The Local

Forget the property search in Tuscany, head to neighbouring Le Marche for a little bit of everything. Location Le Marche is one of Italy's lesser-known regions, often overlooked by visitors in favour of neighbouing Tuscany. But with plenty of rolling hills, over 170km of Adriatic coastline and Apennine mountains, this central Italian region brings together all the charms of the 'boot-shaped' country in one place.  Price €350,000 or approximately $413,953/£310,939 depending on exchange rates.Condition Completely restored/habitable In pictures This attractive stone house is in an elevated position on the hills of Macerata province, offering beautiful open views of the surrounding area. It's just a 15 minute drive from San Severino Marche town and just a short distance Lake Cingoli. The sea is less than one hour's drive. The property was fully refurbished just over 10 years ago to a high standard throughout. The house is spread across 140sqm per floor and it has an independent 33sqm garage. On the first floor, there is a large open space lounge, a kitchen with dining area, a guest toilet, and laundry room. There is also a typical exteal staircase that connects the two levels. The night area is characterised by high ceilings with terracotta tiles and exposed beams. The fuiture of this property is included in the sale. The property is surrounded by just over 1 hectare of land with a small vineyard containing 75 vines of white and red, ...ادامه مطلب

File photo of a Primark storefront. Photo: Remko de Waal / ANP / AFPItaly is famed for trend-setting designers from Gucci to Prada and the effortless chic of the locals, but the latest addition to Florence's high street proves there's still a market for cheap and cheerful fashion. Budget clothes sto, ...ادامه مطلب

Hard-working pizza chefs cooked up a record-breaking 5,836 pizzas in around 12 hours in the southe region of Puglia. That's an impressive average of 550 pizzas an hour, or more than nine every minute. The previous record of 5,070 - which had been set in Chiasso, Switzerland, in June 2015 by the Naples Academy of Pizza - was broken after ten hours and 23 minutes, and the Pugliese chefs went on to bake a further 766 delicious pies. The record of pizza production was first established by employees of a Singaporean restaurant who made a total of 3,574, so the chefs will be pleased to bring the title back home. It was a team effort of 43 pizza-makers, many from Italy's association of qualified pizza chefs, who gathered in Martina Franca, in Puglia, southe Italy. The record attempt was the finale of the town's three-day pizza-themed celebration at the weekend, which saw a total of 11,000 pizzas baked and eaten. Not just any pie made the cut. A panel of pizza experts were on hand to asses,itt tech,itunes,it works,itunes download,italy,itunes store,it,it cosmetics,it follows,itunes login ...ادامه مطلب

A damaged church in Amatrice. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPItaly's museums will donate all money raised from ticket sales on Sunday to help restore cultural treasures damaged or destroyed by Wednesday’s 6.0 magnitude quake in central Italy. The Initiative, dubbed ‘museums4italy’ was announced on Thursday, by Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini. Franceschini underscored that the current priority was saving lives, but said all state-run museums would donate their takings as ‘a show of solidarity for the people in affected areas.’ As the dust from the earthquake settles and hopes of more survivors being pulled from the rubble fade, attention is tuing to the Herculean task of rebuilding the places hardest-hit, such as the devastated town of Amatrice. [embedded content] Franceschini said town's flattened historic centre had been ‘one of the most beautiful in Italy’ and told reporters that it would be rebuilt as before. But Amatrice is just one of the centuries-old towns ac, ...ادامه مطلب

The kitchens at the Fullonica di Stephanus. Photo: Archaeological Superintendency of PompeiiThe ancient Roman kitchens of a Pompeii launderette have once again been kitted out with pots and pans as part of a new project that is trying to give visitors a sense of what day-to-day life in the city was like. Before they were buried by a volcanic eruption in AD 79, the kitchens once provided food for the hungry attendants of the three-storey launderette, the Fullonica di Stephanus. The Fullonica was the place where wealthy Roman patricians sent their togas to be washed in huge baths using clay and urine. The garments were then rinsed, dried and placed on special presses to ensure they retued to their noble owners crease-free. Thanks to a refurbishment which finished on Monday, the kitchens inside the Fullonica now appear as they did 2,000 years ago, complete with metal grills, pots, pans and earthenware crockery. The new installment provides an interesting window on Roman cooking practices.Instead of using gas or electric hobs, the Romans cooked their food over specially-made troughs, in which beds of flaming charcoal were placed. Hunks of meat, fish and vegetables were then laid on grills directly over the coals, while soups and stews simmered away in pots and pans that were stood on special tripods to elevate them above the scorching embers. All of the cooking equipment now on display was found in and around the kitchens when they were first excavated in 1912 by the then Superintendent of Pompeii, Vittorio Spinazzola. Spinazzola initially left all the items in the kitchen, but his predecessors packed them away in storage or placed them in glass display cabinets in different areas of the site. “We're delighted the pieces have finally been put back on display where they were found and we're certain they will be appreciated by mode tourists, eager to lea how people lived in antiquity,” said Massimo Osanna, the current Archaeological Superintendent of Pompeii. Story contin, ...ادامه مطلب

The Bourbon palace at Caserta is one of the sites looking for cash. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsItaly is looking to Chinese investors to secure the future of many of its crumbling archaeological sites. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini flew to China on Tuesday in order to promote a new system that will offer Chinese investors generous tax breaks if they invest in Italy's under-funded cultural sites. The scheme will hand investors tax reductions of up to 65 percent if they pour cash into Italian heritage and will only be available to Chinese companies with registered offices in Italy. “Attracting foreign investment has been, and will continue to be, one of the driving forces of this ministry,” Franceschini said in a statement on Wednesday. There are seven key sites currently seeking substantial investment, including Emperor Hadrian's summer villa outside Rome, the Etruscan tombs of Cerveteri, the Greek temples in Agrigento and the former residence of the Bourbon kings of Naples in Caserta, Campania. Italy's treasures are beset by funding shortfalls which are in no small part down to the incredible volume of historic sites the country has to maintain. With 52 world heritage site, the country is the most Unesco-rich in the world. However, its sluggish economy has seen successive govements slash the culture budget.  In addition, corruption and mismanagement has caused millions to disappear into thin air.Earlier this year, it emerged houses were being rented for as little as €5 a month in the grounds of Caserta's Bourbon palace. Italy is increasingly tuing to the private sector to fund much-needed restorations. Rome's Trevi Fountain recently underwent a €2.2 million face-lift funded by the fashion house, Fendi, and the Spanish Steps are currently being spruced-up by designers Bulgari. During his time in Beijing, Franceschini also inaugurated a new programme aimed at attracting more Chinese visitors to Italy. “A new scheme called 'China Friendly' will try to improve, ...ادامه مطلب

A man dressed as Julius Caesare takes part in an event to mark the anniversary of the legendary foundation of the Eteal City in 753 BC, on April 19th, 2015. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPRome on Tuesday issued a €500 million SOS to companies, wealthy philanthropists and its own citizens to help restore many of the Italian capital's iconic historic sites and avoid the risk of some falling into ruin. The centre of ancient Rome, the Forum, the Circus Maximus and the walls, aqueducts and sewage system of what was once the most powerful city on Earth have all been earmarked as needing help ranging from a relatively minor spruce-up to full-blown structural works. Saddled with debts of some €12 billion ($13 billion), Rome cannot afford to do it on its own. But City Cultural Superintendent Claudio Parisi Presicce told a press conference that he believed the city could call in some of the reserves of goodwill given Rome's central role in the construction of Weste civilization. "We need new strategic ideas. We have to create a link between the people living above the mode city and the ancient city that lies beneath them," he said. Still reeling from a scandal which revealed widespread corruption in the city administration, Rome officials may struggle to convince city residents to put their hands in their pockets for the proposed makeover, admitted Francesco Paolo Tronca, the govement-appointed official who has been running the city since the end of last year. "We need help to ensure Rome continues to be a reference point in terms of beauty for the whole world," said Tronca, who was brought in after the former mayor Ignazio Marino quit over a minor expenses row unrelated to the broader corruption scandal. The appeal by Tronca, whose role is coming to an end with the approach of fresh mayoral elections, follows a series of successful initiatives which have seen top luxury brands finance prestigious renovation projects in the city. Fashion house Fendi bankrolled the cleaning of t, ...ادامه مطلب

Italy has recovered crates of stolen artefacts. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPItalian and Swiss police have recovered priceless archaeological artefacts stolen from Italy and stored by a notorious British antiquities dealer, the culture ministry said on Tuesday. The haul, worth nine million euros ($10 million), was discovered in 2014 in a storage unit at the Geneva Freeport rented by Britain's disgraced Robin Symes, a giant in the illegal antiquities trade with ties to Italian tomb raiders.   "Forty-five crates containing tens of thousands of archaeological relics of extraordinary quality" were retued to Rome in January, said Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, as they were unveiled to the press for the first time.   The booty included Etruscan painted sarcophaguses representing human figures, a Roman sarcophagus, marble statues of animals and pieces of the floor and walls of a temple, all dating to between the 7th century BC and 2nd century AD.Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP   "They were stolen from digs in Sicily, Puglia, Campania and Calabria in the1970s and 80s," said prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, adding that the loot had been smuggled into the Freeport decades ago, where it lay hidden.   Italian sleuths tracked the artefacts after seizing incriminating papers from an art smuggler, and they were discovered during a joint sting with Swiss police on Symes's storage unit.   Capaldo said the plot had been to restore the statues, tiles and sarcophaguses and sell them on to clients in Japan, Germany and other countries under false papers.   "This is one of the most important recoveries of the last few decades," Franceschini said, adding that the antiquities would be restored and retued to the regions across southe Italy from which they were stolen.  Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب