ItalyUpdate

With major events like EXPO Milan and Holy Year in Rome, Italy is anticipating a bumper season for tourism in 2015-2016.

The city of Bergamo (Lombardy) is holding the first ever exhibition dedicated exclusively to Venetian Renaissance artist Palma il Vecchio, a contemporary of Titian's.

The seaside resort of Jesolo (Veneto) is to host the 22^nd Edition of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, one of the most important events for wine producers and buyers in the world. Between the 1^st to 3^rd May 2015, Jesolo will welcome over 320 wine experts from over fifty nations to judge some 8000 different wines from 58 countries.

Thirty-seven Italian borghi (historic villages) have launched the project Tourism: Eco&Slow with the intention of attracting both Italian and foreign visitors who have done all the celebrated art cities.

The yearly Merano Art & Nature Festival (Merano Primavera) opens on the 28^th March 2015, when the town becomes a living exhibition of contemporary art with installatations and sculptures by twelve Italian and international artists.

This year's Leccio d'Oro prize, awarded annually by the Brunello di Montalcino consortium, went to the Michelin-star restauarant A Voce Columbus, New York (USA), the trattoria Enoteca Divino Edinburgh, Scotland (UK) and the historic Cantine Isole of Milan.

 

A survey carried out by Italy's national heritage preservation organization FAI  (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) put the 17^th century Capuchin monastery of Monterosso al Mare in the Cinque Terre, Ligury at the top of the list of monuments that should be preserved, Over 1.6 million people voted in this, the seventh edition of the survey.

Over a hundred magnificent costumes for stage and screen by Italian designers can be admired in an exhibition staged at the Museum of Rome Palazzo Braschi. Among those are a number of creations by recent Oscar winner costumist Milena Canorero (Grand Budapest Hotel), including the dazzling dresses made for Queen Marie Antionette in Sofia Coppola's production, which earned her her third statuette after Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire.

Lazio will be present at Milan EXPO 2015 with its own exhibition space showing off 100 gastronomic products unique to the region. The basket of products includes 26 wines, 14 types of cured meats and salami, 26 vegetables, fruits and legumes, 10 cheeses, 8 biscuits, breads and sweets, 4 olive oils and a mix of 12 other products, including mineral water.