San Leo has made official what many people have been saying for years: it has joined the club of ‘I Borghi più Belli d’Italia‘ (the most beautiful small towns of Italy). More appropriate than joined, is perhaps admitted, as this is a small and exclusive list of towns throughout Italy that meet some specific requirements [...]
Archive for the ‘Italian culture’ Category
San Leo joins the most beautiful small towns of Italy
Sunday, October 4th, 2009European Heritage Days events – Rimini
Saturday, September 26th, 2009All across Europe there are events planned as part of the European Union initiative ‘European Heritage Days’, and Emilia-Romagna is no exception – in fact, as Emilia-Romagna Tourism reports, there are over 200 different events taking place across the region this weekend under the banner of ‘Italy, Treasure of Europe’ Rimini, in particular, has a [...]
The Giro d’Italia set to return to Pantani’s Cesenatico in 2010
Friday, September 25th, 2009Reports appeared in local papers this week that the annual Giro d’Italia, one of the most prestigious cycling competitions in the world, is set to include, for the first time since 1999, a stop in Cesenatico, near Rimini – hometown to arguably Italy’s most famous cyclist, the late Marco Pantani (nicknamed il pirata – the [...]
When Italy went to war with the esperanto micro-nation Insulo de la Rozoj
Saturday, September 5th, 2009Perhaps it’s not surprising that few people, up until recently, have heard of the small sovereign (though unrecognised internationally) state of the Isola delle Rose (Rose Island) – or to give it its official title, in esperanto, Insulo de la Rozoj. It’s foundation and eventual destruction – at the hands of Italian military engineers – [...]
Rimini’s Changing Street Names
Thursday, August 27th, 2009As you walk along the lungomare of Rimini, you’ll see that many of the sidestreets carry the names of films by Rimini’s Maestro Federico Fellini – including Via Amarcord, Via Roma, and the wonderfully suggestive Via le Notti di Cabiria. The street signs are accompanied by the original movie posters, making it worth a stroll [...]
Rimini dominates the Italian headlines
Monday, August 24th, 2009It’s that time of year again – August, and the traditional ‘Rimini Meeting’ which sees some of the highest-profile politicians/leaders/thinkers on both the national Italian and International stage come to the Adriatic Riviera capital to speak to large audiences on a wide range of themes. It’s a media bonanza, and so it’s no wonder that [...]
Serie A football resumes this weekend
Friday, August 21st, 2009It’s a tired but true observation that to understand Italy and the Italians, you have to at least take a passing look at football and its place in society. Whether you subscribe to the theory that the game was actually invented in Italy – either as calcio fiorentino or the ancient Roman game of Harpastum [...]
The Acts of the Apostles – in Romagnolo!
Thursday, August 20th, 2009For anyone who’s interested in Rimini and local traditions, and speaks/reads Italian, there’s no better place to head to online than www.cristella.it, the site of local blogger, journalist, and publicist Maria Cristina Muccioli (alias Cristella). Her blog is full of great snippets of dialect, stories and traditions that help to remind you how unique a [...]
Escaping the ‘afa’ – head to the beach
Thursday, August 20th, 2009It’s another scorching hot week here in Italy, and with temperatures in and around 37° throughout Emilia-Romagna and northern Italy, one word that you’ll see constantly referred to is ‘afa’. There are lots of different etymological theories relating to the term ‘afa’. One is that it derives from the greek ‘apto’ via the late latin [...]
Remembering Rimini’s Partisans
Monday, August 17th, 2009Last night hundreds of Riminesi gathered in the beautiful surroundings of the courtyard of the church of San Agostino for an open-air concert in memory of Rimini’s three martyrs, Mario Cappelli, Luigi Nicolò, Adelio Pagliarani, after whom Piazza Tre Martiri is named. On the 16th of August 1944 the three were executed by hanging (they had [...]
German Lotto Tourists Arrive in Rimini
Monday, August 17th, 2009A while back we published a post about the Lotto fever sweeping Italy, as its Superennalotto jackpot had not been won since January. Rimini was the city with the most number of tickets bought for the draw at that time. Since then the jackpot has just grown in size, and now stands at €130 million [...]
Rientro – the Exodus in reverse
Sunday, August 16th, 2009With sore heads after a great Ferragosto party (here in Rimini there was loads going on all night!), many people are already on the roads for the great’rientro‘ – that unhappy moment when Italians start heading back from their coastal or mountain holidays in August back to the city and work. For tourists it’s something [...]
Ferragosto – an Italian Holiday
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009Ferragosto, the 15th of August, is one of Italy’s most important and most cherished holidays. It has its origins in antiquity, and has changed and evolved over the centuries, but as Gianni Di Gregorio’s wonderful film Pranzo di Ferragosto illustrated so powerfully, the Italian who finds him/herself working or away from family on this summer [...]
Obscured by Clouds – the tears of San Lorenzo
Saturday, August 8th, 2009In Romagna, and Italy in general, the night of August the 10th is known as la notte di San Lorenzo, the night where, looking up into the night sky you can see the ‘tears of st. lawrence’, or ‘shooting stars’ depending upon where you are placed on the romantic/mystic axis. The weather forecast this year, [...]
Oscar winner proposes new look for Fellini Cinema
Monday, August 3rd, 2009Cinema in Rimini, the birthplace of the late-great Federico Fellini, in terms of the physical buildings used to project films, has undergone much the same dramatic shift as seen in cities across the western world. Local cinemas with individual styles and idiosyncracies have been replaced by the big out-of-town multiplexes – giant anonymous screens where [...]
5 major international events in Rimini you should know about
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009For a city that has a population of roughly 140,000 Rimini has a surprising amount of high-profile international events. We’ve put together a list of five of the biggest (though, as anyone who has browsed through the site will realise, there are plenty more). Pio Manzu International Conference Every October a major international conference, under [...]
Japanese tourists refuse free compensatory trip to Italy
Saturday, August 1st, 2009A japanese couple who were conned into paying €695 for lunch in a Roman restaurant (including a &euro115 tip) have been offered a free compensatory holiday in Italy by the newly appointed Minister for Tourism Michela Brambilla. 35 year old Yasuyuki Yamada has, though, refused the offer, saying that it wouldn’t be fair on Italian [...]
Riccardo Scamarcio dj’s for a night in Rimini
Saturday, August 1st, 2009Italy’s hottest heart-throb, actor Riccardo Scamarcio takes some time off from the shooting of his latest film l’Uomo Nero – directed by Sergio Rubini, and co-starring Scamarcio’s partner Valeria Golino – to come to Rimini to dj for a night. Scamarcio will be taking to the decks in one of Rimini’s longest established and famous [...]
5 recent great Italian films you may have missed
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Last year’s Cannes film festival spotlighted Italian cinema with two big films in competition, Paolo Sorrentino’s biopic of Giulio Andreotti Il Divo and the international hit adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s crime book Gomorrah . Two great films that have hadsome of the international success they deserve. Every year, though, there are plenty of top-notch Italian films that [...]
