ItalyUpdate

UFFIZI TOPS COLOSSEUM

For the first time, visitors numbers at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in 2021 overtook those of Rome's Colosseum, traditionally Italy's top tourist attraction. The Uffizi's dynamic curator, Eike Schmidt commented with satisfaction on the boom of post-Covid visitors, who hit the 1.721.637 mark - 100,000 more than the celebrated Rome amphitheatre.

Interest in young visitors soared with the Vogue magazine photoshoot of popular blogger Chiara Ferragni, a Forbes-ranking “Top Fashion Influencer”. Shots of Chiara posing for the cameras in front of some of the Uffizi's most celebrated paintings last July made a huge social media impact, stimulating interest in young people who would not normally have flocked to museums and art galleries. Despite some criticism from purists concerning “the appropriateness” of allowing the photoshoot inside the Uffizi's hallowed halls, the general consensus was the “the end justified the means” and that encouraging art appreciation in the new generation could only have a positive outcome......

Info: Tel. +39.055 294883 www.uffizifirenze.it

KEEP THE DATES......with the POETS

The Keats-Shelley Memorial House Museum in Rome is launching the second part of its two-year bi-centenary programme commemorating the poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who both died in Italy within two years of each other and who are both buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome.

The celebration programme was launched in February 2020 at the British Ambassador's residence in Rome, followed by the launch of the video- documentary “The Death of Keats”, premiered on the 23^rd February 2021.

Despite the problems presented by pandemic restrictions, a series of online presentations, documentaries and readings have continued to be broadcast on YouTube over the past year by the Keats-Shelley House, in preparation for the main events programmed for this year.

John Keats died of tuberculosis on February 23^rd 1821 in what was a modest inn that has now become the Museum dedicated to the two poets on the Spanish Steps. He was only twenty-five. Percy Bysshe Shelley was 29 when he was drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia on July 8^th 1822. Both poets, although not popular in their lifetimes, subsequently achieved unparalleled fame and recognition, leaving an indelible mark on poetry in the English speaking world and beyond.

Shelley will be the focus of the Lerici Shelley Poetry Festival to be held between the 16th-19^th June 2022. Special guest will be UK Poet Laureate and Keats-Shelley Ambassador200, Simon Armitage. The Festival will feature contemporary poetry in both English and Italian, with main venue the splendid setting of the 19^th century Villa Marigola, whose English-style gardens are listed among the Most Beautiful Gardens of Italy.

The Bicentenary Commemorative day follows on the 8^th July 2022 in collaboration with the sister Keats-Shelley Association of America with a global online reading of “The Triumph of Life,” Shelley's last, unfinished work, translations of which will be recited in various languages, followed by a debate on the last days of the poet's life.

From the 8^th July until the 10^th December 2022, the focus will be on “Adonais”, the poem-elegy that Shelley dedicated to Keats, as a double tribute with a special exhibition in the KS House.

Celebrations are still in the air, however, with Lord Byron's Bicentenary events starting in 2023, so keep in touch.....

Info: YouTube: TheKeatsShelleyHouse www.ksh.roma.it

The Flower Festival of Merano (Alto Adige) returns promptly this year to usher in the spring. A regular appointment for cultivators and public alike, the Festival is known for its tradition of introducing rare and new plants. This year's version, in fact, displays exotic flora from four continents with considerable space given to rare examples of cacti, succulents and orchids, while a special display entitled: “Wunderkammer Botanica - Rare and Precious Plants of the Past for the Gardens of the Future” is dedicated to the vast and little-known family of Araliacee from New Zealand and Asia.

The Festival runs between the 23^rd -25^th April 2022

Info: Tel. +39.0473 272000 www.merano.eu/meranoflowerfestival

HAPPY EASTER

TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

LAZIO'S MYSTERIOUS TOMBS AND THE COSMIC EGG

In 1982, the unexpected discovery of some mysterious rock tombs, hidden under thick vegetation in the Alban hills some 30 kms from Rome, opened a whole new window of research concerning the prehistoric civilization of the region before the rise and dominance of Rome.

The two Grotticelle tombs on the slopes of the supposed extinct Lazio volcano have since been the subject of exploration on the part of committed local researchers and writers Daniele Cataldi and Riccardo Bellucci who have published some interesting conclusions concerning the tombs, as well as the possible situation of the mysterious town of Alba Longa, capital of the Latin peoples, defeated by the early Romans (according to Roman chroniclers) at the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC.

The Grotticelle tombs were both dug out of the rock and consisted of a narrow passageway entrance leading into a semi-circular burial chamber, large enough to contain more than one person. In 2007-2009 the tombs were cleared out and measured by state archaeologists and researchers from the University of Tor Vergata, Rome, who noted that the dromos, or entry corridor, of one of the tombs was the longest (9.60m ) so far found in this kind of tomb in Italy.

Even more fascinating is the strange monument known as “the Cosmic Egg” - an egg-shaped rock “temple”, with an oval chamber carved out at the top. This is situated in the same area, on the slopes of the crater lake Albano. This type of monument, which apparently originated in Mesopotamia, would appear to be unique in an Italian context.

Info: riccardobellucci61@gmail.com Itpaobserverproject@gmail.com

AMALFI'S HISTORIC PAPER MUSEUM RE-OPENS

Amalfi (Campania) has re-opened its historic paper mill museum after a prolonged closure due to Covid pandemic regulations. The Paper Museum is a unique institution situated inside a historic 13^th century mill, where visitors can observe the time-honoured bambagina process of converting rags into handmade paper using the newly restored traditional machinery.

The high quality of Amalfi paper was greatly appreciated over the centuries – among the distinguished customers were the Vatican and Mozart.

The mills were situated in the Valle dei Mulini (Valley of Mills), fed by the Canneto stream. At one point there were sixteen working mills in the valley, but most were destroyed during a catastrophic flood in 1954, leaving only three still operative.

The Paper Museum is open every day between 10-19.

Info: Tel. +39.089.8304561 www.amalfipapermuseum.com info@museodellacarta.it

ITALY OPENS EUROPE'S LONGEST ROAD TUNNEL

Italy scored a coup with the longest three-lane road gallery in Europe, the Santa Lucia tunnel, on the Autostrada del Sole Highway tract between Florence and Bologna, inaugurated on the 4^th April 2022. The tunnel is expected to cut motoring time by 30% and should decrease CO2 emissions by -2000 tons per year.

The 7.5 km. Santa Lucia tunnel runs under the Apennines on the Barberino-Florence section of the highway. The Florence -Bologna is one of the busiest roads in Italy, with a transit peak period average of 100 vehicles per minute.

Work on the gallery began in July 2017 and involved the use of the biggest tunnel boring machine (commonly referred to as a “mole”) ever employed in Europe and specially adapted for the project – the German Herrenknecht TMB, with an earth pressure balance shield of 15.87 meter – diameter. Tunnelling was completed in June 2020 and the subsequent work has been involved in perfecting security systems and testing.

Italy's Autostrada del Sole (Sun Highway), linking Milan with Naples, was considered revolutionary when it was launched in 1964. Since then, many more tracts have been added over the years, linking all the regions of the country, including the Reggio Calabria “toe of the boot”, the door to Sicily.

Info: www.stradeautostrade.it

ITALY'S LISTED STOLEN TREASURES

The annual report “Arte in Ostaggio” (Art held in hostage”) issued by the headquarters of the special branch of the Italian carabiniere for the protection of cultural heritage (TPC), is now available online. The reports contains lists of the most important works that have been stolen or illegally smuggled out of Italy.

Detailed information and photographs of the art works in question are given to help international police and antique dealers to identify paintings, antiquities and objets d'art of dubious provenance.

Among the “Wanteds” listed this year are an oil painting attributed to Luca Giordano: “Santa Maria della Luce”, (Our Lady of Light) looted in 1971 from the Church of Santa Maria della Luce in the town of Mattinata in Apulia, a 4^th century AD polychrome mosaic panel of a “Musiciolus” (a competition judge) lifted in the 1980s from the Roman baths in the archaeological area of Via Severino, Rome, and a 16^th century oil painting of “The Visitation” by Claudio Ridolfi, stolen from a private house in 2018.

Thanks to the regular publication of these reports, 131 works of art have so far been recovered.

The lists can be freely consulted on the following links:

http://tpcweb.carabiniere.it/SitoPubblico/bollettini

www.cultura.gov.it/carabinieritpc

GUIDO RENI SURPRISES AT VILLA BORGHESE

Rome's prestigious Villa Borghese Gallery comes back to normal after Covid with a thought-provoking exhibition of the most important works of leading Baroque artist Guido Reni.

The exhibition was inspired, explained curator Francesca Cappelletti, by the recovery of the lost “Danza Campestre” (Country Dance), the only known landscape to have been painted by Reni.

The painting was part of the original collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, one of Rome's most important 17^th century patron of the arts, but was sold in the 19^th century. All traces of it were lost until 2008, when it re-appeared on the London antiques marketplace. The Borghese Gallery bought it in 2020 and has put it on display for the first time in the “Guido Reni- il Sacro e la Natura” (Guido Reni – Sacred and Nature) special exhibition, running currently until the 22^nd May 2022.

The painting gives a detailed and intimate glimpse into country festivities of the time, with groups of young men in hunter's garb and girls in their Sunday best, gathered in the countryside around an open space for dancing. A detail that will arouse visitors' curiosity are the two flies lightly placed in the top right corner of the painting, as if they had been imprisoned in the oil.....

The theme running through the other works on display is the link between sculptures and other paintings that inspired Reni, in particular the sculpture groups by his contemporary Gianlorenzo Bernini.

MARGARET STENHOUSE

Info: Tel.+39.068413979 ga-bor@beniculturali.it (prior booking obligatory)

WAS AMERICA INHABITED BY GIANTS?

MILAN UNIVERSITY REVEALS SURPRISING MEDIEVAL DOCUMENT

Researchers at the State University of Milan have uncovered a forgotten document that would seem to prove that a voyage of discovery to the New World was undertaken 150 years before the epic voyage of Christopher Columbus. The little known Latin document, entitled “Cronica universalis”, written by Dominican friar Galvano Fiamma, contains a reference to a land called Marckalada, which researchers believe conforms to the name Markland in the Norse chronicles.

The text, translated by PD student Giulia Greco, as part of a special project coordinated by Paolo Chiesa, chair professor of Medieval Latin Literature says: “the sailors who pass the seas of Denmark and Norway recount that beyond Norway, north of Iceland, and then an island called Greenland..and then further towards the west is the land called Marckalada where the inhabitants are giants. There are buildings constructed of stones so big that no man, but only giants, would be able to put them in place There are many green trees and many animals and birds live there. But no seaman has managed to get certain news about this land and its characteristics”.

The document would appear to confirm Scandinavian legends concerning landings on the American continent by Viking heroes centuries before the clamorous Columbus discovery. Galvani is believed to have obtained his information from Genoese seamen who traded steadily with the northern countries.

The State University of Milan is one of the biggest universities in Europe with some 60,000 students and 2000 permanent teaching and research staff.

Info: Tel. +39.02.50325032 www.unimi.it