ItalyUpdate

Six historic sites in the Lake Trasimeno area (Umbria) provide an unforgettable backcloth for the series of concerts featuring in this year's Trasimeno Music Festival, directed by well-known Canadian concert pianist Angela Hewitt.

The Rome edition of the Gambero Rosso Food Guide (the Italian equivalent of the Michelin Guide) celebrated its 30^th anniversary in grand style, with a mega prize giving ceremony at the Rome Sheraton Hotel.

The Sudtirol Jazz festival Altoadige gets off to an unusual start on the 24^th June 2016. The opening night will be held among the crates of apples in the Frangarto Fruit-growers Cooperative. The programme, entitled Kinzelbinder's Melting Orchestra, will be a lively fusion of Italian and Austrian folk music traditions and jazz.

The Veregra Street Festival, one of the most important Italian annual events featuring street performers, street art and street food, is set to transform the historic centre of Montegranaro (Marche) into one big playground between the 18^{th _} 25^th June.

The historic Federico II University of Naples, founded by the Holy Roman Emperor, King Federico II of Sicily in 1224, has been celebrating its 792^nd birthday with a series of cultural events. The university is believed to be the oldest public lay university in the world and has produced many eminent scientists, politicians, writers, philosophers, doctors and physicists throughout its long history. Today the university has five faculties and 22 degree courses.

The Hotel Milano Scala is gathering the fruits of a far-sighted and ambitious project. It has planted out an organic kitchen garden on the roof. The sixth floor of the hotel, with views over the city of Milan, is filled with beds of vegetables and berries, to be plucked fresh and used by its chefs.

The Marche Region is celebrating Pope Francis' Jubilee of Mercy with four major exhibitions of sacred art. (St.) Francesco in Art. From Cimabue to Caravaggio is on show in the Civic Art Gallery of Ascoli Piceno until the 30^th June 2016.

Every Sunday through June and the first Sunday of July 2016, visitors can enjoy Brunch with Sissi in the splendid gardens of the Trauttmansdorff Castle in Merano (Alto Adige), where the much-loved Austrian empress Elizabeth (Sissi) came regularly on holiday. The meal is served on the terrace with a classical music accompaniment.

The historic seaside town of Vasto (Abruzzo) on the Adriatic, is reviving its old Trabocchi (unique fishing huts suspended over the sea) as visitor attractions. The huts, built by the local fishermen of wood and railway sleepers, are a special feature of this part of the coast.

The world famous art installation Floating Piers on Lake Iseo (Lombardy) by Bulgarian artist Christo Javacheff,  one of the major figures of the Land Art movement, is near completion and has already attracted thousands of queries from intrepid visitors keen to walk on water to  reach the Island of San Paolo. The floating walkway will be in operation between the 18^th June to the 3^rd July.