Category: About Tuscany

Tuscany events

Tuscany events - Lucca Film Festival

Tuscany events: “Lucca Film Festival” 6th season

Monday 4th
CINEMA CENTRALE
7:00 p.m. FESTIVAL INAUGURATION
(aperitif and buffet from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m)

retrospective GYÖRGY PÁLFI
9:00 p.m. Meeting with the director GYÖRGY PÁLFI
after TAXIDERMIA
(György Pálfi, Ungheria, 2006, col. 91’)
special events
11:00 p.m. FREE RADICALS: A (HI)STORY OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM
(Pip Chodorov, France, 2010 col. 80′)

Tuesday 5th
CINEMA CENTRALE
CINEMATON
3:00 p.m. Cinématon di Gerard Courant –
official selection
3:30 p.m. LOS MINUTOS, LAS HORAS
(Janaína Marques Ribeiro, Cuba/Brazil, 2009 Col. 11’)
BROKEN WINDOWS
(Richard O’Sullivan, England, 2010 Col. 6’)
XIE ZI
(Giuseppe Marco Albano, Italy, 2010 Col. 11’)
CET AIR LA’
(Marie Loiser, USA, 2010 b/n. 3’)
I WASS A MILL
(Stefano Giannotti, Italy, 2010, Col. 3’)
SALIM
(Tommaso Landucci, Italy, 2009, Col. 14’)
CHASING WAVES
(Paul O. Donoghue, England, 2010, Col. 6’)
SELF
(Oleg Dubson, USA, 2009, b/n, 20’)
FILM ABOUT AN UNKNOWN ARTIST
(Laura Garbštien, Lithuania, 2009, Col. 11’)
THE CAT
(George Ungar, Canada, 2010 b/n. 2’)
retrospective GYÖRGY PÁLFI
6:00 p.m. meeting with the director GYÖRGY PÁLFI
After I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND
(György Pálfi, Hungary, 2009 col. 100′)
Preview FRANCO BROCANI
9:00 p.m Shorts for Corona Cinematografica (1967 – 1984)
Introduce Giulio Bursi (University di Gorizia). After:
È ORMAI SICURO IL MIO RITORNO A KNOSSOS
[LA FORMA DELLE IDEE]
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1967 b/n. 14’)
LO SPECCHIO A FORMA DI GABBIA
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1970 b/n. 12’)
LA MASCHERA DEL MINOTAURO
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1971 b/n. 11’)
SEGNALE DI UN PIANETA IN VIA D’ESTINZIONE
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1972 b/n. 11’)
FRANKENSTEIN
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1972 col. 12’)
SULLA POESIA
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1984 col. 12’)
special events: VIVA: Andy Warhol’s muse
10:30 p.m. LONSOME COWBOYS
(Andy Warhol, USA, 1968 col. 109′)

Wednesday 6th
CINEMA CENTRALE
homage ABEL FERRARA
3:00 p.m. THE BLACKOUT
(Abel Ferrara, USA, 1997, col. 106’)
special events
5:00 p.m. LES CARNETS DE LA BÊTE / THE BEAST NOTES
(Keja Ho Kramer, France, 2008 Video, col. 28′)
5:30 p.m. CENT’ANNI DI NOSTALGIA
(JELENA EDA PEŠIC Italy, 2004 col. 9′)
special events:
6:15 p.m. (An) Other Irish Cinema
meeting with the directors Donal Foreman, Rouzbeh Rashidi and Maximilian Le Cain. After
PULL
(Donal Foreman, Ireland, 2009, 20’)
REPEAT
(Donal Foreman, Ireland, 2009, 12’)
REFUGE
(Donal Foreman, Ireland, 2010, 10’)
FLOODED MEADOW
(Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, 2009, 7’)
HISTORY OF CINEMA
(Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, 2008, 33’)
Everybody’s Favourite Disease
(Maximilian Le Cain, Ireland, 2010, 3’)
Making a Home
(Maximilian Le Cain, Ireland, 2007, 9’)
Valley of the kings
(Maximilian Le Cain, Ireland, 2008, 10’)
homage ABEL FERRARA
9:00 p.m. THE ADDICTION
(Abel Ferrara, USA, 1995, b/n. 82’)
retrospective GYÖRGY PÁLFI
10:30 p.m. HUKKLE
(György Pálfi, Hungary, 2003, col. 78′)

Thursday 7th
CINEMA CENTRALE
Official Selection
3.00 p.m. GYRA
(KINE, Greece, 2010 b/n. 12’)
HOME
(Francesco Filippi, Italy, 2009, Col. 15’)
OGGI GIRA’ COSI’
(Sydney Sibilia, Italy, 2010 Col. 17’)
WATER.MON.MIRROW.FLOWER
(Tianran Duan, USA, 2010, Col. 3’)
KOH
(Adam R. Levine, USA/Thailandia, 2010 b/n. 2’)
LICHT
(André Schreuders, Holland, 2010, Col. 15’)
BOULE
(Björn Ullrich, Germany, 2010, Col. 5’)
CRONOLOGIA
(Rosana Cuellar, Germany, 2010, Col. 12’)
PUZZLE
(Sebastien Loghman, France, 2010, Col. 3’)
ABSTRACT?
(Alexei Dimitriev, Russia, 2009 Col. 4’)
ROXY
(Shirley Petchprapa, USA, 2010, Col. 12’)
VANISHING POINT #3
(Rick Niebe, Italy, 2010, Col. 2’)
homage ABEL FERRARA
5:00 p.m. CHINA GIRL
(Abel Ferrara, USA, 1987, col. 88′)
Preview FRANCO BROCANI
6:45 p.m. A proposito di W.S. Hayter (Grafica e Cinema)
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1968, col. e b/n. 15’)
L’utopia del male
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1974, b/n. 14’)
S.P.Q.R.
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1975, col. 12’)
La città sublime
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1975, col. 11’)
Gastrosofia
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1976, col. 14’)

homage ABEL FERRARA
9:00 p.m. meeting with the director ABEL FERRARA
introduce enrico ghezzi. After:
BAD LIEUTENANT
(Abel Ferrara, USA, 1992, col. 96’)
CINEMATON
11:30 p.m. Cinématon di Gerard Courant – Breve selezione

Friday 8th
CINEMA CENTRALE
official selection
3:00 p.m. RESISTANCE
(Fabienne Gautier, France, 2010, Col. 27’)
SO CHE C’E’ UN UOMO
(Gianclaudio Cappai, Italy, 2009, Col. 29’)
SO ABSTRACT!
(Eytan Ipeker, Turkey, 2009, Col. 6’)
FROM -60° TO +113° F
(Elle Burchill, USA, 2010, Col. 14’)
ENTITY OF HAZE
(Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, 2010, Col. 12’)
ICH BIN’S HELMUT
(Nicolas Steiner, Switzerland/Germany, 2010, Col. 11’)
GELIEBTE
(Ingo J. Biermann, Germany, 2009, Col. 5’)
LAS REMESAS
(Arturo Artal / Juan Carrascal, Spain, 2009, Col. 3’)
LONTANO
(Michele Gurrieri, France, 2010, Col. 11’)
special events
5:00 p.m. meeting with the director ADOLPHO ARRIETTA. After
FLAMMES
(Adolpho Arrietta, France, 1978 – 2009, col. 50’)
homage ABEL FERRARA
6:15 p.m. introduction of Abel Ferrara and Marcello Assante. After
MULBERRY STREET
(Abel Ferrara, USA, 2009,col, doc, 80’)

9:00 p.m. Prize giving of the winners of the official selection
9:15 p.m. Meeting with the director ABEL FERRARA and the actress SHANYN LEIGH. After
GO GO TALES
(Abel Ferrara, USA/Italy, 2007 Col. 100′)
special events
11:15 p.m. THE SUN AND THE MOON
(Steve Dwoskin, England, 2007, video, col. 60′)

Saturday 9th
Auditorium San Romano
5.30 p.m. Presentation of the book:
Lo schermo liberato – Il cinema di Miklos Jancso
With the author Giulio Marlia and the editor Marco Del Bucchia.
6.30 p.m. Conference:
film criticism on web – situations and new horizons
With: Marco Luceri (Corriete Fiorentino), Claudio Carabba (Corriere della Sera), Stefano Giuntini (Loschermo.it), Gianni Quilici (La linea dell’occhio), Alessandro Baratti (Spietati.it), Donal Foreman and Max Le Cain (Experimental Conversations) and Laura Da Prato (Splatter Container).

8.00 p.m. CLOSING PARTY (aperitif from 8.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.)
9:00 p.m. SCREENING OF THE WINNER OF THE OFFICIAL SELECTION

special events: VIVA: Andy Warhol’s muse
9:30 p.m. NECROPOLIS
(Franco Brocani, Italy, 1970, col. 126′)

Homage to Miklós Jancsó and Márta Mészáros
in collaboration with Viareggio EuropaCinema

Film review exhibition organized by the Associazione Vista Nova

Web-site: www.vistanova.it

Wine in Italy


Wine in Italy - Enoteca Vanni Lucca

Enoteca Vanni wine-shop in Tuscany

The Enoteca Vanni, founded in 1965, is located in Lucca’s historical center,where you can find the best wines, liquors, extra virgin olive-oils and  typical Lucchese food.

You can have a look at our products on our web-site and you can place an order through an easy automatic system . Be sure that each product comes directly from our cellars!

The Enoteca Vanni sells  wine, but also the best brands of liquors, whisky and distillates, both domestic and imported.  In addition, a large space is dedicated to wine especially to collectors.

It is the passion, typical of family traditions, which has placed Enoteca Vanni amongst Italy best stocked cellars.

It is the owners experience to deal with wine which guarantees the superior quality wanted by wine lovers.

So, if you find yourself walking in the center come and see them, please stop in for a visit

Enoteca Vanni
Piazza del Salvatore 7, 55100 Lucca
Tel. & Fax +39 0583 491902

Web-site: www.enotecavanni.com

Tuscan tours

Tuscan Tours - Antro del Corchia Grottos

Underground fun
Grottos, mines, caves, museums:an outing to land of marble.
Never been caving? In  Levignani, just up from the coast, you can and a dive into the Corchia Underground cave system is a spineshivering thrill.
The key attraction is the Antro del Corchia, a spectacular karst complex made up of 70 km of galleries, wells, and conduits: since 2001, expert guides accompany visitors on a 2 km walk through this mysterious secret world.

Some other suggestions: the Miniere dell’Argento Vivo mines, the Arabescato marble quarry, the museum of quarrying tools and equipment.

Tickets Grottos
Via IV Novembre 70, Levignani di Stazzema.
Tel. +39 0584 778405

www.antrocorchia.it – info@antrocorchia.it
www.levignani.it

Italian boutique

Italian boutique

Italian boutique: wearable sensations and secrets.
Women’s fashion celebrates Tuscan creative excellence and workmanship. SaveTheQueen! has docked in Forte dei Marmi to strains of a stirring fanfare celebrating the style, the inventiveness, and the lush quality of the Tuscan artisan tradition. The SaveTheQueen! ateliers in Florence, Rome and Paris (and coming soon in Cannes) are conceived as stages for the collections, theaters where inspirations are intensified by sound and color in fantastic settings.

The watchworld at SaveThe Queen! is made in Italy. For everything: styling, fabrics, leathers and accessories.The print patterns, developed strictly from hand-drawn original studies, are unique and special brand features, as are the embroideries, stellar examples of skilled hand work and symbols of Tuscan culture and tradition.

The Forte dei Marmi boutique has all the Summer novelties, including beachwear and lounge and nightime wear. But the horizon is already crowded with the heralds of the Fall-Winter collection, inspired by enigmatic Eastern European auras. Fashion items like pages of a diary scraps of poetry and secretes worn in plain sight.

SaveTheQueen!
Piazza Tonini 1, Forte dei Marmi Lucca Tel. +39 0584 786078
Via De’ Tornabuoni 49, Firenze
Via del Babuino 49, Roma
189 Boulevard Saint Germain, Parigi

Web-site: www.savethequeen.com

Olive oil

Olive oil

Olive Oil History
Homer called it “liquid gold.” In ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their body. Its mystical glow illuminated history. Drops of it seeped into the bones of dead saints and martyrs through holes in their tombs. Olive oil has been more than mere food to the peoples of the Mediterranean: it has been medicinal, magical, an endless source of fascination and wonder and the fountain of great wealth and power. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in friendly games and bloody war, and the oil of its fruit has anointed the noblest of heads throughout history. Olive crowns and olive branches, emblems of benediction and purifiation, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures: some were even found in Tutankhamen’s tomb.

Cultivating the Sacred
Olive culture has ancient roots. Fossilized remains of the olive tree’s ancestor were found near Livorno, in Italy, dating from twenty million years ago, although actual cultivation probably did not occur in that area until the fifth century B.C. Olives were first cultivated in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean, in the region known as the “fertile crescent,” and moved westwards over the millennia.

Beginning in 5000 B.C. And until 1400 B.C., olive cultivation spread from Crete to Syria, Palestine, and Israel; commercial networking and application of new knowledge then brought it to Southern Turkey, Cyprus, and Egypt. Until 1500 B.C., Greece—particularly Mycenae—was the area most heavily cultivated. with the expansion of the Greek colonies, olive culture reached Southern Italy and Northern Africa in the eighth century B.C., then spread into Southern France. Olive trees were planted in the entire Mediterranean basin under Roman rule. According to the historian Pliny, Italy had “excellent olive oil at reasonable prices” by the first century A.C, “the best in the Mediterranean,” he maintained.

In the land of the Hebrews, King Solomon and King David placed great importance on the cultivation of olive trees; King David even had guards watching over the olive groves and warehouses, ensuring the safety of the trees and their precious oil.

Olive trees dominated the rocky Greek countryside and became pillars of Hellenic society; they were so sacred that those who cut one down were condemned to death or exile. In ancient Greece and Rome, olive oil was the hottest commodity; advanced ships were built for the sole purpose of transporting it from Greece to trading posts around the Mediterranean.

The belief that olive oil conferred strength and youth was widespread. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it was infused with flowers and with grasses to produce both medicine and cosmetics; a list was excavated in Mycenae enumerating the aromatics (fennel, sesame, celery, watercress, mint, sage, rose, and juniper among others) added to olive oil in the preparation of ointments.

Olive trees have an almost titanic resistance, a vital force which renders them nearly immortal. Despite harsh winters and burning summers, despite truncations, they continue to grow, proud and strong reaching towards the sky, bearing fruit that nourishes and heals inspires and amazes. Temperate climactic conditions, characterized by warm dry summers and rainy winters, favor plentiful harvests; stone, drought, silence, and solitude are the ideal habitat for the majestic olive tree. Italy and Spain are now the most prolific producers of olive oil, although Greece is still very active. There are about thirty varieties of olives growing in Italy today, and each yields a particular oil with its own unique characteristics.

Olive Oil Properties
Sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude: these are the five ingredients that, according to Italian folk traditions, create the ideal habitat for the olive tree.

We treasure extra-virgin olive oil for its nutritional and salutary virtues. La Cucina Italiana reports that extra-virgin olive oil is the most digestible of the edible fats: it helps to assimilate vitamins A, D and K; it contains so-called essential acids that cannot be produced by our own bodies; it slows down the aging process; and it helps bile, liver and intestinal functions. It is also valued for its culinary virtues and organoleptic properties as well: flavor (sapore), bouquet (aroma), and color (colore)

Climate, soil, variety of tree (cultivar) and time of harvest account for the different organoleptic properties of different oils. Certain extra-virgin olive oils are blends of varieties of olives; others are made from one cultivar.

The European Community gives the following parameters:

Extra-virgin olive oil with perfect taste is oil of the highest quality; it has a minimum organoleptic rating of 6.5 out of 10, low acidity (1% or less), and is untreated.
Olive oil has a minimum organoleptic rating of 5.5, a maximum of 2% acidity and is untreated.
The production of all other olive oils involves treatments.
Extra-virgin olive oil is produced in all regions of Italy, except Piedmont and Val D’Aosta. The leading producers are Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria, and Apulia. Tuscany produces such a great assortment of extra virgin oils that many do not resemble each other. In Umbria, it is so widely produced that it would be hard to imagine the landscape without the abundance of olive trees. Apulia is home to an impressive one-third of Italy’s olive trees.

The price of extra-virgin olive oil varies greatly. Two factors are influential: where the olives are grown and which harvesting methods are implemented. Certain locations yield more bountiful harvests; consequently their oil is sold for less. Olive trees planted near the sea can produce up to 20 times more fruit than those planted inland, in hilly areas like Tuscany. It is in these land-locked areas that the olive trees’ habitat is pushed to the extreme; if the conditions were just a little more severe, the trees would not survive. Extra-virgin oils produced from these trees have higher organoleptic scores.

Good olive oil: www.aziendaagricolamatteucci.com

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net
“A frog in the well does not know the sea.”- Japanese Proverb