ItalyUpdate

The 1,700-year old Obelisk of Axum has finally returned home from Italy after years of controversy and setbacks.

Matilde di Canossa, the medieval iron countess who is famous for helping the papacy in the power struggle with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, is being celebrated in a series of exhibitions and events being staged in the province of Mantova up till the 11 th January 2009.

Vittorio Sgarbi, mayor of the little town of Salemi in eastern Sicily, has announced that he will offer dilapidated historic properties at the symbolic price of 1 euro to anyone prepared to restore them.

One of the best known peculiarities of Italian life is the spirit of campanilismo of a lifetime sense of strong attachment to ones place of birth, symbolized by the local church bell-tower or campanile  

One of Italys historic noble wines, the Aglianico dei Vulture of the Basilicata region, will be at the centre of the Wine Festival to be held in Melfi between the 5 th to 7 th September. ...

To honour the 500 th Centenary of the birth of the great Italian architect Andrea Palladio, the city of Vicenza is organizing a series of tours of the Veneto villas, palaces and public buildings constructed by him.

Thousands of street performers (commonly known as buskers) will be thronging the historic piazzas around the castle and the cathedral of Ferrara for the annual Buskers Festival, running from the 22 nd to 31 st August....

The splendid Villa D'Este at Tivoli,  famous for its fountains, is staging an additional treat for visitors this year. An exhibition of baroque portraits, many by

famous artists such as Guercino, Van Dyck, Artemisia Gentileschi, Anton Raphael Mengs and Ludovico Stern, is on show in the vast reception rooms of the

residence leading down into the gardens.

The XIII International Biennal of Sculture opened on the 27th July at Carrara of  the famous Tuscan city of the marble quarries  will continue until the 28th September.....

An exhibition in Ravenna (Emilia Romagna), running till the of October, gives visitors a picture of leisure in ancient Roman times. Otium, the Art of Living in a Roman Domus in Imperial Times reconstructs the comfortable lifestyle of the Roman upper class...