ItalyUpdate

FESTIVAL OF UMBRIA ANTICA

Umbria's most ambitious festival, involving some of the region's most iconic towns and archaeological sites kicks off on the 4^th June and will continue for much of the month.

The Festival dell'Umbria Antica (Festival of Ancient Umbria) encompasses three thousand years of history, with a sweeping vision of the early inhabitants of the region, from the Italic peoples, the Etruscans and the Romans, involving the historic towns of Amelia, Spello, Spoleto, Tuoro sul Trasimeno, Gubbio and the archaeological sites of Orticoli and Carsulae.

A team of historians, archaeologists and experts in various fields will be on hand at each stage to reveal the treasures and lesser known aspects of Italy's most varied and complex region.

In programme:

4^th June 17.00 - Amelia with its massive city walls and monumental sculpture of Germanicus,

5^th June 17.00 - Spello with its splendid Roman mosaics (and the self portrait of Pintoricchio on the wall of the Baglioni chapel in the Church of St. Mary Major),

10^th June 16.30 - Spoleto, site of the celebrated yearly Festival and the Albornoz Fortress, seat of the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto,

18^th June 17.00 - Tuoro sul Trasimeno, celebrated for Hannibal's victory over the Roman army in 217 BC and the recently opened Study Centre and the evocation of the battle,

19^th June 10.00 - Gubbio the town of St. Francis' wolf and the treasure of the eight unique bronze Eugubian Tablets written in the Osco-Umbrian group pf languages.

25^th June 17.00 – Archaeological site of Orticoli

26^th June 17.00 – Archaeological site of Carsulae.

The Festival events are open free of charge and can also be followed on Facebook, as well as the other principal social media sites

Contact: festivalumbriantica.it https://facebook.com/festivalumbriantica

DANTE'S TRAIN TAKES OFF AGAIN

The Dante's Train ride, introduced by the Italian State Railways Foundation last year as part of the 700^th anniversary commemorations for the death of Italy's great poet proved so popular that the trip is being launched again this year.

On set weekends between the 4^th June and the 1^st November 2022 the vintage train “Centoporte” will carry passengers over the Apennines on the 136 km historic Faentina line from Florence to Ravenna and back.

The service includes a courier-guide on board who can give passengers sightseeing advice for the stopover in Ravenna where Dante was exiled and where his tomb can be visited.

Trains leaves Florence at 8.50 am with expected arrival at Ravenna at 11.57 am. Return journey at 17.54., with intermediate stops both ways at Borgo San Lorenzo, Marradi, Brisighella and Faenza.

Prior booking essential.

Info: Tel. +39.337.1560535 www.iltrenodidante.it info@trenodidante,it

EARTHQUAKE - CREATED TILES

The town of Finale Emilia (Modena, Reggio Emilia) is holding an exhibition of the tiles created by local children during therapy sessions to help them cope with the psychological traumas of the earthquake that shattered their homes and schools on the 12^th May of 2012.

The small medieval town of Finale Emilia was at the epicentre of the earthquake and suffered extensive damage to its historic buildings and monuments. The image of its shattered Clock Tower became a symbol of the disaster for the entire area.

Immediately after the catastrophy, a course of “ceramics therapy” was set up in by local welfare associations in Finale and the Lene Thun Foundation, which runs permanent laboratories of clay modelling for sick children in 32 hospitals in Italy and abroad. The resulting 320 decorative tiles produced by the schoolchildren of the devastated town are now available for “adoption” to decorate private businesses or the walls of buildings.

Info: Tel. +39.0535.788111 (Finale Municipality) www.comunefinale.net

Tel:+39.0471.245430 (Thun Foundation) fondazione@lenethun.org

ITALY'S “YOUNG” WINES MAKE THEIR MARK

Italian wine production is booming as never before as a new generation of enthusiastic young vintners are choosing to invest their talents and expertise in the vineyards planted and cultivated by their fathers and grandfathers. Many of them, fresh with degrees in modern agricultural methods and international marketing, are contributing to the increasingly high standard and popularity of Italian wine on the international scene.

In recent years, the dwindling success of many of the historic cooperatives, which collected the grapes of local producers and processed them under one label, has spurred young growers to branch out independently to make and market their own distinctive labels.

In Genzano, a town in the classic wine producing area of the Castelli Romani, near Rome, Alessandro Carafa Jacobini and his American wife Nina Farrell, have upgraded the family vineyards and are now launching their own label with the Jacobini family name, using exclusively grape varieties native to the area. Although the estate had been making its own wine since the 1600s, production was halted in the 1940s due to the tragic consequences of WWII.

The couple are part of a wider trend affecting many areas, especially in southern Italy. “Storie di Giovani Vignaioli” (Tales of Young Wine Growers) is a meet-up programmed for the 29-30 May 2022 at the Castello Imperiali in Francavilla Fontana (Brindisi, Apulia) in which 41 wine growers under 40 years of age, representing over 200 labels and coming from the regions of Abruzzo, Calabria, Basilicata, Campania, Apulia and Sicily will pool ideas and offer their wines (and food products) to each other and the public.

To book for wine tastings in the historic 17^th century Palazzo Jacobini:

Tel. +39.393.1474262/349.8046018

Info: www.jacobini.it info@jacobini.it

www.giovanivignaioli.it storiedigiovanivignaioli@gmail.com

PESARO WINS ITALIAN CULTURE CAPITAL 2024

Pesaro (Marche), the city that gave birth to composer Giacchino Rossini (1792-1868) has won the coveted Italian Capital of Culture 2024 nomination. The prize gives the winning town or city a government grant of one million euro to be spent on innovative cultural initiatives or facilities.

Competition every year is fierce and there is no lack of candidates. Pesaro triumphed over nine other cities that were were shortlisted, presenting the winning dossier of 45 projects centred round the theme “Nature of Culture” in collaboration with the 52 municipalities under its administration.

Pesaro is already celebrated for its annual “Rossini Festival” which will run between the 9-21 August this year 2022.

Pesaro dedicated its award to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, one of the other “Music Cities” recognized by UNESCO and will invest some of the prize money in hosting Ukrainian musicians who wish to study music in Pesaro.

Info: Tel. (Festival): 0039.0721.3800220 www.rossinioperafestival.it

www.comune.pesaro.pu.it

SARDINIAN NEW GIANTS TO JOIN THE REGIMENT

A new archaeological coup for Sardinia! Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of another two Iron Age warriors to join the 30 monumental statues found over the years in the unique necropolis at Mont' e Prama, Cabras, on the western coast of the island in the province of Oristano.

The necropolis was first discovered in 1974 and has since yielded some 30 giant boxers and archers, each well over 2m in height, which are now on display in the Giovanni Marongiu Civic Museum of Cabras and in the Cagliari Archaeology Museum.

Recent excavations have revealed that the site is an enormous cemetery, with an ceremonial funeral road flanking the tombs, which contained the remains of young men. No elderly people, no children and few women have been found in the 170 graves so far investigated.

Archaeologists believe that the “Giants” were guardians placed on the site. The statues subsequently fell over through the course of time and were gradually concealed under the earth.

Sardinia is rich in Iron Age archeological sites, with remains of villages, fortifications and burial grounds scattered over the island. On the opposite coast from Cabras, for instance, is the S'Ena e Thomes at Dorgali (Nuoro) with the “Giant's Tomb” dating to the Bronze Age – an impressive structure with a dolmen and a towering central stele.

Info: Tel. +39.0783 290636 www.museocabras.it

GENOA'S SUPERBAROCCO SPLENDOUR

The SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE (the Quirinale Stables), Rome's major exhibition venue, has finally put on the major exhibition: “Superbaroque, Art in Genoa from Rubens to Magnasco”, delayed due to the pandemic crisis. The exhibition was first conceived in Genoa as a tribute to the opening of the new San Giorgio Bridge in 2020, which replaced the old Morandi Bridge that collapsed, with tragic consequences, in August 2018.

This exhibition, organized with the collaboration of the Washington National Gallery of Art, was originally programmed to debut in Washington but had to be cancelled, again due to Covid. The US museum, however, continues to maintain the role of co-organizer. The Superbaroque presentation therefore has its first showing in Rome. It features 120 works of art, many on loan from international museums and private collections and focusses on the Genoese Baroque of the 17^th and 18^th centuries – a period of incredible splendour and prosperity for the “Superba” (the Proud City) as Genoa was called, thanks to the wealth and prosperity it enjoyed.

The status of its leading citizens (Genoa was a republic) is reflected in the magnificent portraits and religious paintings they commissioned from leading Flemish masters like Van Dyck and Rubens. The exhibition opens, in fact, with Rubens' triumphant equestrian portrait of the young Giovan Carlo Doria, elevated to the rank of Knight of St. James of Santiago by the King of Spain. An entire room is dedicated to Van Dyck's striking portraits of aristocratic personages, clad in their magnificent and costly garments.

Another section is dedicated to the development of the still life genre and country scenes, often under the guise of religious subjects or mythological themes, imbued with the individual touch of artists like the impulsive and violent Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto, Valerio Castello and Alessandro Magnasco.

The wealth enjoyed by the upper classes in the period is also represented by a silver statue of the “Immaculate Madonna” from the Museum of the Treasure of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, marble sculptures by Francesco Bigi and stunning pieces of furniture like the spectacular amethyst-topped table by Genovese master woodcarver Ludovico Francesco Perini.

“Superbarocco: Arte in Genoa da Rubens a Magnasco” runs till the 3^rd July 2022.

M. STENHOUSE

Info: Tel. Call centre +39.02.92897722 www.scuderiequirinale.it

ROME'S MOST SURPRISING MUSEUM

The MAAM (Museo dell'Altro e dell'Altrove – Museum of the Other and Elsewhere) is not only Rome's most unusual museum - it is unique. A former squatter's refuge in a former salami factory, it is now the third largest contemporary art museum in Rome, with the unique tag, according to founder Giorgio de Finis, that it is the only museum in the world that people actually live in. The inhabitants include immigrants, refugees and Italians down-on-their luck, forming a closely forged community over the past thirteen years.

The MAAM, in fact, is part of the self-styled city of Metropoliz created in a Roman suburb by 60 homeless families, who moved into the abandoned 20,000 sqm premises in 2009. The site also attracted artists, looking for studio and exhibition space. To date, Metropoliz has attracted over 400 artists from all over the world who have filled the ex-warehouse premises with murals, sculptures, installations and other art works. One of the most arresting areas is the ex-slaughter house, now re-christened the “Porcine Chapel”, where the walls are covered symbolically in paintings of pigs hanging from hooks, which, however, free themselves and fly off at the end of the cycle.

The site has been threatened with closure many times, but de Finis has met threats of demolition by covering all the walls with art works, some of which by well-known artists who command high market prices. No authority, he says, would dare destroy a mural worth thousands! The number of celebrated artists who have exhibited in the MAAM include Michelangelo Pistoletto, who showed his “Venere Callipigia” (Venus of the Rags) sculpture (normally part of the Castle of Rivoli, Turin) collection) at Metropoliz for several months as part of a charity campaign.

MAAM is open to the public by prior booking and visitors can join in the communal lunch on Saturdays.

Info: Facebook: MAAM Museo dell'Altro e dell'Altrove di Metropoliz

A LONG WALK TO CHINA

Three cheers for intrepid long-distance hiker Vienna Cammarota who has just started her epic trek from Venice to China, in the footsteps of Marco Polo!

72 year-old Vienna is a veteran trekker who has completed long-distance hikes in Tibet, Palestine, Bohemia, Patagonia, Madagascar, the Amazon and other remote corners of the world, as well as a 2000-km trek through Italy, Austria and Germany in 2017-2018 following the itinerary of Goethe's “Viaggio in Italia.”

A native of the Cilento region, Campania, Italy, Vienna is an environmental tour guide and elected Ambassador of the Italian Archeoclub Association of archeological and cultural conservation.

Her new, even more ambitious walk, which she is undertaking in the name of peace, will cover a total 22,000 kms over the traditional Silk Route. With her pack on her back, she will traverse 15 different countries, including the Balkan states, Iran, Azerbijan, Kyrgystan and Mongolia, where she will face, totally alone, the challenges of harsh climatic conditions, desert and mountainous terrain, and possible hostile and dangerous situations.

Vienna aims to reach Beijing in December 2025 after an expected three years “on the road”. Her feat should qualify her for entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Info: Tel.+39.06 44202250 www.archeoclubitalia.it

UFFIZI TOPS COLOSSEUM

For the first time, visitors numbers at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in 2021 overtook those of Rome's Colosseum, traditionally Italy's top tourist attraction. The Uffizi's dynamic curator, Eike Schmidt commented with satisfaction on the boom of post-Covid visitors, who hit the 1.721.637 mark - 100,000 more than the celebrated Rome amphitheatre.

Interest in young visitors soared with the Vogue magazine photoshoot of popular blogger Chiara Ferragni, a Forbes-ranking “Top Fashion Influencer”. Shots of Chiara posing for the cameras in front of some of the Uffizi's most celebrated paintings last July made a huge social media impact, stimulating interest in young people who would not normally have flocked to museums and art galleries. Despite some criticism from purists concerning “the appropriateness” of allowing the photoshoot inside the Uffizi's hallowed halls, the general consensus was the “the end justified the means” and that encouraging art appreciation in the new generation could only have a positive outcome......

Info: Tel. +39.055 294883 www.uffizifirenze.it