ItalyUpdate

FUSION CAFFE'

Twelve major wine cellars of Rome, Frosinone and Latina throw open their doors on Sunday, 10^th November 2013 for the San Martino Cantine Aperte event. Anyone is welcome to come, taste and admire the results of the recent grape harvest.

This weekend (8-10 November 2013) Turin again hosts Artissima, its annual fair of contemporary art, considered the world's fifth most important appointment in its field. The exposition area, set out in the seat of the Oval Lingotto skating rink, will present the best of 190 galleries, 130 of which from abroad, including countries such as Albania, Azerbaigian, the Arab Emirates and the Philipines, which are participating for the first time.

 By a coincidence, two major exhibitions on at present in Rome highlight two of the most important figures who dominated the scene of late republican Rome at the end of the first century BC. The Scuderie del Quirinale are hosting Augustus, the first Roman emperor, hile the Chiostro del Bramante reveals Cleopatra, Rome and the Enchantment of Egypt, the Egyptian queen who committed suicide in 30 BC to avoid the humiliation of being paraded through Rome in Octavian Augustus' Triumph after she and her lover Mark Anthony were defeated by the Roman army.

After a long restoration, begun in 2005, the precious Profane collection in the Galleria Clementina of the Vatican museums is now once more open to the public. The original collection, inaugurated in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII, was broken up by Napoleon during the invasion of the papal states in 1798.

For the fifth year running, the Grana Padana DOC Consortium will be one of the sponsors at the New York Marathon of the 3^rd November 2013. Between the 29^th October - 2^nd November, Italy's famous cheese will be available for tastings at the ING New York City Marathon Expo and in some of the best gourmet stores in the Big Apple.

A new sightť for visitors to Venice. According to reports received by the Natural History Museum and the City of Venice Observatory of the Lagoon, flying fish have now taken up residence in the surrounding waters, including the unlikely habitat of the industrial canals of Marghera and the Canal Salso at Mestre.

Lake Nemi near Rome and the ruins of the Roman Temple of Diana were the unusual setting for a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday, 20^th October 2013.

The city of Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige) has been voted the best regional capital for quality of life by the Milan-based  ASSIRM (Association of Market Research Study Centre) with the cooperation of the Milanese Bicocca University. The study is part of an initiative to analyse the standards of life and levels of satisfaction in the various Italian regional capitals in preparation for Expo 2015, scheduled to be held in Milan.

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The small town of Genzano, near Rome, celebrated for its annual Corpus Domini Flower Festival, is to set up a programme of cultural exchanges with the German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, inspired by the writings of Michael Ende, author of Momo and The Never-Ending Story.

Trekking Urbano, National Walkers' Day, celebrates its tenth anniversary on the 31^st October 2013 in 34 Italian cities, with a series of itineraries on foot, with something for everyone at different levels of difficulty.