The Befana is in the gloom with her ugly broken shoes: Long Live the Befana!

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 (more…)

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Kisses from Venice! No, it’s not a postcard… It’s the New Year’s Eve Love 2009

Venice doesn’t lose its charm and proves itself again to be the city of lovers par excellence. Yes, because after the great success of last year, which gathered in a square 70,000 people under a sky of sparkling hearts, the New Year’s Eve entirely dedicated to love comes back with Love 2009!

Once again in fact, Venice invites all the people in love who come from all over the world to an appointment absolutely not to miss, the most beautiful and original Italian New Year’s Eve celebration!

On 31^st December 2008 from 22 pm on, the amazing Piazza San Marco will be the nucleus of the Venetian night of Saint Sylvester, a night rich of surprises, in the pursuit of love and affection, and a beginning of the new year beat by the sweet and crackling sound of kisses of the thousands lovers from every corner of the world who (more…)

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Merry Christmas…in Rome!

As many people know, Christmas is a really important and significant day in every region of our country. Everyone hurries up for buying presents, the cities shine brightly with their gleaming lights, and there are Christmas trees everywhere, but in particular the Italian city of Christmas is…Rome!

Rome is so beautiful that it’s always difficult to stay far from it, but with the Coliseum covered by shining lights and brilliant and colored decorations…well, it’s an unmissable spectacle.

Therefore, if you haven’t seen Rome yet or you would like to go to once again, Christmas time is the perfect period, also because the city is cheerful, festive and most of all on the occasion of this festivity, many events are organized such as concerts, markets and festivals.

This year, “Natale all’ Auditorium” (“Christmas at Auditorium”) and the traditional “Mercatino di Natale in Piazza Navona” (“Christmas market in Navona Square”) will make Christmas Rome a special Christmas.

“Natale all’ Auditorium” is a festival organized by Fondazione Musica per Roma at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, which for a month, from 6th December to 6th January, will (more…)

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Christmas in Venice Lagoon

As always, the city of Venice, with the collaboration of Confartigianato Venezia, organizes the marvelous ‘Natale in Laguna’!

The event, traditionally located in Campo Santo Stefano, will take place from 29th November to 23rd December, when it will turn into a wonderful location for the Venetian Christmas, with the fantastic Christmas market, where you can find all that the rich world of Venetian handicraft is able to make, from Murano glass to the laces, from toys in wood to soaps, from candles to the amazing little handmade statues to put up your Nativity scene.

But the part that from time immemorial draws the attention of the most, especially the foreigners, is (more…)

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If Milan 2015 is Expo…the Christmas Milan is “Oh Bej Oh Bej“

Once a year, on 7th December the city of Milan is proud to celebrate the day dedicated to its patron saint who is Saint Ambrose, called by Milan’s citizens “Sant’Ambrös”!

Saint Ambrose Day has really ancient origins and through the years it has been keeping the affection and the participation of all Milan’s inhabitants, who between the ritual mass of 7th December in the beautiful Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio and the stalls of “Oh bej oh bej” fair, cram the streets of the city to celebrate this great event.

The fair, which dates back to 1288, takes its name from the exclamation of Milan’s children who, between the stalls full of toys and sweets, couldn’t help marveling and shouted “Oh bej oh bej” (that it means “Oh, how nice! How nice!”).

Usually this event, which is a real festival of colours, lights and (more…)

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In Venice an Exhibition to give voice to Depero’s Futurism

At Correr Museum of Venice, an extraordinary exhibition is underway, and it’s dedicated to one of the founding fathers of Italian Futurism, Fortunato Depero. The exhibition’s name is “DEPERO - Opere della collezione Fedrizzi” (“Depero - Works from the Fedrizzi Collection”).

The exhibition, one of the many ones organized by the Fondazione Musei Civici of Venice on the occasion of the centennial of futurism, will be housed by the Correr Museum until 1^st March 2009. This great event had been made possible thanks to the Fedrizzi family, who agreed to gift the private collection belonging to Giuseppe Fedrizzi as a long-term loan to Fondazione Ca’ Pesaro.

The event displays about 80 artworks which date back to the period between 1914 and 1956, and are the real proof of Depero’s artistic genius, who succeeded in giving movement to each of his creations with the use of oils, temperas, charcoal drawings and advertising sketches.

Undisputed forerunner of our way of conceiving advertisement, Depero (more…)

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“Tuscany Feast” 2008

On Sunday 30^th November, the whole Tuscany celebrates the anniversary of death penalty’s abolition.

“Tuscany Feast” is a typical and usual appointment which joins the participation of all citizens and the Region of Tuscany institutions.

The origins of this feast date back to a legislative bill, to be more precise, the Penal Reform promulgated on 30^th November 1786 by Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine. With this reform, Tuscany put an end to the capital punishment, and marked an important moment of civility which would have changed its history forever.

Tuscany in fact, thanks to Leopoldina Reform, was the first sovereign state to (more…)

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‘Festa della Madonna della Salute’ in Venice

Every year on 21st November, Venice, the city of art and culture, rich of traditions and folkloristic events, celebrates the “Festa della Madonna della Salute”.

The event is celebrated with joy by all the city’s inhabitants, who every year are grateful to Madonna della Salute for having stopped that awful plague which in 1630 struck the entire Venice.

In that year in fact, when everything seemed to be lost because of the dramatic disease-spreading, the Venetians decided to build a church to dedicate to Madonna, to ask her to intercede so that stopped the epidemic. It really seems that Venetians were pleased, therefore from then on, every year the whole city gives thanks for the received grace, and (more…)

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In Pisa the great Exhibition about Lorraines’ Reign

The Museo Nazionale of Palazzo Reale (National Museum of Palazzo Reale) of Pisa dedicates an extraordinary exhibition to a very important chapter of the city’s and Tuscany’s history: the reign of Lorraine from 1737 to 1859.

The exhibition entitled “Sovrani nel giardino d’Europa: Pisa e i Lorena” (“Kings in the Eden of Europe: Pisa and the Lorraine”) focuses its attention on the exposition of artworks and cartographies which prove the mark that the reign of Lorraine left in history, and underlines the importance that Peter Leopold’s reign had on social and cultural growth of the grand duchy of Tuscany.

The exhibition puts on show a wide variety of pictorial and plastic artworks, drawings and furniture which come from the great Italian and foreign museums. In particular, about 100 artworks come from (more…)

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Life in a Documentary: Festival dei Popoli in Florence

The Festival dei popoli, Festival Internazionale del Film Documentario (“International Festival of Documentary Film”) is on the calendar of the city of Florence from 14th to 21st November.

The Festival dei popoli, which this year celebrates its 49th birthday, enjoys a huge prestige all over the world and it’s considered one of the most important events dedicated to the documentary production.

This festival edition is entitled “L’eredità di Nanook” (“Nanook’s Heritage”), a homage to the noted film “Nanook” by Flaherty, which was the first one to be called “documentary” by Grierson.

The Festival dei popoli represents a real platform where the sector’s experts can meet each other and where young film makers and aspirant documentary film makers can get to (more…)

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