Events in Italy

New Year’s Eve in Italy: traditional festivals and parties

Italians are fond of many things: food like pasta, pizza, wine and… festivals! The Capodanno that is the New Year’s Eve in Italy is a fab period to celebrate in Italy. Known also as “La Festa di San Silvestro”, it is celebrated the 31st of December on New Year’s Eve.

Food is the main character in this “play”. Families and friends get together for eating a lot! Traditionally, the dinner will have a cotechino to eat (that is a large spiced sausage), or a zampone (that is a stuffed pig’s trotter). The pork meat stands for the richness and future eventual prosperity in the coming months.

Lentils are also always on the table, as a symbol of money and a sign of good luck for the coming year.

Spumante or prosecco, Italian sparkling wine, is a must as well.

Huge midnight fireworks displays will welcome the coming of the new year. You can join the official shows in the central square or the private parties with firecrackers or sparklers. Naples is well-known for the best and the biggest New Year’s fireworks shows in Italy.

Dancing and music is also a must in the last years: many towns have “il concerto di mezzanotte” meaning music and dancing before the fireworks. Rome, Milan, Bologna, Rimini, Palermo and Naples but also nsome other towns nowadays create magical events with pop and rock bands performing for free outdoor. New Years parties will often last until sunrise to say hello to the new year.

Guests in the parties play a game called”Tombola”, a sort of Bingo, but even funnier: each number has a nickname or a story attached!

In the south of Italy, people will be throwing old things out the window, in order to underline that they are ready to get rid of their old sorrow and attachment and accept a brand New Year.

Another habit is to wear a new thing and a red underwear: do it and this will bring you luck in the coming year!

Umbria Gospel Festival: a winter of joy

From 2011 December 8th to 2012 January 1st it is time to joy: Umbria Gospel Festival is waiting for you!

Christmas time in Umbria and the Gospel: Afro-American sounds get alive in the Umbria Gospel Festival, a fantastic music event together with great artists and great locations. The best Gospel choirs will be touring the characteristic towns of the Umbria region announcing the Nativity with their emotional voices. The premiere is on December 8th at the church in Paciano (Quiet Place – Soul of Gospel Revue). Then from December 23rd to January 1st the festival will be at the theatres and churches in Spoleto, Città della Pieve, Gubbio, Città di Castello, Panicale, Perugia, Castiglione del Lago.

The “Chiostro di San Nicolò” in Spoleto will host the amazing New York Spirit of Gospel choir on December 23rd; the “Chiesa di San Pietro” in Gubbio on December 27th you can see the performance of The Antony Morgan’s Inspirational Choir of Harlem and the great choir Katie Taylor & Favor at the “Teatro degli Illuminati” in Città di Castello.

The concert by F.O.C.U.S. Sound of Victory is at “Teatro degli Avvaloranti” in Città della Pieve on December 26th, and the concert by Boyle Harmony Singers will be at “Teatro Caporali” in Panicale on December 29th. A special event on December 30th at Auditorium Vannucci of the Hotel “Quattrotorri” (Ellera, Perugia): South Carolina Mass Choir will be there.

The new year’s party will take place on December 31st at Auditorium Urbani in Passignano sul Trasimeno: it will host The Funk & Soul Night Explosion, an amazing music event! You will be dancing all night with the best Funk, Soul and R’n’B music with excellent musicians on the stage and two groovy concerts (James Thompson and Sherrita Duran will be on stage). Festival ends on January 1st 2012: the new year’s Gospel concert will take place in the afternoonat “Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta” in Castiglione del Lago with Flossie Boyd Johnson & Favor.

Carnival in Italy: amazing moments

Carnevale is one of the most interesting and funnny feast in Ital! It is also called Carnival or mardi gras and it has always been celebrated in Italy and in many places around the world exactly 40 days before Easter.

Carnevale in Italy is a huge winter festival full of parades, music, masquerade balls and parties. Children and adults throw coriandoli at each other. A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale, anything goes at carnival and so pranks are famous during Carnevale.

Carnevale developed from pagan roots and it has been adapted to fit into the Catholic church. Carnival is actually one date, but in Venice and some other places in Italy the celebrations and parties take off a couple weeks before!! The Maschere are the most important part of the carnevale: Venice is the best place to show and see traditional carnival masks and people also dress up with the help of fantastic costumes for the festival.

Viareggio is another place really funny to be in this periods! The most famous and elaborate “carri” are born and developed here, inside the artisan’s laboratories, which work all year round to get to this particular day and show off their incredible creations: the “carri” present parody of the main politician events, with cartapesta characters. Guess who is the most represented Italian politician this year? Ok, let’s help you a bit…it start with “b” the name. But Mr. B. is not the only one of course: the masquerade parade involves a lot of characters and topics all to taste and experience goign to Viareggio in this period.

What may you eat during Carnevale? Each region and even each city and town has its own tradition, but fairly common is the chiacchiera, a kind of really fragile and tasty pastry based dessert!!

The 2011 date for Carnevale? It is March 8th but many celebrations in Venice and many parts of Italy startalready in February.

Opera in Italy

The opera season starts generally October and goes to March or to April. Then it comes the outdoor performances in the summer. Opera houses hold theater and dance performances at other times of the year, too.

Where are the top opera houses and theaters in Italy?

La Fenice (the Phoenix) is in Venice and gained the fame in all Europe. La Fenice in fact first opened in 1792 but the theatre was twice damaged by fire. Milan’s most famous opera house is Teatro Alla Scala, incredible feelings going there for all the opera fans.

Parma’s neo-classical theatre was built in 1829 and it holds opera, dance, and drama performances and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna‘s opera house is a fab example of 18th century baroque architecture in the heart of Bologna’s historic area. Teatro Verdi in Pisa (1867) has 900-seat auditorium and a beautiful ceiling fresco.

Rebuilt in 1973, Turin’s opera house is in Piazza Castello, because the original 19th century theatre was destroyed by fire.

But if you go in the South of Italy, you are going to the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, surely the oldest opera house in Italy (1737). Here opera, ballet, and short comic opera are still performed. And also the beautiful Teatro Massimo in Palermo is one of the finest theatre in Europe. Opened in 1897, the programme includes opera, ballet, and music.

And back to the Italy capital, Rome, we find stunning opera houses as in the summertime opera and dance performances are held in the ancient Baths of Caracalla, a spectacular setting outdoor “worth-a-visit”. Another fantastic historic setting for opera is represented by the well-known Arena di Verona, a restored ancient arena from Roman Empire period. The open-air opera season starts in June but sometimes it is possible to see other performances over the year. Keep in touch with the main website and the tickets website: you will find your fab opera to follow in one of the most astonishing and beautiful locations in Italy!!!

A night at La Scala in Milan

Italy has many beautiful, historic opera houses: the majority of them still works as theaters. Opera addict can’t but visit at least one opera house once they get to Italy and enjoy a fantastic live performance. For example, out there there is an incredible “bargain” for all that love opera and Milan!

This year and for the very first time, the tickets for the first night of the opera season at La Scala (traditionally reserved for the city administrators and politicians and also for national and international personalities and celebrities) now are already on sale to the general audience.

So everybody can access “la Prima” at Teatro Alla Scala, which is Milan’s famous opera house, and also one of the Italian most famous theatre. This particular event (that is, La Prima) has always been an occasion for showing off, but also for protests by animal lovers against fur coats.

Just a few words on what happened in the recent years: La Scala was bombed during World War II in 1946 it has been opened again and quickly the theatre took back its reputation as top Italian opera house. La Scala opened again in December 2004 after an extensive and intense renovation. Inside you will find a lovely bookshop, a bar and an interesting history museum, too. The original opera house has been designed by the neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, and it was opened in 1778: many famous operas were first performed here in Milan in this particular location.

The first performance of the season this year it will be Don Giovanni on 7 December. Swedish baritone Peter Mattei is going to sing the title role in the Mozart’s best-known opera: drama and pleasure, meaning masterpiece! You can’t miss it if you are a true “melomane” (opera fan)! So together with la Madunina check it out the opportunity of grabbing thi one-life occasion and sit in La Scala for the first performance of the entire season!

Tickets are available from €840 to €2,400.

Venice in winter: explore the “Carnevale”

Venice Carnevale is Italy’s top carnival event, meaning the “mardi gras” festivity or Shrove Tuesday. Remember if you are in Italy that Carnevale lasts several weeks and that Carnevale dates change every year, but it will be Shrove Tuesday that means forty days before Easter.
During carnival period, Venice is full of masks and characters, loads of entertainment opportunity, and food stalls in the various “piazze” or “ca” (street as they called it in Venetian dialect).
Visiting Venice during the Carnevale Season is an immense fun, but it is an holiday that needs to be planned ahead. Why? Hotels often charge high season prices during Carnevale. There’s lots of fab public entertainment, especially starting in early evening. The main attraction is for sure the people in the streets, all dressed up in their elaborate costumes and masks. You can join them and hang out all over the piazzas.

The best Carnevale experience? Of course it is when you join the crew and wear a costume or a mask yourself!
Where to find the main events? Around Piazza San Marco, but do not forget to check the programme: Carnevale events takes place also in every “Sestiere”. The final fireworks show are in Piazza San Marco, though, and it is the peak of the Carnevale season for real!!!
In the evening , you can reach a party or a masked balls inside the manifold hotels. But you have to know that the attendance at a ball, plus a wonderful costume, can costs you about 500 euro. And you need to book ahead.
Stay in Venice from the Wednesday through the Saturday prior to Carnevale to avoid the biggest crowds if you are a family or old. But enjoy the madness of Tuesday instead, if you feel like merging yourself completely in the Venice Carnevale!!

Ivrea Carnival Orange battle: in the middle of the orange

The colorful joy of the Carnevale of Ivrea , held on the traditional carnival date, 40 days before Lent.

Ivrea is a small city about 40 minutes North of Turin. It was a “computer city” while it is the headquarter of Olivetti, an Italian famous brand in this sector. The computer industry has gone East, but its everlasting fame has connected to one time a year during Carnival: in Ivrea it takes place a unique, exciting, ancient and “juicy”…orange battle!

The battle is an allegoric record of a local insurrection in 1194. It was a revolt against the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick of Swabia Barbarossa (Red Beard). Violetta, a local heroin, was the one who started the insurrection, which resulted in the destruction of a castle.

In the center of Ivrea and by the left bank of the River Dora, on battle day, thousands of red juicy oranges to throw as well as a long “carpet” of already crushed oranges that could reach a foot high is waiting for you! Together of course with loads of “Vin brulé” glasses to drink,and on the horizont you will see horses pulling high carriages full of helmeted and armored warriors of the tyrant, while Violetta la Mugnaia (the miller) arrives on a low carriage, while throwing yellow mimosa flowers and candies at the crowd.

A moltitude of red hats called Phrygian hats (berretti di Frigia or berretti frigi) coming from the ancient area of Phrygia (Turkish Anatolia) symbolizing freedom that is the red bonnet symbols of the French Revolution!!! You must go into the battle areas, remove your hat to join the battle. Near the battle areas there are protective nets, though, for the visitors.

The carriages with the representatives of the Emperor soon will get surrounded by unarmored orange-throwing audience in medieval costumes. The exchange will be throwing hundreds and hundreds of oranges!!

The Old Bridge area is the most fantastic “war” scenerio. The streets are very narrow and so the orange pulp piles up so high that a snow-removing tractors is needed to clear it!!! Fifty years ago they allowed to throw oranges from the windows too. But now everyone are not targeting red-hat “civilians” while the river at the end of the battle will carry tons of oranges!!!

Venice in winter time: events and festivals

Venice and its beautiful churches: life is a fantastic and watery adventure in this town.

One of the greatest place to visit ever, Venice is a multisensorial trip to bring you in an aesthetics feeling that touches all your senses! You can’t come here without visiting the enormous and artistic squares, tasting a bit of fegatini alla veneziana, with a ombra di vino (a little glass of wine) sitting outside the Florian, one of the ancient cafè in Venice!!!

Your perceptions will expand in this magic, esoteric town!! The level of pulchratudine (beauty), to use a Latin word, here in Venice reaches the highest peak!!

The beautiful church of Santa Maria della Salute is one of the great church to visit once in venice. Its origin are connected to a horrible event: the plague of Venice in 1630-31. To stop the hopelessness, the Venetians asked for a divine intervention, promising to build a church in honour of the Virgin Mary. The young architect Baldassare Longhena was appointed with the church once the plague was over and Santa Maria della Salute has been finished in 1682.

The grateful Venetians celebrate since then the occasion on November 21st of each year.

One of the town’s most incredible celebrations, with thousands of e pilgrims across a specially set up pontoon bridge. Everyone holds a candle in their hands and you can also buy it at booths placed in the square outside the church.

These are completely lit inside, and the candles are put also in large trays filled with sand set around inside the church.

The arrival of the Patriarch (bishop) of Venice leading a procession of priests, cardinals and carabinieri to the church is something amazing to watch and follow.

Firenze and its winter festivals

Many events to come in winter for Florence!!!

For instance, from late October to early November, it will be nice to visit the Florence Art and Restoration Fair (The Salone dell’Arte e del Restauro di Firenze). This is one of the latest cultural fairs to have started in Florence. During the week-long event, the fair gives visitors an overview inside the heart of the world of art restoration from around the world.

Last Sunday in November it comes the Florence Marathon, a recognized race.

It starts out on in Piazzale Michelangelo and ends in Piazza Santa Croce.

Truffle Season in November is at its highest moment, so it is a full opportunity to find fresh and special truffle dishes in Florence restaurants.

Early- to Mid-December you can visit the Hanukkah, a festivity celebrated in the Ghetto (the Jewish area of Florence), actually the first segregated Jewish community in Europe. The Florence Synagogue is located just north of Santa Croce, for the lighting of the Menorrah, kosher food finds, and Hanukkah festivities.

The Immaculate Conception is on the 8th December , when the Catholic churches celebrate the day of the Virgin Mary’s conception of Jesus. The Fierucolina dell’Immacolata takes place in Florence in this period of Winter, that is an art and food fair in Piazza Santissima Annunziata.

Mid-December until mid-January is the starting for the Christmas Markets in Florence. Several Christmas fairs are located in Florence, and among the others, really nice is the Mercato Tedesco di Natale (the German Christmas Market) which is held in Piazza Santa Croce. It is full of stalls selling some typical German crafts, but also loads of Italian-made nativity crafts, children’s toys, and seasonal treats.

Another Christmas market to visit? Let’s go to Florence Noel at Stazione Leopolda near Porta al Prato as soon as you arrived in Florence train station!

TorinoDanza 2011: dancing Italy

Started on the 5th Sept up to the 4th Dec 2011, Torinodanza 2011 is a successful dance festival, organised as the most visionary programming yet attempted by the promoters in Turin.

If you are around checking the truffles fairs in Piedmont, you can’t miss a visit to beautiful Turin and also to this interesting event!

The Torinodanza festival is always in their gracious search for what the organisers call “an ethical and aesthetic centre of gravity” for the numerous events and the extravagant programme against a socially and politically worrying global backdrop.

The programme offers the likes of Bartabas with his “Le centaure et l’animal”, an astonishing mix between the creator of gypsy equestrian theatre and Ko Murobushi, the great Japanese Butoh artist.

Among the returning artists we highlight Philippe Decouflé, Emio Greco and Maguy Marin “remarkable for their capacity to evoke light and life out of darkness2 and tell us a story that is “unconstrained, political and visionary”.

This very peculiar edition also embrace the visions and the art of the contemporary circus, a workshop for visionary element and passion. The festival ends its experimental fleur with Karine Saporta’s La Princesse de Milan, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and also with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s prototype of pure dance.

But not only international artists: the audience will have the occasion and the opportunity to meet and appreciate the contemporary Italian choreography, but also to understand the local scene with other dance associations and companies of the Piedmont region.

For booking and further information, see the website www.torinodanzafestival.it