An exhibition entirely dedicated to the greatest protagonists of the international scenery of modern and contemporary art will start on 31^st January. The exhibition, entitled “Art, Genius and Madness. Artist’s Day and Night” will be housed at Santa Maria della Scala Museum Complex, in the wonderful city of Siena.

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This event, just for its title, promises a really special exhibition path, with no doubt absolutely different from the others until now proposed in Italy. The heart of the exhibition will be represented by 300 beautiful works among sculptures and paintings, carefully chosen for their emotional intensity of colours and shapes. These artworks will have the duty to tell us about the suspected relationship, documented from time immemorial, between genius and madness, between inimitable artistic talent and mental uneasiness.

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Divided into 8 sections, the exhibition intends to research and inquire into the artwork and the relationship with its creator from different points of view: artistic, scientific, anthropological or psychiatric. 300 artworks of

Some time ago, I was walking through the streets of Florence, precisely in via Cavour, when I suddenly saw a huge poster on which there was one of the most beautiful artworks that I ever seen in my life: it was just “Madonna del Cardellino” (1506) by Raffaello.

The “huge poster”, just as I said, was the manifest of an extraordinary exhibition housed until 1st March at Palazzo Medici Ricciardi in Florence: “L’Amore , l’Arte e la Grazia. Raffaello. La Madonna del Cardellino Restaurata” (“Love, Art and Grace – Raphael: the Madonna of the Goldfinch restored”).

The “Madonna del Cardellino” shows the Madonna sitting on a rock while she’s reading a book, from which turns away just for a while to take a look at Jesus and Saint John, still children, while they are playing with a goldfinch.

Therefore, this artwork has a religious background, but

Still a month before the closure of one of the most interesting and particular exhibitions open in 2008, “La Lente di Freud. Una Galleria dell’inconscio” (“The Lens of Freud. A Gallery of Unconscious”).

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The event, on display in the amazing halls of Museum Complex Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, suggests an artistic itinerary in a class by itself, analyzing an accurate selection of about 200 artworks (among watercolors, India ink drawings, woodcuts and etchings), in the psychoanalytic movement introduced by Freud.

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The exhibition suggests a new way to look at the artwork and to the artist through the Lens of Freud. The artworks speak, explain on their own the cultural and anthropological content that produced them, and invite the exhibition’s visitors to a new interpretation.

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Freud, the philosopher universally recognized as the father of Psychoanalysis, was in fact the first to

Many people talk about it in many different ways: some people say that it causes addiction, or pimples on the face, or that eating it too much can be bad for our health. But not very often people say that it’s a great power source, that benefits to heart, to mood, and obviously to love! Who am I talking about? Chocolate!!!

And from 22nd to 25th January, in Florence people will not talk about anything else, seeing that the greatest Handmade Chocolate Fair in Italy is starting just right now.

Piazza Santa Croce during the next days will turn into a huge box of chocolate candies, bars and sculptures, thanks to the participation of the best Italian masters of chocolate. At Chocolate Fair, now on its 5th edition, you will find

2009 will be the International Year of Astronomy, and to celebrate this important recurrence, the “Festival of Science”, every year special guest of the amazing city of Rome, dedicates its fourth edition just to Universe.

The festival, which will take place at Auditorium Parco della Musica from 15^th to 18^th January, will present to all the people keen on science and cosmos, a calendar filled with appointments and events which show as absolute protagonist the universe seen, revisited, studied and interpreted in all its facets.

The event will be at first open by a peculiar exhibition dedicated to works which represent the universe. Glass stellar domes, round skies, and

The National University Library of Turin in the near future will house a really special exhibition entirely dedicated to a unique artist, “Goya: I disastri della Guerra” (“Goya: Disasters of War”).

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The title says it all. In fact the exhibition, which will take place from 15^th January to 28^th February, will show as absolute protagonists “Los Desastres de la Guerra” (“Disasters of War”) by Francisco Goya, the exceptionally gifted Spanish painter and engraver.

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The “Desastres” are 82 original palimpsests engraved by the artist, who tells the several wars and conflicts which for years afflicted the whole Europe, during a very important historical period, marked by deep political, cultural and institutional changes.

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In this way the exhibition, through these extremely striking palimpsests, retraces the history of Europe, so strong and evocative almost to tell the history of the whole world, in a linear way, laying out and organizing the pictures in a perfect chronological order.

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We don’t know exactly when Goya began to engrave his palimpsests. According to majority, it seems that he began between 1808 and 1809, but kept on work some years later, in 1820, with the “Caprichos Enfáticos” (the third section of the artworks’ series that refers to the Absolutist period with social-political criticism).

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Therefore, the exhibition awaits you from 15^th January to 28^th February in the halls of the National University Library of Turin.

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For further information about events, museums and much more in Turin, visit our website entirely dedicated to the city.

New year, new season for fashion, new edition for Pitti Immagine Uomo, the most expected event dedicated to fashion lovers from all over the world.

From 13^th to 16^th January in fact, Fortezza da Basso in Florence will house the 75^th edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo, one of the most important international review of men’s fashion in next seasons.

Pitti Uomo 75 keeps on growing on each edition, maybe thanks to its extraordinary innovative soul, but always with a special attention to the tradition which distinguishes this event’s protagonists.

This edition’s numbers will make your head spin, in fact the event will house just 690 different international firms, and 845 brands will walk the runway on a surface of 59 thosands square meters.

In addition, as every year, the event centres its whole organization on a theme, and the absolute protagonist of Pitti Immagine Uomo 75 will be

Finally in Venice a big exhibition has been organized, dedicated to one of the most important resources of the city: glass.

Until the 1st of May 2009, you will have the chance to admire about 135 works, never shown before, exposed in the incredible scenery of the Glass Museum of Murano. “Ritrovare il Museo: Murano 1797 – 1859” was an idea started with the aim of increasing the value of the art of glass which gave popularity to Murano in the past, by turning the village into one of the most famous and appreciated places in the world. The event consists of a variety of exhibitions which carefully retrace the history of Murano glass, and giving attention to one peculiar historic moment, which was the fall of the San Marco Republic in 1797 when, due to a variety of incursion by foreign countries, a time of deep economic crisis started and big masters of glass working reacted to it with the use of creativity and deep innovations

Well it’ s true, indeed she’ s not so beautiful, she’ s an ugly and old woman, but the Befana is so nice and kind, and everyone loves to celebrate her! Epiphany in fact, in our country is the funniest moment during Christmas holidays.

Traditions concerning Epiphany are many, and they are different from region to region and from city to city: some of those are really unique and particular. In some Italian cities celebrations have very ancient origins and represent a real event.

In Siena (exactly in Bettolle) for example, the “XXIV Mostra dei Presepi” (“14th Nativity Scene’s Exhibition”) will take place, where each of the 5 quarters of the village sets up its own Presepe in a corner of the old town center, and on 6th January, as every year, the city awards the most beautiful creations.

Still in Tuscany, you can’t absolutely miss the “Cavalcata dei Magi” (“The Magi Ride”) in Florence, the traditional manifestation which every year on the 6th of January goes across the “Paradiso”, that is the area between the Dome and the Baptistery. During this very peculiar event, obviously relative to religious traditions but rich of folkloristic elements, the “Magi” overstep the manifestation’s place riding a horse and bringing gifts, anticipated by a procession of hundreds people among representatives of Calcio Storico, Sbandieratori, Gonfaloni etc.

On the other hand, “Viva la Befana” (“Long live the Befana”) boasts of more than 20 years of traditions. This is a manifestation started in 1986 in Rome, and every 6th of January