ItalyUpdate

ITALY'S MOST VISITED “SIGHTS”

Latest visitor statistics, published by the Italian Ministry of Culture, confirm the Colosseum as Italy's top tourist attraction. In combination with the adjoining Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and Nero's Golden House, just under 15 million tourists visited the Ancient Roman sites in 2024.

The Uffizi Museums in Florence come second with 5 million visitors registered last year, closely followed by the excavated city of Pompeii with a total 4,267,233 visitors and the Pantheon in Rome (just over 4 million).

Castel Sant'Angelo (again in Rome) is also popular with visitors and is expected to draw crowds in 2025 with the Passeto di Borgo, a formerly secret passageway running along the top of the wall that connected the fortress with the Vatican. This once served as an escape route for the Popes and papal court during times of trouble. It will shortly be opened for the first time to the general public.

Info: www.sistan.beniculturali.it

AMERICAN ACTRESS WHOOPI GOLDBERG AT TAOBUK FESTIVAL

The annual literary Taobuk Festival at Taormina (Sicily) concentrates on the theme of “Borders” and what they mean in the modern world. Taking inspiration from the figure of Don Quiscotte, the wandering knight of the Cervantes classic, the event attempts to re-define the concept of boundaries as imaginary limits that both divide peoples, but at the same time mark a shared frontier.

The list of international writers and artists in this year's edition is concentrated on the idea of identity in contemporary society. Among the prestigious guests appearing at the Festival are writers Peter Cameron (USA), Amelie Nothomb, (Belgium), Chinese artist Weiwei, Iranian musician Ramin Bahrami , soprano Jessica Pratt (Australia), actress and film producer Whoopi Goldberg (USA) and leading Italian film-makers and actors such as Gabriele Salvatores, Pierfrancesco Favino and Monica Guerritore.

The Festival, now in its 15^th edition, runs from the 18^th – 23^rd June, Taormina 2025.

Info: Tel.. +39.0942557159 www.taobuk.it

APPLES SLEEP IN FORMER DOLOMITE MINES

The former Tassullo mines in the Dolomites (Trentino-Alto Adige) have now become the ideal storage deposit for the apple crop of the Val di Non.

The Tassullo company was founded in 1909 as a miners' cooperative, aimed at creating employment in the remote mountain area. However, after almost a century of extracting stone for building purposes, the company expanded its activities into other fields of construction and restoration and the San Romedio mines were abandoned, leaving much of the maze of underground galleries empty and intact.

They were not, however, forgotten. Thanks to an ingenious and revolutionary project born a dozen years ago, the old mines have seen a new lease of life as ideal storage units for agricultural products.

Since 2012 the Rio Maggiore mine has hosted the vast apple crop of the nearby Val di Non area. The Melinda Consortium, composed of 400 families divided into 16 cooperatives that collectively produce over 400,000 tons of apples, store their annual crop some 300 meters under the orchards in 34 naturally refrigerated cells. The dry and airy, tunnels have turned out to provide the ideal conditions for storage, providing a stable cool temperature in all seasons and Melinda announces plans to expand storage space by another 10,000 tons in the near future.

The project won the Good Energy Award of 2015, assigned by the Bernoni Grant Thornton Institution.

Info: Tel. +39.0463.671111 https://melinda.it

NEW TRIBUTE TO POPE FRANCIS - “FRANCISCUS – THE HOPE”

A mural created by artist aleXandro Palombo, portrays the late Pope Francis on the wall opposite the entrace to the seat of the Caritas Ambrosiana in Milan. The artist has portayed the Pope dressed in the robe of a Franciscan monk, as a symbol of poverty, and weaing an orange life jacket and with a lifebelt on his left arm, an allusion to the drama of the immigrants who brave the sea crossing hoping to find asylum in Italy. Many do not make it, as attested by the lifeless body of the 2 year old Syrian child Alan Kurdi potrayed lying at his feet. The child was found drowned on the beach in 2015 and bcame the symbol of the sad fate of many immigrants.

The artist has declared that the work was inspired by some of the most significant declarations made by Pope Francis on the theme of immigration and the necessity to cultivate a spirit of welcome and compassion.

The Caritas Ambrosiana is a leading charitable organiziation in Milan. Among the many initiatives their volunteers recover unsold food from supermarkets that is distributed to the needy or used to produce free daily prepared in their kitchens. The charity reports that In 2024, 55 tons of unsold food was recovered and used to donate over 27,000 meals.

Info: Tel. +39.02.760371 www.caritasambrosiana.it

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SAVING PALM SUNDAY PALMS

The “Parmureli”, one of the most characteristic symbols of a Roman Easter, risks disappearing if a determined little beetle continues unchecked on its course of havoc. The voracious palm weevil, which found its way into Italy from the Orient, has successfully destroyed many of the palm trees that grace coastal towns, especially in the Ligurian region where the sweeping fronds of the Phoenix dattifera provide the long branches for the Palm Sunday procession at St. Peter's.

The palm leaves are woven into intricate shapes by local Bordighera and Sanremo horticulturists to form the distinctive “parmureli” banners, symbolizing the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem a week before his betrayal and death.

The tradition of supplying the Vatican palm leaves dates back to the 16^th century. According to a well-known legend it derives from an episode involving the raising of the towering Egyptian obelisk that dominates St. Peter's square. Brought from Heliopolis by Caligula to decorated what was Nero's Circus, it had toppled over and lain abandoned after the circus fell into disuse. When Pope Sixtus V decided to have it raised the complex manoeuvre almost failed when the weight bearing ropes began to fray under the strain. The disaster was averted by a sea captain from Bordighera who shouted instructions to wet the ropes. The Pope expressed his gratitude by according the captain's family the eternal privilege of supplying the palm leaves for the Easter procession – a tradition still kept alive today.

Nowadays, however, in churches all over Italy, the classic palm leaf has been substituted by an olive branch, symbol of peace.

Info: www.compagniadellepalme.eu infopoiny@comunedisanremo.it

WHALE WATCHING AT ELBA

The island of Elba on the coast of Tuscany is best known as the place of confinement of Napoleon in 1814, but it is now making its name as an important centre of Whale Watching and marine ecological research.

The seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelagos, of which Elba is the the biggest, are all part of the Pelago Sanctuary for Marine Mammals, a marine nature reserve that extends for 90,000 sq.km between the coasts of Italy, Southern France and northern Sardinia, that was established in 1999 and hailed as the first International High Seas Marine Park

The area provides the main feeding ground for fin whales in the Mediterranean and Whale Watching boat trips are regularly available from Elba. Sightings of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals are possible all year round, though it is recommended to avoid the high season months when increased human activity and noise disturbs the animals. This month Elba held the 6^th edition of the formation course to obtain “High Quality Whale Watching” certification, instituted by the research foundation CIMA (Centro Internazionale Monitoraggio Ambiente CIMA - International Centre of Environmental Control), sustained by the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.

M.STENHOUSE

Info: Tel. +39.02.89054160     www.visitelba.info         info@centroricercacetacei.org

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PISA PROTECTS ITALY'S STREET ART

The University of Pisa has launched a revolutionary scientific project developed after three years of study and experimentation aimed at the conservation of street art. Entitled SuPerStAr (Sustainable Preservation Strategies for Street Art) the team, headed by Prof. Francesca Modugno of the university Chemistry Faculty, has carried out trials on mural paintings all over Italy to develop the best techniques and materials to restore and preserve the wall paintings by various artists that decorate buildings in urban areas.

These paintings, many of which have been created by well-known international artists,

have often been vandalised, scribbled over, or have deteriorated due to exposure to weather conditions.

The team concentrated on iconic works of art, like Keith Haring's “Tuutomondo” dated1989, painted on the wall of the monastery of Sant'Antonio in Pisa, the colossal 1,300 sqm “Necesse”in Milan, created by Italian street artist SMOE to commemorate the victims of the COVID pandemic and works by Alessandro Caligaris e Mauro 149 in Turin, part of Italy's first open air Museum of Urban Art .

M, STENHOUSE

Info: Tel. +39. 050.2212111 www,unipi.it

GORICA-GORIZIA A SYMBOL OF EU UNITY

Once rigidly separated, the border town of Nova Gorica in Slovenia has joined forces with Gorizia in Italy, its “other half”, to promote its new prestigious status as “European Capital of Culture 2025 under the promotional banner of “Go!2025”.

The choice is highly symbolic. The town was split down the middle on the demarcation line drawn up at the end of WWII and throughout the entire Cold War period movement between the two sides was rigidly controlled. Although things gradually relaxed and the frontier fully opened in 2004 with Slovenia's entry into the EU, the city still preserves two distinct characters.

The nomination of Nova Gorica has been hailed as the first “Borderless EU Capital of Culture”. Although the title of EU Capital of Culture 2025 is held officially by the Slovenian township together with Chemnitz in Germany, its Italian half is participating fully in the year-long cultural programme packed with events and exhibitions, making this a “first” involving two separate countries.

M. STENHOUSE

Info: www.go2025.eu

Infopoint Promo Turismo FVG, Gorizia - Tel. +39.0481.535764