ISSUE No. 130
ISSUE / No. 130
October 21, 2010
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Florence News
Florence meets Halloween
Whether Italians like or not, Halloween has haunted Italy and Florence for some time. In just a few years, this imported pagan festival, which in fact originated in Europe, has become a custom here, with some eight million Italians celebrating it. …Florence News
Cities of refuge
Florence and Siena to become international havens
‘The region will work to promote Icorn, the international refuge of cities network that provides safe havens to the world's persecuted intellectuals and writers. Our objective is allow the cities of Florence and Siena to participate the network by year's end,' …
Florence News
Market revival
Change marks San Lorenzo and Sant'Ambrogio
Florence city officials have been making plans to revive and rejuvenate two important city landmarks, both of them historic markets. At issue are extended hours and space for vendors.
Sant'Ambrogio. To better meet the demands of locals, the indoor market in Sant'Ambrogio …
Florence News
Ataf lets you decide,
New campaign seeks client involvement
Need a bus shelter at the stop near your house? Tell Ataf. As part of a new campaign, the local bus service, Ataf, is calling on residents to help choose the locations of 100 new high-tech bus shelters featuring photovoltaic rooftops. …
Florence News
Adopt a painting,
Istituto degli Innocenti calls on the public
Care for children and art: this is the mission of Florence's Istituto degli Innocenti, once the city's orphanage. First opened in the fifteenth century as a family and childcare centre, over the centuries the institute, housed in the Renaissance hospital built …
Florence News
Artx2
Museo del Duomo expands
A Florence treasure trove housing masterpieces by Michelangelo, Donatello and Ghiberti is getting a multi-million-euro addition and renovation. Earlier this month, Anna Mitrano, president of the L'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, unveiled plans for the 25-million-euro project for the Museo …
Florence News
Benefits of being a student
Free bike use and more with new student card
On October 11, the city of Florence rolled out a new service that loans bicycles for free to the city's youth. Students can borrow a bike at Palazzo Giovane, in the small piazza close to Santa Maria Maggiore in the historic …
Florence News
Hard Rock comes to town
The city of Florence will soon be among the world's coolest cities that have a Hard Rock Cafe. To be housed in the former Gambrinus cinema in piazza Reppublica, the famous bar and restaurant is expected to open in early 2011. …Florence News
Bottle it yourself
Residents of Gavinana can now stock up on free water while grocery shopping. The catch: they have to bottle it themselves. The result of a project by Publiacqua and Unicoop, the Coop supermarket in Gavinana now features a fountain, where customers …Florence News
New ER at city hospital
Located in the city centre, Santa Maria Nuova Hospital recently re-opened its newly renovated emergency unit, now large enough to treat some 50,000 patients a year. This latest phase of renovation cost 10 million euro, in addition to the 2.2 million …Community News
Where to borrow books
St James' library begins a new year
The Children's Lending Library, housed at the St. James Church in Florence offers a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction books for tots to teenagers. Along with books, the collection includes videos, DVDs and audio books in English.
The library celebrates Halloween, …
Tuscany News
Recyclable Tuscany
Locals more sentitive to the three Rs
The region continues to increase its levels of waste and recycling differentiation: 2009 saw a more than a 2 percentage point decrease over that of 2008 in the collection and incineration of undifferentiated waste.
The trend continues an improvement over the 2004-2007 …
Tuscany News
Tuscany down under
New collaboration between Australia and region
Riccardo Nencini, regional minister of Tuscan foreign relations, recently returned from a trip to Australia during which he promoted collaborative initiatives between Western Australia and Tuscany. The two regions plan to cooperate on the use of the Web to promote tourism, …
Tuscany News
Fi-Pi fast
High-speed service to better link two Tuscan cities
By December 2011, commuters should be able to travel from Pisa to Florence with half an hour to spare, when a new high-speed, non-stop service will connect the two cities. Seven new trains, scheduled to run every two hours, will move …
Tuscany News
And the nominees are...
Italy's Oscar candidate is Tuscan
La prima cosa bella, a film by Paolo Virzi, was chosen as Italy's film nominated to the Academy for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. The film, which stars Virzi's wife, Micaela Ramazzotti, is the moving tale of a disgruntled, misanthropic …
Tuscany News
Pisan saviour
A Pisan engineer, Stefano Massei, was the expert behind the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,050 feet below ground for more than two months in the deserts of Atacama, Chile. His advanced mechanism, tested in Tuscany and exported worldwide, …Tuscany News
A+ in economics
International certification agency Standard & Poor's recently gave Tuscany an A+ rating for economic stability. With its low debt, efficient health-care spending and favorable credit balance, Tuscany ranks among Italy's most economically stable regions, despite the worldwide recession. Standard & Poor's …Tuscany News
Vines of peace
This year's grape harvest yielded not only the promise of a great vintage, but also bottles of wine that may promote brotherhood among different nations and cultures. In San Piero in Barca, Siena, the Agrarian Consortium of Siena and the Rondine …Italy News
GPII pub
Rome dioceses opens novel cultural centre
Located under the vicolo del Grottino, under the Basilica di San Carlo al Corso in Rome, the new Giovanni Paolo II pub features PlayStation outposts, a bar and tables, and a space for live concerts, art exhibitions and book presentations. Already …
Italy News
Urban warfare
Violence in the stadium and post-match riots in Genoa
When the Azzurri met Serbia's national football team in Genoa on October 13 for a Euro 2012 qualifier, no one expected the game would be suspended for hooliganism and violence. Serbian fans allegedly started the violence that significantly delayed and eventually …
Italy News
Not so innovative
Rome and Milan fail to gain international recognition
According to the results of the Global City Report, Rome and Milan failed to make the top 10 in the recent ranking of the most innovative cities.
Published by the independent Italian institutes, Generali Immobiliare Italia Sgr and Scenari Inmobiliari, the annual …
Italy News
The slain servicemen
Four killed in ambush in Afghanistan
President Giorgio Napolitano and premier Silvio Berlusconi were in Rome on October 11 to pay their respects to the remains of four military officers who were killed in Afghanistan. The soldiers were given a state funeral the next day at Rome's …
Italy News
Gondola seeks world heritage status
A symbol of Italian culture and heritage, the Venetian gondola, is the latest candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Status. ‘I think it's a good idea,' said Aldo Reato, president of the Venetian gondoliers' association, adding ‘Safeguarding the tradition of the gondola, …Italy News
A piece of Pompeii
The city of Naples was represented at commemorations of John Lennon in New York City's Central Park on October 9. When fans from all over the world flocked to Central Park West to mark what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday, …Italy News
Sisters go to school
Everyone is feeling the pinch of the worldwide economic crisis-even the Catholic Church. Over past the few years, the church's community outreach activities and educational programs have suffered from a significant drop in donations from the faithful. In response, the La …Italy News
Van Gogh in Rome,
Although visitors will not see two of Van Gogh's most famous works, Sunflowers and Still Life, a major show in Rome focused on the post-Impressionist Dutch artist is showcasing over 70 of his masterworks, many of which are on loan from …Italy News
Valle d'Aosta visits the capital
Skiing the Alps in the heart of Rome? Visitors and locals can now ‘do' so via a simulator, called Ski Magic, coming to Valle d'Aosta's temporary embassy in piazza Apollodoro, at the Parco della Musica Auditorium in Rome. The purpose of …
Sport News
VIOLA Corner
Red balloon day On October 6, the Fiorentina went to Rome to open the worldwide ‘Every One' campaign for Save the Children in the hopes of saving 2.5 million children by 2015. Instead of the usual release of thousands of red balloons, …
Sport News
Second Annual Disc Golf Italia Open
Three years ago, frisbee fanatic Pablo Maggio of Pistoia was searching the Internet for sites that sell frisbees. He found, instead, information about a sport unknown in Italy, disc golf: golf played with a frisbee instead of a golf ball. Soon he …Sport News
(Virtual) field of dreams
D Dario Nardella, vice mayor and minister of sport, and Leonardo Bieber, president of the sports commission, recently announced Sportinforma, Florence's official sports web portal, slated to go online on October 29, 2010. ‘It's a virtual piazza for the sporting world,' commented Nardella. The …Sport News
Taking Tuscany on two feet
Special itineraries, urban art tours and ‘slow' sports: this is the best way to visit and experience Tuscany. Art and sports combine on October 31, National Urban Trekking Day, now in its seventh year, to offer trekkers and art lovers alike …Sport News
Fit for use
O On October 10, native Florentine rocker Piero Pelù and ‘adopted' Florentine boxer Leonard Bundu cut the ribbon to inaugurate the revamped fitness centre at Florence's Franchi stadium. Called Centro Fitness Artemio Franchi, the facility is managed by the Endas Firenze Sud Delegation, …Sport News
Costoli reopens
After an extended closure for renovation, the Costoli pool in Campo di Marte reopened on October 4. Local officials and athletes feared that the work would drag on, inconveniencing the many water polo players and swimmers who train in the massive …
Movie Reviews
Festival of festivals,
50 days of cinema
Until December 10, the Odeon Cinema is hosting the seventh annual 50 Days of International Cinema. The festival, which opened on October 21, brings under one roof the various festivals that had been scattered around the city and held at various …
Best Events
Festival Creativita'/ deGustiBooks
October 21 to 24, various locations
The program is finally set, and the event is finally here, so hit the town for Festival della Creatività.
deGustiBooks is planning a series of events that meld the creative, literary and downright tasty: from, don't miss a series of artisanal food …
Best Events
Festival Creativita'/ Job Fair Firenze
October 22 and 23, Nelson Mandela Forum
Need work? This is the most important job fair in the region, with over 250 positions offered (and a chance to win 1,000 euro!). Two days and over 70 businesses represented-from the Province of Florence itself o Salvatore Ferragamo. Print out …
Best Events
Theatre/ Othello
October 23, 5:30pm, Feltrinelli International Bookstore, via Cavour
FESTA presents Othello by William Shakespeare. Theatre and literary buffs, this one is for you. The talented Florence-based, English-language FESTA theatre company stages Othello, Shakespeare's drama about racism, love, jealousy and betrayal. It's happening at Feltrinelli International Bookstore. Entrance is free; …
Best Events
Concerts/ Sting,
October 25, Teatro Verdi
Symphonicity-Sting in Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra directed by Steven Mercurio
Sting, the superstar with a Tuscan zip code, will perform his greatest hits (you know them), reworked for accompaniment by a world-class symphony directed by acclaimed composer Stephen Mercurio. …
Best Events
Photography/ Camera Work
October 28 to January 9, Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, Florence
Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand between Europe and America.
The work of modern American photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand, each of whom captured, with an oft-eerie air, the moods and scenes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in …
Best Events
Not only Dance/ Festival Oltrarno Atelier 2010
October 10 to November 14, various locations
Hit the hip Oltrarno for performance art spectacles of the theatrical, chorographical, poetic, photographic sorts in some of the city's most intriguing locations. From the Sala del Fiorino in Palazzo Pitti to the sacristy of Santo Spirito, the skeleton room of …
Best Events
50 days of cinema/ Etnomusicale
October 31 to November 2, Cinema Odeon
Images and Sounds of the World. The Odeon is hosting its now-annual 50 days of exciting cinema, a festival of festivals. The 50 Days of Cinema Festival, which began this week (see summary on p. 7) includes Etnomusicale, which focuses on …
Best Events
Contemporary Art/Michael Lin
Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato
The colour is bright, the beauty is generous. The first grand retrospective of Taiwanese artist Michael Lin. Lin is perhaps most famous for his large-scale paintings on walls and pavements, inspired by floral motifs and Taiwanese and Japanese fabrics, with which …
Best Events
Photography/ Thomas Ruff
October 16 to December 11, various locations, Prato
The photographs of often-controversial German pop art icon Thomas Ruff will fill the halls of various of Prato's most beautiful palaces and libraries. The works selected for the exhibition represent Ruff's entire oeuvre, each chosen to complement the environments they occupy. …
Interviews
Meeting Sean Ferrer
Audrey Hepburn's son talks about running the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund from his home in Tuscany. Sean Hepburn Ferrer draws breath slowly and contemplates his answers seriously. He has a steady gaze and a solid presence. He is sitting at his dining …
Italian Sketches
Pietro Valpreda
The dancer anarchist
December 12, 1969 is a date indelibly printed on the pages of recent Italian history. On that cold winter's day, at 4:37 in the afternoon, a bomb exploded inside the crowded Banca Nazionale dell‘Agricoltura situated in piazza Fontana in downtown Milan. …
Expats in Florence
Kristin Lanese
Bringing quality education to teachers and students
After growing up in a small suburban city outside of Cleveland, Ohio, Kristin Lanese decided to move to the West coast to attend the University of Southern California (USC) with the hopes of becoming a teacher. Before even graduating, she was …
Families + Kids
Are you KIDding? A day at the park
Exploring via Faentina's Area Pettini
After having spent the majority of the last decade living in the center of Florence, I became one of ‘those people' who high-tailed it to the outskirts as soon as baby came along. Amidst romantic notions of ambling through the Santo …
The Arts
Reading the messages
Portraits and Power at Strozzina
I'm not sure what I had expected from the exhibit Portraits and Power at the Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi's contemporary art space, because it is running in tandem with the Bronzino exhibition upstairs and I (correctly only in part) assumed that it …
In Other Words
Threat or promise
Word gifts are all around. Sometimes they come as swooning song lyrics or arrive in the mail with greeting card sweetness. And sometimes, yes, sometimes, a lovely pair of parole will crop up in the most unlikely of places and rock …Florentinisms
Parea, Gingillassi, Bruciate and ballotte
Your in-progress dictionary of the Florentine dialect
Parea: Florentine pronunciation of ‘pareva' (‘it seemed').
Example: ‘Quando lè arrivato Mario e parea fosse entrao i' principe! Mah...' (‘When Mario got here it seemed like a prince had come in! Whatever...')
Gingillassi: To waste time doing useless things. Also used is the …
Tuscany + Beyond
What's haunting Tuscany?
Scary legends and ghostly sightings
Halloween in Italy may be considered just as much of an American import as peanut butter, but it is, in fact, a holiday that was first celebrated by the Celtic tribes inhabiting Northern Europe and Ireland. With its original intent as …
Tuscany + Beyond
A diabolical architect
In bridges across Italy, the devil had a hand
by
Paul Salsini
What with all the murder and mayhem going on in the muddled Middle Ages, one might think the devil would have had better things to do. But instead of keeping traffic-from peasants to popes-moving smoothly through the Gates of Hell, the …
Tuscany + Beyond
Searching for 'white diamonds'
Truffle hunting tips and festivals
by
Emily Matras
In Italy, autumn marks the arrival of the pungent, earthy aroma of the world's most sought-after gastronomic delight: white truffles. Here's a round-up of Italy's best white truffle festivals, and tips for those adventurous souls who want to sniff out their …
Tuscany + Beyond
Cheap(er) treasure
Alba's truffles now affordable?
This August's rains left fields damp, but they did not dampen the spirits of truffle connoisseurs around the city of Alba. October 8 marked the beginning of the Alba International White Truffle Fair, which runs through November 14.
This year, there are …
Recipes
On the hunt for wild boar
Tuscan hunting season is officially open. With about 100,000 hunters renewing their licences annually in the region alone, hunting here is serious business. And, with locals from Momigno (population 1,000), a small town on the way to Femminamorta in the hills …Features
Articles
Community
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