Roman era graffiti found on Colosseum

Roman era graffiti found on Colosseum

Graffiti dating from the Roman era has been found scrawled on the walls of the Colosseum during restoration work.

By Nick Squires, Rome

10 January 2013

Restorers also discovered fragments of brightly coloured frescoes, suggesting that the ancient monument was gaudily decorated when it hosted gladiatorial fights and wild animal hunts under the emperors.

The fragments – in ochre, red, blue and green – are in stark contrast to the monochrome grey and white of the travertine marble that covers the facade of the amphitheatre today.

The graffiti includes hard-to-decipher words and symbols as well as two large phalluses – possibly an erotic representation, or perhaps just lewd scribbling.

The new discoveries were made on the third and highest level of the Colosseum, which is closed to the public.

They are spread out over a 200ft-long section of a covered tunnel which would have funnelled spectators to their seats high above the arena.

The coloured frescoes were "an extraordinary discovery", said Rossella Rea, who is in charge of the landmark in the centre of Rome.

"We weren't expecting to find them. There is still a great deal to be studied and there will almost certainly be other surprises."

The frescoes would have been "rich and elaborate" in colour and detail, said Ida Simonelli, the head of the restoration team.

A £22 million restoration of the Colosseum, to be funded by Diego Della Valle, the multi-millionaire founder of the Tod's shoe empire, is scheduled to begin within weeks.

It will be the most comprehensive restoration effort in more than 70 years and is expected to take two years.

The project, which will entail removing decades of grime from the facade of the Colosseum, will take place in phases so that the amphitheatre can remain open to visitors.

The privately-funded work, which has been delayed by months of bureaucracy, is being seen as a model for the sponsoring of other ancient sites in Italy, including Pompeii.

Source from The Telegraph

Italy: La Dolce (& Gabbana) Vita

In this article from The Telegraph Travel, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, of the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, reveal the seven places in Italy that have most inspired them. A lot of this article seems to be advertising specific accommodation and restaurants, but the places sound delightful nonetheless.

Italy: La Dolce (& Gabbana) Vita

Stromboli

A signpost on the road leading to the church warns that it takes 57,842 steps to climb up to the crater, but you’ll not easily forget what you see when you arrive there – for the warm heart of this ancient volcanic island still pulsates with energy. Any visit here must start with the impressive crater: it is, in fact, a walk that requires little effort – and even less so in the company of the volcanologists of Magmatrek, who share their fascinating stories of fire and lava. The tour departs from Piazza San Vincenzo in the late afternoon, just as the streets are coming back to life after the afternoon siesta.

The beautiful panorama of this volcano can also be viewed each morning from the wooden-framed windows of the Locanda del Barbablù, a hotel with six unique rooms next to the house where Ingrid Bergman stayed, or from the Osservatorio, a restaurant at the top of the promontory, some 1,300ft above sea level – and a perfect place for a romantic candlelit dinner. The best way to get to the Osservatorio is by the classic Ape car, the little three-wheelers that clamber slowly up, breaking the silence of the narrow alleys with a growl of the engine.

The Punta Lena is another restaurant famous for its spectacular views, not to mention its soup of rockfish and grouper. After dinner, the place to go is the Tartana Club, which has three verandas overlooking the black beach of Focogrande, or Bar Ingrid, the historical haunt decorated with black-and-white photographs of the director Roberto Rossellini, who made his neo-realist masterpiece, Stromboli, on the island, and where the coffee is prepared in the traditional style. The atmosphere is also authentic in Piscità, the oldest part of the island, and Ginostra, a village perched on the western coast that can be reached by boat. It has the smallest port in the world – a place where time seems to have stood still.

Procida

Following the Mediterranean northwards, there’s another secluded gem in the azure sea: the island of Procida. Just off the coast of Naples, it has all the simplicity of a fishermen’s village, perfect to escape from the jet-set atmosphere of Capri and the teeming crowds on Ischia.

You can stroll through orange and lemon groves in the village of Chiaiolella or the hamlet of Marina della Corricella, a magnificent example of 17th-century popular architecture, where the houses form an amphitheatre around the bay and picturesque arches, flower-decked balconies and terraced gardens lead down to the sea. Stop in at the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo, a late-medieval Benedictine convent housing a curious collection of seafaring photography which acts as a tribute to the traditions, superstitions and religious beliefs that are still very strong among the local people.

Explore the narrow village streets to find interesting designer shops and boutiques, such as the one run by Creje – with its jewellery, fashion and homeware – converted from an old fishermen’s grotto, or the boutique of the artisan designer Dina Tramontano, who makes original earrings using fine yarn and cotton. Narrow footpaths lead down to secluded beaches such as Pozzo Vecchio or Baia degli Innamorati.

There are holiday rental homes and some hotels on the island: a particularly good combination of the two is La Suite, a hotel with shady verandas, soft, white curtains, a cooling swimming pool and a large Mediterranean garden. You can also take in the sea breeze by securing a table at La Conchiglia restaurant, on Chiaia beach.

As the sun sets, it is worth making the effort to climb up to Terra Murata, the old village marking the highest point of the island, to admire the view of the Gulf of Naples and the neighbouring islands, lit up by the last rays of sun that turn the water a blazing red.

Basilicata

The south of Italy has many other wonderful surprises, not just on the islands of Stromboli and Procida, but also on the mainland. One of these is in the Basilicata region, along a coast that flanks 20 miles of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The village of Maratea, with its narrow alleys, paved streets and embellished houses, is an ideal spot for spending a honeymoon, just as Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars did last year. It is a pearl in the Mediterranean that remains relatively unknown. Take a plunge into the crystal-clear blue water lapping the small pebble beaches of Castrocucco, Acquafredda, Cersuta and Fiumicello.

The port is also a fantastic sight, with small fishing boats that sail off every morning to bring in the overnight catches of cod, rockfish and sole. This freshly caught fish arrives straight from the market on to the tables of the Taverna Rovita, one of the oldest restaurants in Maratea, accompanied by home-grown chargrilled peppers.

A veranda at the Santavenere, the most luxurious hotel in Basilicata, is the perfect spot for some quiet contemplation as you lose yourself in the vast horizon of the sea. This is another small hidden treasure but has hosted some famous guests since the Fifties, including Renato Guttuso, Anita Ekberg and Soraya.

From Maratea, you can make your way along past the immaculate statue of Christ, reminiscent of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, which dominates the skyline at 70ft high, and on to the Roman site of Grumentum and the ancient villages of Rivello, Lauria and Aliano. Carlo Levi was inspired during his time of exile in Aliano to write his memoir, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli. Then there is Craco, a ghostly village set in the badlands, abandoned about 50 years ago and later chosen by Mel Gibson as a location for scenes in his film The Passion of the Christ.

The Salento

The hot summer is the ideal time to get to know the real soul of the Salento, in Puglia. The sun, the dazzling white farmhouses, the twisted trunks of the olive trees and, in the evening, the concert of the cicadas. This is the “heel of Italy”, an archaic and captivating place that is home to rustic villages built in local limestone. In places such as Nardò and Galatina, town houses’ façades are embellished by friezes, coats of arms, floral patterns and mythological creatures. One of the small selection of suites at Palazzo Guarini, in Scorrano, makes the perfect place to stay. Converted from a duke’s residence, the suites are in gardens surrounded by orange and lemon trees and roses.

Villa Sticchi, Santa Cesarea Terme, Salento

First and foremost, this is a land dominated by the sea, where there is a beach perfect for everyone’s taste; from the sandy dunes of Campomarino di Maruggio to the centuries-old junipers of Torre Canne, or the coast of Porto Cesareo. You can go diving in Porto Cesareo’s protected marine area and explore vast caves, grottos and archaeological remains from Roman times. The white shrimps of Leuca and the red scampi of Gallipoli come from local seas that are rich with fish. The best seafood can be found at Angeli Ribelli , a restaurant in Otranto where the owner himself brings in the catch of the day, which his wife then cooks.

The Salento soil is also very fertile, and you can buy fine produce from the surrounding farms and wineries. A local favourite is negroamaro, one of the best red wines from the region which, after spending some years in oblivion, is now undergoing a revival in popularity across Italy. This is thanks to wineries such as Leone De Castris, in Salice Salentino, where you can taste wine in the 17th-century cellar.

Ventotene

The island of Ventotene, less than two miles long and only 2,600ft wide, proves that rich historical discoveries can be made even in the smallest and remotest places. Ventotene, off the coast north of Naples, was a favourite place of the Greeks and the Phoenicians. The Emperor Augustus sent his rebellious daughter, Julia, there, and you can still see the ruins of the villa and pool to where she was banished. Still today, the people who venture this far do so in search of peace and tranquillity. Sailing enthusiasts and scuba divers love its windswept coast and its clear waters, safeguarded by the Marine Area Protection authorities of the Pontine Islands.

The first thing that catches your attention when you arrive is the excavated Roman port, followed by the pastel-coloured houses that date back to the Bourbon period and the church dedicated to Santa Candida, the patron saint of the island. September 20 marks the festival of Santa Candida, and the whole place comes to life with religious celebration and picturesque processions, while musical performances and paper-balloon races are held in the village square. In the evening, a tremendous fireworks display rounds off the celebrations.

You can spend time chatting to the hospitable locals, such as Pina, who runs the shop Un Mare di Sapori and has devoted herself for many years to growing lentils, one of the island’s crops. This small, round pulse owes its rich and bold flavour to the sandy and clay-heavy soils in which it grows.

Not far from here is the Antico Forno. Since the Fifties, it has been run by the Aiello family, who make taralli, a local bread moulded into ring-shaped cakes. The real queen of baking, however, is Anna Impagliazzo, the chef of Il Giardino. This is the island’s most famous restaurant, whose speciality is a delicious wheat pie flavoured with oranges. For connoisseurs there is also Villa Iulia, an 18th-century home that has been converted into a hotel, next to the beach of Cala Nave.

San Pietro

While locations such as Ventotene are glorious but still relatively undiscovered, there are Italian islands such as Sardinia which are known all over the world. Still, even there, unspoilt places are waiting to be unearthed. Some of the most beautiful can be found on the island of San Pietro, off the coast of south-western Sardinia. Carloforte, its main town, is made up of little architectural treasures, steps, narrow alleys and old houses, all of which give the place its own special ambience. You can go fishing or diving, even spending days on board wooden fishing boats to learn the secrets of the trade from the fishermen. Or you can simply take a walk around the LIPU Oasis (Italian League for the Protection of Birds) and spot birds such as the Eleonora’s falcon, which makes the coastal rocks its nesting place.

In the summer, when the first rays of sun appear, there is nothing better than relaxing on the sand and pebble beaches of Girin and Punta Nera, or venturing to Cala Fico and Capo Sandalo, where you will find a charming old lighthouse. You can also reach the bay of La Caletta, where the Italian ritual of the aperitif is played out while waiting for the spectacular sunset. Here lazy days pass slowly, perhaps in the company of Natalia Lapicca, a native of Carloforte and a guide who can advise you, among other things, on the best restaurants on the island.

Choosing is not easy, as all are very good; many offer dishes that combine rich flavours and ingredients from both Europe and Africa. Sample giant platters of couscous with vegetables, slow-cooked broad-bean soups and fresh pastas such as cassulli, dressed with basil, tomatoes and a delicate drizzle of oil. These can be best enjoyed at theTonno di Corsa.

Pay a visit, too, to the Rossi di Mare workshop, home to two artisans who carry on the time-honoured craft of turning raw coral into simple trinkets and jewellery. The same simplicity has been embraced by the Poecylia, a secluded hotel with a handful of suites, created by a famous deep-sea photographer. It is a wonderful place – an oasis of calm amid the buzz of the Mediterranean.

Portofino

This has always been a place for the affluent and the jet set, but the town reveals its wild and solitary soul to those who really look deeper and venture out to its neighbouring villages.

Here you will find perfumed orchards, ancient villas and paths cut out of the rock, such as the spectacular trails that go through the Regional Natural Park of Portofino. These are age-old paths made from pavings or packed earth, that wind their way up to places of worship such as San Fruttuoso, San Nicolò or La Cervara. Starting out early in the morning, you can tackle l’Anello Alto (the High Ring). Despite its name, this is an easy walk that leads to Gaixella and then through the Pietre Strette woods. You will pass carpets of ivy and flowers, chestnut woods and undergrowth thick with brambles, with a soundtrack of squirrels rustling for pine cones and the song of blackbirds and cuckoos.

Re-energise yourself with some of the local focaccia, the original “fast food” of the Italian Riviera, such as the one made by the Moltedo bakery in Recco, served with cheese and baked in a wood-fired oven. At La Cucina di Nonna Nina, in San Rocco di Camogli, every day the chef, Paolo, makes bread and pasta that goes magnificently with the fresh basil used for pesto.

For a refined and tranquil atmosphere, check in at Villa Rosmarino, which has as its motto: “This house is not a hotel”. There are no numbers on the doors or keys to the rooms, nor any concierge, lobby or restaurant, but you can stay in one of the six delightful suites of this former private home, built in 1907. In the summer you can visit the beach or pick a book from the extensive library, sit out on the veranda overlooking the Paradise Gulf, and watch as the sky lays its blue mantle over the Mediterranean.'

How I visited every country in the world - without a single flight

Here is an article from Telegraph Travel about a man who went about travelling the world in a somewhat unconventional manner. This would be a wonderful challenge, but even over four years, it seems a shame that he had to do it all in such whirlwind time and not actually spend much time in each country.

'How I visited every country in the world - without a single flight'

Graham Hughes writes exclusively for Telegraph Travel from South Sudan, explaining the highs and lows of his epic, record-breaking journey around the world without taking the plane.

Graham Hughes in Juba, South Sudan

29 November 2012

On the morning of January 1 2009 I took a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay. This would be the first of many border crossings as I embarked on what I knew would be the biggest adventure of my life: the Odyssey Expedition, the first surface journey to every country in the world. It would take me to more than 200 countries, 60 islands and six continents. I thought I could do it in a year. It took the best part of four.

I would be travelling alone, on a shoestring budget and with no professional support: no camera crew following in 4x4s. It was me against the world.

I undertook this challenge for many reasons: to set a Guinness World Record, to raise money for the charity WaterAid, to have great stories to tell the grandchildren. But the main reason was that I wanted to prove it was possible: to show that all the great travel adventures have not already been done; to show that the world isn’t the terrible scary place so often portrayed in the media; to show that, yes, with a British passport, a fistful of dollars and the right amount of tenacity, grit and patience you can – if you really want to – go anywhere.

The inspiration for this expedition came from two sources. The first was Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days. I was about nine years old when it was first shown on the BBC. I loved it, but I always remember being a little bit disappointed that he didn’t go everywhere. The second was my father, Graham Hughes Snr, who – while other parents took their children to Spanish beaches – would drag the family on camping trips around Europe, popping into crazy places like Andorra and Liechtenstein just to say we’d been there. On one occasion we tried to get into East Germany, but they wouldn’t let us across the border. Then, in the summer of 1990, once the Iron Curtain had fallen, we headed back, visiting not just East Germany, but Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. I still have my piece of the Berlin Wall.

Fast-forward 19 years and here I was charging through South America attempting to be the first person to visit every country without flying. I got to all 12 countries in just two weeks. As I returned across Molston Creek from Surinam into Guyana, I remember thinking “This will be easy!” How wrong I was.

The idea of doing the trip without using aeroplanes came about chiefly because people had already been to every country in the world, but nobody had yet done it without flying. Plus, when you travel through a country on the bus or train, you get a richer, more rewarding experience and you can spend more time with local people. Furthermore, I would have felt dreadful visiting critically endangered nations such as Tuvalu in the Pacific – currently being flooded with salt water every year as a result of global warming – with 155,000 air miles under my belt. Incidentally, it worked out a lot cheaper to do it this way.

The Caribbean was my first stumbling block. I thought it would take two weeks – the islands are incredibly close to each other, usually just an overnight journey on a sailing boat. It took two months. There were no ferries; small cargo ships would do crossings maybe once a week; and nobody wanted to take me to Cuba – the punishment meted out to US citizens by their own government put pretty much everybody off.

Using a combination of sailing boats, banana boats, container ships and cruise liners, I eventually managed to hitchhike my way around the West Indies.

I took a container ship across the Atlantic to Iceland and then headed down to Europe. Ah … Europe! The easiest place in the world to travel around. I bought myself an inter-rail pass and I got to all 50 states in just three weeks.

Then I hit Africa. I travelled down through Morocco and Western Sahara to the border of Mauritania. There I was told visa were no longer being issued on the border. So I headed 1,250 miles back through the Sahara desert to Rabat to get one. I returned to the border the following week. They were now selling visas on the border again. This was my first experience with African bureaucracy. It wouldn’t be my last.

After being told there were no other options, I paid some Senegalese fishermen to take me in a pirogue (a little wooden canoe) to Cape Verde off the west coast of Africa. On arrival in Praia, having survived four days at sea in a leaky boat with no radio, satellite phone or safety equipment, we were all put in jail for six days on suspicion of people smuggling.

After it was all cleared up, I was stuck on the island for six weeks while I waited for a cargo ship to take me – and the fishermen’s pirogue – back. They kept telling me it would be ready to go the next day, then the next day. I ended up being rescued by a German called Milan who took me back to mainland Africa on his sailing boat. The cargo ship in question is now at the bottom of the sea somewhere off the coast of São Tomé .

Two months later, I was arrested again in Brazzaville, Congo. This time they thought I was a spy. I spent another six days in jail, this time in solitary. They deprived me of my shirt, shoes, socks, hat and glasses. It was the worst and most frustrating part of the journey. But once I got out, it just strengthened my resolve to get this damn thing finished.

By the end of the first year I had been to 133 of my (then) list of 200 countries – all of the Americas, Europe and Africa. With only 67 nations left to visit, I was fairly confident of being home for Christmas. Again, I was wrong. Asia was a pain to travel around, not because of corrupt policemen or islands that are difficult to reach, but because of visa regulations. I wasted six weeks in Kuwait waiting for a visa for Saudi Arabia (they wouldn’t issue me with a transit visa), then another four weeks in Dubai waiting for a ship to take me to Pakistan and India.

In December 2010 I reached Papua New Guinea: the 184th nation of the Odyssey Expedition. Asia was done and it was now time to turn my attention to the Pacific. I may have had only 16 countries left to go, but they were all islands. I had to think of a cunning way to visit them all. An Australian offered me a space on his boat which would be sailing to many of the nations I still needed to visit, but after he had kept me hanging on for six months, I realised it was not going to happen.

Then, in July 2011, South Sudan became a country. I now had an extra country to visit. I reverted to plan A: to get around the Pacific Islands using cargo ships. By January 2012 I had made it to New Zealand, where I originally planned to complete the journey, but I still had seven countries left to go: Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles and the aforementioned South Sudan.

I resolved to head back to my hometown of Liverpool and cross these final frontiers along the way. It has taken me most of 2012, but after 1,426 days on the road, on Monday I crossed the border from Uganda into South Sudan and my odyssey was complete.

It has been a hell of a trip. Highlights include watching one of the last space shuttles take off from Florida, dancing with the highlanders of Papua New Guinea, a close encounter with an orang-utan in Borneo and swimming in a lake full of stingless jellyfish in Palau. Obviously, being thrown into jail was a low point, but it was the loss of my sister, Nicola, last year to cancer that made me question whether I really wanted to continue.

One place that will always stick in my mind is Iran. Instead of the stern, joyless place I expected, it turned out to be the warmest and most hospitable nation in the world. I was treated like an honoured guest by everybody I met. On an overnight bus, an old Persian grandmother smiled at me and passed me her mobile phone. I took it from her, a little nonplussed, and put it to my ear. The guy on the other end told me in perfect English that I was sitting behind his grandmother and she was concerned about me. When I asked why, he told me that the bus got in very early the next day and she was worried that I wouldn’t have anything to eat. She wanted to know if she could take me home with her and cook me breakfast.

What I have learnt from this adventure is that there are good people all over the world; people who will go out of their way to help out a stranger in need. I have learnt that people wherever they live are not that different: we all just want a fair deal. My faith in humanity has been restored, although my faith in politicians is even lower than it was when I started. Finally, I’ve learnt that nobody knows what’s waiting at the end of the line, so we might as well enjoy the trip.

Rome by Valentino

Palazzo Mignanelli, Valentino at his atelier, Palazzo Mignanelli in the centre of Rome

In an article for The Telegraph Travel, Italian fashion designer Valentino writes about the city of Rome.

Rome by Valentino

The fashion designer Valentino pays homage to Rome, the Italian city that inspired him.

Valentino Garavani

30 November 2012

'I moved to Rome in 1958. It’s become my city; it’s as if I was born there. I loved it right from the start. One of the things I like most about it is that it’s the perfect passeggiata city — a city you can get the measure of by simply walking around.

Its monuments, its churches, its streets and piazzas and cobbled lanes unroll before you; you’re surrounded by movement and colour. You go to Trastevere and everyone’s talking in broad Roman dialect, as if in a film starring Alberto Sordi about la vecchia Roma. The whole of humanity is here; in the same street you’ll find shopkeepers alongside aristocrats in their grand, crumbling palazzos. This contrast has an incredible charm, and it’s something you don’t find everywhere in Italy.

So I was immediately fascinated by the city. And of course it has a marvellous climate, and a special quality of light. For a fashion designer, Rome is full of inspiration: there’s a special feeling in the light, the colours, the art, the architecture. I don’t know if the warm reds and oranges that we associate with Roman exteriors influenced my famous “rosso Valentino” shade — they may well have done so subconsciously. But one thing that is undeniable is that I’ve always been obsessed by the search for classical beauty. How could it be otherwise, living in a place like Rome?

One thing I love in clothes, and try to reproduce in my work, is sinuosity: by which I mean clothes that caress the body but also move and float with the person who’s wearing them. Rome is full of movement – it’s a very sinuous city. Think of the Roman Baroque: all those curls and curves that you find carved on church facades. If you transport that into a different medium, a lighter medium, you can create marvellous forms.

I’ve always had my main atelier right in the centre of Rome, a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps. When I arrived from my apprenticeship in Paris, I had a couture house in Via Condotti. When my business partner Giancarlo Giammetti started helping me we moved into an apartment in Via Gregoriana, then a few years later when space got too tight we moved around the corner into the 16th-century Palazzo Mignanelli.

First we took the whole top floor, then the floor below, then the floor below that – until we’d occupied the whole palazzo, which people now call Palazzo Valentino.

I get out and about in Rome less than I used to, but over the 50 years I’ve been there I’ve covered the length and breadth of the city. One street I love is Via Giulia and the lanes and squares that give on to it, like Renaissance-era Piazza Farnese, which is now the French Embassy. It’s such an elegant street, with its aristocratic palazzos and antique shops and boutiques.

Then there are the consular roads of Ancient Rome. My house is on the corner of the Appia Pignatelli and the Appia Antica, which went all the way down to Brindisi. When I moved there, Appia Pignatelli was a country lane; today it’s a busy road encroached on by ugly blocks of flats. But part of the Roman stretch of the Appia Antica is a no-traffic zone, and with its huge, worn paving stones it’s still a fascinating place where you really feel the spirit of Classical Rome. Maybe that’s why Elizabeth Taylor rented a house there when shooting Cleopatra at the Cinecittà film studios. Today it belongs to Franco Zeffirelli; we’re practically next-door neighbours.

I also love the sweeping view of the centro storico from the Gianicolo hill. And of course the Spanish Steps, which are simply extraordinary, with Bernini’s lovely Barcaccia fountain at the bottom.

I suppose all the places I’ve mentioned are very scenographic, sets just waiting for their actors. Which is why the haute couture fashion shows I organised for three years running on the Spanish Steps and in Piazza Mignanelli were so right for the location. The whole area between Via del Babuino and the Spanish Steps was packed with people; there were cameras swooping around on cranes, beautiful girls were making their entrances from piazza doors and gliding up and down the steps. I was proud to give this to Rome. If you think of those Baroque pageants they used to put on in Roman piazzas, it’s not that different.

But the show to end all shows was in 2007 for the 45th anniversary of my life in fashion. The mayor of Rome allowed us to use the Temple of Venus in the Forum, which is usually off limits to everyone but the Pope, who addresses the crowds from there during the Easter Via Crucis procession.

There were fireworks over the Colosseum and an aerial ballet. Dante Ferretti, who has won three Oscars for his production design, did the lighting, and helped build a Chinese pavilion in the Borghese Gardens for a dinner for 700 people. And we staged an unforgettable show in the old pilgrim hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican. The three-day extravaganza was my thank-you to the city; I wanted to give something back.

One of my favourite Roman restaurants – a real classic – is Al Moro, near the Trevi Fountain. It was one of Fellini’s favourite places to eat, too; he even gave the former owner a walk-on part in one of his films. I’m not a huge restaurant person – I’m just as happy eating at home or with friends – but when I do go I love these old-fashioned Roman restaurants with old-fashioned service; two others in the same style are Dal Bolognese in Piazza del Popolo and Nino in Via Borgognona, which is just along the road from my atelier.

Romans have always been happy-go-lucky types, good talkers, good eaters and drinkers. They’re more stressed than they used to be – but this is a worldwide thing. At heart, Rome is a vibrant, happy place.'

Flooding Hits Tuscany

The swollen River Arno flows under the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Three dead as Italy flooding hits Tuscany Three people died on Tuesday when their car fell into a swollen river as torrential rain caused widespread flooding in Tuscany and Umbria.

by Nick Squires, Rome

13 November 2012

The flooding in central Italy followed heavy rain and an unusually high tide in Venice – the sixth highest level since records began in 1872 – which left nearly three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. The three people feared to have drowned – two men and a woman – were believed to be employees of Enel, Italy's biggest electricity company. The car they were travelling in was swept off a collapsed bridge in Grosseto, a few miles inland from the Tuscan coast. The deaths brought the death toll from the bad weather to four – on Monday a 73-year old man was swept away in his car by floodwaters near the town of Capalbio, also on the coast of Tuscany.

Elsewhere in the region, normally known for its sun-baked summers and idyllic landscapes, people were plucked from their roofs of their flooded homes by rescue helicopters. As rivers broke their banks, more than 100 people were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in emergency shelters. The towns of Orbetello and Albinia were inundated with water, with the latter "looking like Venice", according to Italian news reports. In Rome, the Tiber was so swollen that it was no longer possible to walk or cycle along its banks. Major roads and railway lines were blocked.

Enrico Rossi, the head of Tuscany's regional government, said the flooding was so severe that it required intervention by the army. He said floods had worsened in recent years and blamed global warming. "Climate change is causing ever more serious flooding," Mr Rossi told Corriere della Sera. "We can no longer postpone the work that needs to be done." He called for 50 million euros a year for the next 10 years to build new bridges and embankments. The flooding in Venice on Sunday and Monday allowed tourists to pull on their swimming costumes and go take a dip in St Mark's Square, the lowest lying part of the city. The level of the water reached 149 centimetres – the highest since 2008.

The flooding underlined the need for a multi-billion pound flood protection barrier to be completed as quickly as possible, the consortium behind the project said. The Moses flood prevent project entails the construction of giant steel gates across the three inlets through which water from the Adriatic surges into Venice's lagoon. The 300-tonne hinged panels will be fixed to massive concrete bases dug into the sea bed and will be raised whenever a dangerously high tide is predicted. Inaugurated by Silvio Berlusconi, the then prime minister, in 2003, it was due to be completed this year but is now expected to be operational in 2016. The consortium, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, said that had the much-delayed project been up and running on Sunday, Venice would have remained dry. "This high tide underlines the urgency and necessity of completing the project quickly," it said in a statement.

Source

Acqua Alta

Acqua Alta has left two thirds of Venice, Italy, submerged in water.

  

Images found here on The Telegraph.

Biciclette

Article on The Telegraph about the increased popularity of bicycles in Italy.

More bikes sold than cars in Italy for first time since WW2

For the first time since the end of the Second World War the number of bicycles sold in Italy has overtaken the number of cars.

2 October 2012

By Nick Squires, Rome

In a radical departure for the car-mad country, home to legendary marques such as Fiat, Ferrari and Lamborghini, 1,750,000 bikes were bought in 2011 compared to 1,748,000 motor vehicles.

As austerity cuts deepen and petrol prices hit a new high, the purchase of new cars has dropped to levels not seen since the 1970s.

Families are buying bikes, ditching their second cars and signing up to car pool schemes – a major shift for a nation which has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world, with around 60 cars for every 100 people.

Car ownership became a symbol of the Italian economic miracle in the 1960s and has steadily grown since, but as unemployment rises and living costs soar, it has become an unaffordable luxury for many Italian families.

Petrol recently hit two euros a litre, the highest in Europe, and it is estimated that the average car in Italy costs €7,000 a year to run.

More than 60 years after the making of ‘The Bicycle Thief’, a classic film about a man desperately hunting for the stolen bike that he needs for work, Italians have also hauled around 200,000 rusty old bikes from their garden sheds and attics and restored them to roadworthiness.

“More and more people are deciding to bring their old models out of the garage or the cellar,” said Pietro Nigrelli, of industry association Confindustria.

“Bikes are easy to use and they cost little. And on distances of five kilometres or less, they are often faster than other modes of transport.”

Out of a population of 60 million, 6.5 million Italians use a bike to get to work or school, while 10.5 million use them occasionally, mostly at weekends.

Italians have a new-found appreciation of the convenience of bikes and the fact that they do not pollute the environment.

“People who have only ever driven cars are changing their thinking,” Antonio Della Venezia, the president of the Italian Federation of Bike Lovers, told La Repubblica newspaper.

“I don’t think Italy will go back to the levels of cars sales that we saw before 2008.”

As bike sales boom, the car industry is going through its worst crisis for decades – new car sales in August were down 20pc on the year before.

Sergio Marchionne, the head of Fiat, said last month that "anyone operating in the automotive sector in Europe today is experiencing varying degrees of unhappiness. The European car market is a disaster".

Italians are not just cutting down on their beloved cars – they are also spending less on food and groceries.

Six out of ten Italian families have cut their expenditure on food, including staples such as olive oil and milk, according to a study by Coldiretti, the country’s main agricultural association.

Consumer spending is expected to fall by more than three per cent by the end of this year, the sharpest drop since Italy was founded as a republic in 1946, according to Confcommercio, a consumer association.

The only sectors bucking the crisis are mobile phones, computers and discount supermarket chains, the association said in a report.

Reggia di Caserta

Here is the description from UNESCO about Reggia di Caserta.

'The monumental complex at Caserta, while cast in the same mould as other 18th-century royal establishments, is exceptional for the broad sweep of its design, incorporating an imposing palace and park, and also much of the surrounding natural landscape and an ambitious new town laid out according to urban planning precepts of its time. The industrial complex of the Belvedere, designed to produce silk, is also of outstanding interest because of the idealistic principles underlying its original conception and management.

In 1734 Charles III, son of Philip V, became King of Naples, a self-governing kingdom that was no longer part of the Spanish realm. He decided in 1750 to build a new royal palace, to rival the Palace of Versailles. It was designed to be the centre of a new town that would compete with leading European cities. He employed architect Luigi Vanvitelli, then engaged in the restoration o St Peter's in Rome. The Bosco di San Silvestro, on the two hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, was covered with vineyards and orchards when in 1773 Ferdinand IV decided to enclose it and create a hunting park.

The hill of San Leucio takes its name from the Lombard church at its top. A hunting lodge, the Belvedere, had been built at its foot in the 16th century by the Princes of Caserta. The fief had been purchased by Charles Ill, and in 1773 Ferdinand IV initiated work on the Old Hunting Lodge, to be abandoned after the death of his son. In 1778 the king decided to begin the production of silk. His architect, Collecini, converted the building for this purpose, as the centre of a large industrial complex, including a school, accommodation for teachers, silkworm rooms, and facilities for spinning and dyeing the silk. He issued a series of laws in 1789 to regulate the San Leucio Royal Colony: this laid down piecework rates of pay, abolished dowries, and prescribed similar clothing for all the workers, in a form of proto-socialism. During the next decade plans were made for enlargement of the village, and Collecini produced designs for a town, to be known as 'Ferdinandopolis', but this dream was not realized because of the French occupation.

The fishponds in the gardens of the Royal Palace, the Royal Silk Factory and the planned new town all required large amounts of water, and so the Carolino Aqueduct was built (completed in 1769) to bring water from the Fizo spring over a distance of 38 km to the top of Montebriano. In 1744 Charles III acquired the rich Carditello estate. The hunting lodge there was built in 1784, as part of a complex of rural houses and roads radiating fanwise from the main building. This had the royal apartments in the centre and rooms for agricultural and stock-rearing activities on either side.

The Royal Palace is rectangular in plan, with four large interior courtyards intersecting at right angles. It covers 45,000 m2 and its five storeys rise to a height of 36 m. An indication of its scale can be judged from the fact that there are 143 windows on the main facade and the building contains 1,200 rooms and 34 staircases. The building is constructed in brick, the two lower storeys being faced with travertine ashlars. The whole structure is crowned by a central cupola. In front of the main facade is the elliptical parade ground. Inside, there are three octagonal vestibules, aligned on the main axis of the building and acting as fulcrums for the entire complex. The monumental main staircase gives access to the royal apartments, which are decorated and furnished in 18th-century style. The chapel, inspired by that at Versailles, opens out of the lower vestibule. Another noteworthy feature is the Royal Theatre, a superb example of 18th-century design.

The park, which lies behind the palace, was planned by Luigi Vanvitelli but completed by his son Carlo. The main axis is punctuated by a series of Baroque fountains and stretches of water. This magnificent perspective terminates in the Great Fountain, where water cascades down from a height of 150 m into an ornate basin that depicts Diana bathing, observed by the unfortunate Actaeon.

In 1734 Charles III (Carlo Borbone), son of Philip V, became King of Naples, a self-governing kingdom that was no longer part of the Spanish realm. He decided in 1750 to build a new royal palace, to rival, and perhaps outdo, the palace of Versailles, as the symbol of the new kingdom. It was designed to be the centre of a new town that would also compete with the leading European cities. He employed the famous architect Luigi Vanvitelli, at that time engaged in the restoration of the Basilica of St Peter's in Rome. The tist stone was laid in 1752 and continued throughout the reign of Ferdinand IV, Charles's successor, until Vanvitelli's death in 1773.

The Bosco di San Silvestro (Wood of St Sylvester), on the two neighbouring hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, was covered with vineyards and orchards when in 1773 Ferdinand IV decided to enclose it, together with some adjacent land, and create a hunting park. The building there served as a hunting lodge on the upper floor, the lower being used for agricultural purposes.

The hill of San Leucio takes its name from the Lombard church at its top. A hunting lodge, known as the Belvedere, had been built at its foot in the 16th century by the Acquaviva family, Princes of Caserta. The fief had been purchased by Charles Ill, and in 1773 Ferdinand IV initiated work on the socalled Old Hunting Lodge, to be abandoned after the death of his son. Between 1776 and 1778 the Belvedere was restored, the main hall being converted to a church.

In 1778 the King decided to begin the production of silk. His architect, Collecini, converted the building for this purpose, as the centre of a large industrial complex, including a school, accommodation for teachers, silkworm rooms, and facilities for spinning and dyeing the silk. He issued a series of laws in 1789 to regulate the San Leucio Royal Colony: this laid down piecework rates of pay, abolished dowries, and prescribed similar clothing for all the workers, in what has been described as a form of protosocialism. During the decade that followed, plans were made for enlargement of the village, and Collecini produced designs for a town, to be known as "Ferdinandopolis," but this dream was not realized because of the French occupation.

The fishponds in the gardens of the Royal Palace, the Royal silk factory, and the planned new town all required large amounts of water, and so the Carolino Aqueduct was built (completed in 1769) to bring water from the Fizo spring over a distance of 38km to the top of Montebriano. The final stretch runs through the Tifatini hills, where the medieval village of Casertavecchia, with its Romanesque cathedral, forms part of the panorama visible from the Royal estate.

In 1744 Charles III acquired the rich Carditello estate. The hunting lodge there was built in 1784, as part of a complex of rural houses and roads radiating fmwise from the main building. This had the Royal apartments in the centre and rooms for agricultural and stock-rearing activities on either side. The courtyard in front, which has the shape of a Roman circus, was used for racing horses and decorated with fontaim and obelisks. In the 19th century Ferdinand II expanded the agricultural activities.'

 

The grand palace has over 1200 rooms, including 24 state apartments, an expansive library, and its own theatre. There is also a large garden that stretches 120ha; with fountains, cascades, and a botanical garden designed by Carlo Vanvitelli and John Graefer in the 1780's.

At the end of World War II, Reggia di Caserta was the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander, and in April 1945, the signing of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy took place at the palace. The first Allied war trial was also located at the palace in 1945.

Rome tourists face €500 fine for snacking

Audrey Hepburn eating ice cream on the Spanish Steps in Roman Holiday

Rome tourists face €500 fine for snacking

By Nick Squires, Rome

2 October 2012

Eating a gelato on the Spanish Steps may be at the top of a list of things to do for many visitors to Rome, but it could land them with a €500 (£400) fine from today.

Visitors who want to emulate Audrey Hepburn in the classic film Roman Holiday will be slapped with hefty fines under a new law adopted by the city's council.

Under the law, tourists are prohibited from eating pizza, sandwiches, panini or any other snacks around many of the monuments and architectural treasures in the 'centro storico' or historic centre of the Eternal City.

They include the marble fountains of Piazza Navona, which is thronged with cafés, restaurants and street artists, as well as the stone walls which surround the Pantheon, a former Roman temple converted into a church, and Via dei Fori Imperiali, the broad approach to the Colosseum, the ancient Roman arena where gladiators once fought.

Fines will range from 25 euros up to 500 euros, in what one Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, described as a war against the sandwich.

"It is forbidden to encamp or erect makeshift shelters and stop to eat or drink in zones which have a particular historic or architectural value," reads the ordinance adopted by Rome city council.

The law is intended to "guarantee the protection of areas of merit in the historic centre." Similar bans have been adopted in Venice, where eating snacks on the street is prohibited in St Mark's Square, as well as Florence and Bologna.

"This is a way to re-educate people about how to behave in this city. We've let standards fall," said Viviana Di Capua, from an association of residents who live in the historic centre.

"At the moment people can do anything they like in this city. We need to restore respect. It's just a first step – a lot more needs to be done," she said.

She called for a crackdown on drinking alcohol in Rome's cobbled streets and piazzas, while other campaigners said they wanted to see an end to the pub crawls that have become popular with young foreign tourists, particularly Britons, Americans and Australians.

Article from The Telegraph

The Melis Family

The Melis family are brothers and sisters who together hold the Guiness World Record for being the world's oldest siblings, with a combined age of 818. The names of the siblings in order of age are, Consolata, Claudina, Maria, Antonio, Concetta, Adolfo, Vitalio, Fida, Mafalda.

Here is an article about the family from The Telegraph:

Sardinian siblings aged 818 officially the world's oldest

by Nick Squires, Rome. 21 August 2012

'Experts attribute the ripe old age of the Melis family to a combination of good genetics, a healthy diet and an active lifestyle.

They come from the village of Perdasdefogu in a mountainous region of Sardinia called the Barbagia, which was known to the ancient Romans as ‘Barbaria’, or land of the barbarians.

The ruggedness of the region has repelled invaders for centuries, helping to maintain a distinct gene pool.

The oldest of the siblings, Consolata, will celebrate her 105th birthday today/on Wednesday, while the “baby” of the family, Mafalda, is a comparatively spry 78 years old.

The siblings say part of the secret of their longevity is being surrounded by their 150 children, grand children and great-grand children.

Consolata alone has nine children, 24 grand children, 25 great-grand children and three great-great grandchildren, with a fourth on the way. Born on Aug 22, 1907, she has lived through nine papacies.

Remaining active also appears to be key to the siblings’ longevity – another sister, Claudina, 99, goes to church every day, while a brother, Adolfo, 89, still works in a bar in the village and spends his spare time growing vegetables in his garden.

“In my day women had to do all the domestic work, going to the standpipe to get water and to the river to wash the clothes. My grandchildren have washing machines and vacuum cleaners so when they say “I’m so stressed”, I just can’t understand it,” Consolata told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Two of the brothers fought the Germans during the war – 93-year-old Antonio helped repel a German advance at Viterbo, north of Rome, while Adolfo once hid in a well to escape a Nazi assault.

The large size of the family was recognised in 1940 by the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, who awarded their mother, Eleonora, a Medal of Honour and a certificate.

“The Mediterranean lifestyle is always held up as being beneficial to a long, healthy life, and Italians in particular feature prominently in the list of super-centenarians and centenarians,” said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief for Guinness World Records.

Of the 70 people in the world who are over the age of 110, seven are Italian and the world's second-oldest person is an Italian-born woman who now lives in the US, he said.

“Genes and lifestyle are paramount, but luck plays a big part – avoiding accidents and falls, and so on – so to have such a large number of living siblings with an average age of more than 90 years is incredibly rare.”

Amarilis Whitty, also from Guinness World Records, said the claim was put forward by a friend of the family. “It was only recently verified. They were able to provide all the information we had, from birth certificates to other family records,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

The secret of Sardinians’ long life is being studied by a scientific project called AKeA – an acronym for “A kent’ annos”, a traditional toast in the Sardinian language which means “may you live to 100 years.”

Diet is considered crucial – Sardinians eat less carbohydrate-heavy pasta than their counterparts on the mainland of Italy and their diet is particularly rich in proteins derived from milk and cheese.

Islanders traditionally eat sugary foods sparingly, with desserts and pastries reserved for saints’ days and festivals.

But scientists believe genetics also play a key role. Resistant to foreign invaders since Roman times, the Barbagia region has a comparatively small gene pool in which beneficial traits such as longevity are passed on from generation to generation.

“On the one hand it is about genetics, about inherited longevity – as shown by the fact that the surnames of centenarians crop up again and again,” said Luca Deiana, a professor of clinical biochemistry from the University of Sassari in Sardinia.

“But there is also the bounty of the land and the fruit it produces, particularly pears and prunes,” said Prof Deiana, who has studied 2,500 centenarians on the island since 1996.

The fact that Sardinians continue to hold their elderly people in high regard and include them in family life was also a factor, he said.'

Feuding Italian cities forced together in cost-saving measure

Here is an interesting article from The Telegraph, about Mario Monti's plans to reduce the amount of Italian provinces in the hope of saving costs. It will be interesting to see how this will pan out; because Italy was only unified as a single nation relatively recently, along with an 'Italianess', each region has its own very distinct and separate identity and many of them have much history of feuding.

Feuding Italian cities forced together in cost-saving measure

by Nick Squires, Rome. 22 July 2012

Historic Italian cities such as Pisa and Lucca, which have been feuding since medieval times, are to be forced to coexist under cost-saving measures to slash the number of provinces in half.

Mario Monti, Italy's prime minister, hopes to shave the country's two trillion euro national debt by reducing the number of provinces from 110 to just 43, in a redrawing of the country's administrative borders.

Only provinces which have a population of at least 350,000 and a land area of 2,500 square kilometres will be spared, as the government tries to tackle Italy's bloated bureaucracy and its four overstaffed tiers of government – national, regional, provincial and local.

But the austerity-driven reform will throw together ancient towns and cities which boast different food, architecture, cultural traditions and dialects, and whose inhabitants often resent their neighbours just down the road.

"Better a corpse in the home than a Pisan at the door," goes a saying from the nearby town of Livorno.

Rival towns swap insults over the quality of their cuisine and the beauty of their women, and regional identity is often stronger than the sense of being Italian.

The reforms will mean, for instance, that the Tuscan cities of Pisa and Lucca, which have been divided by intense rivalry since the Middle Ages, will be lumped together in a new expanded province.

Siena and Arezzo, which are also in Tuscany, will be forced to give up their autonomy despite a centuries-long history of bloody feuding.

"We will never submit to rule by Udine," said Alessandro Ciriani, the president of the north-eastern province of Pordenone, which faces extinction.

A similar spirit of resistance was expressed by provinces around the country.

Regional rivalries remain strong in Italy, which was a patchwork of competing city states, kingdoms and papal territories before it was unified in 1861.

At the time of unification, there were just 59 provinces, but over the next century the number ballooned.

The reforms will sound the death knell for several provinces established by Benito Mussolini during the Fascist era, when he built new towns such as Latina, south of Rome.

Provincial governments have responsibility for matters such as local planning, transportation and local police and fire services, but critics have long wondered whether they are really necessary.

Filippo Patroni Griffi, the minister of public administration, said the reorganisation would be carried out by the end of the year.

But similar proposals in the past have elicited protest from across the country, and the government is likely to find that it has a fight on its hands.

Mr Monti, who replaced Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition in November, warned on Friday that it was essential to maintain the pace of reforms.