Versilia Coast celebrates Summer 2010 with the Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago

Summer has just begun, and the Versilia Coast brings notes, songs and the greatest emotions in its nights with the famous Festival Puccini, which comes back with its 56th edition taking place from 16th July to 22nd August 2010 in Torre del Lago.

Once again, the open-air Gran Teatro Giacomo Puccini will host great guests and breathtaking operas, for a summer rich in music.

As usual, the programme schedules the celebration of eternal melodies composed by the master Giacomo Puccini and wonderful evenings of lyric music will begin, dedicated to one of the most important composers of opera in the world, who was born in the city of Lucca in 1858.

The Festival Puccini 2010 will be inaugurated by La Fanciulla del West (on 16th and 23rd July and 7th August), Puccini’s masterpiece, 100 years after its first premier at Metropolitan Opera in New York, on 10th December 1910.

Later on, there will be other three titles on the playbill:

Madama Butterfly (17th and 25th July – 1st, 14th, 22nd August)

Tosca (24th, 30th July – 8th, 13th, 21st August)

Turandot (31st July – 6th, 12th, 20th August)

We remind you also that the Festival Puccini is not just Opera.

The Festival’s spectators in fact, will have the chance to marvel at (more…)

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Cartasia 2010, the Open-air Biennial of Contemporary Art in Lucca

The striking art appointment with the open-air exhibition Cartasia comes back in the city of Lucca as a special background for the beginning of summer. This year, Cartasia 2010, the Biennial of Contemporary Art began on June 19th and visitors from Italy and abroad  will have the chance to enjoy it until July 18th 2010.

Which is the main theme for this year? The fifth edition of the exhibition has a very eloquent title: “Play Green Creativity”: fun, ecology and creativity interlinked through the artistic use of paper, a simple material being the only protagonist of such an event.

The exhibition will focus on issues like recycling and sustainable development by showing works by international artists coming from all over the world, selected by (more…)

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The Corpus Domini celebration in Camaiore: artworks or carpets?

Camaiore - village located near Lucca, in the Versilia hinterland - by craftsmen who every year work hard to create the typical “paintings” that represent the heart of this festivity.

The Corpus Domini procession was celebrated since the end of XV century, but it was just during the XIX century - perhaps due to the influence of the Spanish traditions brought by the Borbone family’s servants - that the habit of decorating the streets with carpets made of flowers started; such carpets were aimed to drive the procession passing in the centre of the village. Starting from 30’s, flowers were progressively replaced by sawdust. Today, the carpets are realized with sophisticated and advanced techniques by the so called “tappetari” (the carpets craftsmen), who generally stay awake (more…)

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Villas of your Dreams in the Wonderful Tuscan Landscape

Since ever Tuscany has been renowned all over the world not only for its wonderful landscapes but also for its magnificent villas: the Medicean villas around Florence, those in Liberty style in the province of Lucca and the farmhouses in the Chianti district and in Maremma.

Not to mention the aristocratic palaces and the historical residences in the centre of many cities of art, including Arezzo, Siena, Pisa, etc.

Even the famous tenor Enrico Caruso, at the apex of his career, decided to buy two villas located on Florentine hills. In short, Tuscany is really rich in villas.

And in the last few years, an increasing number of tourists chose to spend their holidays in a villa in Tuscany.

Would you like to spend pleasant holidays in a villa in Tuscany? (more…)

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About Italy is on Facebook! Become our FAN!

Of course, also the original and up-to-date Blog about all the news & events in Italy and the main Italian cities is now on the most famous social network in the world: Facebook!

Now you can find all the information you need also on the page of About Italy on Facebook! It’s really easy, become our fan and you will receive real-time updating about events, exhibitions, performances, sport and cultural events in the most beautiful Italian cities: Florence, Milan, Pisa, Rome, Siena, Turin, Venice…and don’t forget about the valley of Mugello, the Versilia coast and the Region of Liguria!

Italy is full of wonderful places to discover and visit among mountains and the sea, from the North to the South…you will be spoilt for choice! In order to know the events of the week, you need just (more…)

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Celebrate this New Year’s Eve in Italy!

Where are you gonna spend this New Year’s Eve?

In the Belpaese, you will be spoilt for choice! We would like to remind all our visitors the best events and parties organized in the most beautiful Italian cities, where you will find great celebrations, fireworks, music at full volume, dances and delicious wine and food.

The cosmopolitan city of Turin, in the region of Piedmont, in 2010 will be elected “European Capital of Youth”. In order to show such a merit, the young city of Turin for the New Year’s Eve 2010 organizes a special evening with loud music, a concert which will take place in Piazza Vittorio Veneto from 9.30 pm, an event dedicated to people under 35! The absolute protagonists of the night will be the famous English group Groove Armada and the American group Juliette Lewis and New Romantics, followed by many other artists until midnight, when it will be time for spectacular fireworks.

In Milan on the other hand, (more…)

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It’s Time for Christmas Markets 2009 in the charming Italy!

Hey folks, the moment has come!

With no doubts people love and hate them, but the season of Christmas markets has come and it will be in all the Italian cities!

Colored lights, stands full of sweets, traditions and handicrafts products, toys and decorations will be placed along the streets and in the most famous (and not) squares in Italy. So, get ready to snoop around, nibbling and why not, to purchase the first Christmas gifts!

From Sicily to Valle d’Aosta, Italy in this period is full of such nice markets which welcome many Italians and foreign visitors, who come here to just take a look at the stalls rich of curious and original things. The list is endless, but we want to remind you the most unique noteworthy ones.

So…how not to mention the very famous Christams markets typical of (more…)

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“Tuscany Feast” 2009. When the past teaches the progress

Tuscany can boast of several records, especially one: this region was the first in the world to abolish the capital punishment. In fact on November 30^th 1796, the enlightened Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo banished confiscation, torture and death penalty through a single law.

Since 2001, Tuscany has been celebrating this historical occurrence with an official feast, which even schedules a holiday for the schools of the ancient Grand Duchy and a program rich of events spread on all the regional area.

This initiative aims not only to remind and celebrate a defining moment of modern history, but in particular to reflect on the present and the future of the whole mankind. It’s important to notice, in fact, that the capital punishment is still applied in many countries in the world, and that Italian State is fighting for its abolition with an international moratorium at UN.

Hence this topic is a living matter, together with other related issues as democracy, peace, equality and justice all over the world.

Tuscany Feast so deals with values which are not only strictly related to death penalty, but also to other current problems, such as dialogue among different cultures and inclusion, sexual equality and deaths on-the-job. For this reason, during the event, congresses, lectures and official meetings are scheduled, to which (more…)

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The House of Mirrors - An Innovative Artistic Experience in Pisa

A brand new event in Pisa: The House of Mirrors, from 5^th to 7^th November 2009, at Stazione Leopolda.

It’s an innovative and alternative art exhibition, which displays a series of works inspired by the same subject: the picture of a human face, selected by the organization team through a photographic contest. Starting from this common matrix, each one of the participants produced a unique creation, a personal work of art, resulting from his own techniques, inspirations and emotions.

From artist to artist, also the language used can change, and the possibilities are as many as the number of sections in which the exhibition is divided into: Sculpture, Painting, Computer Art, Comics, Video, Tales, Poetry.

Finally, a global message - that is at the same time the founding idea of the project, comes out: (more…)

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A Special Tribute to Comics in Italy

Comics and its fans will be the protagonists of the Autumnal season in Lucca and Milan, with two important events dedicated to the world of comics.

In fact, from October 29^th to November 1^st, inside the walls and in the picturesque squares of the stunning city of the Versilia area, the internationally renowned Lucca Comics & Games starts again. For more than 40 years, such an appointment gathers fans and people involved in the work (last year the presences were 130,000), attracted by the exhibition market and most of all by the several collateral events and projects.

So much that this year the organizers decided to give it the official name of “International Festival of Comics, Games and Illustrations” and to celebrate such a transformation with the title “The Evolution of the Species”.

Actually, the event’s programme schedules several initiatives, as well as the festival dates and locations are noticeably increasing. On October 17^th, the real exhibition will start in the historical location of the Doge’s Palace.

The historical centre, with many new stages, also this year will be the events’ fulcrum. Here you will find the Self Area, dedicated to the self-made comics, a space in the interests of free creativity and invention. The Music & Comics will draw the attention of visitors with all-involving happenings, with a competition in partnership with Mediaset (where winners will produce the theme song of a television cartoon), and most of all with the crucial moment of the Festival, Cosplay, where the fans take part to a funny parade in their favorite comics heroes’ clothing and walk the runaway on Music & Comics’ stage.

In addition, the Japan Area , conceived in order to host the more and more beloved Nippon comics, which this year has been turned into the Japan Palace (in the halls of the Real Collegio), where the culture of the Far East will be celebrated with Japanese language courses, courses of writing and traditional handicraft, and with many exhibitions according to the subject.

And also international guests, street writing, a pavilion dedicated to the kids television and another one dedicated to the games and their increasingly global diffusion, from the tables of the fans to the movies and videogames from all over the world.

So…It’s impossible to get bored here!

But in the case it is not enough for you, on November 14^th and 15^th you will have the chance to go to Milan for the special event called Fumettopoli, the other fantastic international exhibition market which takes place many times a year and that this year is at its 33^rd edition.

Here the location is more limited but the programme is as much rich. In the halls of the Ata Hotel Executive (in front of the Garibaldi station) many brand new and historical comics will be shared and sold, but also records, cds, dvds, household and gift items and various other things.

For comics’ lovers or just for all curious people, this will be an Autumn rich of appointments!

For further information about this and other events in Lucca and Milan, please visit our websites http://www.aboutversilia.com/ and http://www.aboutmilan.com/

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