ItalyUpdate

One of Italys most spectacular amateur swimming events, the annual race across the Straits of Messina between Sicily and the Italian peninsula, is scheduled for the 10 th August....

   SUMMER OPERA SEASON

The summer opera season in Italys two most famous and spectacular venues is in full swing.

The 86 Festival programme of the Arena of Verona features five time-honoured favourites running throughout August, including a special production of Aida, in addition to Tosca, Nabucco,śCarmen and Rigoletto.

In Rome, the magnificent backdrop of the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla provides an unforgettable setting for the summer programme of performances of Aida, Madame Butterfly, Lucia of Lammermoor and the ballet Giselle.

www.arena.it  www.operaroma.it  

Hollywood heart throb Robert Redford will be a star attraction at this years Tuscan Sun Festival in the city of Cortona in the heart of Tuscany. ---

The 4-star Hotel Punta Rossa, perched high on the rocks of the Lazio coast directly in front of the Pontine Islands, is the kind of place romantics fall for.

The 19th edition of Thermalia Italia, the annual Fair of thermal tourism is to be held in Naples between the 26 th and 28 th September 2008.

Two new Italian sites, plus one shared between Italy and Switzerland, have been added to this years list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, bringing the Italian total up to a record 43 places of the highest number in any one country.....

Donnafugata, one of Italys most innovative and dynamic wine producers, has now branched out into olive oil. The new product, an extra-virgin olive oil called Milleanni (Thousand Years) is derived from indigenous cultivars in the Sicilian Belice Valley, where olives have been harvested for  thousands of years.

The spectacular Via Krupp, which links the towns of Capri and Marina Piccola on the island of Capri, has finally reopened after 32 years.

The 2008 Globo dOro (Golden Globe), the annual prize awarded to Italian cinema by the association of Foreign Correspondents in Italy, went to Paolo Virzi Tutta la Vita Davanti (trans. All their Life Ahead of Them), a bitterly ironic depiction of conditions of life and work in a call centre.

ENEL, Italys largest electrical company and the second largest in Europe is set to launch the second edition of ENEL CONTEMPORANEA, a major exhibition of  contemporary works of art on the theme of energy.