ItalyUpdate

The 34^th edition of BIT, Italy’s annual international tourism fair, opened on the 11^th February 2014 under the best auspices, with an increase of 8% in the number of stands exhibiting. This year’s edition of the week-long Fair, held in Milan, has attracted over one thousand tour operators from 64 countries, 54 % of which participating for the first time.

 

Art installations and theatricals dominate the scene on the 16th February 2014 at Moncalieri (near Turin), when the inhabitants of eleven surrounding borghi, will be involved in presenting their home district in novel ways.

 

 

The annual procession bearing the gigantic “Macchina di Santa Rosa”, patron saint of Viterbo (Lazio) has been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage listings, which highlight exceptionally interesting aspects of social and local cultural life in various countries. The 3 m-high illuminated tower, carried by hundreds of porters through the streets of the town every 3^rd September is an exciting and unique tradition that the UNESCO committee has judged worthy of being immortalized.

After a two year closure for restructuring, Rome prestigious National Museum of Musical Instruments has now re-opened. The collection is considered to be the finest in Europe, with just under 1000 exhibits on view, dating from the 5^th century BC onwards and includes some very rare and priceless pieces, such as the Guerracino spinet of 1692, one of the first grand pianos (1723), a gravicembalo con il piano e forte, prototype of the instrument we know today, a crystal flute and the lavishly gilded and decorated Barberini Harp.

Absorbed in her delicate task, Maddalena Forenza bends over her workbench in her familys historic studio, touching up a minute detail in the stained-glass panel before her. She explains that the pigments she is mixing have to be carefully gauged in order to create the ideal colour tones that will be enhanced as the lights passes through the window when it is set in its final position. This means she must also study the movement of the sun in situ and the quality of the light exposure. Subsequently, the stained glass may need three or even four firings to get every detail right. Its a fine science, perfected by her forefathers, Francesco Moretti and Ludovico Caselli, who founded the Studio Moretti Caselli in Perugia in 1860.

The final return of the two Riace Bronzes to the Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria was hailed as a magnificent Christmas present for art lovers worldwide. The museum had been closed for restoration since 2006, with the Bronzes, the stars of its collection  housed temporarily in Palazzo Campanella, seat of the regional Calabrian government.

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The exciting now logo for the Italian Pavilion at EXPO 2014 was officially presented to the press this week by EXPO 2015 Commissioner General Ms. Diana Bracco. The design, consisting of a series of superimposed and entwining circles in red, white and green, the colours of the Italian flag, represents a tri-colour flower bud, in tune with the Pavilion theme of a Garden of Ideas, a nursery for new projects and proposals.

Italy Farm Holidays association holds its second annual fair at Milan between the 18-19^th January 2014. It promises to be a fun event, with 300 farms showing off their best home products and their animals, with special programmes for children teaching them the traditional arts of sowing, beekeeping, milking, olive oil grinding, carpentry and bulb planting, in addition to games, dancing and music.

UNIPLI (Unione Nazionale Pro Loco d'Italia Italy small towns tourist departments organization) are promoting regional dialects and local languages on the 17^th January 2014, In every Italian region, from Trentino to Sicily, Ligury to Calabria, the local tourist information and promotional offices in dozens of old borghi and communities where traditions are still proudly upheld, are holding events centred on the preservation of individual linguistic differences.

The Salento area of Puglia renews its traditional appointment with the Focara ritual at Novoli di Lecce on the 16th January 2014 when the gigantic bonfire, measuring 25 m high and 20 m in diameter, is set alight to mark the festival of Sant'Antonio the Abbot.