Visiting Tuscany In The Fall

Autumn in Tuscany starts in October. If you happen to be there during this time of the year you will enjoy the most magnificent colour palette basking in the beautiful sunshine and you can expect some rain, as well. Depending on what part of Tuscany you are you can expect a variety of weather conditions. The valleys and the coast would be generally warmer than the hills.

Visiting Tuscany in October is an ideal time if you don’t enjoy the crowds of tourists as well as a great opportunity for you to enjoy the outdoors almost any time during the day as the weather is still very pleasant and mild for most parts.

Here are 3 of the most popular places in Tuscany, that you might like to visit in Autumn.

Visit Val di Chiana

Do you like olives and everything that comes from them?  The olive harvest starts in the month of November. There is an amazing part of Tuscany called Val di Chiana  and it is located very close to the border with Umbria. Here you can enjoy breathtaking views of olive groves and visit some of the places where olive oil is made. The whole area is full with gorgeous medieval towns which carry the mystery of the Etruscan civilization. You will find everything here from stunning countryside and natural beauty to Renaissance architecture. In the restaurants,  you can expect the warm hospitality from the Italian cuisine and people. A definite must if you are visiting Tuscany. 

2.Porcini mushrooms and wine  in Montalcino .

             Montalcino-Tuscany at it’s best

The town of Montalcino sits on a hill and it is famous for it’s wine production. But it is not only the wine that attracts visitors here people come here for it’s stunning views and also to try some fresh mushroom dishes. If you are outdoor enthusiast you can go mushroom picking yourself, but you must be very careful as some mushrooms are extremely poisonous. The weather during the autumn months creates the perfect conditions for the mushrooms, due to the amount of rainfall followed by beautiful bright sunshine, which creates the mild warm and humid conditions, that are perfect. Nothing accompaniments a rich mushroom and pasta dish like a glass of Tuscan wine.There are numerous wineries here and you are truly spoiled in the variety of chooses, some of the most popular wines include Sesti wines, Uccelliera wines, Cupano wines and Il Palazzone estate, to name just a few. For every wine lover visiting this part of Tuscany would be a lovely and unforgettable experience. 

3. Siena and Florence 

These two remarkable cities are impossible to describe with words. The atmosphere anytime of the year is magnificent. They both carry an enormous amount of popularity but choosing to visit them during the cooler months has it’s benefits. You will be able to enjoy all the most popular attractions without being surrounded by crowds and in some places you will find reduced prices. In Siena you will get a chance to be at one of the most visited and well kept historic centers in Europe. Similar to Siena Florence doesn’t need much introduction or reasons to visit. As the capital of the Tuscany Region Florence is an internationally known masterpiece of architecture, art and food.

10 Things that are not 'Italian' in Italy

1. Caesar Salad. This is American, not Italian. Asking for Parmesan and croutons on a salad would get you quizzical looks in most places. Some tourist trap restaurants will serve it. 

2. Rolling Spaghetti with a Spoon. Italians do not do this. You use a fork, that’s it.

3. Salad as Appetizer. Salads are a side dish with the second course. Having a salad as an appetizer is not common, Italians rather use it as a palate cleanser after eating the majority of their meal

4. Meat and Pasta on the same Plate. Italians do not put 2 courses on the same plate. Pasta is one thing - meat, chicken, meatballs are another: you will not see them mixed. Also, a good pasta dish doesn’t need to be drowned in sauce. Pasta is supposed to be colored by the sauce but not immersed in it.

5. Cappuccino after a Meal. Cappuccino is for breakfast. Past noon, Italians don’t drink cappuccino. So if you order it after a full meal, be prepared to get weird looks. Italians rather have a strong shot of espresso after a meal.

6. Oil and Butter with Bread in a Restaurant. Olive oil and butter are common ingredients in Italian dishes, but it’s not customary to eat them with bread during a meal. Restaurants will not put butter or olive oil on the table to dip bread in. Buttered or oil-drizzled bread might be afternoon snacks - requesting them at a restaurant would be weird.

7. Italians eat Pasta every day. Pasta is popular, but many Italians prefer rice or soup. The Italian diet is rich in vegetables, meat, and fish, which are present on the table every day. Pasta is more of a 2-3 times a week affair for many.

8. Italians eat big Dinners. In most cases, Italians eat more at lunch than at dinner.

9. Couples sitting side by side. Eating is a social event, so people prefer to be seated face to face. On a group outing or a double date a couple would rarely sit next to one another, allowing for more mingling.

10. Italians have large Families. Families with 4-8 children are a thing of the past. Italians not only get married later, they now also have one of the lowest birth rates in the world. As a result, the population is shrinking. Divorce is on the rise, and people often don’t start families until they’re well into their 30s. 

Boats of Venice

Lake Garda

Marostica

This year is the chess match, there is a nice dispaly of time period living in the lower castel to visit

7 Hills of Roma

The Seven Hills of Rome mark the traditional boundaries of the city. It was on these seven hills – Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal – that the first settlements of Rome began and these seven hills were the ones protected within the Servian Walls. The foundations, gates, and ruins of these 4th century-BC walls can still be seen in some parts of the city. Subsequent builds of fortifications in Rome, such as the Aurelian Walls (3rd century AD) and the Leonine City (9th century AD) included other hills (Janiculum, Vatican, Pincian), but the original Seven Hills are the ones in bold above and included within the red border in the map to the right.

Earthquakes in Italy

I just saw that northern Italy has suffered yet another earthquake,. A 2.1 magnitude earthquake hit the near the Belluno area in the Veneto Region. This is the latest in a series of earthquakes to hit the region over the past few weeks.

So what is going on here?

Sandwiched between the Alps and the Africa plate, Italy has always been a hotspot for seismic activity. The map above, sourced from Piedmont Properties via Daily Kos, shows the earthquake zones in Italy – basically the entire peninsula. The legend indicates that the strongest quakes, the Category I tremors, are common in a few pockets in Sicily, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania, Lazio, Abruzzo, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The lower-grade Category III quakes show up mostly in southern Italy. But the large portion of the country lies in a Category II quake zone. As you’ll see, almost the entirety of Emilia-Romagna lies in a quake zone.

Besides natural plate movements, Daily Kos also seems to point to fracking as a possible cause of the latest seismic phenomenon. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, “is a [mining] technique used to release petroleum, natural gas, or other substances for extraction.” Daily Kos links to a number of articles about the latest drilling/fracking/gas exploration projects in the Po River Valley.

VENICE 56TH BIENNALE

Venice, May 6 - The 56th International Art Exhibition in Venice - the Venice Biennale - opens its doors to the public from Saturday through November 22 with the theme All the World's Futures. World-class artists and 89 countries are set to participate in the edition curated by acclaimed Nigerian art critic Okwui Enwezor and chaired by Paolo Baratta. "The world before us today exhibits deep divisions and wounds, pronounced inequalities and uncertainties as to the future," said Baratta. "Despite the great progress made in knowledge and technology, we are currently negotiating an 'age of anxiety'," Baratta added. "Our aim is to investigate how the tensions of the outside world act on the sensitivities and the vital and expressive energies of artists, on their desires and their inner song,". 

Eighty-nine of the 136 artists to show have never before exhibited at the Venice Biennale, and will pose questions, doubts and responses through a multidisciplinary chorus of performances, installations, paintings, drawings, videos, sculptures, and graphic art. Five countries will be participating for the first time: Grenada, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, and Seychelles. The international art exhibition will open to the public at Venice's Giardini della Biennale and the Arsenale. 

Meanwhile, the city is also celebrating the life work of the late American painter and sculptor Cy Twombly (1928-2011) in a major retrospective in Ca' Pesaro. The show, called Paradise, spans 60 years of Twombly's production and hangs from the halls of the Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna and in the Spazio Dom Perignon. The exhibit explores the recurring themes of Twombly's creative research behind his scribble-like compositions and graffiti-likes, including such themes as sexual exuberance. It also explores a vision of a pastoral harmony with nature and one in which body and mind are harmoniously unified, at times through the use of words, phrases and poems. Twombly experimented with composing in the dark, painting with his left hand, and increasing the extension of the brush by fixing it on long sticks - strategies that obscured his artistic training and control of technical means, critics have said.