Carnevale Masks in Venice

It’s Carnival time again in Italy, when Italians prepare to say “goodbye meat!” (Carnevale) by throwing lavish parties and parades before hunkering down for 40 days and nights of denial during the Holy Lenten Season.

Many travelers think that Carnevale only takes place in Venice. While Venice has the best known Carnival in Italy, there are many other cities with long carnival traditions. Let’s have a look at them:

Viareggio, Tuscany
After the Venice Carnival, this carnival, located in the seaside Tuscan town of Viareggio, is perhaps the best known and attended with around 1 million revelers expected in attendance. The Viareggio Carnival is not the oldest in Italy – it began in 1873 – but probably most resembles the type of Mardi Gras celebrations that you might see in New Orleans with papier maché floats gliding down the 2km-long Passeggiata route on several successive Sundays. Throughout Carnival time, the city also celebrates with sporting tournaments, musical events, and promotions at Viareggio restaurants.

Ivrea, Piedmont
Located near Turin, Ivrea claims fame for its historic and unusual carnival, better known as the Battle of the Oranges. This fruity but fierce battle is said to have origins back to the 12th century when the people of Ivrea ousted a local tyrant for indiscretions against a local girl. Another origin of this festival comes from the 19th century, when the Ivreani rebelled against their feudal master by discarding the food he had given them. How the town came to throw oranges at one another, I haven’t been able to figure out; Piemonte certainly doesn’t strike me as a citrus growing region. Similarly, I’m not sure what this has to do with Carnival, other than it takes place on the Sunday, Monday, and (Fat) Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. But the event is indeed one of the biggest sanctioned food fights in Europe so it may be worth checking it out.

Pulp Can Move, Baby!

A Carnival Float in Acireale

Acireale, Sicily
I don’t know about you, but I think Carnival is best celebrated in a warm climate (a la Rio). Warm weather just goes better with the Bacchanalian feast that Carnival and Mardi Gras fests have grown to become. So Sicily seems like the perfect sunny spot in Italy to spend a later winter holiday. (Note that the weather is not exactly balmy here at Carnival time, but typically warmer than you’ll find in Venice, where harsh Adriatic winds can chill you to the bone.) The Sicilian town of Acireale, located between Catania and Taormina, hosts Sicily’s most famous carnival, with plenty of floats and masks. “Crewes” [my word, not theirs] compete in three different categories: flower, allegorical, and miniature.

Rome
Rome hasn’t been really known as a place to celebrate Carnival for some time now. No, this is the place you come when Carnival has ended and you need to repent your sins, follow the Stages of the Cross, and all those other things on the Lenten Calendar that go with observing Christianity’s most somber season. But this year, the Eternal City has thrown its cappello into the ring and announced the revival of Carnival in Rome. The festivities are set to include a procession from Piazza del Popolo down Via del Corso to commemorate a horse race from the 15th century called the Corsa dei Berberi. There will also be commedia dell’arte performances in Piazza di Spagna, Piazza del Popolo, and Piazza Navona, as well as other fun activities throughout the Centro Storico (historic center). We’ll have to wait and see how successful this Carnival revival will be. But, come on – it’s Rome. It’s bound to be fun no matter what.

Mamoiada, Sardinia
Being cut off from the mainland of Italy all these years has allowed Sardinia to develop and more closely preserve many of its own traditions. This is certainly true of Carnevale in Mamoiada, which appears to be the most traditional – if not the most scary-looking – carnivals in Italy. This festival, which pits the black-masked Mamuthones and the white-masked Issohadores in a sort of dance with cowbells and lassos, is thought to have originated from pagan rites which were later incorporated into the pre-Lenten celebration. Truly bizarre and I’m sure truly memorable if you have a chance to visit Sardinia to witness this event.

Venice
Now to the grandaddy of them all: Carnevale in Venice. This is one of the Lion City’s premier events as well as one of the biggest events of the late winter in Italy. The 10-day festival takes place across the entire city’s sestiere (districts), including San Marco, San Polo, Cannaregio, and Dorsoduro, and the islands of the Venice Lagoon (Murano, Lido, and others). Activities include magic and puppet shows for children; music, dance, and theater performances; cooking contests and food fairs; and costume contests and masquerades that see Venetians dressed in traditional clothing and, yes, those beautiful and sometimes elaborate masks that have been a symbol of Venice since Renaissance days.

In 2010, the Carnevale di Venezia also has an official game. Carnivalia is a sort of scavenger hunt across the city that lets locals and travelers get involved in the festivities in a magical way.

Carnivalia is based on twenty tales set in twenty different places in Venice. With Carnivalia, you’ll get a fulfilling adventure in the city as you’re led by Giacomo Casanova and the secrets he has decided to reveal. These tales, written by Alberto Toso Fei, are about the fun and original aspects of the Venetian carnival tradition.

As a side note, Carnivalia was devised by a company called WhaiWhai, which has created similar fantasy games for other Italian cities and currently at work on games for Paris, London, and Prague. Whaiwhai’s tagline is “Storie che cambiano il modo di viaggiare” (stories that change the way you travel), which sounds like a great way for tourists, school groups, and others  to have a fun and interactive experience with a historic city while on vacation.

Photo © Radumanolescu, lagendina

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Zaha Hadid's MAXXI Museum, Rome

Italy’s modern art museums are often overlooked by the masses, who prefer, not surprisingly, to examine the country’s ancient and Renaissance-era treasures. But with the debut of Rome’s new, Zaha Hadid-designed MAXXI Museum, the capital now has a very high profile exhibition space that is itself a work of art.

New York Times’ The Moment magazine describes the museum, which is dedicated to exhibitions on 21st century art, this way:

[It is a] series of sky-lighted concrete canyons that tilt and swell, swerve like a velodrome and twist into what appears from the exterior to be a monumental hard-shelled calla lily, a pliable mausoleum that seems to play the sobriety of a de Chirico off the cooling, warping effects of a work by Anish Kapoor. Otherworldly in some respects, the museum also resonates with the character of Rome. The MAXXI could easily be a composite sketch of Rome’s contradictory but fluid, theatrical, and sweeping architectural personality — which is not unlike its architect’s.

Such excitement over a new building in the Eternal City made me think that others may wish to know more about some other modern art museums in Italy. Here’s a brief list:

Rome and Lazio
Before the MAXXI, Rome had the National Gallery of Modern Art. This museum is housed in a late 19th century building in the Villa Borghese and features art from Pirandello, De Chirico, Kandinsky, and more. There’s also the MACRO, a museum occupying two reclaimed buildings (and a new wing in 2010) in the Porta Pia neighborhood. It features “some of the most significant expressions characterizing the Italian art scene since the 1960s.” Other places in Rome to see modern art include the PalaExpo in the Quirinale district (which has, by the way, a great cafeteria); the Auditorium Parco della Musica, a music hall and occasional exhibition space in Flaminio which was designed by the celebrated architect Renzo Piano and opened in 2002; and the Giorgio de Chirico House-Museum near Piazza di Spagna.

Elsewhere in Rome’s region of Lazio, check out the town of Anticoli Corrado, located about 40 km northeast of the capital and featuring a trove of artist studios and the Civic Gallery of Modern Art. The best write-up about this little town can be found on the Vagabondo-Italy website.

Venice

A work by Picasso at the Guggenheim, Venice

Venice is on this list for one museum only: the Guggenheim. Located in Peggy Guggenheim’s former palazzo on the Grand Canal, the museum “is the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century.” What does that include? Some of the famous names in Mrs. Guggenheim’s collection include Braque, Duchamp, Modrian, and Giacometti. Ernst, Pollock, and Magritte. Calder, Brancusi, Klee, and Picasso. Just about anyone you can think of from the world of contemporary art is there. The Guggenheim also attracts numerous big-name exhibits. Currently, it is hosting the Masterpieces of Futurism (through Dec. 31, 2009). See my article on Planning a Visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection for About.com.

Of course, Venice also is the host city for the Biennale. Despite its name, this celebration of contemporary art is happening almost all of the time. This year (2009), saw the Venice Biennale of Art, Cinema, Theatre, and Music. However, in August 2010, the 12th Biennale for Architecture will kick off in the Lion City.

Tuttomondo by Keith Haring

Florence and Tuscany
Finding modern art in Renaissance-heavy Tuscany is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. But modern art is there. In Florence, try the Marino Marini museum, which features the Italian artist’s works, including numerous sculptures of horses. Also, what could be more modern than fashion? Even if you can’t afford to shop until you drop, you can enjoy looking back – and forward – at the styles created by Florentine Salvatore Ferragamo in the Museo Ferragamo. (As of this writing, the Museo Ferragamo is sponsoring a shoe design contest for artists. Deadline Dec. 10, 2009!)

There are several more opportunities in Tuscany to enjoy modern art. Just north of Florence, in the city of Prato, is the Luigi Pecci Contemporary Art Museum. It features mid- to late-20C art, including photography, from Italian and international artists. If you’re in Pisa, you can savor some pop art with Keith Haring’s Tuttomondo mural. It’s one of the last works ever created by the American artist. Two more outdoor modern art spaces in Tuscany are gardens. In Chianti, check out the Chianti Sculpture Park, whose name says it all, and the Tarot Garden (Il Giardino dei Tarocchi), an unusual project of sculptures based on tarot cards that was the vision of artist Niki de Saint Phalle. The Tarot Garden is located in Capalbio in the province of Grosseto.

Torino (Turin)

Torino's Mole Antonelliana

Our final stop on this modern art tour of Italy is in Torino (Turin), whose skyline is a work of contemporary art. The spire of the Mole Antonelliana, gives Torino its distinctive look and today houses Italy’s National Museum of Cinema (Museo Nazionale del Cinema). The moving image is, to some, the ultimate in contemporary art, and the MNC contains a vast collection of archival film footage, books and magazines about film, scripts, costumes, and a cinema. Among the masterpieces in the collection are an 18C movie camera (the first?), Peter O’Toole’s costume from Lawrence of Arabia, an original poster from the Rita Hayworth classic Gilda, storyboards from Star Wars, and a script of the Italian dialogues from the 1933 version of King Kong.

While Venice has the Biennale, Torino has the Torino Triennale Tremusei, a triennial exhibition of emerging artists at three of Torino’s contemporary art spaces: the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Castello di Rivoli, and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, also known as the GAM. The last Triennale in Torino was in 2008 (the 2nd incarnation). So, if my calendar and math serve me right, T3 will take place in 2011. Stay tuned.

I know I’ve missed a ton of other fine contemporary art museums in Italy. So if you have suggestions for what else should be on this list, please add your comments below.

Photos by MAXXI, Guggenheim, Comune di Pisa, Comune di Torino

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As part of the 53rd Venice Biennale, there is an online video-making competition aimed “at young people from around the world aged between 18 and 26 years of age for video-works made using mobile phones.” To enter Pocket Film Prize: I Make My World,” participants must submit a video of any genre no longer than 1 minute in length and pay a €5 entry fee. Uploads will be accepted until September 30, and prizes will be awarded on October 30.

If you’re a young videographer between 18-26, this is your chance to make history and have your video featured on La Biennale Channel, the video website for the Venice Biennale. Additional details about the competition are available here.

Photo by Fensterbme

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I’d hate to be the employee who made this error:

The Crowne Plaza of Venice will be honoring a rate of 1-cent-per-night after mistakenly posting the rate on its website. According to BBC News, approximately 230 guests booked the hotel after seeing the unbelievable rate. The usual rate for the hotel, located about 10 miles outside the city, is €150.

Photo by Sicilian Italiano

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I just learned that today is Venice’s 1,588th birthday, according to blogger and Venice Kayak businessman René Seindal. Here’s a nice, brief history lesson:

Dear Venice, happy 1588th birthday – René Seindal.

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Here’s the event round-up for February:

Carnevale 2009: Carnival celebrations will run for approximately 2 weeks, from February 13 to 24, with big events, parades, and fairs. The biggest of these, of course, will be in Venice and Viareggio. Other Carnival festivals, according to the Italy Guide on About.com, can be found in Sardinia and Sicily.

Valentine’s Day: If you want to spend lovers’ day in the home of St. Valentine, head to the town of Terni in Umbria. Another ideal spot for you and your valentine on the 14th is in Verona, which holds the Verona in Love festival each year in honor of young lovers Romeo and Juliet. Stagings of Shakespeare’s play, as well as art exhibitions and sweet markets, complete the love fest.

For Record Lovers: Vinilmania (vinyl mania), a huge fair for the buying and selling of LPs, 45s, and other records, is held three times a year at Milan’s Parco Esposizione Novegro. The first fair of 2009 will be held February 7-8; the other two – May 16-17 and October 17-18.

And there’s lots more going on this month. Check out italiantourism.com and whatsonwhen.com for more details.

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Although many cities in Italy incorporate opera events as part of their summer festivals, the opera season typically begins in the fall and runs through spring. According to UK’s Italy Magazine, this year’s opera offerings are expected to excite, with Milan’s La Scala staging an opulent Aida; Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera performing Aida and La Traviata, and Tosca ; and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly taking flight at Venice’s La Fenice in the spring. Here’s a brief rundown of what else is on tap this season:

Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, 10/19-29/2008
Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, 5/22-31/2009
How to Get Tickets

Teatro Alla Scala, Milan
Don Carlo by G. Verdi, 12/2008 and 1/2009
Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner, 2/2009
Aida by G. Verdi, 6/2009 and 7/2009
How to Get Tickets, also check out their discount offers

Teatro dell’Opera, Rome
Tosca by G. Puccini, 1/14/-23/2009 and 4/22-27/2009
Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, 5/31-6/1/2009
Carmen by Georges Bizet, 6/17-28/2009
Aida by G. Verdi (at Terme di Caracalla), 7/10-24/2009
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (at TdC), 7/18-31/2009
Madama Butterfly by G. Puccini (at TdC), 7/27-8/3/2009
How to Get Tickets

Teatro Massimo, Palermo
Carmen by G. Bizet, 11/4-6/2008
Aida by G. Verdi, 11/26-30 and 12/2-7/2008
Lohengrin by R. Wagner, 1/24-31/2009
Cosi Fan Tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 6/10-17/2009
Cavalleria Rusticana (by Pietro Mascagni) with Pagliacci (by Ruggiero Leoncavallo), 7/4-9/2009
How to Get Tickets

Teatro San Carlo, Naples
Don Carlo by G. Verdi, 11/22-23/2008
Various medley evenings featuring the works of Verdi, Bellini, Puccini, etc., performed by the Teatro San Carlo Orchesta
How to Get Tickets

The Italian Tourism Board has listings of Italian opera houses (and their websites) if you’re interested in learning more.

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Lots of art exhibitions going on in Italy this fall, especially this month. So, let’s get started:

Bellini in Rome. The works of Venetian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini will be on display in Rome’s Scuderiere del Quirinale through January 11, 2009. According to ansa.it, the exhibition – one of the largest ever featuring Bellini’s works – “is showcasing most of Bellini’s best-loved works, including a number of his stunning altarpieces, such as the Baptism of Christ from Vicenza and the famed Pesaro sequence.”

Palladio in Vicenza. Vicenza, long synonymous with the great architect Andrea Palladio, is celebrating the 500th year since the artist’s birth with a grand exhibition at the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, itself one of many Palladio-designed building in Vicenza, the artist’s hometown. The exhibition showcases almost 80 of Palladio’s original drawings and tells the life story, through paintings by Canalettoand El Greco, among others, and scale models, of the influential architect. The exhibition will run through January 6 in Vicenza and then move on to London for the spring. Take a look at the link for the exhibit, as you can take a virtual tour – awesome.

Correggio in Parma. Sixteenth century artist Antonio Allegri, also known as Correggio after the small town in which he was born, is getting his due in a large exhibit in Parma through January 25, 2009. Some of the works in the show are in situ in Parma, where many of Correggio’s works were created and are still housed, while the rest (about 80 pieces) come from museums throughout Italy and Europe. You can preview the exhibit and pre-order tickets online at the Mostra Correggio Parma website.

National Truffle Fair. With fall comes white truffle season, which is celebrated with the Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo in Acqualagna in Le Marche. Several comuni in the region, including Sant’Angelo in Vado and Sant’Agata Feltria, will hold fairs on the weekend throughout the month of October and beginning of November. The National Fair is held the last weekend in October and the first two weekends in November.

Eurochocolate Time! More feasting will occur in Le Marche’s regional neighbor Umbria as Perugia hosts the annual Eurochocolate Festival. Eurochocolate 2008, which will run from October 18-26, will feature tons of tasting opportunities. And, if you want to get a jumpstart on the celebrations, National Choco Day, a holiday since 2005, takes place on October 12.

Venice Marathon. Just thinking about the truffles and chocolate give you the urge to burn calories? Then you can enter the Venice Marathon, which takes place on October 26. The race starts east of Padova, travels around and over canals, and ends at the Riva dei Sette Martiri in the city. If you’re not up for that much running, there’s a 3K Fun Run and great people watching from the bridges.

For more October events in Italy, check out italiantourism.com and the events site whatsonwhen.com.

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Hard to believe it’s September again! Here’s a rundown for the beginning of the fall – a marvelous time to be in Italy!

Time for Wine! One of the reasons it’s so great to travel in Italy in the fall is for all of the wine sampling to be done. Oenological Week in Montefalco, Umbria, which celebrates Sagrantino, runs from September 18-21. The Wine Championship in Florence, a sort-of wine-related Jeopardy! contest, kicked off today and runs through the weekend; the event is sponsored by Slow Food Firenze. Throughout the month in Tuscany will be the Chianti grape harvest, a yearly ritual which has been honored each year since 1926 with a Festa dell’Uva in Impruneta. The town of Bardolino, on the shores of Lake Garda, also holds a Festa dell’Uva, which begins at the end of September.

Food, Glorious Food! You need something to go with your wine. Try the Festival del Prosciutto di Parma, happening throughout the Parma province of Emilia Romagna through September 21. Some of you probably didn’t know that couscous is a staple in Sicilian cuisine; in fact, a festival dedicated to couscous takes place in San Vito Lo Capo from September 23-28. Outside of Milan, in the town of Gorgonzola, the 10th annual Sagra Nazionale del Gorgonzola, which celebrates the distinctive cheese and other food products of the area, will be held on September 20 and 21. Meanwhile, in Le Marche, the city of Fano will hold a Festival del Brodetto, which will honor the region’s typical zuppa di pesce (fish soup).

Traditional Festivals and Fairs. Soak up some Italian heritage with a visit to Venice, where the Historic Regatta on the Grand Canal takes place this weekend (Sept. 7) at 5:10 p.m. There are traditional jousting tournaments in Arezzo (Sept. 7) and Foligno (Sept. 13 and 14). Naples’ ever-popular Feast of San Gennaro takes place on September 19, and will include lots of food, frolicking, and fawning over the city’s patron saint, a statue of whom is paraded throughout the streets. (We couldn’t find a good official site for the San Gennaro fest, so here’s an “unofficial” explanation of the event.) Finally, a fun event for the entire family is the live chess match, played in the town of Marostica every two years by real people on a life-size chess board in Piazza Scacchi (fittingly, Chess Square). The game(s) will be held September 12-14, and tickets cost between €10-80.

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I am now catching up on summer magazine reading and just came across Gourmet’s May issue, which has tons of information on cooking schools in Italy and elsewhere. So, I wanted to give you the lowdown on the schools I found in the magazine as well as a couple others I’ve read about in the interim.

Academia Barilla
Parma, Emilia Romagna
1-866-772-2233 (U.S. number)
“Biggest Surprise: ‘How easy it was to customize a class – via email – based on what I actually liked.’”

La Vetrichina (a villa available for booking through Homebase Abroad)
San Casciano dei Bagni, Tuscany
781-639-4040 (U.S. number)
Classified by Gourmet as a “relaxed” cooking vacation

Regaleali Vineyards (book through absoluteitalia.com)
between Agrigento and Palermo, Sicily
011-39-0934-81-46-54
“everything from roasted hen and fresh stuffed sardines to…fritto misto, cassata, and strawberry sorbetto”

Enrica Rocca Cooking School
Venice
011-44-7762-167900 (UK number)
“What I Learned: ‘To add stock to risotto only when no more liquid is visible.’” Also, Enrica Rocca Cooking School is based in London.

Rhode School of Cuisine*
Vorno (Lucca), Tuscany
011-44-1252-7902-22 (UK number)
“Prosecco and pastries in the morning…four course banquets – accompanied by copious bottles of Chianti and Brunellos – late into the evening”

Villa Ravida*
Menfi, Sicily
011-39-0925-71109
“regional recipes that range from stuffed swordfish with pine nuts, lemon, raisins, herbs…to almond and pistachio gelato”

*info and quotes from NBreview.com

Photo by Carpe Feline

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