Eurochocolate 2008

Eurochocolate is preparing to inaugurate its fourteenth edition with ChocolAge, the Chocolate Era, that will take place from the 18th to the 26th October in Perugia. (www.eurochocolate.com).

The Food of the Gods becomes today's protagonist, influencing the habits daily life. Though it means, for example, communicating through a chocolate bar instead of a mobile phone, as it appears on the Italian communication campaign:
“Cioccolato, senti quanto è buono” -“Chocolate, feel how good it is ”.

The images of the campaign actually portray many ordinary people using a chocolate bar as a cellphone for chatting, texting, taking pictures, listening to the music…Chocolate succeeds in catching modern technology in a funny and tempting trap. It turns in sweet batteries – The Chocopower – that bucks your day up and belongs to wellness and health after the entry of Chocopirin-A, already rebaptized “Chocolate Aspirin”. In Eurochocolate, then, insatiable lovers of chocolate, adults and children, will experience the Chocolate Era plunging in a present and futuristic dimension of over glowing delicacy.

Eurochocolate means also going through the culture of a fascinating town like Perugia, plenty of history, art and traditions that in nine days time becomes a huge chocolaterie en plein air to discover, also thanks to the successful Chococard offering sweet advantages for a funny experience in the name of leisure and goodness of chocolate. Advantages that will be immediately tangible among the stands of the Chocolate Show and those of the Rocca Pralina, two suggestive areas with more then 150 chocolate brands coming from each angle of the world.

Eurochocolate is also the instrument for promoting protection of important values as solidarity, biodiversity, traceability and sustainability of the production process of cocoa, aiming to guarantee a sustainable future based on the decrease of the differences between developed and developing countries.

With that mission, Eurochocolate World was born three years ago: a really appreciated vessel that promotes joint activities sponsored by international organization as ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) and Fairtrade TransFair Italia, one of the main organization for the certification of fair-trade products. Since then, Eurochocolate World confirms the success of the event in Perugia on this field as well, through concrete actions for economy development and awareness campaigns, beginning with the lessons of Equoscuola focused on fair-trade chocolate culture and addressed to the youngest generations.

Eurochocolate World hosts the second edition of the C8 (Thursday 18th October), the International Summit of the first eight countries world producers of Cocoa, that following the debate of last year on quality in cocoa production, will meet again in order to deal with the theme of Sustainability in the cocoa production process.

Another important vessel will be Equochocolate, the area dedicated to chocolate produced pursuing fair trade criteria, realized in collaboration with Fairtrade TransFair Italia.

www.umbriaonline.com

www.eurochocolate.com

La Lollobrigida revisits stardom with sculpture show

Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida will be flashing her artistic talents in this Tuscan town, with an exhibition devoted to her sculpture.
Pietrasanta, a coastal town north of Lucca, is to showcase 30 bronze, marble and plastic sculptures by the actress.
The pieces will go on display later this month in the 14th-century Sant'Agostino Church, now an exhibition space, as well as outdoors in the central Piazza del Duomo.
The collection, the result of over ten years' work, is clearly inspired by the 81-year-old star's cinema career.
Many of the sculptures are portraits of her most famous screen characters.
A five-metre-high bronze statue, completed in 2002, will hold pride of place in Piazza Del Duomo. This depicts La Lollo as the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn's Quasimodo in the 1957 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A marble statue recalls the role that first won her international acclaim, the headstrong ''La Bersagliera'' in Pane Amore e Fantasia (1953).
Another marble piece 'La Amica' pays tribute to Lollobrigida's friendship with Marilyn Monroe while living in Hollywood.
But the exhibit also highlights the Italian's concern with the wider world, with a piece entitled Il Mondo per i Bambini (The World for the Children), recalling her years of work with UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.
This is not the first exhibit of sculpture by La Lollo, who is an honorary citizen of Pietrasanta where she has had an artist's studio for the last ten years.
A travelling collection of her work wrapped up with an exhibition in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 2003.
But while her sculpting talents have only come to public light in recent decades, La Lollo has had a lifelong passion for art.
As a young woman, she set her heart on an artistic career, winning a valuable scholarship to study sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before turning to acting.
In April 2000 she told Parade magazine that she ''studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake''.
In 1992 she represented Italy at the Seville Expo with a sculpture entitled Living Together, showing a child on an eagle, intended to represent harmony between humankind and nature.
Then French president, Francois Mitterrand, complimented her on the piece, later awarding her the Legion of Honour for artistic merit.
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in Subiaco, a town near Rome. She first came to the attention of Italian film directors as a beauty queen, after coming third in the 1947 Miss Italy competition.
Her Hollywood breakout film was the 1953 John Houston movie Beat the Devil although today she is still best known for the ''Pane, Amore...'' series
She rose to fame on the back of her prototype Latin beauty and her short ''tossed salad'' hairstyle. A kind of curly lettuce was even named ''Lollo'' in her honour.
In the 1970s she drifted away from acting but became a highly successful photographer and photojournalist, once scooping an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The exhibition runs in Pietrasanta from September 20 until November 16, after which it will tour the US.

www.italymag.co.uk

Etruscan tomb unearthed in Perugia

An ancient Etruscan tomb has resurfaced after centuries underground during the course of building work in the central Italian city of Perugia.The tomb, which has been preserved in excellent condition, contains seven funerary urns, the municipal archaeology department said.It is in the shape of a square and was covered by a sheet of travertine marble, which had apparently remained untouched since being laid centuries ago.

The tomb is split into two halves by a pillar and there are two benches running along each side.The funerary urns, which were placed on the benches, were marked with brightly coloured mythological and religious motifs.A preliminary study suggests that writing on the side of the urns probably refers to a family that was called the Aneis.

In addition to the urns, the tomb also housed the remains of a bronze bed and various pottery shards.The site was discovered during digging work for a new roundabout in the Strassacapponi neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Umbrian town.

The Etruscans are believed to have formed the first advanced civilisation in Italy, based in an area called Etruria, corresponding largely to present-day Tuscany, Umbria and northern Lazio.

By the sixth century BC they had become the dominant force in central Italy, but repeated attacks from Gauls and Syracusans later forced them into an alliance with the embryonic Roman state, which gradually absorbed Etruscan civilization.Although the Etruscans had the upper hand in the early days and supplied Rome with the last three of its first seven kings including the famous Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud), the archaeological record of their once sweeping presence in central Italy is scanty compared with that of other civilisations.

Some historians have posited that the Romans actively tried to wipe out the traces of their predecessors, whose sensual and fun-loving approach to life contrasted with the spartan, austere and rigidly patriarchal life of the early Roman republic.Most of what we know about their civilisation is based largely on archaeological finds, since much of their language has yet to be deciphered.

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/umbria/etruscan-tomb-unearthed-perugia

Festival del Sole

It is a triumph of all that is best about Italy. Music, art, wine, food and literature take centre stage among the narrow streets and vineyard-strewn slopes of Cortona during the Festival del Sole from August 2 to 10.

Now in its sixth season, the Festival is the brainchild of Barrett Wissman, head of arts management corporation IMG Artists, who first launched it in 2001 to celebrate “the art of life.”
This year, stars of the Bolshoi Ballet will open the event with an outdoor performance against the ancient tower and elegant palazzos of Piazza Signorelli, one of Cortona’s most scenic squares. Alexander Volchkov, Maria Allash and other soloists will dance old favourites from the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella and Don Quixote. It is the first time that ballet is included in the festival’s programming and, in the words of Wissman himself, “what better way to do that than to start with the renowned Bolshoi.”

Music on the other hand has long been the mainstay of the event, and this year’s packed calendar hardly disappoints. Tenor José Cura and soprano Ana Maria Martinez will sing some of Puccini’s most yearning arias—the heart breaking E lucean le stelle, from Tosca, Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly and Che gelida manina from La Boheme. Soprano Danielle de Niese and the Venice Baroque Orchestra will perform a selection of Handel’s concertos and arias, and violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Natasha Paremski will play Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi.
Wissman has also drafted in actors Gabriele Lavia and Robert Redford to read poems by Giacomo Leopardi and Robert Frost, marked by the mellow notes of Nicola Luisotti on the piano. And at lunchtime, Piazza della Repubblica will turn into an open-air theatre staging free concerts by the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. Pianist Piotr Anderszewski, together with Joshua Bell and the Verbier orchestra, will close the Festival with pieces by Mozart, Wagner and Mendelsshon.

“The Tuscan Sun Festival is a unique annual celebration of the arts set against the backdrop of the beautiful landscape of Tuscany,” says Wissman. “We are honoured to present this international festival every year and to once again welcome such a stellar list of artists to Cortona.”

But the Festival del Sole titillates the eye and the palate as much as the ears. Behind the sober façade of the Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, artist Sybille Szaggars will bring The Shape of Colour to life with her abstract paintings. The convent next door will be home to the Espontaneas exhibition of photographs by tenor José Cura, which focus on friendship, human dignity, poverty, old age, loneliness. It will also be the backdrop to cooking demonstrations by local chef Donatella Balducci, who will tease the tastebuds with nettle ravioli, lamb fricassee and almond brittle.
Art will also meet wine at the 13th century Palazzo Casali, where twenty-one artists, including Mimmo Rotella and Mark Kostabi, will display their works exploring music in art, while the Wine Consortium of Cortona, restaurateur Tonino and local shop Delizie Toscane will hold tastings of velvety wines, creamy cheeses and flavoursome cold cuts. And should this not suffice, there will also be wellness sessions, literary lectures and tai-chi every day around town.

To buy tickets to Festival del Sole performances,

call

+44 (0)20 8133 5571 (UK),

+1 646 797 2915 (US)

+39 0575 606 887 (Italy).

For further information visit the festival’s website, www.festivaldelsole.com.

Mondegreen

The word "mondegreen" comes from a poem The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray which was misheard as “they have slain the Earl of Murray, and Lady Mondegreen” (“laid him on the green”) .

Are there any more out there?

My Mist Ache

Eye have a spell in chequer
It came with my pea see.
It plainly marks four my revue, miss steaks eye can knot sea.

Eye strike a quay and tie pa word and weight for it to say
Weather eye yam wrong oar write.
It shows me strait a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid.
It nose bee fore two long and eye can put the air oar rite.
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it,
I am shore your pleased to no.
Its let her perfect awl the way.
My check her told me sew.

Jazzy 35th birthday for Umbria Festival

Umbria's renowned jazz festival kicks off this weekend, with another dazzling line-up of top Italian and international stars from the world of modern music.
Umbria Jazz, the largest European event of its kind, gets under way on Friday morning with a traditional street parade through Perugia's medieval centre, led by the New Orleans-based Coolbone Brass Band.
The festival, celebrating its 35th birthday this year, still refuses to be pigeonholed, insisting on a mix of old and new, as well as a variety of jazz-related genres spanning experimental, instrumental, vocal, pop and rock.
The top international names appearing include legendary jazz greats such as tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins in his only European performance of the summer and pianist Herbie Hancock.
Stars from a slightly younger generation range from the celebrated guitarist Pat Metheny, through award-winning vocalist Chaka Khan, to R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keyes.
Alternative rock band R.E.M. will play the festival's closing concert on July 20.
But as well as giants from the US jazz scene, the festival also promises a host of Italian greats.
Top of the list is Italy's most famous jazzman, trumpeter Enrico Rava, who will perform a tribute to Chet Baker on the 20th anniversary of his death.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Stefano Bollani will appear alongside Brasilian guitarist and singer Caetano Veloso in an unexpected and keenly awaited pairing.
Other names on the program include jazz clarinettist Gabriele Mirabassi, saxophonist Stefano di Battista with trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso, and the pianists Ramberto Ciammarughi, Danilo Rea and Riccardo Arrighini.
Umbria Jazz, which was founded in 1973 by Carlo Pagnotta, will host around 300 concerts over 10 days.
As usual, it takes place in a variety of different venues throughout the region, including public squares, gardens, theatres, monuments and even restaurants, although the big-name events are staged in the open-air Santa Giuliana Arena in Perugia.
Events at the arena require tickets but many of the festival's other events are free.
Throughout the festival, two outdoor platforms stand at either end of Perugia's central thoroughfare with free concerts of accessible, popular jazz music.
In total, around 30 concerts are staged each day, running from late morning until well past midnight.
Umbria Jazz runs from July 11 until July 20. For more information and a complete program visit the festival's website at: www.umbriajazz.com.

Cannes prize winners thank Italy

The producers of the two Italian films that gained major honours at Cannes, Il Divo and Gomorrah, have thanked Italy for giving a lifeline to independent cinema.
Gomorrah, adapted from the Roberto Saviano bestseller of the same name, gave Cannes audiences a revealing picture of the Naples Mafia, the Camorra.
Il Divo, a nickname of ex-Christian Democrat premier Giulio Andreotti, provided an eye-opening portrait of the controversial statesman.
Gomorrah's producer Domenico Procacci said the gangland expose', directed by Matteo Garrone, could not have been made without the support of the Italian culture ministry.
''You can't rely on the market to make films like Garrone's,'' he said.
He said the ministry and other big funders like the public broadcaster RAI ''have worked very well in the past few years''.
Andrea Occhipinti, producer of Il Divo, said ''this backing has been fundamental for recent Italian movie-making,'' citing a string of festival hits that have spurred talk of a mini-renaissance for Italian cinema.
Il Divo, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, won the jury award, Cannes' third prize.
Gomorrah picked up the second-highest laurel, the grand prize.
It was Italy's best result at Cannes since two films shared the Golden Palm in 1972 - Francesco Rosi's The Mattei Affair and Elio Petri's The Working Class Goes To Heaven.
This year's Golden Palm went to a French film for the first time since 1987, Lauren Cantet's The Class.
Italy last won the Palme d'Or in 2001 with Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room.