These fairytale words dress a limited edition of large-format bottles of 2007 Ornellaia, whose labels were created by Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh as part of the estate’s Vendemmia d’Artista project. The 2007 vintage has been designated as L’Armonia. The photo depicts 18 double magnums of the “copper” series that will be auctioned, together with the unique Ornellaia  2007 Salmanazar, at Sotheby’s in New York, on April 28th. The proceeds will be donated in their entirety to the Whitney Museum. www.vendemmiadartista.it/en

For further information:

The villa is located in the elegant “Residenza Aurelia” complex on a panoramic hill only a few minutes from central Rome.  The heart of the villa, with more than 560 sq.m. of covered space, is a central edifice on two floors, with two other buildings connected to it at ground level.  The elegant interiors blend beautifully with the overall structure, which is built in typical Anglo-Saxon style.

Square Metres: 560
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 4
Floors: 2
Garden / Land: 7500 sqm
Annex: Yes: two buildings connected to the villa on the ground floor.

Priceç   2 million euros

The ground floor is divided into a large entryway, the main living area and a parlour-winter garden, dining room, porch, a corridor leading to the library, and a stair landing. One side of the dining room gives onto the kitchen and staff quarters, that are in the basement.
The first floor of the main building houses a big suite with dressing-room and a big bathroom with hydromassage and shower. Two other bedrooms and two baths.
On the first floor of the building to the left of the entry is a single room used as a study, where as the corresponding part on the right includes a bedroom and box room. Space for tools, a cellar, laundry, storage closet and staff’s apartment occupy the basement.

The fine interiors feature floors in hardwood parquet and majolica bathrooms.

A picturesque park covers approximately 7.500 sq.m., with English lawns, palms and shade trees, and reveals a lovely pool with gazebo, lighting system and broad pool-side border, also paved in marble.

Condition: Ready to live in. Perfect condition.

Features: Hardwood parquet flooring, fireplace, whirlpool bath, adsl.

For further information please contact june.clayton@livinginitlay.co.uk and for larger images, please copy and paste the following link in your browser.

http://www.property.livinginitaly.co.uk/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=1924

Nearest Towns: Città del Vaticano (2km; 5’); Roma (8km; 20’); Ostia (34km; 34’); Anguillara Sabazia (37km; 47’); Cerveteri (38km; 34’); Frascati (42km; 36’); Velletri (53km; 52’); Latina (78km, 1h 9’); Siena (236km;2 h 43’); Firenze (277km; 2h 46’).

A fantastic slow food feast with celebrated musicians to take place in Orvieto and Todi up to 17 April.  This year°s event marks the 12th edition of Cittaslow Dinner Music, which confirms the winning formula the last edition which saw the happy marriage between art music and knowledge and tastes of Italian Cittaslow.    Buon Appetito !

Cittaslow Dinner Music touches share “12″, with a huge novelty: four evenings the program will take place at the Sala dell’Arengo of Todi, through collaboration with the administration is Comunale di Todi. On the shores of Lake Corbara between Basque and Orvieto and Todi, for Cittaslow Dinner Music # 12 this year will parade some of the most famous and important Italian music: Ambrose Sparagna, Fabrizio Bosso in a duo with Irio De Paula, Tullio De Piscopo , Roberto Gatto, Cluster, Rosario Giuliani, Gerardo Casiello; Sandro Paradisi and finally to close the programmail Rome Trio with Danilo Rea, Enzo Pietropaoli and even Roberto Gatto. :.

Under the wise direction of artistic director, Richard Stefanini, under the direction of the Palazzo del Gusto, the patronage of the Province of Terni, the City of Orvieto for the enhancement wine and food, every Saturday night from February 27 to April 17 will meet with the artists flavors of Cittaslow: Positano, Orvieto, Abbiategrasso, Orsara, Greve in Chianti, Bra, Hertberg Enns (Austria), Todi. Cittaslow year in Festival will be held at the Peninsula Country Resort and Restaurant on the shores of Lake Corbara between Basque and Orvieto and the magnificent Hall of Todi dell’Arengo ..

Open the program in Cittaslow Music Festival-Dinner at “The Peninsula on Lake Corbara, Basques on the doorstep of Orvieto Saturday, February 27, Ambrose Sparagna-instrumental voice in a project that allows us to know more closely the compositional mastery interpretive and passion of one of the most important musicians in the panorama of Italian folk music and a great virtuoso organetto.In this “Voyage in Italy” the repertoire explores the musical traditions of Italian area through a series of original songs composed by Ambrose Sparagna and accompanied by a small orchestra of instruments ranging dall’organetto the shell, from tambourines to the hurdy-gurdy, guitar swing from the violin to tromba.Il theme is the mythical journey Giuseppantonio and his fellow musicians, who started in the early ‘900 walk, from Naples to Marseilles, told by Sparagna “with words and music,” including serenades and ballads, lullabies and love tarantella, frenetic rhythms and jacks always careful to involve the public and make it “walk” on musica.Uno show to raise awareness of Italian folk repertoire and a lively and engaging ways of show .. The host is Cittàslow Positano.

Saturday, March 6 Cittaslow in Festival moves in nearby Todi, dell’Arengo in the Hall with a concert of this extraordinary duo composed by Fabrizio Bosso, one of the best trumpet players of the new generation that meets Brazilian guitarist Irio De Paula. Consolidated, unusual timbre, geographically one bet. The duo consists Irio De Paola, guitar, and Fabrizio Bosso, trumpet, strikingly inventive structural logic, emotion, lyricism, the ability to collect all that history and the study made available to them. The two met by chance, resulting in an album, “Once I Loved” which returns the magic of jazz.

The guest is Cittàslow Orvieto.

Saturday, March 13th in Room dell’Arengo always Todi: Roberto Gatto Quartet certainly one of the best drummers in the world, Roberto Gatto, recent winner of its category in the referendum organized by the magazine Musica Jazz, shows a quartet of recently formed: Luca Mannutza piano, Rosario Bonaccorso bass, Daniel Tittarelli saxophones.

The guest is Cittaslow Abbiategrasso

Saturday, March 20th, still in the Hall ’s Arengo Todi Tullio De Piscopo and his group.

From jazz to blues … with slow pace. Who knows Tullio De Piscopo? Tullio present a sort of journey through his countless experiences. Samples of music for one battery dedicated to the great Max Roach, listen to songs that play with the thulium Hang, this new tool, bits of blues, jazz standards. Tullio will give us tracks from his hugely successful pop repertoire as Stop Bajon. Will be accompanied by his quintet.

The guest is Cittàslow Orsara

Saturday, March 27th, still in the room dell’Arengo of Todi with Cluster, a cappella vocal group from Genoa, their union feature makes the final sound is that of an instrumental rock band, even if every instrument (the drums, instruments winds) is played exclusively with the voice: five items that were advancing in perfect synchrony, forming a set of sounds, a “cluster” in fact. The notoriety among the general public came in 2006, thanks to the first edition of “X-Factor” talent show Raidue. That year they released their first album “Cement”, which received three nominations to Cara (Contemporary Acappella Recording Award) and remained for several weeks in the iTunes Top Ten, followed in 2008 by EPA “Enjoy the Silence”. “X-Factor” to the recent collaboration with Fiorello (the boys opened the show throughout the first week of programming) has been a crescendo of concerts and participated in festivals, until the ‘release of their third album “Steps” ,: The guest is Cittaslow Greve in Chianti.

Saturday, April 3, back in the traditional when Cittaslow in Festival, “The Peninsula on Lake Corbara, Basques on the doorstep of Orvieto, with a concert by the quartet of Rosario Giuliani, hailed by European critics as a revelation, Rosario Giuliani impresses the listener from the first moment to the ease with which he learned from his saxophone phrasing fluid, nervous, sometimes dizzying, buttoning naturally as a great saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Art Pepper, John Coltrane.Ha to his credit numerous recordings with internationally renowned masters. Two Cittaslow rating: Enns and Hartberg (Austria).

Saturday, April 10th, still at “The Peninsula” on Lake Corbara, a double concerto with Sandro Paradisi and Gerardo Casiello. Sandro Paradisi, accordion, Lucio Giovanella, kick and snare, Gianmarco “Since” Fusari, piano and voice Blu Mocambo present a show dedicated to Paolo Conte. Asti’s lawyer is in fact entirely devoted this unusual trio, who with great elegance and instrumental skills will make you sink in mouse amaranth, and Stradella accordion zza zza zza zzazzarazzà different. A show enjoyable for both players, “contiani” both for those who only heard about it but maybe you know “Via con me” or “Blue.” Following the songwriter Gerardo Casiello presented in concert on his debut album titled Contrada Casiello.Gli scenarios of the songs are imaginative fantasy of Gerardo Casiello, but also those of his real homeland, the Sannio, a land that is returned to us through a musical journey from the sounds of tradition with a new original sound with all the strength and humanity of an original peasant culture but with a context open to a variety of musical and cultural contributions. Gerardo Casiello, piano, guitar and vocals, will be accompanied by guitarist Antonio Ragosta, accordionist Emiliano Pallotti, the bass player and drummer Stefano Napoli Pasquale Angelici.La Cittaslow host and Todi.

Last Saturday, April 17th meeting with the extraordinary trio of Rome fomato by Danilo Rea on piano, Enzo Pietropaoli on bass and Roberto Gatto on drums. All internationally renowned soloists who delight audiences with music from their latest CD, “33″, but also propose the classics of Jazz. “33″ are the years that the three have spent together since their debut. He was born, in fact, thirty years ago, the Trio di Roma, and soon had the opportunity to perform vivo.Il the path traced by the Trio di Roma is more than just a list of songs of excellence figurative, symbolic, or productive value grows and becomes more interesting when you try to read a watermark that world that was and still is, the laboratory design and production that has forged in three decades, day after day, note by note, many experiences of a whole generazione.La Cittàslow guest is Bra

VENUES AND DATES

Orvieto
Baschi (Lago di Corbara) - La Penisola
Todi -Sala Dell’Arengo

27/02/10 AMBROGIO SPARAGNA + POSITANO CITTASLOW a La Penisola Restaurant Orvieto-Baschi

06/03/10 FABRIZIO BOSSO- IRIO DE PAULA + ORVIETO CITTASLOW a Todi-Sala dell’Arengo

13/03/10 ROBERTO GATTO QUARTETTO + ABBIATEGRASSO CITTASLOW a Todi-Sala dell’Arengo

20/03/10 TULLIO DE PISCOPO QUINTETTO + ORSARA CITTASLOW a Todi-Sala dell’Arengo

27/03/10 CLUSTER + GREVE IN CHIANTI CITTASLOW a Todi-Sala dell’Arengo

03/04/10 ROSARIO GIULIANI QUARTETTO+ ENNS-HARTBERG(AUSTRIA) a La Penisola Restaurant - Orvieto-Baschi

10/04/10 PARADISI - CASIELLO + CITTASLOW TODI a La Penisola Restaurant - Orvieto-Baschi

17/04/10 TRIO DI ROMA-REA-GATTO-PIETROPAOLI+ CITTASLOW BRA a La Penisola Restaurant - Orvieto-Baschi

(ANSA) - Los Angeles, March 2 - Andrea Bocelli on Tuesday got a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.    Bocelli 51,  who has a string of awards and smash albums to his credit, told ANSA: “This is a sign of the American public’s affection for me, an affection it always shows, at concerts and when people meet me in the street”.

Bocelli’s most recent album was his first Christmas Holiday album, My Christmas.

It was the top-selling US Holiday album last year.

Asked about comparisons made with the late Luciano Pavarotti, who was also huge in the States, Bocelli told ANSA: “Every artist is similar to himself alone. If he has a place in the international panorama it’s because he was able to make his own mark”.

Singing experts, especially opera ones in Italy, have often niggled about Bocelli’s style and range and, like Pavarotti, about his attempts to combine pop and opera.

The Tuscan singer said: “Italians think they’re guardians of the world’s musical culture and that means they tend to have an over-protective attitude that detracts from pure enjoyment”.

The crossover superstar rebuffed criticism that he “mixes and matches” genres that should be kept separate.

“There’s no contamination. I really care about the purity of the language. When I sing opera I sing it with its rules, which are very precise. With pop, I opened myself up to a different world, even though my first love is still opera”.

“But I’m a musician and above all a music lover, not genre specific”. After debuting at the Sanremo Song Festival in 1994, where he won the Newcomers section, Bocelli has gone on to sell 70 million albums worldwide - 24 pop, eight opera - and has performed at some of the world’s top music venues with the likes of Sarah Brightman, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Laura Pausini.

He won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination with Dion in 1999 for the song The Prayer from the film Quest for Camelot, and has two other Grammy nominations as well as six World Music Awards and six Classical Brit Awards.

Bocelli’s last high-profile performance was at last year’s Champions League Final in Rome where he sang Honour Him from the film Gladiator.

His most recent album, Incanto, went four-time diamond (1.5 million copies sold) in four months, mainly thanks to his huge US fan base.

On Tuesday the singer made his mark on the famed LA sidewalk along with Ringo Starr, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison, Russell Crowe, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and James Cameron.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 4 - The challenges and achievements of a colony of bohemian Italian artists living in Paris at the turn of the last century are spotlighted in a crowd-drawing show in Rome.

Over 90 works are on display, focusing principally on the careers of Giovanni Boldini, Giuseppe De Nittis and Federico Zandomeneghi. “The relationship between France and Italy forms a critical part of our European culture,” said Rome Culture Superintendent Umberto Broccoli. “This exhibition highlights the cultural reality of this meeting point for Italian artists who made Paris their cultural centre, contrasting their work to that of French artists and using their ‘Italianess’ and style to create a universal language”.

The exhibition at the Chiostro del Bramante features a variety of key works, designed not only to explore the life stories of the Italian artists but also to convey a sense of Paris at the time. Cafes, boulevards, ateliers and Parisian high society are all recreated in the exhibit, which is divided into sections devoted to different artists. In addition to the three Italian stars, the exhibit features key works by slightly lesser known names, among which Vittorio Corcos, Antonio Mancini, Paul Helleu, Leon Bonnat, Telemaco Signorini and Serafino De Tivoli.

The curator of the show, Francesca Dini, suggested that Italian artists, as outsiders, were quickly able to identify trends that would become popular on the international market.

They made conscious efforts to tap this market, she explained, pointing to the fact they all participated in every Universal Exposition. “Their relationship with Paris was certainly not one of chance,” Dini added. “Instead it stemmed from their deeply held belief in a dream of modernity, of which Paris was a symbol”. The exhibition contrasts the lively, vibrant style of Boldini, with bold, dashing works such as his ‘Conversation at the Café’ and ‘Loyal Friend’, with the elegant, quieter approach of De Nittis, including his minutely detailed 1872 portrait of a woman on a bench at Bois.

Among Zandomeneghi’s Impressionist pieces is Mother And Daughter, a tranquil, intimate scene showing the older woman combing the younger’s hair.

‘Boldini e gli italiani a Parigi’ (Boldini and the Italians in Paris) is on show at the Chiostro del Bramante until March 14.

In the heart of Anghiari, a lovely medieval town recognized as “one of the most attractive borgos of Italy” and chosen some years ago for the film “Una moglie bellissima” by Leonardo Pieraccioni, we present you this historical apartment, completely restored and placed on the first floor of a building reachable also through a very useful lift.

Square Metres: 75
Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
Floors: 1
The entrance leads to the living /dining room with two windows facing Anghiari’s centre and a beautiful old stone fireplace. A small hallway leads to the kitchen, bedroom, vestibule and bathroom.

The ceilings are with wooden beams and terracotta tiles and the flooring with hand made terracotta tiles.

Precious frescoes and a beautiful painting of Santa Lucia dating back to the 18th Century.

The property has also a small external courtyard.

Condition: Completely restored.

Features: Old terracotta flooring, ceilings with wooden beams and terracotta tiles, old stone fireplace, paintings, elevator.

Nearest Towns: Sansepolcro (6km;8’); Arezzo (29km; 35’); Perugia (73km; 1h); Montepulciano (82km;1 h 15’); Assisi (86km; 1h 12’); Pienza (87km; 1h 29’); Spello (93km, 1h 11’); Siena (96km; 1h 44’); Firenze (103km, 1h 32’); Todi (112km; 1h 21’); Montalcino (112km; 1h 42’); San Gimignano (146km, 2h 2’); Roma (247km, 2h 51’).

(ANSA) - Milan, February 25 - Organizers of the Milan fashion week were still seething on Thursday after the editor-in-chief of American Vogue Anna Wintour’s announced she would cut short her stay, effectively curtailing showings to four days.

In the past, the Milan fashion week lasted a full five days but Wintour had made it very clear well before her arrival she would not stay an entire week. The British-born fashion maven, who inspired the book and subsequent film The Devil Wears Prada, is widely thought to be the most influential person in the industry.

But her detractors accuse her of being aloof, of having a prickly persona and wielding too much power. “Anna Wintour has no power. Once in a while we should just say no. Italian fashion rules the world and no one can ’snatch’ that away from us,” the deputy chairman of the Italian Fashion Association Saverio Moschillo told reporters on Thursday, after she failed to show up for his Haute collection.

“Our creativity, culture and artisans are unique,” he added, blaming Italian politicians for not providing the same support that French authorities dedicate to the Paris fashion week. Designer Luciano Soprani ended his show on a provocative note, unfurling a banner which read: “Anna Wintour, where are you?” Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti berated the Vogue editor for seeking “to do and undo our fashion calendar” but economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore lashed out at the Italian fashion industry for caving in to her demands.

Though the Italian fashion industry is stronger than its French and American competitors, when “faced by Wintour’s bob and huge sunglasses it transforms itself into Cinderella,” the daily said.

Shoe tycoon Diego Della Valle joined in the fray, blasting his colleagues for bowing to Wintour’s pressure and stressing that Paris designers had not budged an inch when asked to revise their schedule.

“We should not allow this to happen again. We’ve got to maintain our leadership and it shouldn’t be sold out just because three people are scared down like this. It’s scandalous,” he told reporters last week. Polemics were rekindled on Wednesday, on the first day of the shows, after the editor-in-chief of Vogue Italy Franca Sozzani rushed to the defence of her American colleague.

“It’s a mistake to blame Anna Wintour or me. Trying to find a scapegoat is a way of deflecting attention from the real problem faced by Italian fashion: no-one has robbed it of its authoritativeness, we’ve done that on our own,” said Sozzani.

Sozzani shrugged off talk of an anti-Italian plot, urging designers and the Fashion Association to “learn how to sell themselves better”.

But she did admit that the Milan showings deserved a “full five days” considering that the New York Fashion week lasts seven days and that “there are only four shows worth seeing”.

Sozzani also railed against the eight days needed to see the Paris collections, saying the schedule was “absurd” for most fashion editors.

“Who can afford to stay away from their newsrooms that long?”.

Castelnuovo Berardenga is a small town in the province of Siena comprised in the Chianti area, included both in the Colli Senesi and the Classico region. The town was founded by the Repubblica di Siena as a watching point on the borderline with the Florence and Siena areas.

A few walks from the city centre, this property is something very hard to find both for the internal disposition and the quality of finishing.

The building, an old church dating back to 1200, is disposed on two levels accessed both from the main road and from the garden.

You can enter the property from a main open plan living room with dining room and tv room, everything with vaulted ceilings. From here you can access: kitchen, bathroom with shower.
The first floor can be reached both through an internal staircase and an external one and is divided into: living room with two windows and panoramic terrace, hallway, bathroom with bath, double bedroom with access to the bathroom, other double bedroom with view on the ground floor, and wardrobe.

The restoration operation has been very meticulous and accurate. The choice of materials and colours has been oversaw by the suvritendence.

All the systems have been re-made according to the latest European safety rules.

The heating system is under-floor thermo-circulation, and there is both mains water and a cistern collecting rainwater, mainly used to irrigate the outside space.

Condition: Completely restored. Excellent finishes.

Features: Old stone constructed, ceilings with wooden beams and terracotta tiles, parquet flooring, mezzanine, arches, exposed bricks, vaulted ceilings.

Nearest Towns: Castelnuovo Berardenga (1km; 3’); Siena (23km; 29’); Montepulciano (43km; 45’); Pienza (53km; 51’); Arezzo (53km; 54’); Montalcino (56km; 1h 4’); Cortona (57km; 50’); San Gimignano (66km; 1h 5’); Firenze (76 km; 1h 20’); Anghiari (79km; 1h 20’); Perugia (91km; 1h 14’); Roma (217km, 2h 24’).

For further details and images, please click on this link

http://www.property.livinginitaly.co.uk/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=1484&submit2=View+Property

San Giacomo Panoramo is a fabulous half finished structure in a dominant position on the top of a ridge, with dramatic views of the valley and the coastline below. Facing South west and looking out over the Mediterranean towards Montecarlo and Cannes. In early morning it is possible to see Corsica.

The villa has been constructed iby its owner engineer to perfection to create a main house of 250 sqm with additional guest house of 40 sqm

There is 3,500 sqm of land around the structure.

PRICE  650,000 euros

For further information , please contact june.clayton@livinginitaly.co.uk or leave a comment on the foot of this page.

;    650,000 euros
The view is really unbelievably good, it is possible to build nothing infront of it.

A stunning detached villa,  placed in a panoramic position only 20 km from the sea, near Pisa.  The property is composed by three independent buildings connected by a terrace enjoying a superb view of 80 km of seacoast.   The villa was restored three years ago respecting the traditional features of the Tuscan farmhouses, this villa offers 360 square metres of privacy, comfort and relaxation.

Square Metres: 360
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 5 Up to 6.
Garden / Land: 10 hectares

Price:   3 million euros

The villa
Ground floor: L-shape living area of 80 square metres, habitable kitchen, dressing room, four double bedrooms with three en suite bathrooms and direct access to the terrace, bathroom.
First floor: Two double bedrooms one of which with private terrace, bathroom with Jacuzzi bathtub and shower, terrace of 120 square metres and 4 seater external heated whirlpool bath tub. Both the two bedrooms have direct access to the terrace.

The tower is connected to the body of the Villa, although accessed independently from outside.
Ground floor: Studio apartment suitable to create a kitchen and a bathroom.
First floor: Bedroom of 22 square metres with bathroom, currently used as office. With direct access to the terrace.

Furnishing:
The villa is completely furnished with antiques in typical French empire style restored by local artisans.

The systems:
The villa is equipped with an independent waterworks connected to a private well of 120 metres of depth with two containers collecting rainwater and water for domestic use. There is independent gas heating system on the ground floor and first floor and solar panels producing hot water for domestic use.

The external area:
The villa is surrounded by a completely fenced garden of 4000 square metres with gazebos and panoramic terraces. It is equipped with irrigation system and floor or wall lightning system. The pool of 9 x 4,50 metres is heated and is completely isolated by a gap. With solar shower. Furthermore, the property includes 10 hectares of land, the majority of which is Mediterranean scrub.

Condition: Restored according to the typical Tuscan style. Perfect.

Features: Paved panoramic terraces, external whirlpool bath, hand made terracotta flooring, ceilings with wooden beams and terracotta tiles, Santa Fiora stone doorsteps, sills and steps, hand made plastering with flight, typical Tuscan sanitary and faucets, hand made terracotta external sidewalks and patios, old-style roof tiles. Energetic and Acoustic certification.  Alarm system connected to local police station.

http://www.property.livinginitaly.co.uk/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=1901&submit2=View+Property