Photo by Giusy Grimaldi

Nerina, also dubbed the boat of solidarity, left the port of Syracuse on Monday morning. This sailing boat was restored by a group of ex-convicts and former drug addicts from a prison in Palermo. The Nerina team left for Ancona to participate in the world sailing championship Orc International from June 21 through 29. The boat was made ​​available by a nautical company from Syracuse for the program Libera di, Libera da directed by Concetta Carbone and realized by the cooperative Tandem, which has been dealing with the social reintegration of young offenders for years now. Eighteen students, selected from the local Asp8 Sert, have learned activities related to sailing and boat construction. The project’s goal was the ambitious participation in the World Championship where some of the kids participate as board members, others as technicians until the end the event.

Villa Airoldi Golf Club in Palermo organizes Sicily Golf Wine and Food. This upcoming weekend all participants can play golf,  taste delicious Sicilian food and enjoy a glass of wine.

In the heart of Palermo within a historic 18^th century garden, Villa Airoldi Golf Club is Western Sicily’s most attended golf club. The villa also hosts events such as concerts, art exhibits, book presentations and cocktail parties.

Program of the event:

Saturday, June 15

8:30 AM –  Sicily Golf Wine & Food Tournament (four-ball formula Stableford 9-hole)

9:00 AM – Start of Golf Open Day

11:00 AM – Wine House Aperitif (participating wineries: Brugnano, Corvo, Duca di Salaparuta, Feudo Montoni, Feudo Arancio, Florio, Mandarossa, Marchesi de Gregorio, Planeta, Rapitalà, Tasca d’Almerita)

4:45 PM –  Opening of Coldiretti Area (oenogastronomic excellency-tastings)

5:00 PM – Beginning of Cooking Contest with three junior chefs

6:30 PM – Wine/Coffee Sensorial Experience (mini tasting courses by:

Giovanni Giardina, Master Wine-Taster and ONAV national vice-president,

Arturo Morettino, Master IIAC Coffee-Taster)

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM –  Musical Entertainment

Sunday, June 16

8:30 AM – Sicily Golf wine & Food Tournament (four-ball formula Stableford 9-hole)

9:00 AM – Start of Golf Open Day

10:00 AM – Coldiretti Area Opening with tastings

11:00 AM – Wine House Aperitif

4:45 PM  -  Opening of Coldiretti Area (oenogastronomic excellency-tastings

5:30 PM – Book Presentation: “Chiaracucina” by Chiara Chiaramonte

6:00 PM – Cooking Competition Awarding

6:30 PM – Golf Tournament Awarding

6:45 PM – Instanbike Palermo Award

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Aperitif Buffet and Musical Entertainment

Free Entrance

For more information:

www.villaairoldigolfclub.com

Facebook: Sicily Golf Wine & Food

Post by Maria Lina Bommarito

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1 Mondello (Palermo)
2 Cefalù
3 Spiaggia di Castel di Tusa
4 San Gregorio Ca D.Orlando
5 Capo Calavà (Gioiosa Marea)
6 Spiaggia di Pollara (Salina)
7 Spiaggia Calcara (Panarea)
8 Spiaggia Acquacalda (Lipari)
9 Spiaggia Bianca (Lipari)
10 Spiaggia Canneto (Lipari)

Best beaches in Sicily: Top 50 beautiful Sicilian Beaches by Charming Sicily

100,000 participants are expected in Palermo for the Annual National Gay Pride Festival. From Friday June 14 to Sunday 23, Palermo will be the capital of civil rights. “We must free our country from bigotry and prejudice” says Maria Grazia Cucinotta, famous actress and sponsor of the event. This is a historic event for Palermo and Sicily with great participation of LGBT organizations.

The highlight of the event will be the colorful parade along the main streets of Palermo on Saturday, June 22. Departing from the Foro Italico by the city’s seafront, the parade will reach the Palermo Pride Village inside the Zisa Castle. The village will be the largest set up ever conceived for such an event in Italy and will host LGBT workshops and debates, but also music concerts, art exhibits, cinema and drama performances.

 Video

For more information:

Website: http://palermopride.it/2013/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Palermopride
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalermoPride

Post by Maria Lina Bommarito

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Rosé & Trend, a wine tasting event dedicated to Sicilian rosé wines, takes place at the exclusive location of Officine Baronali inside Villa Scovazzo, a restored 18th century villa in Palermo.

Officine Baronali

Wineries from the different areas in Sicily showcase more than forty different wines. Rosé & Trend is not just a wine-tasting, Officine Baronali will serve finger-food and Sicilian gourmet specialties prepared by the restaurant’s chef.

Sicilian rosé wines have become more appreciated because their crisp taste and easy to match ability to blend with food. Whenever a red wine would be too much and a white too shy, the best pairing is rosé.

Participating wineries:
Tasca d’Almerita, Regaleali, Planeta, Corvo, Firriato, Milazzo, Gorghi Tondi, Caruso & Minini, Barbera, Orestiadi, Rapitalà, Marabino, Settesoli, DiPrima, Paolo Calì, CVA, Spadafora Francesco, Bonavita.

Tickets available on site €15

For more information:
www.verissima.it
www.officinebaronali.it

Post by Maria Lina Bommarito

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Officine Baronali – Via Villa Rosato, 20
Palermo

He was killed  with his wife Francesca Morvillo and police officers Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro and Vito Schifani in a blast that blew part of the highway near the town of Capaci (PA) on May 23, 1992. More than 20 years have passed and still Italians do not know all the truth about this massacre. This was the turning point for many Sicilians and my generation: the Mafia will never be stronger than us!

© Wikipedia

Agence France-Presse reports that foreign buyers are swooping on deserted villages in Sicily to snap up homes for as little as 10,000 euros ($13,000), propping up a property market in free-fall as Italy suffers its longest-ever recession.

“When you go to the pizzeria now, you often meet more foreigners than Sicilians,” said Salvatore Sansemi, mayor of Cianciana, near the southern city of Agrigento.

Half the population of the village — set against the stunning backdrop of the Sicani mountains and close to the sea — has emigrated to Canada, France or Germany in recent years, leaving only around 3,500 inhabitants.

“We have just signed off on 140 sales to British, French, Norwegians and Poles, as well as a few Canadians and Chinese,” Sansemi told AFP.

One of the latest buyers in the village is Ray Winstone, a British actor and producer who bought an old farmhouse for 50,000 euros ($65,000) and is entirely redoing it to the tune of 1.3 million euros.

“Prices are very low. A house needing repairs can cost from 10,000 to 30,000 euros. An apartment or a renovated house from 60,000 to 80,000,” he said.

Cianciana already has around 800 British home owners and the number is growing.

Raffaele Impallari, a local tourism board official, said: “Thanks to our hospitality, here they have the feeling of being at home.

“Maybe they feel even better since the weather is always good and we are only 20 minutes from the seaside,” he joked.

Read more at http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/21/foreign-investors-snap-up-cheap-homes-in-deserted-sicily-villages/

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Granita is a frozen dessert made with water and a syrup base, much like sherbet. It’s origins date back to the Arab domination in Sicily which has left so much to the island in spite of its relatively short period (827-1091 AD).
In the past the granita was a privilege only for the rich and aristocratic families as it was made using the snow gathered on Mount Etna and on the Peloritani and Nebrodi mountains, then stored in natural caves and extracted during the summer.

Acireale celebrates this frozen dessert with its own festival from June 13 through 16. For more details and program, please visit www.anivarata.it (ITALIAN).

Photo © Franca Calderone

For reservations

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La Materia di un Sogno – Collezione Palo Brodbeck, curated by Gianluca Collica, Alessandra Ferlito and Gianpiero Vincenzo and promoted by the Fondazione Brodbeck in Catania, is opening today. The exhibition showcases artworks by Gabriella Ciancimino, Carmelo Nicosia and Carmelo Nicotra on eight bus lines around the streets of downtwon Catania. This initiative is one of the many that precede the opening on May 25 at 5:00PM of one of the most important contemporary exhibitions that Sicily has hosted in the last few years.

For more information, please contact:

Fondazione Brodbeck
93 Via Gramignani
I – 95121 Catania
Phone:  +39 095 7233111
Mobile: + 39 3476815258
Fax:. +39 095 2933777

www.fondazionebrodbeck.it
info@fondazionebrodbeck.it
www.facebook.com/pages/Fondazione-Brodbeck/105282896466

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The Mediterranean diet – declared by UNESCO “Intangible Cultural Heritage” in 2010, is the protagonist of a cultural project created by some Sicilian students. The Rassegna Vino & Olio (Wine & Oil Festival) organized by the students of the P. Mattarella-D. Dolci Institute in Alcamo has the purpose of promoting the Sicilian culinary tradition.

Students, public institutions, wine and oil producers are all working together to promote local products and sustain economic development. Three days of exhibitions, music, sport and culture starting on Friday, May 17 at 10:00 AM with the conference - The typicality of the Sicilian territory and the Mediterranean Diet - at the Marconi Congress Center (free entrance). Friday and Saturday at 6:00 PM (and Sunday starting at 10:00 AM) everyone is invited to the trade show in Alcamo’s  gorgeous Piazza Ciullo, the heart of the town’s historic center. Local producers offer tastings of traditional food, olive oils and wines.

“The Mediterranean diet” says Sebastiano Bonventre, mayor of Alcamo “must not simply be considered nutrition, but a lifestyle”. It is a combination of habits, knowledge and traditions that go from the countryside to the table.

Sicilian food follows the Mediterranean diet, which is characterized  by olive oil as the dominant fat source and a high to moderate  consumption of fruit and vegetables, grains, legumes and fish in combination with small amounts of meat and – of course – wine with meals. Studies confirm the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet and let’s not forget that the Mediterranean way of eating is tasty, flavorful and enjoyable!

Post and photos by Maria Lina Bommarito

For information, email rosadeventiwinefoodtour@gmail.com

Address: Municipio Centro Congressi Maroni
Corso Sei Aprile, 119
91011, Alcamo (TP)

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There are plenty of other reasons to visit during this time of the year. Here is my main reason… Last April I traveled to Italy for work, then I went down to Sicily to see my family. After 12 years of city life in New York, my senses did not remember anymore the odors of the Sicilian spring season and it was just magic!

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Photos by Maria Lina Bommarito

Luisa Kuliok, the Argentine actress who moved Italy as protagonist of the Woman of Mystery, returns to Taormina. On July 21,  Kairospn presents Luisa Kuliok in The String of Pearls, a monologue by Helena Tritek, adapted in Italian and directed by Piero Nicosia, at the Teatro Antico in Taormina.

The show is a theatrical journey of epic tones that through poems, stories, philosophy and ancient fables confronts the themes of life, love, war, starting with the strong message of dialogue among religions. On stage the versatile actress becomes different characters. The live music, written by master Giallanza, is performed by Calogero Giallanza (flute), Augusta Giraldi (harp) Paolo Rossetti (percussion).

More at Taoarte.it

Address: Corso Umberto, 19
98039 Taormina
Phone: +39 0942 21142
Fax: +39 0942 23348
Email: info@taormina-arte.com

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By Natalie Cammarata

This Sicilian city is full of secrets, but its street food isn’t one of them. Monday through Saturday, the locals follow the smells and sounds to any one of Palermo‘s open-air markets for a taste of regional fare.

My experience eating mozzarella and gelato in central Italy did not prepare me for the entirely unique animal I encountered in the Sicilian capital. The foods I found here were simple — some simply delicious and others simply best left to those with strong stomachs.

Behind the Teatro Massimo, Italy’s largest opera house, lies a spider web of alleys that make up Mercato di Capo. I started along Via Sant’Agostino and made my way through the hanging linens lining the narrow streets, past the tables of socks, baby clothes and Sicily-shaped magnets, the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” DVDs, the ceramics stand and the tables of earrings, and came to a narrow street filled with fresh fish, homemade pastas and butchers awaiting my order. On this street, a young woman named Arianna and her brothers served the most heavenly arancini (Sicilian rice balls) in Palermo for 1.5 euros (about $2).

More at ChicagoTribune.com

Roberto Bolle and some of the brightest stars of the American Ballet in NY perform at the ancient theater of Taormina on July 26. A unique and special event that Taormina Arte, in collaboration with Artedanza and Musica and Suoni of Nuccio La Ferlita, offers to the enthusiastic public of dancing. L’étoile of La Scala, already in Taormina in 2009, for the first time this year has managed to achieve an exceptional project: gathering around him some of the greatest talents who animate the ballet season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

More at www.taoarte.it

More at Taoarte.it

Address: Corso Umberto, 19
98039 Taormina
Phone: +39 0942 21142
Fax: +39 0942 23348
Email: info@taormina-arte.com

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