Carnival + Chinese New Year + Italian military band: this unruly cultural mash-up took place in Milan to bring in the year of the pig recently.
Celebrations of capodanno cinese were a bit toned down in size and scale compared to last year, there was little about it in the papers probably because it fell during carnival.
Here’s the thing: Italy is one of the most easily recognizable countries on the planet.
It is shaped like a boot.
Italy is also known for lots of big, easily recognizable monuments (the Coliseum, the leaning tower, Milan’s Duomo) so you’d think creative types would have it easy when it comes to creating a new logo.
But no: the image meant to promote Italian tourism in the world is a lowercase “i” with a sickly-looking green blob next to it. Continue reading
Eco-friendly Italian hotels are offering free train transport until September 2007.
Hotel owners will reimburse guests round trip fare (second class but including fast Eurostar trains) from anywhere in Italy thanks to an agreement between environmental group Legambiente and Trenitalia.
Some 30 establishments throughout the Bel Paese Continue reading
There were no good vibes at Italy’s latest parking lot of love on Valentine’s day. Police shut the park down before the Fiats could pull into the 73 spots available.
Called the “Lovely Park” in grammatically-challenged English, the structure in southern city of Bari would have been open for action 24 hours a day, charging the amorous €3 ($3.80 circa) an hour for privacy and safety. Continue reading
A new electronic mooring system billed as a boon for pampered boaters is also good for the environment since it eliminates the need for dropping a coral-killing anchor.
The Italian-engineered MarPark system, launched on an experimental basis last summer in a few protected areas in Liguria and Sardinia, lets boaters cruise into idyllic bays and hook a rope with a rubber ring to a smartbuoy. Simple as that, they’re safely harbored, no anchor necessary. Full story by zoomata editor Nicole Martinelli on Wired.
If you happen to eat at Primo al Pigneto in Rome on the right day, you may be treated to a home-cooked meal from a neighborhood grandma.
At age 30 — when many Italian men are still living at home feasting on la nonna’s cooking — chef Marco Gallotta had the brainwave of recruiting local women to “guest star” in his kitchen for one week a month. Continue reading
To celebrate the mushrooming number of bed and breakfast acommodations in Italy, thousands of B&B owners are offering a free one-night stay on March 3.
It’s called B&B Day but guests get a to spend the night gratis at establishments throughout the Bel Paese, from Florence to Lipari.
One catch: you do have to book at least one other night but the celebration falls on a Saturday, so think of it as a half-price weekend.
For more info: http://www.bbday.it/english/
While many Italian gelaterias are closed for the winter, ice cream makers here are testing new flavors.
What’s hot? If you believe the news coming from Sigep, the gelato, chocolate and bread fair in seaside resort Rimini, sweet is out.
Salty is hot. Organizers of the fair are so convinced that people will want a cool lick of savory gelato they held a contest for the best new flavors. Seven international teams – Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the U.S. — participated in this piquant cook-out. Continue reading
Black Eve has all her pixels in the right place. This virtual Italian beauty, with cropped hair and cyberarms, was recently crowned Miss Digital.
Her hobbies? Forget volunteering at the hospital and ballet: Eve is into martial arts, quantum computing and videogames.
A jury of three experts and some 30,000 fans chose Eve over runner-up Kyra, a Lara Croft lookalike. Her creator, artist Mario Calamita, takes home €5,000 and various sponsorships. The digital babes are also available in a calendar.
The third edition of Miss Digital featured contestants — many of them designed by women — from Germany, Australia, Israel, Canda, the U.S, Poland and Norway.
Continue reading
Next time someone tries to steal your man, pull a cord inside his jacket and send the interloper packing. Designed for increasingly paranoid city dwellers, it’s easy to imagine other uses for a stylish “Defence Jacket” presented at Italian fashion fair Pitti Immagine this week.
This metrosexual-worthy waterproof silver number with a fur collar by Ivy Oxford features a “parachute cord” to pull in case of emergency.
It sets off 130-decibel alarm, one notch above the world’s loudest screamer and the threshold for pain. If that’s not enough to get rid of any annoyance that comes your way, the jacket also comes equipped with pepper spray in a hidden pocket. Consider yourself warned.