ItalyUpdate

Thanks to an injection of new capital through its verger with Etihad Airways, Italy's national carrier Alitalia is relaunching itself on the long distance market with a new upgraded Business Class which offers additional comfort and facilities.

Puglia, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria and Sicily toast their traditional native vines in the Radice del Sud (Roots of the South) Festival, held this year in Bari (Puglia) until the 15^th June 2015. Over 400 wines will be judged by two panels of experts  of one international and the other Italian  in three days of blind tastings at the Hotel Rondo.

The very best of Made in Italy are to pool their brains at the 7^th Luxury Summit, organized by Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, on the 10th-11^th June 2015 at Milan. Representatives of leading fashion designers, such as Salvatore Ferragamo, Gianni Versace, Kiton, Santoni Calzatura and Louis Viutton Italia are among the participants at the event, which focusses on future business strategies and expansion in emerging markets, such as China.

Three bells commissioned by the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Sanggau, Indonesia, from the historic Marinelli Bell Foundry of Agnone (Molise) are due to be installed shortly in the Cathedral in West Borneo.

 

The Student and Youth Travel Centre (CTS) opens its Nature Camps on the Island of Linosa  (Sicily) between May and October 2015 to young people who wish to spend a working holiday looking after the sea turtles that come to lay their eggs every year on the shore.

Director Matteo Garrone did not have to resort to elaborate constructed sets for his film Racconto dei Racconti (The Tale of Tales) inspired by the poem Del Cunto de li Cunti by  17^th century poet and courtier Giambattista Basile. The castles, caverns, precipices and gardens were all to be found in Italy, ready for use.

Naples is in full preparation for Italy's biggest street party at the Napoli Pizza Village. The mega-event involves fifty of Naples celebrated pizzerias spread all along the bay on the panoramic Lungomare Caracciolo. The Pizza Village was launched in 2011, with 20 pizzerias, during which a total 55,000 pizzas were consumed by visitors.

Josè Rallo, CEO of the Sicilian wine company Donnafugata, acted as official hostess for the Bio-Mediterranean Cluster pavilion at EXPO 2015 during the opening week of the mega-event.

The Italian Alpine Club (CAI) of Castellanza (Lombardy) is celebrating the 150^th anniversay of the conquest of Mt. Cervino, known in English as the Matterhorn, the pinnacle mountain that straddles the Alps between Italy and Switzerland.

The royal elephant Fritz has made a figurative return to life at the Royal Hunting Lodge at Stupinigi, Turin, for an exhibition on the zoo that the Savoy family kept in the park in the 19^th century, entitled: Fritz. An Elephant at Court.