ItalyUpdate

The Gragnano City of Pasta will receive official EU recognition as an IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) product on the 2^nd December 2013. The ceremony will take place at the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament in the presence of the Italian Minister of Agriculture, the President of the Gragnano Consortium and other authorities.

The plans and scale model of the Italian Pavilion designed for the Milan Expo of 2015 are on public view in the Room of the Guard of Honour at the Presidential Quirinale Palace in Rome until 15^th January 2014.

Many of Naples' most famous monuments will stay open till midnight on Saturday 30^th November and Saturday 28^th December 2013. The sites include the National Archaeological Museum, Castel Sant'Elmo, the Royal Palace and the Capodimonte Museum, as well as nearby treasures like the Royal Palace of Caserta and the open-air Temples of Paestum.

The great grape stock Vernaccia Nera is celebrated again this year in its home territory, the town of Serrapetrona (Marche). The Appassimenti Aperti appointment is now into its eight edition.  

Sunday 17^th November 2013 is the perfect opportunity to taste the Vernaccia di Serrapetrona docg and the Serrapetrona doc in a jolly street party atmosphere.

Italy has its own version of the celebrated butantes Balls of Vienna, with young girls in white being whirled round the floor by partners in tails. The balls are nostalgic re-enactments of the gracious age of 19^th century Austria, which dominated Middle European culture for much of the century following the defeat of Napoleon and are held in Italy's most prestigious palaces.

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.