The wonderful city of Florence uses to commemorate its ancient folkloristic traditions, and also this year, it will celebrate the original and cheerful feast of Rificolona.

The Rificolona in fact, still today remains the traditional Florentine feast, which is celebrated with a lot of events, shows and parades which take place in all the city districts and which several Florentine citizens and foreigners take part to.

The word “Rificolona” derives from the ancient term “fierucola”, which means “little but important feast”. It dates back to the years before the 20^th century, when on every September 7^th the farmers living in the surrounding area used to gather and walked with small colored-paper lanterns from Vallombrosa and Impruneta hills towards SS. Annunziata square, in the centre of the city, to pay homage to the Virgin Mary, and also to sell their hand-made products under the loggia with arcades of Spedale degli Innocenti on the occasion of the Fair

From September 2^nd to 12^th, the charming and romantic city of Venice will turn once again into an enchanting dimension colored with the emotions of cinema.

Yes, because also this year, Venice Biennale is proud to presents the most expected event in the field of cinema: the International Film Festival, now at its 66^th edition, which will take place at Venice Lido and as usual, it will pay homage to the best artists in the contemporary cinema.

The opening ceremony will take place on 2^nd September and it will be presented by the Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, followed by the world premiere screening of Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa”, one of the films taking part in competition.

The official line-up of the 66th Festival includes six different sections – Venezia 66,

A new interesting initiative intended to pay homage to the year dedicated to science and to the great Italian Galileo Galilei: an extraordinary work created by the contemporary sculptor Vladimir Skoda at Pisa Airport.

We are talking about a sculpture entitled Galileo-Galilei, designed and created by Skoda with the intent to recall the discoveries and the instruments used by the Italian scientist, and to commemorate such an important protagonist in the field of science.

This stunning sculpture-installation is made up of a concave mirror put behind the golden steel sphere of a pendulum, whose oscillations create

Until October 4^th, the Central Museum of Risorgimento in Rome will host a special exhibition entitled “Studi d’Artista” (“Artists’ Studios”).

This event will put on display over 100 unpublished and very original photographs from several artists’ studios which date back to the 19^th and 20^th centuries, also thanks to the significant cooperation with the Fototeca Nazionale-ICCD (National Photographic Archive).

Images are extremely interesting and represent 19^th-century photographic portraits or artists in their studios near their works.

The exhibition‘s aim is not just to show the reciprocal influences ever existed between painting, sculpture and photography, but also to demonstrate how such images can be precious iconographic and documentary sources for representing the artistic studios’ set up between 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The exhibition “Studi d’Artista” awaits you all in Rome! So, photography and art lovers…you are all invited!

For further information about the city of Rome, please visit our website www.aboutroma.com

For the first time, an exhibition entirely organized by the Louvre Museum and made up of several artworks coming from its own collections will take place in Florence.

The exhibition, supported by the Ministry of Cultural Activities and Heritage and by the City of Florence will take place at the Museum of Casa Buonarroti until September 14^th.

Tourists will have the opportunity to marvel at an extraordinary exhibition of the highest level, with more than 90 pieces never shown before which were donated by the rich Edmond de Rothschild to the Louvre Museum in the thirties, among which the Dèpartement des Arts Graphiques selected many works belonging to the Italian Renaissance.

But what makes this event even more significant is the original collocation of the works in the halls. In the opening hall in fact, visitors will find International Gothic drawings of stunning elegance which will enchant spectators because they will all be visible from both sides.

The most important area in the Museum is with no doubt the one dedicated to the drawings which date back to the 15^th and 16^th centuries, works created by such masters as Pisanello, Leonardo and Raphael.

Don’t miss the chance to marvel at the works belonging to one of the most famous museums in the world, now in the wonderful city of Florence.

Visit the Buonarroti Museum, you won’t regret it!

For further information about the city of Florence, please visit our website www.aboutflorence.com

Don’t miss the chance to go to Genoa and visit the historical dwelling of the Spinola family from another point of view!

Until September 13^th in fact, the picturesque palace will host an event entitled “Spinola Contemporanea” (“Contemporary Spinola”) which is not just a simple exhibition, but it represents a real itinerary inside the building located in Genoa old town, on which 35 Italian and foreign contemporary artists have been working for a year, working hard in order to search a subjective and personal way for interpreting its characteristics.

This itinerary (in a class by itself) was conceived just on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the palace opening as a National Gallery, after the last two descendants of the Spinola family, Franco and Paolo, gave as

The renowned Palio dell’Assunta will come back in Siena on August 16^th, and as usual, it will take place in the picturesque and stunning Piazza del Campo.

It’s a very ancient competition between the city wards, which dates back to Middle Ages and from time immemorial draws the attention of tourists from all over the world.

The feast lasts 4 days, during which visitors will have the chance to watch the meticulous preparation of the race. The morning of August 13^th for example, is a symbolic date during which the so-called “Tratta” takes place, that is the assigning of the horses to each contrada.

Forma, the International Center for Photography in Milan, will host until 6^th September a very original exhibition entitled “Nippon Kōbō”, which means “Japanese Laboratory”.

In other words, we are dealing with a homage to the Japanese world and to its particular photographic art.

The exhibition’s aim is to show the evolution of the Japanese photography by highlighting the variety of themes, the wide range of languages and most of all one of the most characteristic features of the Japanese culture: the relationship with the surrounding environment poised between ecstatic contemplation and irretrievable pain.

On this occasion, the notable Milan’s center for photography has selected 130

Would you like to spend a summer evening in a different and original way? Then, get ready and visit Torre del Lago, where Festestate edition 2009 will take place from 5^th to 16^th August.

Now at its 11^th edition, this event besides preserving its aspect of a typical local feast, from this year gets renovations by suggesting shows, town fairs and concerts of many famous Italian artists: obviously, everywhere admission is free.

The art director Amedeo Ceppini together with Stefano Nari, president of the notorious Puccini Carnival, this year organized