ItalyUpdate

Rome's Porta Maggiore, a busy crossroads of tram terminals and flanked by a railway line, hides a little-known treasure 9 metres under the present road level. The Underground Basilica has been closed for many years, due to its fragile state of preservation.

It has long been a tradition in Naples to offer a caffè sospeso. Customers in caffes often pay for two espressi at the till – one for him/herself and the other sospeso for any passer-by who can't afford to buy one.

International Swiss artist John Armleder has designed eight original installations to decorate the windows of La Rinascente, Milan's most famous department store, based on the theme: Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, it's Xmas again.

I Parchi Più Belli D'Italia (Italy's Most Beautiful Parks association) offer a programme of events for the festive season involving historic gardens all over the country. These are only a few examples:

The traditional torchlit Christmas celebrations at the winter ski resort of Abbadia San Salvatore on the slopes of Monte Amiato (Tuscany) start off early this year. The 4^th December 2015, the feast of the patron saint, St. Barbara, protectress of miners, will be marked by the inauguration of the new Multimedial Museum to complement the town's Mineral Park Museum, located partially in the former Monte Amiata cinnabar mercury mine.

In 2013, Lazio region passed legislation protecting its patrimony of monumental trees, declaring that every civic area should submit a censor within the end of this year 2015. this objective is unlikely to be reached by the deadline, due to scarcity of funds, however, the operation has been initiated by the Corpo Forestale dello Stato (State Forestry Corps) which has the task of documenting ancient trees both in the wilds and on private land, to guarantee their future protection.

Italy's 10 Geoparks received UNESCO recognition at the recent 38^th Plenary Session of the UNESCO meeting in Paris. The geoparks organization was launched some years ago in order to meet the need to recognize, at an international level, sites of geological interest.

A market-fair of the best of Tuscan organic produce takes place in Florence between the 17^th -28^th  November 2015. The show is the last in a series of initiatives linked to Expo 2015 promoted by the local Chamber of Commerce and various producers' associations.

^{The on-going restoration of Piero Della Francesca's majestic masterpiece The Resurrection of Christ continues to produce surprises as work continues. The Resurrection, thought to have been executed around the 1460s, when the artist was working in nearby Arezzo, is frescoed on the wall of the Civic Museum in the town of Sansepolcro (Tuscany) and continues to be visible throughout the restoration period.}

^{The annual competition to nominate the most beautiful Italian garden of the year saw dual wiunners in this edition: the laurels went to both the Villa Medici in Rome, seat of the historic French Academy, and the Ninfa Gardens in the countryside some 80 kms south of Rome.  The winners were chosen from over one thousand candidates.}