ISSUE No. 118
ISSUE / No. 118
March 11, 2010
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News - Florence
Open to any bid
Teatro Comunale seeks foreign buyers
I don't see any problem. Within the next two years, we will sell the Teatro del Maggio [Teatro Comunale] until the new one is built,' said Matteo Renzi about Palazzo Vecchio's inability to find, so far, a buyer for the city …
News - Florence
Tav Troubles
Class action launched against new railway line
The massive drilling machine that will dig the tunnel for the new high-speed train (TAV) line under areas of Florence is scheduled to start up in Campo di Marte soon. Despite ministerial approval of the project, many still fear it will …
News - Florence
Kickbacks Come To Light
Corruption scandal touches Florence
The high-profile police investigation that involves civil protection agency chief Guido Bertolaso and his alleged role in illegally awarding public works contracts in exchange for sexual favours and cash, has expanded locally to involve many more public figures and entrepreneurs in …
News - Florence
Preaching 2.0
Tuscan clergy already connected'
Earlier this year, in a message released by the Vatican, ‘The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word,' Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic priests to use all multimedia tools at their disposal …
News - Florence
Crown Found
Seventeenth-century treasure located
Missing for nearly a century, a precious piece of jewelry unexpectedly resurfaced in Florence-a gold crown encrusted with emeralds, diamonds and rubies commissioned in 1685 by Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Grand Duke Ferdinando II dei Medici.
Although commissioned by the noblewoman, …
News - Florence
A Touch of Islam
Lebanese artist to make next palio
Ali Hassoun will be the first Muslim artist to paint a palio, the banner and prize of Siena's annual bareback horse race in Piazza del Campo. Hassoun's palio will be made for the Madonna di Provenzano race on July 2. This …
News - Florence
Happy birthday, Michelangelo!
Renaissance master born 535 years ago
On March 6, president of the city council, Eugenio Giani, lay a wreath on Michelangelo's tomb in Santa Croce, as part of the annual ceremony celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti, born on March 6, 1475.
Giani said during …
News - Florence
Do you Compost?
Reuse organic waste as fertilizer
In effort to increase eco-friendly waste disposal solutions in the city, Florence city government recently started a project to distribute approximately 500 household compost kits to local families who have gardens or small yards.
Organized in collaboration with the Associazione Amici della …
News - Florence
Uffizi In The Far East
Over 80 works on tour
Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, Titian's Venus and Cupid with Partridge and Tintoretto's Leda and the Swan: these are some of the 82 masterpieces from the Uffizi headed to China for an 18-month tour.
Spanning five centuries of Italian art, the artworks …
News - Florence
Sharpen Your Cleavers
Lessons in cutting meat during Taste Fair
Following a trend in New York, local butchers are offering lessons in meat carving. During the Taste fair, the Luca Menoni butcher shop inside the Sant'Ambrogio market will be offering a course on how to cut and carve meat.
Called ‘Learning about …
News - Florence
Women and Motors
Most Florentines declare love in cars
On occasion of national Women's Day on March 8, the online car insurance firm, Direct Line, published the results of a survey, revealing that 40 percent of Florentine women have made or received a declaration of love while in their cars.
The …
News - Florence
Gotan project returns
One of Europe's most popular bands, Gotan Project, recently announced the dates of its upcoming spring tour. The Parisian trio, which mixes tango with techno music, kicks off the Italian portion of its tour in Rome on May 25; it then …News - Florence
Cultural lab
The new president of the European University Institute of Fiesole, Josep Borrell, recently described his dream that Florence will become a cultural and academic laboratory where European Union citizens and institutions can carry out research and meet for conferences. ‘In the world, …News - Florence
Vasari archive to be auctioned
The important archives of Renaissance artist and writer Giorgio Vasari are to be sold at an auction in Tuscany during the week of March 8. With bids set to begin at 2.6 million euro, Giuseppe Fanfani, mayor of Arezzo, has called …News - Florence
Flash mobs in Tuscany
Invitations have been circulating the Internet and Facebook since the start of 2010: on March 27, Piazza del Campo will be filled with thousands of ‘flashmobbers' from all over the world for a collective dance performance. Another group of flashmobbers will …News - Community
Through Dante's eyes
Richmond University offers unique tour
On March 17, students at the Richmond University, the American International University based in London with study centers in Florence and Rome, will offer a free guided tour of medieval Florence at the time of Dante.
Called A Walk in Medieval Florence …
News - National
Regions at risk
Legambiente's 2009 environmental report
Landslides and floods, many of which are caused by heavy rain and the erosion of levees, are largely natural phenomenon that pose increased risk for many areas in Italy. According to the latest report by Italy's environmental agency, Legambiente, approximately 70 …
News - National
The carpool connection
First Italian website puts the like-minded in contact
Carpooling, liftshare, ride sharing: it has many names but the same mission-to save money on commuting costs and help the environment. Urban traffic and the recent rise in smog levels in many Italian cities have prompted two university students in Bologna …
News - National
Easy travel
A new guides for tourists in Rome
Local tourist offices and the team of Tourist Angels will be handing out a new guide to tourists to help them better visit Rome.
Called Easy Rome, the guide will offer advice on how to avoid being swindled in shops and restaurants, …
News - National
Are Singles Discriminated Against?
More rights for Italy's lonely hearts'
Non-married Italians want their own government ministry to fight the various forms of discrimination they suffer on a day-to-day basis for not being married. Joe Lo Pilato, from the southern Italian city of Naples, who heads of the newly formed Union …
News - National
Top Technorati
Italy first in Europe for Internet usage
Italians who use the Internet do so more than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, according to a recent survey conducted by InSites Consulting, in collaboration with IAB Europe.
The survey revealed that 98 percent of Italian Internet users go online at least …
News - National
Australia's First Saint
Mother Mary MacKillop to be canonised next October
Next autumn, Pope Benedict XVI will proclaim Australia's first saint. On October 17, in a formal ceremony at the Vatican, the pontiff will canonize a nineteenth-century nun, Mary MacKillop, from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Devoted to the poor …
News - National
A failing grade
The worst grades in Italian high school are earned in mathematics and English. Approximately three high school students out of four earn an insufficient grade in these subjects, according to data on grades given in the first quarter of the 2009-2010 …News - National
Your pet's health
March 1 through 31, some 3,300 animal clinics throughout Italy will be giving free check-ups. Cats and dogs will get physical exams and will be checked for allergies. The initiative, Season of Prevention, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by …News - National
Proposal to protect minors
Italy could be the first European state to ban breast implants for minors. In an attempt to curb the popularity of breast augmentation among young girls, members of Parliament presented a proposal for legislation in mid February. If passed, the bill …News - National
Bergamo's biggest wish
The culture ministry says it will support the campaign by the northern Italian city of Bergamo to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For years, Bergamo has been preparing the documentation to make an official request to be granted the prestigious …News - National
Learn in Chinese
The first scientific secondary school in Italy to hold science, physics, biology and other classes in the Chinese language was recently opened in Rome. Students at the Vittorio Emanuele II school who want to study in Chinese will be able to …
News - Sport & Leisure
Coast-to-coast
Tyrrhenian-Adriatic road race named after Ballerini
This year's Tyrrhenian-Adriatic Road Race, also known as the ‘race of two seas,' will commemorate the late Franco Ballerini, who was killed in a car crash during a rally earlier this year.
Running from March 10 to 16, the high-profile race features …
News - Sport & Leisure
Sports, nutrition and well-being
New centre to promote physical activity and diet
Italy recently established the Società Italiana Nutrizione Sport e Benessere (SINSEB) to support additional research and education in sports nutrition, curb rising levels of obesity and doping in sports, in addition to promoting physical activity and a healthy diet.
SINSEB's executive committee …
News - Sport & Leisure
Celebrate the Sea
Marina di Carrara hosts event
Tuscany is a pioneer in European maritime policy, and to celebrate this prestigious role the region will participate in the third annual European Maritime Day.
While the main events of European Maritime Day take place on May 20, in Gijón, Spain, other …
News - Sport & Leisure
Sport Without Barriers
Learn more at SportHabile
Baseball for the blind and bocce ball for the disabled are just two tourneys featured on the home page of the SportHabile website. SportHabile, a Tuscan organization promoting sports for the physically disabled, recently launched www.sporthabile.it as a place for people …
Movie Reviews
Alice in Wonderland
by James Douglas
Thursday 11 March
3.00, 5.30 p.m.
There is a place like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it you need to be as mad as a hatter... Tim Burton and Lewis Carroll must surely be a match …
Movie Reviews
La Premiere Etoile
by James Douglas
Thursday 11 March
(one show only, at 8.30)
La Premiere Etoile is a hilarious multi-ethnic French skiing comedy (in French with Italian subtitles).
ODEON ORIGINAL SOUND AT THE ODEON
Piazza Strozzi, 2
www.odeon.intoscana.it • 055 214068 …
Movie Reviews
It's Complicated
by James Douglas
Monday 22 March
3.45, 6.00, 8.15, 10.30 p.m.
Tuesday 23 March
3.45, 6.00, 8.15, 10.30 p.m.
Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin form the triangle in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy It's Complicated. It's complicated because two of them were once married to each other; meeting up after a decade of separate lives, their passion is rekindled. …
Movie Reviews
Valentine's Day
by James Douglas
Wednesday 24 March
3.30, 5.50, 8.10, 10.30 p.m.
Judging by the ridiculous amount of irrelevant information and the bare plot outline on the website, Warner Brothers must have been at a loss to market this all-star concoction. The Italian distributors have missed the boat entirely by releasing it a …
Movie Reviews
Il Federale
by James Douglas
Wednesday 17 March
8.30 p.m.
Luciano Salce's 1961 film Il federale proves that 20 years later the shadow of Fascism still lay over popular entertainment. That a story of the friendship between an ambitious fascist enthusiast and an anti-fascist professor could still find an audience and …
Movie Reviews
Passport To Pimlico
by James Douglas
Wednesday 24 March
8.30 p.m.
‘French goings-on in the heart of London.' ‘By general consent the best of writer T.E.B. Clarke's six Ealing comedies, Passport to Pimlico (d. Henry Cornelius, 1949) arguably best exemplifies studio head Michael Balcon's description of Ealing's postwar films as "our mild …
Top Picks
Irish Festival
March 17-18 Saschall
Celebrate and enjoy the flavor of the Irish tradition at Florence's 15th annual Irish festival. The party kicks off on St. Patty's Day with live music at 9 pm. Music lovers will delight in the festival's nightly concerts by performers like …
Top Picks
Florentine New Year
March 25 and March 28
New Year's in March? That's right. Until 1582, Europe rang in the New Year on March 25, the Feast Day of the Annunciation. In 2000, the Capodanno Fiorentino was reinserted into the calendar of traditional Florentine events. The city now celebrates …
Top Picks
Burlesque Temptation Weekend
March 20-21 Riva Lofts Florence
The art of burlesque has caught on around the world, and Florence is no exception. This workshop run by Miss Scarlett Martini reveals all the secrets and tricks of the sensuous and teasing art made famous by 1950s pin-ups. The course …
Top Picks
Taste Food Show and Fuori di Taste
March 13-15 Stazione Leopolda
Take a trip through Italian cuisine with the Taste food show and its nearly 200 stands featuring niche products, from the finest Chianti wines to chocolates from the Piedmont and locally produced beer. Don't miss this year's Fuori di Taste, off-show …
Top Picks
Pat Metheny The Orchestrion Tour'
March 16 Saschall
Don't miss Grammy Award winner Paul Metheny and his Orchestrion, a mechanically controlled ‘musical robot' that allows the artist to improvise along with his conventional electric guitar. For ticket and event information, call 055/6504112 or see www.saschall.it. …
Top Picks
Chris Proctor
March 21at 9:30pm Circolo ARCI SMS, via delle Masse 38, Serpiolle
U.S. acoustic guitarist Chris Proctor has been called one of the most important finger stylists in the last 20 years. Reservations for his Florence show are advised. Call 334/3993472, click www.sixbarsjail.it or e-mail sixbarsjail@tiscali.it. …
Top Picks
Florence Korea Film Festival
March 12-20 Odeon Cinema
This unique festival offers full-length features, new releases and contemporary classics that promote Korea's seductive cultural universe. Click www.koreafilmfest.com or call 055/5048516. See our feature on page 15. …
Top Picks
Hello Kitty: The Show
March 12-14 Teatro Verdi
If you can't get enough of that Japanese kitty and her friends, then this is the show for you. Not only does she sing, but Hello Kitty works it with modern, jazz and hip-hop numbers (and a little break dance thrown …
Top Picks
Bollywood Love Story
March 19-21 Teatro Verdi
All the passion and plot devices of classic Bollywood musical cinema come together in a production that sings, dances and even has a political edge. The production has won rave reviews and has been playing to capacity audiences and standing ovations …
Top Picks
Cirque du Soleil-Saltimbanco
March 24-28 Nelson Mandela Forum
The world's most famous acrobats take on the ‘urban experience' in this unique show whose eclectic cast of characters take spectators into a fanciful, dreamlike world: an imaginary city where diversity is a cause for hope. Call 055/667566 or click www.mandelaforum.it. …
Top Picks
Value and beauty. Cameos and intaglios of the Medici Family
March 25-June 27 Museo degli Argenti (Palazzo Pitti)
Gem collecting was one of the most fascinating aspects of the Renaissance. As far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century, cameos and intaglios were much sought after by popes, princes and cardinals-so much so that they often gave rise …
Italian Sketches
Battista Pininfarina
by Deirdre Pirro
A designer dream-maker
Two men with difficult characters formed one of the most significant design teams in the history of the Italian automobile industry. Enzo Ferrari built the motors and chassis of his legendary cars, and Battista Pininfarina often styled their classy and revolutionary …
Expats in Florence
Traci Woish
by Melinda Gallo
Promoting Tuscany's treasures in Florence
Florence is home to many expats: those who have longed to live here, those who have found love and moved here, and those who have come to Florence and felt immediately at home here. Many people arrive here at a point …
The Arts
A bridge between East and West
Florence Korea Film Festival
One of Europe's most prestigious film festivals dedicated to South Korean cinema returns to Florence from March 12 to 20 at the Odeon Cinema in Piazza Strozzi. Now in its eighth year, the Florence Korea Film Festival, organized by the Taegukgi …
The Arts
Richter's scale
Measuring the value and meaning of images
What is an image, anyway? And in the context of art, can it ever really ‘disappear'? These and other provocative ideas are at the heart of the current show at the Centre for Contemporary Culture La Strozzina, the Foundazione Palazzo Strozzi's …
The Arts
A new EX3-curriculum
Florence's latest destination for contemporary art
Finally, Florentines no longer have to trek all the way to Prato to see cutting-edge art of all shapes, sizes and mediums in a present-day architectural setting to match. The new EX3 Contemporary Art Center in Florence's east-end Gavinana neighborhood (beside …
In Other Words
Wig makers
by Linda Falcone
Some people talk in language class, others speak at the hairdresser. I fall into the first category: at the beauty salon I only listen. Parrucchiere, the Italian word for hairdresser literally means ‘wig maker' but a more accurate term would be …
Florentinisms
Tanto quelli a strisce sono tutti ladri, Civaiolo
by Alexandra Lawrence, Francesco Stefanelli
your in-progress dictionary of the florentine dialect
Tanto quelli a strisce sono tutti ladri!:
Literally, ‘the ones with stripes are all thieves!' referring to soccer teams with striped jerseys.
The phrase refers to Juventus (black and white, like prisoners' uniforms), first and foremost, but given recent events I would add …
News - Current Issues
Meet the candidates
by Brenda Dionisi
Who will be the next president of Tuscany?
On March 28 and 29, some 3.5 million Tuscans will go to the polls to elect Tuscany's next regional president. Nine political parties have candidates in these regional elections, giving their support to five presidential candidates.
Tuscany is not the only region …
Style & Fashion
Milan versus Florence
by Enrica Guidato
Reflections on the future of the Made in Italy label
After a long ‘Christmas break,' it is a pleasure to write my Style and the City column again! In these months I've had the chance to attend two important events in Italian fashion: the Pitti Filati trade fair last Janaury in …
Food & Wine
Gastronauts, it's your weekend!
by Marco Badiani
Taste and FuoriDiTaste events
If you're planning to spend this weekend away from Florence, I highly recommend you cancel: those who consider themselves ‘gastronauts' shouldn't dare leave the city during the Taste food fair and its companion FuoriDiTaste event.
Taste has grown up, and today, in …
Food & Wine
Straight to an artichoke's heart
by Marcella Ansaldo
Make a flan with this season's bounty
This winter has been exceptionally long and cold, but sparks of spring are starting to sprinkle through the air. Flowers bloom and market stands become crowded with heaps and heaps of big, beautiful artichokes. Although an artichoke's consistency is fibrous and …
Features
Articles
Special Issues
Sunday, September 05, 2010