White Night 2010 in Rome: events, concerts, culture

The craziest night in Italy full of emotions and fun is coming to Rome in the night between 19th and 20th September: the White Night in Rome comes back!

The appointment with the eternal city is just around the corner, and once again it will be totally enlightened showing people the facades of the most beautiful palaces, stately monuments and ancient streets and squares all night long, where thousands citizens and visitors will be looking for fun and crazy events.

Cultural events, initiatives, parties, concerts, museums, galleries and shops open until dawn. If you love the eternal city you can’t miss such a fabulous event! Rome and its large squares (more…)

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Happy Birthday to the Cathedral of Florence!

Dear readers of About Italy Newsblog, we are good old Florentines and we’re proud to announce that the Duomo, the Cathedral of Florence, this year will celebrate its 714th anniversary from when the first stone was placed.

Celebrations will take place today, on Tuesday 7th and tomorrow, on 8th September 2010, at the Duomo in Florence (Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore), Baptistery of St. John and the Museum of the Cathedral.

During such an event, Florence citizens are very proud to pay homage to the works that made the city famous all around the world for its artistic and architectonic treasures, from the stately Duomo, which every year draws the attention of thousands visitors from all Italy and abroad.

On this occasion, the cathedral’s balconies will be open to the public with free entrance from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. It will be possible to enter from Porta della Mandorla, on the side in front of Via dei Servi. On the same opening hours also the ancient Museum of the Cathedral will be open in Via dello Studio 23r, where the masters stone-cutters work for the restoration of the marble works of the Cathedral.

So, extraordinary openings, shows and initiatives (more…)

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67th Venice International Film Festival

From 1st to 11th September 2010, the great event beloved by the many cinema addicts in Italy and abroad comes back in Venice: the International Film Festival, with its 67th edition, once again organized by La Biennale di Venezia.

The aim of the festival is to promote knowledge of the international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance.

This year, visitors will have many surprises, including retrospectives and a homage to renowned personages in order to provide the audience a better awareness of the cinema history.

At the festival there will be 5 international juries that will give the official prizes to the winners belonging to the different sections: Venezia 67 (an international contest for full-length movies, with Quentin Tarantino as the president), Orizzonti (the new movements of the international cinema), Controcampo Italiano (the new styles of Italian cinema), La Situazione Comica (more…)

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The Multicolored Rificolonas come back and enlighten Florence

A traditional and very ancient event of Florence has come back: the Feast of Rificolona!

The Feast of Rificolona is a traditional Florentine event that takes its origins before the 20th century and also this year it will take place in Florence on 6th and 7th September 2010.

The following events are scheduled:

September, Monday 6th:
Rificolona in Arno river. Parade – Papier mâché allegories on boats enlightened by paper lanterns and prize-giving for the most original rificolona.

September, Tuesday 7th:
From Santa Croce Square to SS. Annunziata Square there will be a (more…)

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Venice’s Historical Regatta, this year with a new Initiative

Yes! For all the people who love Venetian traditions this is the right moment for coming in the city of Venice: as a matter of fact, the Historical Regatta of Venice comes back on 5th September 2010 in the lagoon of the so-called Serenissima.

This year there will be new initiatives: 20 seats will be available on the “Machina”, the structure placed on the Canal Grande that will host some great personages personally invited by Venice’s mayor. Such 20 seats will be available only for Venice citizens and will be selected by lot.

We think that’s a really good idea. The initiative has been called “Veneziani in platea” (“Venetians on stalls”) and it is organized in cooperation with the local newspapers (Il Corriere del Veneto, Il Gazzettino, La Nuova Venezia-Mestre) that on 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd August (more…)

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Eat Pray Love: Leave now and come to Rome, for Enjoying the pleasures of Life, of Italy and Learning Italian

“Have you lost touch with who you are? Then risk everything and let yourself go”. These are the words of the trailer of “Eat, Pray, Love”, the new movie interpreted by the beautiful and very good actress Julia Roberts and based on a book written by the American writer Elizabeth Gilbert.

The film is based on an incredible real story, which tells about a 32-years-old businesswoman who, after her divorce and a hard time, decides to leave and spend one year traveling among Italy, India and Indonesia, looking for herself.

In the book, she tells about her four months spent in Italy, to be more precise, in the beautiful Rome, and we can discover all the special moments she lived there, eating and enjoying life like only Romans can do, as the author says.

She falls in love with the Italian lifestyle, the way they have fun and enjoy their life without feeling guilty about it, and she also falls in love with the shy Giovanni, a handsome Italian guy who becomes her personal Italian language teacher.

Learning Italian was one of the things she always wanted to do, and now she will have this chance. She will learn Italian language making conversation with many new friends, eating in special restaurants with them, and discovering the curious Italian ways of saying and a lot of new words.

She will attend an Italian language course at the Italian language School Leonardo da Vinci in Rome, mentioned in the book in chapter 14: “My classes begin today at the Leonardo da Vinci Academy of Language Studies, where I will be studying Italian five days a week, four hours a day. I’m so excited about school.”

And how could we blame her? Studying Italian in such a wonderful city like Rome, an incredible opportunity for making new friends and making conversation everyday with whoever in every moment of the day or night. It’s impossible not to learn Italian here!

She always wanted to learn Italian, and at the school she will find other many people like her: “The interesting thing about my Italian class is that nobody really needs to be there. There are twelve of us studying together, of all ages, from all over the world, and everybody has come to Rome for the same reason – to study Italian just because they feel like it.”

She’s right. Everybody should leave and go abroad at least once in their life for living a new experience, learning a foreign language and knowing a different culture. It is an important experience where people find themselves and often find out something about them that they not even knew.

Liz’s story is an unforgettable journey, which one day you could have as well. And why not coming to Rome for learning Italian language? As the author says, “[…] some things are only in Rome. Like the sandwich counterman so comfortably calling me ‘beautiful’ every time we speak”. And some pages after, she continues: “It’s kind of a fairyland of language for me here. For someone who has always wanted to speak Italian, what could be better than Rome?”.

Yeah. What could be better than the wonderful Rome for learning Italian? Scuola Leonardo da Vinci is ready to welcome you and the city waits for you for teaching all the curiosities of Italy and all the secrets of this wonderful land.

And don’t forget about Italian meals…described by the author as “truly life-changing”!!! Don’t be afraid. Just come and see! Italy and Rome will change your life.

Take a chance and spend a period abroad, in Rome! You could know your Giovanni!

Are you curious? Want to know something more?

- Further information about the several Italian language courses in Rome are available on the School Leonardo da Vinci’s website.

- For more information about the city of Rome, visit the travel guide About Roma.

- Watch the interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, with a special attention for Italian food

- The Authors@Google program presents Elizabeth Gilbert author of “Eat, Pray Love”:

A New York Times bestseller, “Eat, Pray, Love” is the story of the author, in her early 30s, dividing a year equally among three dissimilar countries - Italy, India, and Bali. Discover what the author thinks about Italy and Italian language! Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year’s cultural and emotional tapestry as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.

- Elizabeth Gilbert’s Official Website

- The Info-News Blog for Fans of “Eat, Pray, Love”

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The Cultural Event “Festival della Mente” in Sarzana, Liguria

After the great success of the previous editions, the renowned and very expected “Festival della Mente” comes back in the beautiful Ligurian town of Sarzana, located nearby La Spezia.

A special cultural event for discovering why and how ideas rise. This year the festival scheduled many appointments about creativity, shows, interesting meetings with scientists, artists, literati, historians, authors and philosophers.

Such a cultural event has come to its 7th edition and also this year visitors will find many surprises and brand new initiatives dedicated to adults and children.

The Festival will take place on 3rd, 4th and 5th September 2010 in several venues of Sarzana. As a matter of fact, the initiatives and meetings with important personages will happen in the squares and theatres of the town, with the stunning background of ancient palaces and the typical narrow streets of Sarzana. Among the venues of the event we find: Piazza Matteotti, Piazza Cesare Battisti, (more…)

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Venice Architecture Biennale. The World of Architecture comes back in Venice

From Sunday 29th August, architecture will come back in the Serenissima – the city of Venice, for wondering us and showing new, innovative creations.

We are talking about the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, known also as the biennale, which will take place in Venice in the autumnal season until 21st November 2010.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition will be held at Palazzo delle Esposizioni of Biennale (Giardini), at the Arsenale (preview August 26, 27 and 28, 2010) and in other venues of Venice historical center.

Such an event will be directed by the architect Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman who will direct the Architecture Biennale.

This year, the exhibition will be entitled (more…)

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Imperia hosts the 2nd edition of Filmcaravan 2010 – Festival of Short Movies

Are you a cinema addicted?

Well, here it is the perfect event for you, especially if you love short movies.

As a matter of fact, Filmcaravan 2010 comes back at its 2nd edition, the festival dedicated to international short movies. Several short movies coming from all around the world will take part in the competition and will be projected during the evenings from August 4th to 7th in the province of Imperia (Region of Liguria), a city located by the Ligurian Sea.

The Festival began just yesterday night in the municipality of Cervo, with the projections of: An Untitled Life (Burma, 2008), Annie de Francia (France, 2009), Underwear (USA, 2009), True beauty last night (USA, 2009), Glenn Owen Dodds (Australia 2009), Worth (USA, 2008), Leave not a cloud behind (France / Germany / Columbia, 2010).

Tonight, on Thursday 5th August, in the town of Diano Castello the following short movies are scheduled: (more…)

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Summertime in Rome is covered in Snow. Feast of Our Lady of the Snows

No, we’re not crazy. Each year, the snow comes back in Rome to pay homage to the traditional event in honor of Our Lady of the Snows, on 5th August.

For several years now, the city of Rome has been celebrating this ceremony at Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major Basilica) and the folk custom consists of a rain of white petals falling down on the square in front of the basilica. This because, as the story goes, our Virgin Mary appeared in Pope Liberio’s dreams (352 a.C.) and showed him where he had to build a church, with a miraculous snowfall (although it was summer) on Esquilino (a historic district of Rome) in the night of August 5th 356 a.C.

The day after, the pope traced the perimeter of the church with the (more…)

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