Events in Tuscany | PlanningaTour.com

Tuscany – Uncorked: Coastal wines

It’s not usual for me to write about an event that has been and gone, but there’s always an exception to the rule. And of course, the fine wines i shall be describing can be enjoyed at any time.
During the last weekend in May, the beautiful palazzo Real Collegio behind San Frediano Church in Lucca hosted a special event.
The Anteprima Vini della Costa Toscana has been a low key, annual event in Lucca for the past nine years. But this year was different. For the first time the event was open to the public.
The Anteprima is a presentation of wines from the Tuscan Coast. Provinces along the Mediterranean Coast. That principate include Massa Carrara, Lucca, Pisa, Livorno/Bolgheri and Grosseto. Like the french tradition of en primeur, the event allows consumer sto taste wines before they are released into the market. This tradition has esiste in Bordeaux for centuries and is occasionally used in other French and Italian areas. Currently there is a big push to develop the en primeur market in Italy.
Over the years in Italy the Anteprima has been only for a privileged few, but as part of campaign to promote Tuscan coastal wines this year, the event was opened to the public on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. There was a small entrance fee wich included the ubiquitous wineglass in pouch around neck for tasting, and then it was open season on a range of wonderful wines.
One display and available for tasting were more than 70 red wines from the Tuscan coastal region (unfortunately white wine lovers would have to sit this on out).
Wine producers included the likes of Fattoria Buonamico, Tenuta Maria Teresa, and Fattoria di Fubbiano from Lucca province and Campo alla Sughera, Grattamacco, and Tenuta San Guido from around Bolgheri, just to name a few.
Rich in the traditional sangiovese grape grown throughout the coastal area, there were also some wines blended with merlot, cabernet and syrah grown locally.
Along with the finale of crowing the Best Sommelier in Tuscany for 2009 Andrea Balleri, from grotta Giusti in Monsummano Terme, the weekend hosted wine seminars, wine tastings, and also included a display of wine paraphernalia and “wine design”, glasses, cork sculptures, carafes and corkscrews object dedicated to the world of wine.
There were so many wines and so little time, as they say.
The promoters, the Associazione Grandi Cru della Costa Toscana (www.grandicru.it) are looking to make this an annual event in Lucca.
By all appearances the inaugural Anteprima looked to be a successful weekend. This wine tasting is certainly worth marking in the calendar for next year.
Newsflash: last month at the Syrah du Monde ( the International competion of best Syrah in the world) local Lucca Winery Tenuta Lenzini was awarded the best Syrah in Italy for its 2007 vintage.

Tuscany – The Organ Festival in Camaiore

The 14th edition of the Camaiore Organ Festival will start on July 17 and will be held as usual in the marvellous setting of the Church of Badia di Camaiore.
Eight concerts between July and August with the best Italian organists, and also musicians from France, Germany and England, to please our ears and spirits.
With the music of handel, Haydn, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn and ..Bach of course, we will hear not only four well-known italian organists, winners of National and International contests, but also the French living legend Philippe Lefebvre, regular organist in Notre Dame de Paris, and the English Roger Sayer who was labelled by the critics, in reference to his way of playing, as having the “Midas touch”.

Tuscany – Festival Puccini Torre del Lago Lucca

The Festival Puccini started in july In Torre del Lago,the town is located between Lake of Massaciuccoli and Tyrrhenian sea, near Viareggio.
The Festival welcomes about 40.000 spectators every year to its open-air theatre, just a few steps from the Villa Mausoleum where Giacomo Puccini lived and worked.
His mortal remains are now in a small chapel inside the Villa.
Torre del Lago is a favourite destination of opera lovers and tourists who wish to visit the places where the most beloved composer of the 20th century lived.
More informations on: www.puccinifestival.it

Program of Festival:
Time: 9.15 pm

LA BOHEME:
10-15-19 july
01-14-21 august

TOSCA:
11-17-26 july
09-20 august

TURANDOT:
18-25-31 july
07-22 august

MANON LESCAUT:
02-08-13 august

Tuscany – Summer = Sagras

Tuscan summer nights are beautiful in themselves, but add a village festival in the cool shade of a Church or in an olive grove with a band playing music from 9 to midnight and the outdour of food coking – this is a recipe for magic. Go with friends and enjoy the camaraderie; go alone and you might meet a new acquaintance. Anything can happen.
“Sagra” can be translated as a “church supper” – sponsored by the Church or local charitable association such as the Croce Rossa or Misericordia.
They engage the Energy of the entire community so if you are already a resident you can offer a helping hand. Jobs range from ticket-taking, settin g up chairs and tents, serving food or working at the food tables.
If you are a tourist or simply want to relax, you can partecipate by bringing friends and family and eating under the stars at the long tables set up in the fields.
The local specialità, and inevitably a plate of pasta or grilled meats, are available for purchase.
Dinner is served usually from 7.30 onward, typically on friday, saturday and sunday evenings.
My first sagra this year came early, in april at Torricchio, a village between Pescia and Uzzano.
It had a unique extra feauture, a spicy crime story that anhanced the pleasure of carciofi fritti (fried artichokes, Torricchio’s speciality). At first all seemed calm – too calm.
While my friend waited in line to order food, i photographed the mosaics on the church facade. These (from 1972) portray 7 sinners on the lower half of the church facade.
According to my interpretation they represent the evils os smoking, drinking, terrorism, robbing, killing, laziness and complicity.
According to biblical tradition, the capital sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride.
This seemed to foretell something ominous lurking beneath the apparent calm.
As our meal was winding down, we noticed commotion at the nearby tables. A father with daughter about 7 years old was arguing with some of young adults while the water acted as mediators. The man’s Rayban sunglasses has disappeared and he was “interrogating the suspects” in other words, yelling at them.
My friend’s daughter had witnessed the crime. She told me the perpetrator had already fled scene. At this point there was, in italian terms, a colpo di scena, the purpoted criminal returned to the scene of the crime, while the water and Sagra organizers were in the midst of trying to calm rising tempers.
“That’s him!” our intrepid young lady shouted as she pointed in the thief’s direction.
“Lower your arm and come quickly”. I urged. At a safe distance we followed the man.
I encouraged a waiter to join us.
“That’s the man, there in the white sweatshirt”, i said warning my friends’ daughter to maintain a low profile.
The waiter had the quickness of spirit to call out, “hey you, come back here!” And the rayban thief did return.
At that point we chose the safest route, departure, having done what we could to resolve the crime.
Hopefully the father received his Raybans and the evening could continue with music, singing and lighter spirits.
I know there will be other sagras ahead this summer.
Who knows what these will bring?
The best way to find out which sagras are upcoming i sto read the signs along the roads. Or better yet, ask the neighbors, who are sure to know. Here are a few:

Paganico (east town) Sagra del Taglierino ( a kind off lat spaghetti)
Molazzana (Cascio, north town) Sagra della Ranocchiocciola (chiocciole and ranocchie- snails and frogs)
You can find more, and tastier ones, by searching the web under “Lucca Sagras”.

Visit also this page.
Enjoy your summer evenings!
( Norma Jean Bishop)

Tuscany – Lu. C. C. A. The Living Museum

As the designer dresses and killer heels strained to get a closer view of the dignitaries o fan elegant Palazzo a the Madonna dello Stellario on saturday May 9thm any tourists casually bumping into the scene would have been forgive for believing they’d accidentally driven to Milan rather than Lucca. They were in fact witnessing the opening o fan exibition of 1950s italian abstract art, Un Mondo Visivo Nuovo. Origine Balla, Kandinsky e le astrazioni degli anni ’50.
As one of the Regione, Provincia and Comune authorities addressing the crowd honestly remarked: “Lucca ha ricevuto un regalo bellissimo” ( Lucca has been given a magnificent present). And gift it is as the Lucca Center of Contemporary Art, so suitably acronymed Lu. C.C.A. is the private “10 year dream made real” of modern art lover Angelo Parpinelli. Sixteenth century Palazzo Boccella has been given a stunning revamp in which every detail reflects the aesthetic panache of Italian design, from the white windows screens to the Giugiaro fire extinguishers that could easily have been placed on the wall as exhibits. The lounge cafè with is custom designed table tops is a cool place for the happy hour and you must visit all five modern bagni decorated by contemporary artists and aplty re-named, with a clever pun, Bi-Sogni di Artisti.
The juxtaposition of old and new is most tangible in the cantine built on the base of one of medieval wall towers ( you can still see the stones) where modern sculpture stands alongside 16th century frescos uncovered during restoration. And also on the top floor which offers breathtaking peeks of Lucca rooftops.
The high ceilinged saloni on the first and second floor have been turned into sharp white containers to house exhibitions of contemporary art whilst the ground floor hosts a reception area, multi media and video space plus a photographic exhibition area. The gigantografie currently on show document the rise of modern Milan in the economic boom years of the late 50s and 60s. Architect Luigi Moretti who designed many of these modern tower blocks had an intense artistic correspondence with the painters of ORIGINE and shared their vision of urbanology and role of aesthetics in modern life. Sun bounces boldy off geometrical blocks.
It is pure form and line, with all embellishment and ornamentation banished in tune with the spirit of the paintngs upstairs.
The appreciation of contemporary art requires much more of an effort on the part of the viewer than a cursory walk past figurative paintings, and the marking of another notch on the “have done” art tourist stick. Only if you attempt to relate the work sto their sociological background and context in history will you get a real under standing of the unusual meterials, difficult images and colours.
It is 1951, and the atrocities committed by man against man in World War II have robbed artists of the desire to represent the human figure or recognizable objects. A group of psainters, sculptors, and architects with a shared sensivity and a belief in the moral and social mission of their profession, join together in Rome calling their group ORIGINE.
As the word implies a sort of return to primitive forces, to be espresse through primordial form and symbols. Hence Burri’s work in catrame (tar) and Capogrossi’s cave drawing-like ripetitive symbols.
The exhibition provides excellent commentary ( in Italian and English) on each group of paintings and i was particulary struck by the magazinenes and notebooks displayed in the foyer. Here the artists themselves explain what they were trying to archieve, often in severe manifesto style, but sometimes in great simplicity. With a real optimistic sense of starting over Ettore Colla, sculto and painter, records in his 1955 diary ( a handwritten unpublished text from the Colla Archives, Rome).
I you are not usually attracted to modern art, the artists’ intentions may seem utopian waffle, but here is the trump card of this new museum. Purpose built, the size and lighting of the rooms and the way the works are positioned seem to make you actually touch the paintings whose tones and brushstrokes establish physical contact with the viewer’s consciousness-give them a change and they speak. One emerges from Lu.C.C.A. with a clear vision o fan artistic period, and real sensory experience, unlike many an immense gallery which leale on in a state of overdose and confusion.
And to recreate that feeling at home you can buy the specially chosen music and fragrances – they change for each new show – or buy the catalogue on sale in the shop together with art books, high class custom – designed jewellery, and Lu.C.C.A. merchandise.

Lu.C.C.A. Lucca Center of Contemporary Art
Via della Fratta 36, Lucca
Tel. +39 0583 571712
www.luccamuseum.com
Entrance euro 7,00
Open tuesdays to sundays 10.00 – 19.00
Last ticket sale 18.00
Closed mondays.
Baby sitting services on request, art area specially for children upstairs.
The exhibition “Un Mondo Visivo Nuovo” runs till august 23.