PERUGIA-- As a newcomer to the world of chocolate festivals, the experience was exciting and illuminating. Waking at dawn to catch my train put an initial downer on the day but once at our destination, I was happy I’d made the effort. Arriving at Perugia station, my companions and I noticed the “choco-train” immediately, named for obvious reasons, which takes excited passengers up a steep hill to the heart of the town. Unwilling to pay the 5 euro fee to get it, our group chose to walk -- harder than expected but effective at clearing morning cobwebs.
MARGARET STENHOUSE
NEMI --A botched bid by a tomb robber to smuggle a statue from Italy has renewed interest in the long-neglected Temple of Diana on the shores of Lake Nemi – once one of the most important shrines of Ancient Lazio.
29 Oct 2012
Laura Simmons
ROME - Scott Fitzgerald's novel may be a classic, but John Cabot University's theatrical take on it definitely wasn't traditional.
27 Oct 2012
SYDNEY SMITH
VENICE - This week the project "Anonimo Veneziano" will introduce “the Venetian way” to institutions, media and citizenship as a no-brand brand that captures the history and true spirit of Venice converting it into economic value.
Water, light, preciousness, calm, time: these are the elements that make Venice a unique place in the world. An alchemy of intangible yet unmistakable factors which provides a wealth of great potential value for each service and product born and developed in this area.
26 Oct 2012
INSIDER NEWSDESK
VATICAN CITY – Evidently bowing to conservative bishops' pressure, Pope Benedict XVI transferred Archbishop Joe Tobin from Rome to head the archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Archbishop Tobin, 60, had been appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Religious as recently as August 2010 for what would normally be a five year term and had quickly become the leading voice for reconciliation with women religious.
18 Oct 2012
SYDNEY SMITH
ROME-At the electronic music festival 'Emufest' this month, composer, writer, and pianist Mario Bertoncini and two students assembled magnificent sounds of mechanics, school teachers and tinkering-toddlers.
Along with the performance, Oct. 7 marked Bertoncini's birthday. Eighty years ago the audio-craftsman was born in Rome. He studied music composition, piano, and electronic music during university and in 1974 became Artist-in-Residence at the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin where he created open air kinetic sound-sculptures for a show at the Berliner Festwochen.
16 Oct 2012
Shelly Kittleson
ROME – "In those years Italy and Yugoslavia were the only Western countries to help with the resistance, through publishing clandestine material," said Said Ould-Khelifa, the director of Algeria’s pick for the Oscar Best Foreign Film nomination competition. After the screening of the film Zabana! at Rome’s Asiatica film festival, he went on to say that Italy’s Istituto Luce would have the distinction of being the film’s first European distributor.
16 Oct 2012
Insider reporters
ROME -- ILO officials are investigating FAO consultant Telma Viale for a possible conflict of interests for apparently working for both agencies, ILO sources say.
"Ms Viale is still being paid by the International Labour Organisation as a consultant, meaning she shouldn't be working on contract for the FAO at the same time," said a senior ILO source. "We are investigating to determine whether there is a conflict of interest," the Geneva-based source told Italian Insider. "Obviously we expect FAO to cover up for this."
12 Oct 2012
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME – A 200+ piece exhibit demonstrates National Geographic star-photographer Steve McCurry as a collector of undiscovered beauty, after years of following his nomadic spirit and curiousity.
Born in Philadelphia in 1950, McCurry began his work as a photographer at a local newspaper. After three years he went took an excursion to India. With pictures from the trip, he composed his first real portfolio. McCurry quickly made traveling a dimension of life: "For the mere travel and to learn about different cultures gives me joy and an inexhaustible charge. "
9 Oct 2012