Tuesday, August 31, 2010

AUGUST 2010


PIZZA ALL DAY!








08012010 'When we were in Naples, we started shooting at eight in the morning, and I think by 8:45 I’d eaten eight or ten pieces of pizza. Pizza was what I ate all day that day.' Julia Roberts steals the show with her long legs at the premiere of Eat, Pray, Love | The Daily Mail
08022010 This morning is free to enjoy Naples which occupies a unique position, stretching around a beautiful bay, backed by mountains and overlooked by the imposing cone of Vesuvius. Once described by a member of a European royal family as 'Italy’s most beautiful crown', the city has been the subject of many a power struggle. Around the Bay of Naples - Family Holiday | The Adventure Company
08032010 To see the delight on a child's face, both climbing Vesuvius, but also receiving their personally inscribed 'Pizza making' certificate, having been carefully guided through the process, was worth every penny, and more!! Client comments on the Amalfi Coast - Pompeii & Pizza Family Holiday ... | Exodus Travels
08042010 Following Marina from one stop to another was a bit frenetic, but once we reached something she wanted to show me she took the time to explain why it was important and to make sure I understood. Her mission, as she sees it, is to turn ordinary tourists into “visitors” in her city. A Passionate Naples Tour Guide: Marina de Martino | WhyGo Italy
08052010 Not only are the local Neapolitans friendly, but they’re also very helpful and even look out for you. All the guidebooks warn you about pickpockets and bag-snatchers on bikes. But it’s very touching when the local residents show their concern by pointing to that wallet bulging in your pocket, or that bag slung over your shoulder, telling you to take care. Crazy, chaotic, noisy Napoli… | Meira’s world
08062010 The Roman town of Liternum sits on the Campanian coast where the waters of Lago Patria join the Tyrrhenian Sea. The low-lying coastline with its long sandy beaches contrasts starkly with the rugged cliffs further down the Bay of Naples and the Sorrentine peninsula. This coastline offered almost ideal conditions for landing troops from ships, whether it be large scale disembarkation or small scale riding parties. The lessons of the Second Punic War, during which Hannibal had ravaged the countryside of Campania, creating havoc in one of Rome's most important regions of agricultural production, had highlighted the need to defend this coastline from future attack. Liternum: a Campanian coastal town | The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery
08072010 The Spiaggia Grande, or main beach, in Positano is a favorite spot for local artists. Trek to Italy's Amalfi Coast serves up glorious food, shopping and views | Pittsburgh Post-GazettePittsburgh Post-GazettePittsburgh Post-Gazette
08082010 Fifteen hundred steps.  A couple hundred less, incidentally, than the more famous 1700 steps that lead from Positano to Nocelle. Huffing and Puffing: Positano to Montepertuso | Oink and Away! (The Blog)
08092010 For me, Ravello is the most beautiful and romantic of towns on the Amalfi coastline. The feeling you get as you drive the 7 kms from the town centre of Amalfi, passing through the soaring mountains and deep ravines is indescribable. Ravello | Iced VoVo's
08102010 She would inhabit the outdoor cafés and trattorias on the streets of Capri, indulging her sweet tooth with ice cream and lemon granita. She would shop – 30 pairs of Capri pants bought in one store in half an hour – and promoted the flat sandals (the spider’s web of fine leather straps called ragni, similar to this year’s popular gladiator style) made on the island. The liberation of Jackie O | The Times
08112010 In a dark cellar in Oplontis, a suburb of ancient Pompeii, the remains of more than 50 victims of the eruption are put under the microscope of forensic science. A new insight into the people who lived in the shadow of Vesuvius before its eruption. | The BBC
08122010 The thermal baths at Giardini Poseidon are the most famous of Ischia's baths. Visitors come for a day of hot mud baths and soothing massages. Island of Memories | National Geographic Traveler
08132010 The Italian conductor Riccardo Muti (Naples 1941), becomes music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in September 2010. Naples, to the south, and Milan have long been cultural and social rivals, and Mr. Muti, who studied in both cities, unites certain of their supposed musical characteristics. Riccardo Muti | The New York Times
08142010 The cameramen who accompanied the American army, guided by famous directors like John Huston and John Ford document the liberation of Italy. Theirs is the only visual documentation we have of the eruption of Vesuvius in March 1944. The eruption of Vesuvius | Portal of Cultural Heritage and Activities Region of Campania
08152010 Popping out from the rolling hills, a stone outcropping catches my eye. “That’s Cairano” my friend says. I don’t really see a village, just a rock. Then the sun catches some windows and I begin to make out the outline of houses. Cairano 7x – Saving Irpinia | Vineyard Adventures
08162010 Always considered a table wine with probable Spanish origins. It was discovered on the Vesuvian area around 1500 or maybe '400. Currently diffuse only on the foot of Monte Somma, it is characterized by its very late ripening (end of October) and for its preservation ability on the plant. It has very interesting organoleptic qualities, especially in its dried state. In its dried state it has a very bright straw colour; the flavours are those of ripe fruite, bananas and pineapples, towards two/three years of ageing the hints or honey and magnolia can be tasted; it also has ethereal and hydrocarbon olfactory aspects, like that of an "Alsatian wine". Catalanesca Wine or Catalana | Costa del Vesuvio
08172010 Last night, after realizing there really wasn't much to do in Nocelle except for a Trattoria and a small Pizzeria that opened at around 8:00ish, I decided quite selfishly to drag Lina and head to Positano (she's still cursing). Nocelle, Positano | The Garbz blogs Italia
08182010 Driving along via Traiana Italy I was anxious to find a place to eat, after having read how Horace almost missed his dinner in Benevento 2000 years ago. A stop on Via Traiana Italy | Italian Notes
08192010 It comes as no surprise, then, to anyone who knows Neapolitan history, that today five menswear companies (Kiton, Luigi Borrelli, Isaia, Attolini, and Mariano Rubinacci) are making clothes that set the standard for unforced sartorial elegance in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Naples' five major apparel houses. | Departures
08202010 Orange flower water, cut kumquats, crystallised orange peel: there is something very distinctive about falanghina. This white grape has been grown in southern Italy for centuries. It thrives in the Irpinian hills of Campania, to the east of Naples, where it's escaped obliteration by a tide of international varieties because "it's so isolated here," says Feudi di San Gregorio's Francesca Festa located in Sorbo Serpico. "This area used to be overrun by wolves, partly because of the relatively cool climate, partly because it was such a wilderness – the word Irpinia derives from the word wolf – and that isolation helped to preserve indigenous grapes." Falanghina, a grape with expectations | The Guardian
08212010 Standing tall in his signature Panama straw hat and toting the tools of his trade—scissors, straight-edge razor, and almond soap - Antonio Boellis cut a dapper figure on the streets of early–20th century Naples. In 1960, his son, Giuseppe (who goes by Peppino), relocated the business to the third floor of a historic building in downtown Naples and added spa facilities that made the family of stylists synonymous with, well, personal style. Health & Grooming: The Barber of Naples | Robb Report
08222010 The oldest known brothel in the world is discovered in Pom-peii. A startling system is revealed that includes widespread prostitution and sexual slavery. Experts piece together the elaborate system and show how the sex trade helped reinforce class and power in Ancient Rome. Sex in the Ancient World: Pompeii | History Channel
08232010 Some call her the last of the divas, but tonight Cecilia Bartoli is playing the last of the castratos. They were the bizarre gladiators of the 18th-century opera arena, mutilated men who played Roman emperors or Greek heroes, but sang them with women’s voices — the result of one squalid operation and several years hothousing. Bartoli’s latest project is Sacrificium and is devoted to these strange, seductive creatures of the Baroque stage. And her stage is set just as she likes it: intimate with imposing surroundings. There are just 300 of us packed into the jewel-like theatre hidden inside the enormous palace at Caserta, some 40km (25 miles) outside Naples. Cecilia Bartoli Inc from The Times 08242010 Standing in the cool shade of the atrium at the centre of the Villa Oplontis it was easy to understand why the Emperor Nero's wife Poppaea found peace there, far away from the murderous power struggles in Rome and the debauched husband eventually responsible for her untimely death. The enormous villa, with its 60 metre marble swimming pool, is tucked away between Pompeii and Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples, where Poppaea's family had business interests. Travel: Naples, Italy | The Scotsman
08252010 Google’s Street View service, which lets you zoom into Google Maps and stroll through the city streets in a 3D environment, is amazing in its own right, but it just got twice as amazing with the addition of the ancient ruins of Pompeii.Pompeii — the ruined and partially buried Roman city near Naples, Italy — is one of the most amazing sights one can see in one’s lifetime. The city was destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but after it was rediscovered in 1738 and excavated in the late 19th century, it became one of the most important archaeological finds (and tourist attractions) of all time. Ancient Pompeii Ruins Now on Google Street View | Mashable
08262010 "Leonard Bernstein, Laurence Olivier, Maria Callas, Elizabeth Taylor – it sounds like a legend, doesn't it?" mused Italy's most celebrated opera and film director, Franco Zeffirelli, as he recalled the guests who had passed through his retreat on the Amalfi coast. Built on the rocky coastline near Positano, Villa Tre Ville offers sublime views over the Mediterranean. But its originality as a hotel, which will go at least some way towards justifying prices of up to ¤5,000 (£4,171) a night, is that its new owners have left it as untouched as possible. The biggest suite, named after Zeffirelli himself, is much as it was when he moved out. The bedroom furniture, inlaid with mother of pearl, was brought by the director from Syria. Rub shoulders with famous ghosts at Zeffirelli's villa | The Guardian
08272010 Now single people in Italy want their own ministry: this is the idea of Joe Lo Pilato, an agriturismo owner from Avellino, near Naples. Mr Pilato says that single people are discriminated against in every sector of life and especially when it comes to salaries, paying taxes and finding a home or job. Mr Pilato has formed the “Sindacato dell’amore” or “Love Union” and it already has around 30,000 supporters in the Campania Region alone. A ministry of singles? | Italy Magazine
08282010 In A Murderous Procession (Putnam, $25.95), the fourth in a high- spirited series of romantic suspense novels by Ariana Franklin: Adelia was a foundling, raised in Sicily by a Jewish doctor and his Christian wife, also a doctor. She was trained in autopsy at the Salerno School of Medicine, then summoned to England by King Henry II, along with the Arab eunuch who accompanies her everywhere. The mistress of a bishop, she’s in constant peril of being burned as a witch for her heathen healing methods. Mind Over Murder | Sunday Book Review
08292010 Luca Aquino, born in Benevento, is a new rising star on the Italian scene. A trumpet player with a true voice, Luca quickly emerged on the scene as one of the leading soloists. As a leader, he has released his two latest albums for Universal Music/Emarcy, but also appears on many albums as a co-leader and sideman. Luca has collaborated and/or performed with musicians such as Paolo Fresu, Roy Hargrove, Bob Mintzer, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Tony Scott, and James Moody, among others. 2009 Top Jazz Award: "best new talent" 1st place! | Enrico Blumer Management
08302010 Vannulo, which claims to be Italy's only organic mozzarella farm, is a surprisingly informative place to spend a morning. The Vannulo farm located in Capaccio Scalo is a modern, high-tech incarnation of a centuries-old industry - each buffalo is chipped and the milking equipment recognises them individually. Advances haven't touched every part of the process though, the mozzarella is still plied into perfect spheres by hand, and the remaining whey drained to make ricotta. On Italy's mozzarella trail in Cilento | The Daily Mail
08312010 Sorrento is one of the most attractive Italian destinations also celebrated worldwide for its songs. Excellence Meets Excellence organizers plan is to highlight the best sites in the area and make the stay memorable by hosting the guests at an exclusive gala dinner with a breathtaking view of Vesuvius from the picturesque five-star hotel, Bellevue Syrene. Excellence Meets Excellence event to be held in Sorrento | eTurboNews