elegant”, and, over the years, was awarded a minimum of 88 points (for the 1997 vintage) and a maximum of 92 (for the 2004 vintage) by wine bible The Wine Spectator.

Now the tenth anniversary vintage, which dates from 2007, promises to be among Le Serre Nuove’s very best. The weather was perfect in September two years ago, with hot sunny days and cool nights, ensuring the grapes ripened to perfection.

"Having ideal conditions in September enabled a perfect, slow, steady ripening of the grapes," says Leonardo Raspini, general director and agronomist of Tenuta dell’Ornellaia. "In this way, the grapes mature with a good concentration of aromas and polyphenols and without any hint of overripening.”
The resulting wine has “a complex bouquet, with intense red berry fruit, sweet spice and balsamic mint and eucalyptus accents," according to Axel Heinz, winemaker of Tenuta dell’Ornellaia. “Ample and silky on the palate, it displays an elegant, deft tannic structure, fresh sweet fruit, and intense minty accents.”

The 2007 vintage of Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia is available now.

Vampire trips in Volterra

2009-11-12T18:15:00.001Z

Why are young people [and some of their mothers] flocking to the small Tuscan town of Volterra?

Ah, romance is far from dead in the twenty-first century and these particular pilgrims have set out for the “shrine” where Stephanie Meyer, the author of “Twilight” and “New Moon”, set a particularly important scene between her heroine Bella and Edward, the vampire she loves.

Volterra is also where the elite vampire coven, the Volturi, reside in the books and films of the “Twilight Saga”.

The film version of ”New Moon”, starring Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward, is due to be released on November 20th in the USA and Italy and on November 27th in the UK. Despite a vigorous online campaign for filming in Volterra the Italian scenes were actually shot in nearby Montepulciano but that has not stopped the townsfolk of Volterra from making the most of the tourism opportunity which has come their way: you can book Vampire Tours, New Moon weekends and a tour called “Hot on the trail of Bella and Edward”. You can buy “New Moon” mugs, calendars and even soaps.

Should you be in the town and suffer from “New Moon fatigue”, you can always explore the walled city itself, with its Roman Theatre, palaces, Museo Etrusco Guarnacci and twelfth century Duomo. And should you need a complete change of scene, you can escape to the medieval hill town of San Gimignano.
“New Moon” is not Volterra’s only claim to literary fame as the Italian novel “Chimaira” by Valerio Massimo Manfredi is set there and the town is mentioned in Dudley Pope’s “Captain Nicholas Ramage” series. In real life the French author Stendhal had a disastrous encounter with his unrequited love there.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/volterra/vampire-trips-volterra

Chestnuts: a rare treat, and versatile too

2009-10-04T09:26:00.003Z

Hanging by a thread off laden branches, chestnuts sparkle like dark jewels.
They look like huge, fat raindrops, and gleam with a perfect deep brown gloss against the golden spines of the half-open burrs that hold them.
Deep inside—wrapped securely in the shiny peel's firm cocoon, sheltered by what remains of the prickly burrs—the straw-yellow core is ripening, getting ready to yield its sweet, nutty flavour to the voracious embrace of a roasting pan.

Soon starch will turn into sugar and the chestnuts will start falling with muffled thuds on the mossy undergrowth that carpets woods from Piedmont to Umbria.

Europe's oldest living chestnut tree, which stands in Sicily, is reputed to be more than 3,000 years old.
It is so big that legend wants it to have given shelter to a medieval queen, Joan of Aragon, and her escort of 100 knights on a stormy evening. If the story is true, it was already there when the Romans, who were great fans of the plant, started planting chestnut trees along the length and breadth of the Mediterranean basin.
The sweet nuts were so popular that even the empire's greatest poets sung of them in their work—in the Eclogues, Virgil recalled a dainty dish of chestnuts cooked in milk and eaten with cheese, while Martial raved about the roast ones he had in Naples.

In some areas, such as the Tuscan Apennine, chestnuts were the main staple since Roman times and throughout the Middle Ages - chiefly because of their nourishing qualities, though their reputation as aphrodisiacs can't have hurt.

Also from TuscanyIUmbria comes castagnaccio, a thin, textured, nutty cake made with chestnut flour peppered with pine nuts and rosemary.
Even richer is Monte Bianco, a rum-drizzled mountain of chestnut puree and cocoa, covered by a snow-white blanket of whipped cream.

And of course there are chestnut-filled tortelli, chestnut flour fritters,and the velvety marmellata di marroni—a chestnut puree blended with syrup and cooked until it becomes a deliciously sweet cream.

The best places to savour the nuts, both in traditional and innovative recipes, are the areas of production.
Virtually every hill or mountain wood in Italy will have a chestnut grove - they cover some 15% of Italy's wooded surface—but the most acclaimed nuts come from Tuscany and Umbria, Piedmont and Campania.

This is it - from 28.09.2009

2009-09-27T13:22:00.002Z

Celebrate Evensong in Morra, Umbria

2009-08-07T18:54:00.003Z

On the 29th of August there will be held a celebration vesper or evensongs to formalise an ecumenical meeting in Morra, in the Upper Tiber Valley of Umbria, between the Catholic Church represented by Bishop Cancian of the diocese of Citta' di Castello; Bishop Rowell, the Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe and Bishop Celoci of the Orthodox diocese of Italy and Malta.

This celebration is open to all men and women of goodwill and will be followed by a dinner.

Gian Carlo Vichi, 06 557 2754, 075 857 4140 is organising the event and will be accepting bookings for the celebration dinner, the cost of which is €22.00 per person.

Santa Rita of Cascia

2009-05-23T19:51:00.001Z

Words by Michelle Fabio

One of the most beloved Italian saints is St. Rita of Cascia, a native of Umbria who died in Cascia in 1456. Santa Rita is widely celebrated not only in the Green Heart of Italy but also throughout the country on her feast day, 22 May, with Mass, processions, and other festivities. St. Rita has a most interesting tale for a saint as she was married and had children.

Although St. Rita had always wanted to be a nun, she obeyed her elderly parents’ wishes to marry a harsh, immoral man when she was just 12 years old. She was a loyal wife and mother of twin sons for 18 years, but family life went sour when her husband was murdered and her sons sought revenge.

St. Rita tried to persuade them to change their minds, but when she realized nothing could stop them, she prayed they would be taken from Earth so they couldn’t commit murder themselves; they died of natural causes a year later. Alone in the world, St. Rita sought admission to the Augustinian convent in Cascia, but was refused because she was a widow. Eventually she was admitted, though--her entrance itself a miracle as she claimed to have been transported inside by her own patron saints, John the Baptist, Augustine, and Nicholas of Tolentino.

St. Rita is often portrayed holding roses and/or figs and sometimes with an injury to her head because when she had asked to suffer as Jesus had, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns on a figure of the crucifixion fell on her forehead and cut her. She is the patron saint of hopeless causes, abused women, and parenthood.

W Santa Rita!
http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy-featured/cascia/celebrating-st-rita-cascia

La Festa della Donna

2009-02-27T00:17:00.003Z

words by Michelle Fabio

International Women’s Day (IWD)
is held 8 March, and in Italy,it’s called La Festa della Donna.

The first IWD was really a National Women’s Day held in New York City in 1909;
by 1911, the idea of a day honouring women had spread to Austria,Denmark,
Germany, and Switzerland and now celebrations are held in countries throughoutthe world including China, Russia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

The symbol of the day is the yellow mimosa, and men are encouraged to give a bunch of them to all of the important women in their lives.

Read more about International Women’s Day at
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/

Italians to snub ST Valentine's day

2009-02-14T09:13:00.001Z

More than half of Italians expecting a gift from their lovers on Valentine's Day this weekend are in for a disappointment, the Coldiretti farmers' group said Thursday.

Some 52% of people in a poll by the union said they had no intention of digging into their pockets for a romantic present this year - an increase of 7% on Valentine rubbishers in 2008.

The economic crisis will also take its toll on lovers planning to shell out this year, with more people opting for cheaper gifts like flowers (25%) and clothes (11%), Coldiretti said.
Around 9% of Italians said they would buy chocolates or sweets - a 5% drop on 2008 figures, while just 3% were planning to buy jewellery - down 6% on last year.
But the group said florists expected to sell 20 million flowers this year, including 14 million roses, at a cost of 75 million euros.

Another farmers' group, CIA, said around 50% of under-18s would not buy presents this year, but 35% of these would say 'I love you' by SMS or email.
The president of consumer rights group Codacons, Carlo Rienzi, meanwhile started an official campaign to ''cancel St Valentine's from the calendar as a form of protest, not against those in love, but against a pointless recurrence of unrestrained consumerism''.

''Let's be honest, St Valentine's Day gets on everyone's nerves - both for singles, who feel alone and a bit sad, and for those in couples, who feel obliged to give something because of social convention,'' Rienzi said on his website, www.carlorienzi.it.

''People who are really in love should not feel pressured by this symbol of consumerism but should celebrate their love every day,'' he added.
Consumer rights association Adoc confirmed that lovers will also be saving their pennies on Valentine's meals, with 65% deciding to stay home and cook rather than go to a restaurant.
Among the most popular dishes people planned to prepare on Saturday were polenta with creamed cheese, 'trofie' pasta with flowers and pesto and buffalo mozzarella with tomato mousse, followed up by chili-pepper-flavoured chocolate, strawberries or spumante.

Not everyone was shying away from grand romantic gestures, however.
A Genoa bus driver has forked out 400 euros for advertising space on three city buses, one of which he drives, and which now bear the message ''Federica, I live for you only'' as a Valentine's present to his wife.
''It was simply a way of showing my love and affection for my wife. We've been married for 12 years and I love her to distraction,'' the doting driver said.

Consumer moans are also unlikely to stop lovers from turning out in droves at St Valentine's birthplace at Terni in Umbria.
Each year couples swear undying passion in the cathedral that houses the saint's head.
Couples also flock each year to the small Sardinian town of Sadali near Nuoro to ask the saint to look kindly on them and bless engagements.

The ritual has been going on for centuries in the town's 15th-century church, only the second in Italy to be devoted to St Valentine.
In local dialect the saint is affectionately known as Su Coiadori (''he who betrothes'') and many of the couples expect their pilgrimage to bless their marriage (''coias'' in dialect).
As well as saintly enterprises, Italy boasts other romantic rites for St Valentine's Day.
The small southern town of Vico del Gargano, for instance, has a 300-year-old tradition of garlanding a lovers' lane.

http://www.italymag.co.uk
Published on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 08:56 Life & Style

Caravaggio Created Firefly ''Photos''

2008-12-15T16:06:00.000Z

Caravaggio's reputation for revolutionary artistic genius has received a further boost following the discovery he may have used fireflies to create primitive ''photographs''.

Roberta Lapucci, conservation chief at the Florence-based SACI institute, believes the baroque artist created a firefly powder as an essential tool after converting his entire studio into a kind of camera obscura.

Writing in the monthly art journal Stile Arte, Lapucci reports Caravaggio filtered light through a purpose-made hole in his ceiling, using a biconvex lens and a concave mirror to reflect the image he planned to paint directly onto the canvas.

The use of a camera obscura to sketch the subject was not a new technique among artists, having gained prominence thanks to Leonardo da Vinci's writings.

The device works by projecting reverse images of outside objects onto the flat wall of a closed box through a lens in an aperture. By attaching a mirror to the apparatus, artists were able to trace the exact dimensions of the image onto a piece of paper.

Caravaggio spent months refining his technique, adjusting the light and the size of the models. However, by turning his entire room into a camera obscura, Caravaggio found himself working in the dark.

Lapucci believes this led him to create his own version of a distilled and dried firefly powder, first written about by the natural philosopher Giovan Battista della Porta in his 1558 work Magiae Naturalis.

Analysing the content of Caravaggio's paintings, Lapucci discovered traces of photosensitive substances that react to light.

She believes the master used a compound of white lead and firefly powder that allowed him to work in the dark, producing an outline on the canvas of the camera obscura image.

This produced a short-lived, fluorescent image, similar to a photograph, which he was then able to convert into a permanent sketch that formed the basis of the eventual painting.

The many techniques pioneered by Caravaggio (1573-1610) have confirmed his reputation as one of the most revolutionary artist of his time, although he is probably best known for his mastery of chiaroscuro lighting.

He abandoned the Renaissance focus on the human body and spiritual experiences for more realistic and dramatic atmospheres, mixing street characters with religious subjects.

http://www.italymag.co.uk

I Presepi

2008-11-25T16:50:00.000Z

The Christmas Nativity is a big part of Christmas, the local schools’ display, the miniature version in the local department store or large public displays in town centres the world over. Although not started by St Francis, it was popularised by him, when in 1223 he set up a living nativity in the caves of Graccio, Umbria. It featured people and animals who depicted the birth of Christ and it was said that the site was responsible for a number of miracles not long after this event.

During the Renaissance, craftsmen in Val Gardeno, a small valley in the Dolemite mountains began crafting and painting model figures of the nativity, the presepi, in the local stone. These would be brought out and displayed during the festive season and as word spread, people came from far and wide to see the annual exhibition of their work.

400 years later and the “Presepi” - the cribs as they are known in Italian, have now become a popular attraction, interest and hobby the world over. Although nowhere greater than their native Italy. These dioramas are made from a wide variety of materials, in Sicily they use coral, mother of pearl and bone, while wood, stone and clay are preferred in other regions. The most sought after Presepi are those from Naples where in the 18th century a flourishing trade developed producing the little models for the local gentry. Via S. Gregorio Armeno in Naples is still the most concentrated area in the world for the production of the figures.

While initially representations included the manger with baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and wise men, artists quickly added their own interpretations. Today you can add boxes of fruit and veg, joints of meat and fish, flagons of wine and trays of bread, a wide variety of buildings, outhouses and stables. In fact with enough money and space you could conceivable recreate Bethlehem itself.

During the Christmas season there a number of exhibitions of the “Presepi” art, fairs where you can start your own collection and re-enactments of the “living nativity”. The most popular being in Assisi where 60 to 70 locals in period costume and featuring many live animals recreate Christ’s birth. Other living scenes can be visited at Voteranno and Celaba, in the Upper Tiber Valley, while the Cathedral in Citta di Castello hosts the 9th annual Napoletani Presepi Exhibition with collections from all over Italy and Latin America.

Donatello's David returns to public gaze

2008-11-25T09:30:00.002Z

The first major work of Renaissance sculpture, Donatello's bronze of David, is nearing the end of a complex restoration process.

The statue will be unveiled to the public during an inauguration ceremony on November 28 in Florence at the Bargello Museum.
The final phase of the 18-month restoration has seen the famed statue entirely closed off to visitors because of the sensitive tools being used.

Technological innovations have been used throughout the process, such as laser combs invented specially to swipe clean the delicate gold leaf that decorates parts of the work.
The 200,000-euro project followed a major check-up on the state of the work, carried out early in 2007. The David was subjected to X-rays and a range of other more sophisticated diagnostic tests.

Most experts believe Donatello (1386-1466) sculpted the sensuous work in the 1440s.
It depicts David standing with one foot on Goliath's severed head. Apart from a hat and a pair of boots, David is naked.

At the time of its creation, it was probably the first free standing bronze nude since ancient times and it caused a sensation.

The almost feminine physique contrasts with Michelangelo's powerful, masculine depiction of the biblical figure, sculpted between 1500 and 1504.

It is also very different from Donatello's earlier marble version - created around 1412 - in which David is clothed.

Donatello, whose full name was Donato di Niccolo' di Betto Bardi, was the son of a Florentine woolcomber.

As a teenager, he worked in the studio of noted sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Later, he travelled to Rome with the great architect Filippo Brunelleschi to study the monuments of antiquity.

Donatello's dramatic departure from stylised Gothic art is credited with kick-starting the Renaissance.
The Florentine sculptor even anticipated the use of perspective that is often thought a painterly invention - as can be seen in his early bas relief of St George and the Dragon on Florence's Orsanmichele church.

Other major Donatello works include a grim prophet called Habbakuk - or popularly, Zuccone (big head) - on Florence's Duomo and an equestrian warlord in Padua called the Gattamelata.

www.italymag.co.uk

Upper Tiber Valley - the 90th anniversary of the ending of the Great War.

2008-11-06T10:33:00.002Z

Yesterday evening saw the launch of the exhibition in the Upper Tiber Valley of the exhibition to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the ending of the Great War. Historical enthusiasts were amazed by the wealth of detail assembled by Alvarro Tachini, during the four years of preparation for this event, from personal sources in the local Upper Tiber Valley, not just the fighters, but also their families.

The Mayors of Citta' di Castello (Umbria) and San Sepolcro (Tuscany) gave short addresses and read a letter from the President of the Italian Republic complimenting the organiser, Mr Tachini, because, probably, for the first time, two compeditive adjoining Italian regions had combined in complete harmony in order to support this wonderful effort.

The total content of the exhibition has been photographed and reproduced in a most attractive format, and is now produced as a good quality book available to the public. ( price publisher details sponsor)

For students of this period, collectors, social historians and archivists, this work is an important and deeply moving account of the sufferings endured by all classes of the population, and which was repeated in different lands and different languages for most of the peoples of of a once divided Europe.

The terrible military casualties incurred during the war were overshadowed by the effects of the Spanish 'flu', a plague that struck down millions in the war torn countries, and then, to add to the misery, an earthquake. All of these grim details are recorded in the exhibition, and the book, and serve to remind us all that this valley in central Italy was not always the green and pleasant land that we find today.

Eurochocolate 2008

2008-10-02T10:10:00.003Z

Eurochocolate is preparing to inaugurate its fourteenth edition with ChocolAge, the Chocolate Era, that will take place from the 18th to the 26th October in Perugia. (www.eurochocolate.com).

The Food of the Gods becomes today's protagonist, influencing the habits daily life. Though it means, for example, communicating through a chocolate bar instead of a mobile phone, as it appears on the Italian communication campaign: “Cioccolato, senti quanto è buono” -“Chocolate, feel how good it is ”.

The images of the campaign actually portray many ordinary people using a chocolate bar as a cellphone for chatting, texting, taking pictures, listening to the music…Chocolate succeeds in catching modern technology in a funny and tempting trap. It turns in sweet batteries – The Chocopower – that bucks your day up and belongs to wellness and health after the entry of Chocopirin-A, already rebaptized “Chocolate Aspirin”. In Eurochocolate, then, insatiable lovers of chocolate, adults and children, will experience the Chocolate Era plunging in a present and futuristic dimension of over glowing delicacy.

Eurochocolate means also going through the culture of a fascinating town like Perugia, plenty of history, art and traditions that in nine days time becomes a huge chocolaterie en plein air to discover, also thanks to the successful Chococard offering sweet advantages for a funny experience in the name of leisure and goodness of chocolate. Advantages that will be immediately tangible among the stands of the Chocolate Show and those of the Rocca Pralina, two suggestive areas with more then 150 chocolate brands coming from each angle of the world.

Eurochocolate is also the instrument for promoting protection of important values as solidarity, biodiversity, traceability and sustainability of the production process of cocoa, aiming to guarantee a sustainable future based on the decrease of the differences between developed and developing countries.

With that mission, Eurochocolate World was born three years ago: a really appreciated vessel that promotes joint activities sponsored by international organization as ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) and Fairtrade TransFair Italia, one of the main organization for the certification of fair-trade products. Since then, Eurochocolate World confirms the success of the event in Perugia on this field as well, through concrete actions for economy development and awareness campaigns, beginning with the lessons of Equoscuola focused on fair-trade chocolate culture and addressed to the youngest generations.

Eurochocolate World hosts the second edition of the C8 (Thursday 18th October), the International Summit of the first eight countries world producers of Cocoa, that following the debate of last year on quality in cocoa production, will meet again in order to deal with the theme of Sustainability in the cocoa production process.

Another important vessel will be Equochocolate, the area dedicated to chocolate produced pursuing fair trade criteria, realized in collaboration with Fairtrade TransFair Italia.

www.eurochocolate.com

www.umbriaonline.com

La Lollobrigida revisits stardom with sculpture show

2008-09-07T16:54:00.001Z

Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida will be flashing her artistic talents in this Tuscan town, with an exhibition devoted to her sculpture.
Pietrasanta, a coastal town north of Lucca, is to showcase 30 bronze, marble and plastic sculptures by the actress.
The pieces will go on display later this month in the 14th-century Sant'Agostino Church, now an exhibition space, as well as outdoors in the central Piazza del Duomo.
The collection, the result of over ten years' work, is clearly inspired by the 81-year-old star's cinema career.
Many of the sculptures are portraits of her most famous screen characters.
A five-metre-high bronze statue, completed in 2002, will hold pride of place in Piazza Del Duomo. This depicts La Lollo as the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn's Quasimodo in the 1957 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A marble statue recalls the role that first won her international acclaim, the headstrong ''La Bersagliera'' in Pane Amore e Fantasia (1953).
Another marble piece 'La Amica' pays tribute to Lollobrigida's friendship with Marilyn Monroe while living in Hollywood.
But the exhibit also highlights the Italian's concern with the wider world, with a piece entitled Il Mondo per i Bambini (The World for the Children), recalling her years of work with UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.
This is not the first exhibit of sculpture by La Lollo, who is an honorary citizen of Pietrasanta where she has had an artist's studio for the last ten years.
A travelling collection of her work wrapped up with an exhibition in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 2003.
But while her sculpting talents have only come to public light in recent decades, La Lollo has had a lifelong passion for art.
As a young woman, she set her heart on an artistic career, winning a valuable scholarship to study sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before turning to acting.
In April 2000 she told Parade magazine that she ''studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake''.
In 1992 she represented Italy at the Seville Expo with a sculpture entitled Living Together, showing a child on an eagle, intended to represent harmony between humankind and nature.
Then French president, Francois Mitterrand, complimented her on the piece, later awarding her the Legion of Honour for artistic merit.
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in Subiaco, a town near Rome. She first came to the attention of Italian film directors as a beauty queen, after coming third in the 1947 Miss Italy competition.
Her Hollywood breakout film was the 1953 John Houston movie Beat the Devil although today she is still best known for the ''Pane, Amore...'' series
She rose to fame on the back of her prototype Latin beauty and her short ''tossed salad'' hairstyle. A kind of curly lettuce was even named ''Lollo'' in her honour.
In the 1970s she drifted away from acting but became a highly successful photographer and photojournalist, once scooping an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The exhibition runs in Pietrasanta from September 20 until November 16, after which it will tour the US.

www.italymag.co.uk

Etruscan tomb unearthed in Perugia

2008-08-12T09:33:00.003Z

An ancient Etruscan tomb has resurfaced after centuries underground during the course of building work in the central Italian city of Perugia.
The tomb, which has been preserved in excellent condition, contains seven funerary urns, the municipal archaeology department said.
It is in the shape of a square and was covered by a sheet of travertine marble, which had apparently remained untouched since being laid centuries ago.
The tomb is split into two halves by a pillar and there are two benches running along each side.
The funerary urns, which were placed on the benches, were marked with brightly coloured mythological and religious motifs.
A preliminary study suggests that writing on the side of the urns probably refers to a family that was called the Aneis.
In addition to the urns, the tomb also housed the remains of a bronze bed and various pottery shards.
The site was discovered during digging work for a new roundabout in the Strassacapponi neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Umbrian town.
The Etruscans are believed to have formed the first advanced civilisation in Italy, based in an area called Etruria, corresponding largely to present-day Tuscany, Umbria and northern Lazio.
By the sixth century BC they had become the dominant force in central Italy, but repeated attacks from Gauls and Syracusans later forced them into an alliance with the embryonic Roman state, which gradually absorbed Etruscan civilization.
Although the Etruscans had the upper hand in the early days and supplied Rome with the last three of its first seven kings including the famous Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud), the archaeological record of their once sweeping presence in central Italy is scanty compared with that of other civilisations.
Some historians have posited that the Romans actively tried to wipe out the traces of their predecessors, whose sensual and fun-loving approach to life contrasted with the spartan, austere and rigidly patriarchal life of the early Roman republic.
Most of what we know about their civilisation is based largely on archaeological finds, since much of their language has yet to be deciphered.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/umbria/etruscan-tomb-unearthed-perugia

Festival del Sole

2008-07-27T08:56:00.002Z

It is a triumph of all that is best about Italy. Music, art, wine, food and literature take centre stage among the narrow streets and vineyard-strewn slopes of Cortona during the Festival del Sole from August 2 to 10.

Now in its sixth season, the Festival is the brainchild of Barrett Wissman, head of arts management corporation IMG Artists, who first launched it in 2001 to celebrate “the art of life.”
This year, stars of the Bolshoi Ballet will open the event with an outdoor performance against the ancient tower and elegant palazzos of Piazza Signorelli, one of Cortona’s most scenic squares. Alexander Volchkov, Maria Allash and other soloists will dance old favourites from the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella and Don Quixote. It is the first time that ballet is included in the festival’s programming and, in the words of Wissman himself, “what better way to do that than to start with the renowned Bolshoi.”

Music on the other hand has long been the mainstay of the event, and this year’s packed calendar hardly disappoints. Tenor José Cura and soprano Ana Maria Martinez will sing some of Puccini’s most yearning arias—the heart breaking E lucean le stelle, from Tosca, Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly and Che gelida manina from La Boheme. Soprano Danielle de Niese and the Venice Baroque Orchestra will perform a selection of Handel’s concertos and arias, and violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Natasha Paremski will play Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi.
Wissman has also drafted in actors Gabriele Lavia and Robert Redford to read poems by Giacomo Leopardi and Robert Frost, marked by the mellow notes of Nicola Luisotti on the piano. And at lunchtime, Piazza della Repubblica will turn into an open-air theatre staging free concerts by the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. Pianist Piotr Anderszewski, together with Joshua Bell and the Verbier orchestra, will close the Festival with pieces by Mozart, Wagner and Mendelsshon.

“The Tuscan Sun Festival is a unique annual celebration of the arts set against the backdrop of the beautiful landscape of Tuscany,” says Wissman. “We are honoured to present this international festival every year and to once again welcome such a stellar list of artists to Cortona.”

But the Festival del Sole titillates the eye and the palate as much as the ears. Behind the sober façade of the Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, artist Sybille Szaggars will bring The Shape of Colour to life with her abstract paintings. The convent next door will be home to the Espontaneas exhibition of photographs by tenor José Cura, which focus on friendship, human dignity, poverty, old age, loneliness. It will also be the backdrop to cooking demonstrations by local chef Donatella Balducci, who will tease the tastebuds with nettle ravioli, lamb fricassee and almond brittle.
Art will also meet wine at the 13th century Palazzo Casali, where twenty-one artists, including Mimmo Rotella and Mark Kostabi, will display their works exploring music in art, while the Wine Consortium of Cortona, restaurateur Tonino and local shop Delizie Toscane will hold tastings of velvety wines, creamy cheeses and flavoursome cold cuts. And should this not suffice, there will also be wellness sessions, literary lectures and tai-chi every day around town.

To buy tickets to Festival del Sole performances,
+44 (0)20 8133 5571 (UK),
+1 646 797 2915 (US)
+39 0575 606 887 (Italy).

For further information visit the festival’s website, www.festivaldelsole.com.

Jazzy 35th birthday for Umbria Festival

2008-07-14T15:27:00.001Z

Umbria's renowned jazz festival kicks off this weekend, with another dazzling line-up of top Italian and international stars from the world of modern music.
Umbria Jazz, the largest European event of its kind, gets under way on Friday morning with a traditional street parade through Perugia's medieval centre, led by the New Orleans-based Coolbone Brass Band.
The festival, celebrating its 35th birthday this year, still refuses to be pigeonholed, insisting on a mix of old and new, as well as a variety of jazz-related genres spanning experimental, instrumental, vocal, pop and rock.
The top international names appearing include legendary jazz greats such as tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins in his only European performance of the summer and pianist Herbie Hancock.
Stars from a slightly younger generation range from the celebrated guitarist Pat Metheny, through award-winning vocalist Chaka Khan, to R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keyes.
Alternative rock band R.E.M. will play the festival's closing concert on July 20.
But as well as giants from the US jazz scene, the festival also promises a host of Italian greats.
Top of the list is Italy's most famous jazzman, trumpeter Enrico Rava, who will perform a tribute to Chet Baker on the 20th anniversary of his death.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Stefano Bollani will appear alongside Brasilian guitarist and singer Caetano Veloso in an unexpected and keenly awaited pairing.
Other names on the program include jazz clarinettist Gabriele Mirabassi, saxophonist Stefano di Battista with trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso, and the pianists Ramberto Ciammarughi, Danilo Rea and Riccardo Arrighini.
Umbria Jazz, which was founded in 1973 by Carlo Pagnotta, will host around 300 concerts over 10 days.
As usual, it takes place in a variety of different venues throughout the region, including public squares, gardens, theatres, monuments and even restaurants, although the big-name events are staged in the open-air Santa Giuliana Arena in Perugia.
Events at the arena require tickets but many of the festival's other events are free.
Throughout the festival, two outdoor platforms stand at either end of Perugia's central thoroughfare with free concerts of accessible, popular jazz music.
In total, around 30 concerts are staged each day, running from late morning until well past midnight.
Umbria Jazz runs from July 11 until July 20. For more information and a complete program visit the festival's website at: www.umbriajazz.com.

Cannes prize winners thank Italy

2008-06-02T22:07:00.000Z

The producers of the two Italian films that gained major honours at Cannes, Il Divo and Gomorrah, have thanked Italy for giving a lifeline to independent cinema.
Gomorrah, adapted from the Roberto Saviano bestseller of the same name, gave Cannes audiences a revealing picture of the Naples Mafia, the Camorra.
Il Divo, a nickname of ex-Christian Democrat premier Giulio Andreotti, provided an eye-opening portrait of the controversial statesman.
Gomorrah's producer Domenico Procacci said the gangland expose', directed by Matteo Garrone, could not have been made without the support of the Italian culture ministry.
''You can't rely on the market to make films like Garrone's,'' he said.
He said the ministry and other big funders like the public broadcaster RAI ''have worked very well in the past few years''.
Andrea Occhipinti, producer of Il Divo, said ''this backing has been fundamental for recent Italian movie-making,'' citing a string of festival hits that have spurred talk of a mini-renaissance for Italian cinema.
Il Divo, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, won the jury award, Cannes' third prize.
Gomorrah picked up the second-highest laurel, the grand prize.
It was Italy's best result at Cannes since two films shared the Golden Palm in 1972 - Francesco Rosi's The Mattei Affair and Elio Petri's The Working Class Goes To Heaven.
This year's Golden Palm went to a French film for the first time since 1987, Lauren Cantet's The Class.
Italy last won the Palme d'Or in 2001 with Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room.

Assisi Steps Back to the Middle Ages for the Calendimaggio

2008-05-04T08:16:00.002Z

Assisi

From May 8th to 10th the clocks in Assisi

will be turned back over 500 years for the city’s

Calendimaggio Medieval pageant, with people dressed in period costume,

processions, performers playing on period instruments,

archers, flag-throwers and more...
This important event will bring to Umbria thousands

of visitors from Italy and worldwide.

It is one of the most important events to take place

this year in the area.

Biagio Antonacci in Perugia

2008-04-10T11:37:00.002Z

Perugia

The popular Italian singer Biagio Antonacci will be performing at the Palasport Evangelisti on April 17th at 9.20pm, as part of his tour to promote his latest album "VICKY LOVE".
Info: Musical Box – Agenzia di Spettacoli

tel. 075 5056950 – 5156508.