Milan is without any doubt the economic capital of Italy. It is a big city full of life, social and cultural activities, cinemas and teathres, discos and pubs of any kind, moreover, in Milan are located some of the main Italian schools and universities. Would you like to study abroad, may be in one of the numerous beautiful Italian cities? Why don’t you choose Milan for your learning abroad? In Milan you can find some of the most important Italian schools and universities and lots of students every year move from other Italian regions to attend courses at Milan university’s faculties.

The University of Milan (Università degli studi, UNIMI) is one of the larger universities in Italy, with about 60,000 students. The main university systems are represented by the “Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore”, the “Bocconi University” and the “Politecnico of Milan”, offering also several specializations and master tracks.

On June 24th, like every other year, Florence celebrates the festivity of San Giovanni Battista, Saint Patron of the city. According to the tradition, it’s a day in which several festivities take place in Florence throughout the day, such as parades, the ‘sbandieratori’ show, the Rowing Club competition along the river Arno, fireworks, the famous marathon called “Notturna di San Giovanni“, and to conclude the night, the famous fireworks (the ‘fochi di San Giovanni’) at around 9:00pm.

This year, however, the festivities will start a day before, on Saturday. On the 23rd of June there will be a couple of activities that you won’t want to miss: the Notturna di San Giovanni (marathon race) and “Nottarno” the white night in “Oltrarno” (the southern streets of Ponte Vecchio) that offers music, art shows and several amusement activities throughout its squares and quarters. For this special occasion, all restaurants will remain opened throughout the night with tables on the streets and squares. (download the program in pdf)

For the second year in a row, the final match of Calcio in Costume (football in costumes) has been cancelled. The famous Historic Florentine Football, was a peppy medieval version of football played in Santa Croce square. In fact, in 2006 the match was cancelled with a specific motivation: “The unjustify events that took place on the opening match of the 2006 edition, forced the Municipality of Florence to take action on this important sporting event.”

But this will not discourage Florentine people, as they are preparing themselves for a weekend full of festivities and events. And now, as customary, here we give you some curiosities you could eventually have missed or never heard.

On the 20th of June, today, Florence will open its doors to the 72nd edition of PITTI IMMAGINE which means one of the most famous event in Florence and one of the most important shows in the world of fashion. The show is divided into three events in an interval of two weeks:

• PITTI UOMO
  June 20th – 23rd: World-wide preview collections of apparel and accessories for spring-summer 2008
• PITTI BIMBO
  June 29th – July 1st: International preview of apparel and accessories collections for children, boys and teenagers from 0 to 18 years of age, maternity and toddler articles for spring-summer 2008.
• PITTI FILATI
  July 4th – 6th: Preview of the collections for spring-summer 2008 of spins to you for maglieria.

The event opener, as it is now by custom, will be PITTI UOMO, the male fashionable preview that every year gives the way to the season of the European and international fairs.

A new incredible suggestion, read and discover it. The Vicus Caprarius, called also “La Città dell’Acqua” (The city of Water), is an archaeological area in the quarter of Trevi, a few metres from the most popular fountain in the world: the Trevi Fountain. 8 metres underground, in a suggestive atmosphere, are visible different levels of an ancient district on the Caprarius Road (Vicus Caprarius).

In the enchanting ruins it’s possible to see water cistern, labirinth, staircases, passages, domus from IV century a.D. and many archeological find like amphora, coins, votive statues. In the Vicus Caprarius the same water of Trevi Fountain gushes out…

Information provided by About Rome, your travel guide to Rome, and Paesionline.com, a tourism and vacations portal offering guides to places and countries.

Everyone of us know that Italy is all along the motherland of different kinds of art. From painting to sculpture, from literature to cuisine, Italian art is probably one of the few things that more gather people from all over the world. Design is one of the most recent art Italian people have acquired and it is an important recent event which happened at the beginning of the 20th century, when some Italian artists called “designers” (essential figures for the development of design in Italy and for its success in the other countries) such as Giò Ponti, Corradino D’Ascanio and Flaminio Bertoni (and someone else before and after them), entered in touch with the famous English movement of Arts and Crafts making of it a source of inspiration for their design creations. Just think about Giò Ponti’s works for Richard Ginory brand, or to the Corradino D’Ascanio’s Vespa and Flaminio Bertoni’s 2CV, objects which have contributed in a substantial way to make the history of Italian design and to encourage its development in Italy and abroad.