ItalyUpdate

 

The Opera Festival of the Arena of Verona celebrates its centenary this year and marks the occasion with the opening of a museum dedicated to opera and a special exhibition dedicated to the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

 

The seventh edition of the annual 5-day Perugia Journalism Festival (24-28 April) saw the participation of over a thousand prominent journalists, bloggers and media professionals from all over the world, who spoke on a wide spectrum of themes during a packed programme of debates.

The Venaria Reale of Turin, the former Savoy Royal  Hunting Lodge, a masterpiece of baroque architecture and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage treasure, is to hold the Saturday series of the Beauty for the Ears concerts presented on Fridays in the Vatican Museum.  

Together with the Venaria Reale of Turin (see below) the Vatican Museum is to hold a series of evening concerts inside some of its most celebrated rooms every  Friday between 3 May-28 July 2013. The initiative, called “Il Bello da Sentire (Beauty for the Ears), offers a rare feast for the senses for art and music lovers. 

 

 

Alta Badia (Bolzano) in the heart of the Dolomites is organizing a special gastronomic programme this summer, entitled  In Vetta con Gusto (In the Heights with Taste). Picnic baskets full of local goodies, created by Michelin star chefs will be available for excursionists, hikers and bikers in this beautiful mountain area, part of the Natural Heritage of UNESCO.

  

 

One of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, the bronze Boxer, one of the jewels of the Palazzo Massimo collection, Rome, is to represent Italy at New York. The statue of a resting boxer, his hands protected by gloves, will be on show at the Metropolitan Museum from the 3 June 2013.

 

The tiny self-proclaimed Kingdom of Seborga, near Imperia (Liguria) always manages to get in the news. This time, the picturesque hilltop town of 320 inhabitants is insisting that the speciality Taggiasca olives were first planted in its territory, once dominated by Benedictine monks.

 

A festival in honour of the gigantic Ciciu (Puppets) is planned for the 24-26 May at Villar San Costanzo in the Maira Valley, near Cuneo (Piedmont). The Ciciu are huge rock formations some 10m high with vaguely human forms and a unique geological phenomenon.

Celebrated Spanish artist Santiago Morilla is to create one of his landscape images inside the spectacular Trugiano marble quarry, Carrara (Tuscany) on the 24 April 2013.

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face=Arial> <IMG style="HEIGHT: 148px" src="http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4566461741925100&pid=1.7&w=148&h=148&c=7&rs=1"></FONT></o:p></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><FONT face=Arial>Nadia Santini, chef of the restaurant “Dal Pescatore” of Runate- Canneto sull’Oglio (Mantova, Lombardia) has swept the honours this year as World’s Best Woman Chef<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>2013, nominated both by the British<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>magazine “Restaurant” and the prestigious French champagne company “Veuve Clicquot”.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>