Are you ready? Come to Venice and show ff your best mask!

Carnival 2012 is ready to begin. Tomorrow 4th February many dances, masks, parades and theatre performances will liven up Venice!

This year the theme of the carnival will be the theatre: “Life as a Theatre!”. So, several theatre performances and many more theatre-related initiatives will be held during this carnival edition.

On 4th February, the Great toast at the fountain of wine, and a beautiful theatre performance, “A Venezia la vita è Teatro” (“In Venice, life is theatre”). In addition, skating rinks will be open to the public in Piazza Ferretto and Campo San Paolo in Venice.

On Sunday 12th, there will be the famous and traditional “Angel Flight”, the exciting flight of a secret guest star, who from the top of San Marco bell tower will fly above the square, landing in the centre of the square. He or she will wear an amazing mask in honour of the carnival.

In addition, this year Venice Carnival will celebrate and remember the significance of the environmental protection, thanks to a special initiative by Ecolamp, the cooperative devoted to the separate collection of rubbish and waste disposal.

From 4th to 21st February will mount a stage – “Teatro della Luce e del Riciclo” – in Campo San Paolo, proposing games and shows dedicated to environment.

For more detailed information about Venice please visit the guide About Venice.

Book your hotel in Venice with About Venice!

Find out more about Venice Carnival.

Are you a fan of opera or classical music? Then book your New Year’s Eve concert right now!

It could seem too soon but time is running out and New Year’s Eve is near! Have you already thought about how to spend this magic night?

If you’re planning to spend this New Year’s Eve in Italy, then why not to enjoy a wonderful classical music concert or an opera at theatre? Or maybe, even on the first day of 2012!

For those who wish to end 2011 with the magic notes of The Barber of Seville or start the new year with the emotions raised by famous operas such as Nabucco or Tosca, don’t miss the fabulous concerts

Tuscany Feast, the yearly event celebrated on 30th November, has been instituted through a regional law in 2000, in order to remember one of the main conquest of mankind in the field of human rights: the abolition of death penalty.

It was the Grand Duke of Tuscany who first abolished death penalty on 30th November 1786 wit Leopold’s reform. He also abolished torture and limbs mutilation, defining such practices barbaric acts.

This initiative made Tuscany the first country in the world to

From last 17th September 2011 until 8th January 2012, the royal palace Reggia di Venaria Reale (located near Turin) will host an exhibition called Moda in Italia (Fashion in Italy), an event for celebrating 150 years of elegance.

A real journey in the Italian style and fashion from 1861 until today, from the stars of cinema to the great contemporary fashion designers. This extraordinary exhibition is one of the several celebrations scheduled in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy and it will present

From 28th October to 1st November 2011, the Lucca Comics & Games 2011 will be held in the Tuscan city of Lucca, the international fair of comics.

This year the edition will welcome guests like David Llyoid, Manuele Fior, Davide Reviati and the Japanese Jiro Taniguchi.

Scott Farrar wil be the special guest of this edition, one of the greatest artist and special effects maker (in his career he took part in 40 Holliwood films,

The 6th edition of the International Rome Film Festival will be held in Rome from October, 27th to November, 4th 2011, at Auditorium Parco della Musica, the spectacular arts complex designed by the world-famous architect Renzo Piano.

The festival will be occupying the five theatres of the complex: Santa Cecilia, Sinopoli, Petrassi, Teatro Studio

Are you ready? The International Theater Festival will be held in Venice from 10th to 16th October 2011 within the framework of Venice Biennale.

It’s a kind of festival-workshop. The newly-appointed Catalan director Àlex Rigola has imagined the festival as an “agora of theatre”, inviting the leading personalities on the international scene –directors, choreographers, artists, architects and set designers, experts in video-writing and lighting creators – to make Venice

Countdown for Roma Europa Festival 2011 has just begun. The festival will put on display 39 different appointments from October, 7th to November, 3rd.

Contemporary arts and languages come back in all their glory: dance, music, theatre. An explosive mix among sounds, colours, movements, images and emotions. The themes

From 3rd to 22nd September 2011, the Festival hosting great Italian and international artists comes back in Milan and Turin: MiTo Torino Milano Festival Internazionale della Musica (International Music Festival).

MiTo, one of the greatest cultural events in Europe, presents over 200 concerts of classical, contemporary, jazz, pop, rock, regional and ethnic music, with free admission or “low-cost” tickets.

Since 2007, Milan and Turin have become open-air theatre and music

The 8th edition of Festival della Mente – Europe 1st festival to be dedicated to creativity and creative processes – will come back in Sarzana from September, 2nd to 4th 2011.

As usual, in this year’s program we find a lot of original, interesting events for an audience which every year is getting larger and larger: just think that past editions of the festival were attended by about 40,000 people.

Such an original festival entirely devoted to culture and creativity will crowd again the streets of the historical center of Sarzana, a little medieval city