THE BOOK BOAT: NEW CRUISE ROUTE

After its successful series of voyages between the Italian port of Civitavecchia and Barcelona (this year in its 12th edition), Grimaldi shipping lines has launched a new literary cruise for book lovers with destinations Naples and Palermo.

During the voyage, between the 13th and 19th November 2024. participants can enjoy meeting a selection of well-known authors who will present their books, with live musical accompaniments.

The “A Ship of Books” event is part of the programme Leggere Tutti” (Everyone Read), promoted by the publishing company Agro Editrice, with the collaboration of the Grimali line. It will not be, however, an exclusive bookworm event. Emphasis will also be on the gastronomical treats of the two cities, prepared by local top chefs and patisseries.

Time off shore is spent exploring the marvels of the two cities, accompanied by local guides and will include the splendid Norman Cappella Palatina, Monreale and Villa Niscemi in the Park La Favorita.

The second day contemplates visits to Bagheria with Villa Palagonia (the Villa of the “Monsters”), Villa Cattolica, seat of the Guttuso Museum, plus the famous wine cellar of Duca di Salaparuta at Casteldaccia, celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.

Naples offers a city tour of the city monuments and artistic marvels, including a visit to the Museum of Capodimonte.

The “Leggere Tutto” publishing house aims to encourage and promote reading, also in schools and public libraries. Previous cruises of “A Ship of Books “ included Erasmus students, teachers and school children among its passengers .

M. STENHOUSE

Info: +39.06.44254205 www.leggeretutti.it info@leggeretutti.it

Posted on 12 Nov 2024 by Editor

FORGOTTEN WOMEN ARTISTS IN ROME

The ground-breaking exhibition “Le Signore dell'Arte”, focussing on Italian women artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, held in the Royal Palace of Milan in 2021, opened a door onto a hitherto unknown reality: that art had not been an exclusive prerogative of men from the Renaissance onwards, but that many women artists had also had successful careers during the same period. The Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi has now taken up the theme, offering a spectacular exhibition of the works of 56 women artists who worked in Rome between the 17th and 19th centuries.

On display are 130 works, coming from major Italian galleries and museums in various Italian cities, as well as the National Gallery of London and the Thorvaldsen Museum of Copenhagen.

For many of these artists, this is the first time that their work has received official recognition, since many of their paintings were catalogued as “artist unknown” or were attributed to their maestro or to a male family member.

A series of talks, open to the public, describing the lives and works of the artists on show are available during the exhibition period, as well as a map of Rome indicating the places connected with the life and work of many of the artists

ROMA PITTRICE, Artiste al Lavoro tra XVI e XIX Secole” (Rome Women Artists, working between yhe XVI and the XIX centuries) runs until the 23rd March 2025 at the Museo di Roma, Palazzo Braschi.

Info: Tel. 060608 www.museodiroma.it museodiroma@comune.roma.it

Posted on 08 Nov 2024 by Editor

BATS IN MILAN

Bats are the focus of the exhibition Ali nella Notte” (“Wings in the Night”) that recently opened inside the historic San Romano Farmhouse in Milan's agricultural park near the San Siro Hippodrome.

The 300 acre “Bosco in Citta” (City Woodland) is a spacious green area, gifted to the citizens by the city authorities and cared for exclusively by volunteers. It includes woodlands, a lake fed by streams, wetlands and paths with observation points where visitors can observe the spontaneous flora, fish, birdlife and other native fauna in their natural setting. In addition, the park contains over 200 citizen allotments, plus orchards, bee sanctuaries and a “Green Library” containing books on the environment, farming and conservation, created in 1973 by the Italia Nostra Heritage Protection Association.

In recent years, environmentalists have expressed concern that the number of bats is declining fast and the current exhibition aims to bring more public awareness of the problem. The “Ali nella Notte” is curated by the Natural History Museum and the Platypus company, specializing in the planning and management of natural resources,

Running until the 19th March 2025, with a special event programmed for the 5th November 2024.

Info: Tel. +39/02.4522401 info@efu.it

Posted on 04 Nov 2024 by Editor

 

POSTAGE SERIES FOR ITALY'S SPECIAL TOWNS 

The Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy has launched a series of official postage stamps commemorating some of Italy's lesser known small towns listed in the Borghi Piu Belli d'Italia” (“the Most Beautiful Small Towns of Italy”) sure to attract collectors. The stamps have been printed by the official Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato S.p.a. (the State Mint and Polygraphic Institute) and can be used for regular postage purposes.

The first series features Pescocostanzo (in Abruzzo), Stilo (Calabria), Codrongianos (Sardinia) and Scicli (Sicily)

The choice cannot have been easy as there are at present 325 listed “borghi” (small, historic towns that have remained architecturally and culturally intact over several centuries).

The Borghi are mostly off the beaten tourist track in scenic and unspoiled areas, and offer alternative destinations for the more discriminating tourist. They all abound in Italy's classic attractions, such as splendid monuments and works of art, gastronomic treats, cultural events and local folklore festivals.

Info: www.posteitaliane.it

Posted on 30 Oct 2024 by Editor

THE ROOMS OF THE LAST DUCHESS

Palazzo Pitti (Florence) has now opened, for the first time, the sumptuous apartment that once belonged to the last owner, the Duchess Anne of France, widow of Duke Amedeo d'Aosta.

The palace was first purchased in the 16th century from the wealthy merchant Luca Pitti by Cosimo 1 de'Medici who transformed it into a royal residence for Maria de'Medici, his niece and future Queen of France. Subsequently it was reserved as the private residence of various members of the Medici and Hapsburg-Lorraine families until the arrival of the Savoy dynasty, the Unification of Italy and the end of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Subsequently, the palace was the residence of the Italian royal family until 1911, when it was known as “the Apartment of His Majesty the King”. The present décor and furnishings of the 14 lavish rooms have remained those created by the last inhabitant, the Duchess Anne.

From November 2024 regular guided tours are available for groups of max 10, with entrance from the Modern Art Gallery, 2nd Floor.

Info: www.uffizi.it www.palazzopittibigliettitickets.com

Posted on 26 Oct 2024 by Editor

NATURE RING WALK TO ENCLOSE POMPEII

A proposal to surround the archaeological site of the buried city of Pompeii with a protective “green belt” is under serious consideration on the part pf the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Pompeii Archaeological Directive. The proposed masterplan put forward by the Bellesi Giuntoli Studio of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design of Florence recently received a thumbs up from ASLA, the prestigious American Society of Landscape Architects, which awarded the project in their 2024 Professional Awards list as “capably of enhancing the link between the excavation area and the surrounding natural and agricultural landscape.

The plan involves reviving a 4 km walk around the ancient perimeter, as well as the creation of a cycling track, rest and leisure areas, special tracks for disabled visitors, plus bird-watching observation points and bee hive havens. Green spaces already reclaimed include the great orchard of the Insula Occidentals,and the Via dei Sepolchre above the Villa of Cicero, the new avenue of cypresses between the Amphitheatre and the Porta Nola visitor entrance.

The park area outside the perimeter walls will have free access to the general public and the citizens of the modern town of Pompeii.

M. STENHOUSE

Info; Tel: +39.081.1865.8177/081.8575347 www.pompeiisites.org pompei.info@cultura.gov.it

Posted on 22 Oct 2024 by Editor

 

MATERA'S FOSSILZED MONSTER WHALE

Giuliana”, the largest fossilized whale found in the Mediterranean area, continues to be a major attraction at the National Archaeological Museum Domenico Ridola of Matera (Basilicata) where it was put on exhibit this summer.

The fossil dates from around a million years ago during the Pleistocene era. It's immense size sets it above the average dinosaur, which is calculated to have weighed some 100 tons. The 26 meter-long monster whale instead weighed between 130 and 150 tons. It isn't known whether Giuliana was male or female, but “she” has been named after the Lake Giuliana reservoir where “she” was discovered a few kilometers from the city of Matera in 2006.

Research on the whale's skeleton involved teams of international scientists from the Universities of Pisa, Catania, and Brussels who worked incessantly recovering and analysing the fossil fragments before they could be pieced together and put on exhibit.

Examining the rock formations and sediment layers underneath the whale, scientists made a revolutionary discovery. In the remote past, when “Giuliana” inhabited the seas, the surrounding rocky area, now known as the Murgia National Park, covering part of Basilicata and spreading out over Apulia, was in fact an archipelagos in the middle of an ocean that connected the present Ionian Sea with the Adriatic. This explains how the whale managed to be found as if stranded on land that is now quite distant from the sea.

Giuliana the Whale is now on permanent display at the Domenico Ridola museum of the celebrated cave city of Matera

Info: Museo Nazionale di Matera Domenico Ridola Te; +30.0835.310058

www.museonaziomaledimatera.it mp.my@cultura.gov.iy

 

 

Posted on 16 Oct 2024 by Editor

ELBA'S UNIQUE MAGNETIC ATTRACTIONS

The island of Elba, celebrated for its memories of Napoleon's first, brief exile, is launching new, unusual itineraries, centred around the rich mining activities of its past. The Etruscans extracted iron ore from the earth three thousand years ago, and a flourishing mining activity continued right up until 1981, when the introduction of new technologies and market demands made Elba's mines no longer profitable.

The three old mines, Capoliveri, Ginevro and Vallone, now offer fascinating tours , including the Old Workshop Museum, (located inside the Vallone mine,) that documents the life and work of the miners, with original machinery and material and a reconstructed infirmary and offices The Vallone mine possesses the largest deposits of magnetite in Europe, with a concentration in the Capoliveri peninsula containing Elba's unique Monte Calamita (Magnetic Mountain), that local fishermen and yachtsmen affirm sends out rays powerful enough to alter compass readings.

Elba's rich deposits of stone and metal are not confined to iron ore or magnetite. Walkers around the area can easily pick up pieces of semi-precious stone like tourmaline, beryl, quartz, haematite, limonite, pyrite and others.

Guided tours of the mines are available: For information:

Tel. +39.0565.935492 www.visitelba,com info@minieredicalamita.it

Posted on 11 Oct 2024 by Editor

ITALIAN RADIO and TV CELEBRATE CENTENARY

The Italian TV and Radio (RAI: Radiotelevisione Italiana) celebrates a hundred years of the launch of state radio, together with the 70th anniversary of the first state TV news broadcast with the installation of a dedicated art work set up at the entrance of RAI headquarters in Rome.

The installation entitled “U/O (Unum/Omnia” by noted artist Guido Iannuzzi, celebrated for his controversial works such as “Bauhaus Think-Tank” exhibited 2000-2001 at the museum MART Rovereto, as well as “Dafne in Back”, denouncing violence against women, shown at Rome's Villa Borghese Park in 2022, takes the form of a black aluminium cube and a shining stainless steel star representing a transmitting antenna and symbolizing the plurality of information with regard to the many facets of reality. The work has been donated to the RAI by the artist.

Info: www.rai.it

Posted on 07 Oct 2024 by Editor

LAST VISITS TO MYSTICAL LAKE ISLAND

The Byzantine Island on Lake Bolsena (Lazio), the fifth biggest volcanic lake in Europe, will be open to visitors until the 9th November this year (2024). The island, which is privately owned, became accessible to the public only two years ago, after a long period when it was inaccessible. Present owners are the Rovati Family, owners of a noted pharmaceutical company, who have embarked on a long-neglected restoration project of the island's monuments.

This magical little island, which is ringed by a three-kilometer pathway through woodlands and rocky outcrops, was considered sacred by the Etruscans, who believed it was the entrance to the mythical underground kingdom of Agarthi. The name has nothing to do with the ancient name of Constatinople, but derives from “Visentum”, a Bromze Age village which stood on a rock on the shoreline opposite. It now contains the remains of a Franciscan monastery, a botanical garden and seven chapels, dating from the 15th century (at present under restoration), as well as the domed Church of St. James and St. Christopher, built by the then owners, the powerful Farnese family, as their family tomb.

Access to the island costs 25 euro, plus ticket for the ferry, which leave regularly from the towns of Capodimonte and Bolsena on the lake shore. Prior booking is necessary online at the island's official website:

info@isolabisentina.org

Info: Tel. +39.347.348.3267 www.isolabisantina.org

Posted on 05 Oct 2024 by Editor

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