Articles by: A.b.

  • Art & Culture

    Caravaggio in New York

    Until Sunday May 15 at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue you can admire Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s La Buona Ventura (The Fortune Teller). An extraordinary opportunity for New Yorkers and art lovers to see up close one of the Italian Baroque master’s mesmerizing canvases.

    After New York Caravaggio's masterpiece will travel to The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where it will be on view from May 18 to June 5. The painting will further travel north to the National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa where it will be part of the exhibition "Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome." The show will include 60 paintings by some of the most important artists of the Baroque period along with other major artists who were inspired by Caravaggio's example.

    The exhibit in New York will be on view thanks to a loan from the Musei Capitolini in Rome, Italy, to which it belongs since 1750 when Pope Benedict XIV purchased it. Two version of the painting exists, the one being shown on Park Avenue these days from 1594, and another, in Paris at the Louvre, painted the following year. Although the dates in both cases are disputed. The painting shows a foppishly-dressed boy, having his palm read by a gypsy girl. The boy looks smugly pleased as he gazes into her face; he fails to notice that she is removing his ring as she gently strokes his hand; to his ingenuous self-satisfied gaze she returns her own, quietly mocking and sly.

    Caravaggio's biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori tells that the artist picked the gypsy girl out from passers-by on the street in order to demonstrate that he had no need to copy the works of the masters from antiquity. Beginning with La Buona ventura Caravaggio's has a revolutionary impact on his contemporaries, the Renaissance theory of art as a didactic fiction with art as the representation of real life starts crumbling.

    The 1594 Buona Ventura galvanized considerable interest among younger artists and the more avant garde collectors of Rome, but Caravaggio's poverty forced him to sell it for the low sum of eight scudi.

    Prof. Sergio Guarino, curator of the Musei Capitolini, explained how Caravaggio influenced generations of artists and somehow "from this moment on to paint a version of La Buona Ventura becomes for many painters a sort of declaration of affiliation with the master". "We are thrilled to be presenting La Buona Ventura at the Italian Cultural Institute," he continued. And in fact the Institution on Park Avenue devoted to the promotion of Italian language and culture in the United States is the perfect setting to host the precious canvas.

    Present at the official Press Conference  Dr. Charles L. Venable, Director of The Speed Art Museum and the  Director of the Italian Cultural Institute New York, Prof. Riccardo Viale, who stressed what an amazing opportunity this is for Baroque Art lovers.  Last time the painting was in New York it was 1990, he recollected. New Yorkers should not let two more decades pass by, we want to add. Hence, grab the 6 train to the Hunter College stop, walk one block east to Park Avenue and let Caravaggio's strokes, lights and shadows mesmerize you.

    This exhibition was organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. It was made possible by the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture and was generously underwritten by The Speed Art Museum.

    The Exhibition- “Caravaggio's La Buona Ventura (The Fortune Teller): a masterpiece from the "Musei Capitolini", Rome”
     

    At the Italian Cultural Institute of New York,

    686 Park Avenue-New York (between 68th and 69th Street), NY 10065

    From May 11 to May 15 - 2011 

    Gallery hours:

    May 11- 12- 13 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

    May 14- 15 from 11:00 am to 6 00 pm

    Free admission 

    A series of guided tours through the galleries will be open to selected, professional groups.

    For the Caravaggio lovers, the week is eventful. Right accross the street at Hunter College, there is scheduled a simposium on May 13 titled "Caravaggio's Gypsy Fortune Teller: Virtude and Vices in Post-Tridentine Italy."

    Location:  Hunter College –NYC, 695 Park Ave, NY, NY (North Building, room 1527 north)

    Time: 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

    Speakers:

    Prof Richter, Professor of Renaissance Art History at Hunter College

    Prof Catherine Puglisi, Professor of Baroque Art at Rutgers University, NJ

    Prof Christopher Atkins, Professor of Baroque Art at Queens College

  • Life & People

    An Italian Culinary Academy in the Heart of Soho

    Italy’s cuisine is vast and multifarious. Sometimes driving a few miles even in the same region can bring your tasting buds to experience an array of flavors completely different from what you have just left behind. Moreover, food is inextricably intertwined with other aspects of Italian life, such as love, family, and friends. With such a complex universe to take in, perspective students of Italian cuisine need a well-rounded training, not just tutorials of techniques. The Total Immersion experience designed by Tuscan Chef Cesare Casella, Dean of Italian Studies at The International Culinary Center in Soho, is intended to do just that.

    Dorothy Cann Hamilton in 2007, the same woman who twenty years earlier had created The French Culinary Institute, launched the The Italian Culinary Academy. With a similar visionary intuition she thought it was time to give birth to an Academy that celebrated Italian culture and food. To direct the prestigious institution she called Casella who knew that at the sister-school, the French Culinary Institute, the title of Dean had been given to master Chefs Jacques Torres, Jacque Pepins, Alain Sailhac. “I realized what an amazing opportunity I had, “ he confessed. The Tuscan Chef was given carte blanche and after two years of planning, he inaugurated this special piece of Italy in the heart of Soho.
     

    Totally immersed in Italian culture, learning to speak and comprehend the language, students enrolled in the intense course have available the campus in New York City and a prestigious cooking school in Parma, Italy. “We don’t simply teach techniques: our students study history, geography, and culture,” said a proud Casella. Ten weeks of intensive cooking classes are spent in the States. Afterwards the students move to the bel paese for nine weeks at ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine led by Gualtiero Marchesi. Before returning to the U.S. for final exams and graduation, they spend nine more weeks in a specific region getting a real-life experience in a restaurant.

    “Of course in 28 weeks you can’t learn everything,” added Casella, “but once graduated our students will certainly understand the difference between authentic ingredients and imitations.” “The course in Parma is meant, in fact, to prepare students who will then come back to the United States,” explained the Tuscan Chef. “This is an investment for us,” says the Executive Director of the North American branch of the Italian Trade Commission, Aniello Musella. “We are expecting these students to become the future Michael White or Mario Batali.”  The President of the Italian Trade Commission, in fact, believes that the hope is that future generations of Chefs are being created at the The Italian Culinary Academy. 

    And for this reason, this year, Italian Trade Commission  donated two Scholarships worth a total of $40,000 to two valuable students enrolled in The Italian Culinary Experience in 2010. Cameron Bryant and Terri Mouzon were the selected recipients. During a dinner at the Italian Culinary Academy, Bryant, a native of Mississipi, spoke about his experience working at La salumeria as the trigger for his passion for Italian products and influencing his desire to seek an Italian culinary education at The Italian Culinary Academy. A New Jersey native, Mouzon had always sought inspiration from Italian culinary television personalities and from a lifelong love of Italian cuisine. Both award recipients look forward to opening their own Italian-influenced restaurants in the future. Deputy Consul Laura Aghilarre who attended the award ceremony, stressed how with this scholarship comes great responsibility because “the recipients are now ambassadors and witnesses of Italian cuture."

    The reception featured a menu which included authentic Italian ingredients, prepared by the students of The Italian Culinary Academy.

  • Events: Reports

    Talent Hunters

    Whether art lovers or savvy marketers, their aim is to discover and support young talent by organizing shows, social events and performances in order to infect, like a virus, as many people as possible. New York is their laboratory. Alessandro Spreafico, Elena Avesani and Gianfrancesco Mottola  are the three young Italian professionals behind Contaminate NYC, the boutique agency conceived by Alessandro and Elena. Born in Como, with a background in film directing and editing, 28-year-old Alessandro is the Director of Contaminate NYC.  Elena, 39, a software developer and a product manager by trade and insatiable art lover at heart, is the Executive Director.Back in 2008, they wanted to create a place in which to empower and support artists outside of the conventional art world channels.

    In their portfolio, today, there are more than 90 artists, who can benefit from the experience of Gianfrancesco Mottola, 32, the new director of Marketing and Communication.  Born in Rome, he has a knack for chosing venues, that without taking attention away from the art works, are spellbinding. The Cloud Lounge at Beatrice can certainly fall within that category.  From the spectacular 54th floor penthouse of the new luxury building on 29th street and 6th Ave, he explained to us that Contaminate NYC operates as a boutique agency, offering intimate connections with its talent pool. “In New York there are many artists but there are just a few labels organizing events related to the arts and in most of the cases they focus on one segment (i.e. painting, photography, etc.), while we have made it our goal to organize multi-segment events,” he stressed while offering us a delicious Absolute Kurant cocktail.

    Coherently with this mission, the work showcased at the Cloud Lounge was remarkably heterogeneous: from the performance of Japanese belly dancer Lale Sayoko, to the film of video artist Brian Gonzalez, as well as the work of painters Cait O’Connor and Samuela Malizia.

    The beauty and power of the female body is glorified by Lale Sayoko’s unique, stylish, and exciting interpretation of the art of belly dancing and by Samuela Malizia’s Beautiful Cliché series. Samuela’s graphical and stark drawings of women depicted in a moment of solitary re- lax and privacy, convey a secret and intimate pleasure, delicately yet not overtly erotic. Stillness and simplicity are intentionally employed to emphasize a female body's essential grace, aiming at showing her solitary beauty in the purest form. Poetic characters, delicate, tidy textures, and fascinating atmosphere are the trademark of Cait O’Connor’s paintings and illustrations. Women, mysterious and almost ghostly entities escaping earthly judgment, are the subject of a dream-like world that hits the viewer with melancholy and a yearning for an unattainable harmony. Playing with a cold palette to render transparencies, veils and graceful draperies, Cait creates a fairy-tale stage for these aloof and detached girls, lost in their imaginary worlds.  Brian Gonzales has created an elegant and seductive film, It Can’t be true, which was commissioned by XXXX Magazine for Art Basel-Miami Beach 201. It is at first a gate into the dramatic and emotional dream of a blind and seemingly lonely girl. Yet, Brian’s powerful symbolism becomes apparent when new intriguing details emerge at every observation.

    Since the three Italians are always in serch of imaginative and valuable individuals, they are launching an international theme-based contest for emerging artists called - ONE HUNDRED DAYS. The competition is open to visual and installation art. Artists worldwide will be called to submit their artwork through the CNYC website. A prestigious jury will select the best and most pertinent work for each theme. The winning artists will have the opportunity to showcase their work in three hip and high-end locations in NY for a total of 100 days (33 days each).

    Good Luck to all the creative ones out there!

  • Facts & Stories

    Social Network Users Divided on the Royal Wedding

    The topic doesn't need any introduction, Prince William and Kate Middleton were bonded in Holy Matrimony this morning in Westminster Abbey and are now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Traditional TV was the most popular channel for following the event, but it is undeniable that the first royal wedding of the social network era was hot stuff on Facebook and Twitter.
     

    It was mentioned 67 times a second on Twitter and 74 times a second on Facebook. More than a million people posted status updates about the wedding on the latter. Numbers don't lie, the wedding chatter surpassed that for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.  Furthermore, despite the time difference, almost two million Americans were part of the social-network discussion.
     

    However on Facebook, reactions to the event were as heterogenous as the people populating it. Diana Hlaic, 35, from Rome, office clerk with a past in event planning, was following a streaming live video broadcast on the internet while cross-commenting with girlfriends on Facebook both in Italy and the United States. “I watched it because I was fond of Princess Diana, an unparalleled kind and compassionate Royal Family member; I wanted to see her reflected in her son's eyes,” she admitted. She continued explaining how conversely she has a limited interest for the algid Queen Elizabeth. “To see her witnessing -probably in horror- her grandson marrying a commoner, galvanized my sense of satisfaction on multiple levels.”
     

    Andrea Lodovichetti, 35, filmmaker from Fano, was not as enthusiastic. “I don’t want to know about the color of the bride’s underwear in a 6 hours live broadcast. Not now.  It is question of respect.” He spoke of what he believes should be topics of media attention: Libya, the North African unrest, the nuclear crisis, and if you are in Italy pressing domestic questions such as increasing unemployment rate, tax evasion, and the unsteady government. “There is no doubt that it was an historic event and I respect that somebody felt really excited about it, but I can't accept that every media outlet focused all day on the British Royal Family.” “By the way: I didn’t like Kate’s wedding gown,” he didn't miss to mention.
     
    Massimiliano Meoni, 39, stylist and blogger from Pistoia, said he felt the $68 million price tag for the event was "inappropriate" in a moment of local and global economical austerity. "Moreover," he noted "not far from all this parade of silly hats and impeccable uniforms, there are people who are suffering, who are in situation of political unrest, who are literally being bombed; this level of frivolousness is unacceptable."

    But for Florentine Olivia Lentucci,  now an adopted Newyorker, 30, advertising manager in a culinary magazine, this morning ceremony was not such a nefarious affair. “I followed the wedding because I wanted to give energy to a positive event. Media seems to have a passion for disasters and tragedies, it felt truly nice to witness an uplifting story.” “Maybe I am too romantic,” she smiled. “And yes, the dress was glorious!”

  • Life & People

    Seven Moves for Italy

    Genoa, Palma de Maiorca, Giblatar, Madeira, New York. These are the ports that mark the route of the "7 mosse per l'Italia" sailboat, promoted by Oscar Farinetti, patron of the gourmet store Eataly, and sailor Giovanni Soldini. The two "captains" set up a crew of twenty-two men and women "of thought and action" who will alternate on the boat, writing down the seven moves to be applied for the improvement of Italy's condition.

    The list of names involved in this extraordinary sailing expedition is long and varied, and includes personalities from the Italian cultural and entertainment world such as Alessandro Baricco, Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Giorgio Faletti, Lella Costa, Antonio Scurati, and from the business world like Riccardo Illy, Daniel John Winteler, Matteo Marzotto and Guido Falck.
     

    The crew will be fed by four World-renowned chefs who will take part in the crossing and will cook everyday with a budget of 4.50 Euros a head.
     
    "These are people who aren't politically active, and don't wish to be. None of them is by prejudice of the left of the right, all distant from party quarrels," reads the official website of the event, which lasts from April 25, the day of departure, to June 2, the arrival date in New York. Together with a special travel journal enriched by photos and videos, and a real-time map to follow the movements of the boat, the site offers the possibility to put forth suggestions. And this cooperation between Italians on the boat and those in front of their computers at home will give birth to a document "with a moderate but determined language that, we believe, will be useful to those who have been nominated to execute politics," explains the website. At the arrival in New York, the manifesto will immediately be handed to the Consul General Francesco Maria Talò, who will pass it on to Rome.
     
    The departure and arrival dates are already important for Italy: April 25 marks the 66th anniversary of the Liberation from Nazifascism, and June 2 is the Day of the Republic. The initiative is somewhat an act of love towards the country.

    "There are civil reasons behind our trip, which is only a signal to underline the urgent need for change. The world moves forward and Italy continues to lose ground. It needs to catch up. We live in a beautiful country, but their is a problem of collective conscience and of defense of what should be public which nobody seems to care about anymore. We have very little time and cannot allow this anymore", states Giovanni Soldini.
     
    A regatta for transparency, for civic sense and responsibility, a beautiful initiative. All that's left is to wish them, and us,  Buon Viaggio!

  • Events: Reports

    20th Century Venetian View Art

    The 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification is approaching quickly and the celebratory events throughout the United States are plentiful.  Among the events organized under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Italy is the show The Heirs of Canaletto: Fabio Mauroner and Emanuele Brugnoli in Venice, 1905-1940.  The exhibit, wanted by the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute, opens to the public on March 10 at the Embassy of Italy in Washington and will remain on display until April 18.  The show takes place in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition Canaletto and His Rivals at the National Gallery of Art (February 20 through May 30) and is also part of La Dolce DC, the citywide celebration of Italian culture.

    The thirty-five prints by Fabio Mauroner (Udine, 1884-Venice, 1948) and Emanuele Brugnoli (Bologna, 1859-Venice, 1944), which depict the city of Venice, come from private collectors and reinforce the idea that Venetian view painting tradition has been long and prolific. The first great Venetian vedutista was Luca Carlevarijs in the 17th century (Udine, 1663-1730 Venice), who realized the importance of immortalizing the grandeur of the lagoon city on canvas.  The apogee of vedutismo, however, comes in the following century with Giovanni Antonio Canal, better knows as Canaletto. However both Mauroner and Brugnoli, who were not of Venetian birth but moved there and devoted most of their careers to celebrate La Serenissima, confirm the endurance of the Venetian view painting tradition.

    Fabio Mauroner was born in Udine in 1884 and moved to Venice in 1905. He depicted the religious feasts, the regattas, but also the Venice he had come to know as a resident, the calles, the back alleys, the hidden courtyards that foreigners often overlooked.  Mauroner first encountered etching in an exhibition of the Irishman Edward M. Synge in Rome in 1904. Subsequently, Mauroner shared a studio with Amedeo Modigliani in Venice, where he also studied printmaking with Synge. Over the next thirty years, Mauroner executed approximately one hundred and thirty prints before retiring from etching to become a scholar of Venetian Renaissance and Baroque art. Mauroner was aware of the great eighteenth-century tradition of Venetian vedute, seen in the works of Canaletto, Guardi, Marieschi and others.

    Some of Mauroner’s prints represent a continuation of their approach, depicting major monuments of Venetian history, including views of Piazza San Marco, the Piazzetta, the Ducal Palace and the magnificent facades along the Grand Canal. Other prints are closer to the approach of James McNeill Whistler and Ernest David Roth, capturing characteristic aspects of more intimate and typical Venetian cityscapes. In contrast, however, Fabio Mauroner also chose to represent events and activities that were quintessentially Venetian, including benedictions in the Basilica of San Marco, shopping in the Rialto, regattas on the Grand Canal, and religious processions over the votive bridges annually erected on important feast days.

    One of Mauroner’s close friends in Venice was Emanuele Brugnoli, an instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, and the founder of its school of etching. Brugnoli was born in Bologna in 1859, moved to Venice in 1880, and began teaching at the Academy in 1912. Brugnoli was similar to Mauroner in representing the experience of Venetian life in his era, but he offered a more panoramic view of the energy of the populace in the squares and on the canals. His large scale images, Campo Santa Margherita (1920) and Campo Santa Maria Formosa teem with the everyday activities of working class Venetians.

    Mauroner and Brugnoli differed from foreign artists, such as the distinguished American expatriate etchers Whistler, Roth, and John Taylor Arms who visited the city to record Venice as a series of picturesque views but were indifferent to the day-to-day lives of the Venetians. In Mauroner and Brugnoli’s work, images of the working class squares of Campo Santa Margarita, Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio, and Campo San Giovanni in Bragora spring to life as outposts of Venetian daily experience, whether at the fish and flea markets or the puppet shows during Carnevale.

    Today Mauroner and Brugnoli are well known in Italy but not in America, however their production displays a dedication to craft equal to that of their better known foreign counterparts while representing a uniquely local approach to Venetian imagery.  This exhibition is a unique opportunity for the American public to see their work.  This is the first show devoted to Mauroner in the United States in over seventy years, and the first to include the works of Brugnoli in Washington.  

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The show, organized by the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute was  also made possible by the Dickinson College  (Carlisle, Pennsylvania), which allowed the etchings by Fabio Mauroner and Emanuele Brugnoli to be exhibited at the Embassy of Italy. Curator of the exhibit, and author of the brochure, is Dr. Eric Denker.  Tom Whitmore and Franco and Maria Ferrari collaborated on the research efforts.

    To view this exhibition, which is by appointment only, please email [email protected].

    Date: March 1o, 2011 - Monday, April 18, 2011

    Time: 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm /Mon - Fri

    Venue: Auditorium of the Embassy of Italy, 3000 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008

  • Dining in & out: Articles & Reviews

    Discover Italy while eating

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    }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }Midtown, Luna Piena restaurant. The Ente Nazionale per il Turismo brought to New York a panel of experts about the Mediterranean diet. The director of ENIT North America, Riccardo Strano, told us about the Mediterranean diet from a touristic and gastronomic point of view. “It isn't just a healthy culinary regime, but it can be the starting point for a new way of traveling, intelligent, researching those typical products that are difficult to export”. 

    This was an important event for New York, especially since on November 16 the Mediterranean diet became part of the UNESCO non-material heritage of humanity. “It is a project coordinated for intervention in the United States, financed by the Minister of Agricolture and by Federsanità Anci”, said Guglielmo Trovato of the Istituto di Medicina Interna e Terapia Medica of the University of Catania, “it gives value to pre-existing research and informs the studies already in progress, both Italian and American”.

    And the United States have a lot to do with the nutritional model inspired by the culinary traditions of European countries of the Mediterranean area. Behind the term “Mediterranean diet” are researchers from the States. Back in 1948 a study of the Rockefeller Foundation determined that the culinary customs of certain European countries were effective in preventing cardiovascular diseases. These studies spotted a positive relation between Mediterranean diet and diminishing of certain chronic diseases. “A balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle means less diabetes, less obesity and fewer neurodegenerative diseases, in other words a much better life quality” continues Enzo Chilelli, General Director of Federsanità Anci.

    And of course the Italian-American immigrants in the States played an important role in the promotion of the Mediterranean diet around the world. Vito Teti, in Il colore del cibo: geografica, mito e realta' dell'alimentazione mediterranea says that “during the Fifties we went from a refusal and loathing of the cuisine of immigrants, considered lacking and insufficient, to an appreciation of Italian cuisine”. Teti explains that this change of consideration is strongly linked to a general improvement of the image of Italian-Americans in America.

    But what is the Mediterranean diet, exactly? It means products mainly of vegetable origin, very little red meat, some white meat, a little more fish, a few milk-product, and some good wine. Guglielmo Trovato explained the importance of the “quality of the food products being certified by reliable regulations, conservation, production and marketing quality”. The European regulations, and in particular the Italian ones regarding gastronomy are the most elevated in regard to the products, said Chilelli.

    Therefore Mediterranean diet is a culinary, cultural and touristic paradigm. This was confirmed when the evening turned into an eno-gastronomic excursus through typical products and dishes of the peninsula. The menu included scialatielli with fava beans, orecchiette with beat heads, Palermitan chicken breasts, Aeolian sole, accompanied by Prosecco di Zagara di Mandarino Aglianico del Vulture, and Apulian Chardonnay.
     

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  • Alla scoperta dell'Italia, mangiando

    Midtown, Ristorante Luna Piena, l'Ente Nazionale per il Turismo porta a New York gli esperti della Dieta Mediterranea. Ed è il Direttore dell' ENIT Nord'America, Riccardo Strano, a parlarci della Dieta Mediterranea in chiave turistico-gastronomica. “Non è solo un regime alimentare sano ma può essere alla base di un viaggiare nuovo, intelligente, alla ricerca di quei prodotti tipici spesso difficilmente esportabili”.
     

    Un appuntamento importante questo organizzato a New York, sopratutto dopo che il 16 Novembre la Dieta Mediterranea è entrata a far parte dei Patrimoni Immateriali dell'Umanità dell'UNESCO. “Si tratta di un progetto coordinato di intervento sugli Stati Uniti, finanziato dal Ministero dell'Agricoltura e da Federsanità Anci”, ci dice Guglielmo Trovato dell'Istituto di Medicina Interna e Terapia Medica dell'Università di Catania, “serve a valorizzare la ricerca che già esiste e ad informare sugli studi in corso sia italiani che americani”.
     
    E gli Stati Uniti hanno parecchio a che fare con il modello nutrizionale ispirato alle tradizioni alimentari dei paesi Europei del bacino del mediterraneo. All'origine del nome dieta mediterranea ci sono, infatti, ricercatori stelle e strisce. Già nel 1948 uno studio della Rockefeller Foundation stabilì che le abitudini alimentari di alcuni paese dell'Europa Mediterranea erano efficaci per prevenire le malattie cardiovascolari. Gli studi individuavano una correlazione positiva tra dieta mediterranea e minore incidenza di alcune patologie croniche. “Una dieta equilibrata uno stile di vita salutare vuol dire meno diabete, meno obesità e meno malattie neurodegenerative, insomma una qualità della vita sostanzialmente migliore” continua Enzo Chilelli, Direttore Generale di Federsanità Anci.
     
    E sicuramente un ruolo chiave nel portare alla ribalta la dieta mediterranea l'hanno giocata gli immigrati italo-americani negli Stati Uniti che hanno tentato di portare le loro abitudini alimentari nel nuovo mondo. Vito Teti ne Il colore del cibo: geografia, mito e realtà dell'alimentazione mediterranea scrive che “negli anni Cinquanta da un precedente rifiuto e disprezzo per l'alimentazione degli emigrati considerata carente ed insufficiente si passa ad un apprezzamento della cucina italiana”. Un mutamento di considerazione che è profondamente collegato, spiega Teti, ad un più generale miglioramento dell'immagine degli Italo-Americani in America.
     
    Ma cosa significa dieta Mediterranea esattamente? Significa prodotti prevalentemente di origine vegetale, poca carne rossa, un po' di carne bianca, un po' più di pesce, pochi latticini, e poco buon vino “Qualità degli alimenti certificata da una normativa affidabile, qualità di conservazione, produzione e commercializzazione” spiega Guglielmo Trovato. La normativa Europea in particolare quella Italiana sull' agroalimetare è quanto di più elevato ci sia rispetto alla filiera del prodotto, ci dice Chilelli.
     
    Dieta Mediterranea quindi come paradigma alimentare, culturale e turistico. A conferma di ciò la serata è proseguita con un excursus enogastronomico attraverso i prodotti ed i piatti tipici della penisola. Dagli scialatielli con le fave, alle orecchiette con cime di rapa, passando per i petti di pollo palermitani, la sogliola eoliana, tutto annaffiato da Prosecco di Zagara di Mandarino Aglianico del Vulture, e Chardonnay di Puglia.
     

  • Filomena Maria Sardella and Luciano Testa
    Art & Culture

    Presepe is Art and Hope. We Met the "Mago delle Moschelle"

    p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }Christmas, Naples, presepe. Some things simply go hand in hand with each other, and the traditional Neapolitan presepe is as ancient as it is inevitable. Thanks to the Cardinal of Naples Crescenzio Sepe, between December 14 and January 18 at the Italian Cultural Institute, an exhibit of Neapolitan presepi will be on view in New York. "38 presepial pieces of which 34 are works of unique artisans that are part of the historic AIAP - Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepe" [Italian Association Friends of Presepe], says curator Filomena Maria Sardella.

    Among these Luciano Testa, who has been a Master Artisan of the Presepe for 25 years. He studied at art school, but was intrigued after seeing friends making models. He speaks about his shepherds, that measure between 0.4 and 2 inches, with the passion of someone who deeply loves what he does. Large hands for an artisan who builds tiny fragile clay statues, and yet he is known in Naples as the Re delle Moschelle (King of Miniatures), as Roberto De Simone baptized him. Luciano tells us how since the late 19th century the houses of the Neapolitan lower class were very small and needed smaller statues for smaller presepi. "Making larger statues is easier, the smaller ones are modeled by very few, while the others are made in casts", he told us with pride. And among those who own Luciano's shepherds are President Scalfaro, Luca De Filippo, and Roberto De Simone. 

    "To make a shepherd one starts from the head, and slowly moves down to the rest of the upper body", continues Luciano, "then come the legs, arms, and according to what the face expresses, clothes are added. A jacket if it's a man, a skirt and apron if it's a woman". Luciano works alone but always uses the plural when he speaks, referring to the AIAP, the Italian Association Friends of Presepio, the organization that reaches out to all those interested in the presepe, anywhere in Italy, that self-finances courses at the Poggioreale penitentiary, and at the Casa Circondariale in Secondigliano, as well as children courses in the city. "We have saved some souls", says Luciano, "someone even opened a shop in San Gregorio Armeno". The spreading of presepial art can be a concrete opportunity for the reintegration of young Neapolitans in the working world.

    And this is one of the reasons the Cardinal of Naples had to want this exhibition held in New York. "It is a special event because it contains a powerful message of hope" confrims the curator, Filomena Maria Sardella. The objects on view are made by artists today. After all, "the presepe is something new based upon tradition, something new which can create a work force today" explains one of the organizers. In addition to that "Cardinal Sepe supports this event", says Giuseppe Reale, Director of the Museo ARCI, "because in a city and land so affected by individualism and fragmentation, the presepe, as a choral activity, can help the reconstruction". And from this point of view the presepe becomes an opportunity for building social life and family traditions.

    "The mise en scene of daily life becomes imaginary as well", adds the curator, "the artisans work every year in creating new figurines, portraying satirically well-known public figures of today".

    This event will be made even more special by the presence of the two Master Artisans of the Presepe, Luciano Testa and Gino Baia, who will give a demonstration of their talent on the opening day, at 6:30pm. Also, Cardinal Sepe himself will be visiting the Cultural Institute during his trip to New York in January.

  • From left to right: Vito Artioli, Umberto Vattani, Aniello Musella, Marco Alberti
    Events: Reports

    We ♥ Italian Shoes

    Italians can do many things well, one of them is shoes. And when you bring to New York a showcase of the most exquisite shoe designers and you pair it with another Italian specialty, good food,you know you are heading towards success. This was the intuition of ANCI, the Italian Footwear Manufacturers' Association, and ICE, the Italian Trade Commission, which organized “I LOVE ITALIAN SHOES,” a showcase of the sector's creativity and craftsmanship. The selected companies, part of the event, showcased the best of their production and design during the December edition of FFANY, from December 1-3, at the Hilton Hotel.

    The event was kicked off with a press conference at Eataly, the gourmet paradise of Oscar Farinetti, which was followed by a lunch comprised of Italian specialties from around the peninsula. Present at the conference was Ambassador Umberto Vattani, President of ICE, Aniello Musella, Director of ICE in New York, and Pier Paolo Chicco of ANCI.
     

    “We are happy and proud to work with ANCI in order to present at FFANY the workmanship, design and extraordinary imagination of our designers and manufacturers”, said Aniello Musella. “Italy is the third largest exporter of footwear in the United States. Italy holds, the first place in the footwear luxury sector”, he added. For Pier Paolo Chicco “every American man and woman has the right to wear an Italian shoe”, he said. For this reason, in collaboration with A. Cicognani Communications, they opened an ANCI Press Room in the States to help promote Italian companies on the American market. “Passion, dedication, quality of a unique product that has no rivals” he stressed.

    The New York edition of “I LOVE ITALIAN SHOES” was wrapped up with a cocktail party at the New York Public Library where the celebration of Italian excellence, class and style continued. Culinary specialties from the four regions associated with the four main shoe-making districts (Lombardy, Marche, Tuscany and Veneto) were served. Vito Artioli, President of ANCI, said that the event was dedicated to the fusion of two arts: shoe-making and cooking. Two arts at which Italians clearly do excel. “Diversity is richness”, he continued, “that is the key to Italian excellence both in creating classy shoes and preparing scrumptious food. Ambassador Vattani remarked to the audience that “apart from aesthetics, Italian shoes will make you stand right, walk safely, and, if you are a lady, walk like a princess.” Also present at the cocktail was vice-consul of Italy Marco Alberti, a presence that epitomizes the cooperation between the diplomatic world and ICE in order to promote Made in Italy in America.

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