NOVA Eroica 2018

Pubblicato il 12 Febbraio 2018 da Genni

NOVA Eroica is an event dedicated to gravel , cyclo-cross and modern road bikes along a portion of L’Eroica’s usual route. This year it takes place on April 29th in Buonconvento, Siena.

It starts off with five timed sections on the 145 km Long Route to select first the best 150 male cyclists, and then the 150 female competitors. This route takes participants from the Crete Senesi to the Chianti area.  Those selected go on to do the 36 km Road Race.

There is also a Medium Route, 89 km totally immersed in the beautiful scenery of the Crete Senesi, with three timed sections. This route is recommended to those who have never participated in a race with modern bikes on gravel roads, but who are physically fit.

The 48 km Leisure Route, instead, is the perfect choice for those who wish to experience some of the legendary sections of the L’Eroica long route, such as Montalcino, while the 27 km Family Fun Route is best suited to families with even small children.

Furthermore, from April 27th to May 1st the beautiful medieval village of Buonconvento will be hosting the second edition of the Nova Eroica Festival where bicycles, art, nature, food and wine are guaranteed. For five days visitors can discover local producers and artisans in the Open Market or taste either street food or local dishes in Piazza Matteotti. There will also be nature walks, open air museums, concerts and lots more.

 

Pubblicato in Chianti, Crete Senesi, Cycling events, Events in the Crete Senesi, Events in Tuscany, Festivals and feasts in Tuscany, Siena, Tuscan lifestyle, Tuscany | Contrassegnato , , | Lascia un commento

Crazyrun is back – the CR6 edition

Pubblicato il 8 Febbraio 2018 da Genni

Back from May 12th to 13th is the Crazyrun, a car race which is entirely run in Italy but starts and finishes in Tuscany.

In an age of technology, the pilots are not allowed to use anything and can only guess the destination from the indications they receive at the various checkpoints. Here participants have to solve the clue and choose the road to reach the following checkpoint.

The cars selected to participate are generally unconventional. They can be simply out of the ordinary, vintage cars, modern supercars or the famous ‘crazycars’, namely converted school buses, or cars with particular corporate colours or themed disguises.

So if you’re travelling around Tuscany on May 12th & 13th don’t be surprised if you’re overtaken by characters from the Wacky Races!

Pubblicato in Cars and engines, Events in Tuscany, Tuscany | Contrassegnato | Lascia un commento

Oscar-winning costumes of a Queen on show at Prato

Pubblicato il 6 Febbraio 2018 da Genni

The Textile Museum of Prato, Museo del Tessuto, is hosting from February 11th to May 27th the exhibition: Marie Antoinette. The Oscar-Winning Costumes of a Queen.

On show the costumes created by celebrated costume designer Milena Canonero for Sophia Coppola’s film “Marie Antoinette”, for which Milena won an Academy Award in 2007.

On display are over twenty items of clothing worn by the film’s main characters. This exhibition offers a unique overview of the standards of elegance in Eighteenth-Century Europe.

Open from Tuesday to Thursday from 10 am to 3 pm, from Friday to Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm and on Sundays from 3 pm to 7 pm. Closed on Mondays. Full price ticket costs 7 Euros.

Pubblicato in Exhibitions in Prato, Exhibitions in Tuscany, Fashion, Italian design, Prato, Tuscany | Contrassegnato , , , , | Lascia un commento

Antonio Ligabue on show at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa

Pubblicato il 2 Febbraio 2018 da Genni

From March 3rd to July 1st, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, Liguria, will be hosting an exhibition of Italian Naïve artist, Antonio Ligabue. On show will be 80 works, amongst which paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings by this sadly unfortunate painter, considered one of the most important of the 20th century.

The exhibition follows the two main themes sustaining Ligabue’s creative universe: animals, both wild and domestic, and his self-portraits. Visitors will be able to admire some of the artist’s greatest masterpieces such as “Tigre Reale”, which he drew in 1941 while at the Mental Hospital of San Lazzaro in Reggio Emilia, the two versions of “Landscape with Hunting Dogs”, “Eagle with Fox”, “Black Widow”, “Tiger Head”, as well as an impressive gallery of self-portraits, such as the “Self-portrait with Motorcycle Cap” and the 1957 self-portrait.

Domestic animals are caught by Ligabue in a rural atmosphere, inserted in landscapes such as the flatlands of the Bassa Reggiana, where he lived from 1919 to his death in 1965, or against the castles, churches and houses with steep roofs of his native Switzerland. The wild animals, whose anatomy he demonstrates to know perfectly well, are often represented in the moment they fall on their prey, with an exasperated expressionism and an almost spasmodic attention of reiterated decorative elements.

The self-portraits, instead, amount to a bitter thread in his paintings. The artist represents himself in the foreground, occupying nearly the entire scene, and completely obliterating the relevance of the landscape in the background, excluding some rare exceptions. These portraits summarize a perpetual and constant human condition of anguish, desolation and loss. His face expresses pain, fatigue, dismay and the pain of living. Any relationship with the world seems to have been forever severed. They represent Ligabue’s sufferings to the point we can almost hear his silent cry in front of nature and the deafness of the people surrounding him.

This exhibition is a further chapter, after the shows at Gualtieri in 2015, at Palermo and Rome in 2016 and at Pavia in 2017, to carry forward Ligabue’s works in a  correct critical and historical evaluation. This is the opportunity to discard the adjectives ‘naive’ and ‘mad’ and let oneself go to a tragic expressionism which fuses visionary exasperation to decorative taste.

On show at the Loggia degli Abati, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa. Open daily, except Mondays, from 10 am to 7 pm. Full price ticket costs 11 Euros.

Pubblicato in Art exhibitions in Liguria, Art in Genoa, Exhibitions in Genoa, Genoa, Liguria, Museums in Liguria, Not Only Tuscany | Contrassegnato , | Lascia un commento

The Telegraph’s 21 places in Italy you should visit

Pubblicato il 31 Gennaio 2018 da Genni

This month the Telegraph published the article “21 places in Italy you never thought to visit (but really should)”. Obviously you can never put them all in and some have to be left out but we at Tuscany Holiday Rent were very happy to notice come acquaintances of ours.

Respecting the Telegraph’s numbering, we first encounter our neighbour Porto Venere (aka Portovenere) in Liguria (our house is right on the border between Tuscany and Liguria – making the best of two worlds we say). As the Telegraph correctly writes, most tourists visiting the area only stop over at the Cinque Terre which are further north. We highly recommend to visit this lovely, colourful, seaside village, enjoy its excellent dishes at one of the seafront restaurants, stroll over to Byron’s Grotto and admire the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto from the hilltop cemetery.

We also support the Telegraph’s suggestion to also pay a visit to nearby Tellaro, just after Lerici, a favourite destination for many Italian and international artists, and the quiet fishing village of Sestri Levante, between the Cinque Terre and Portofino, with its enchanting Fairy Tales Bay, a name bestowed in honour of Hans Christian Andersen who briefly lived here in 1833.

Following Porto Venere in the Telegraph’s list is the Etruscan village of Sovana in the province of Grosseto. As many locations in southern Tuscany, this is certainly off the beaten track. A treasure trove full of surprises, here one encounters traces from many pasts, such as the Etruscan Necropolis and, clustered along the one and only main street, magnificent examples of medieval and Renaissance architecture. We also suggest you try the local Sovana DOC wine, both the red and the rosé, reminding you that this area also produces the white wine Bianco di Pitigliano and the full bodied red Morellino di Scansano DOC.

Making it to the 21 top list is also the capital city of Liguria itself, Genoa. Whilst we may have mixed feelings because after all Genoa is Italy’s 6th largest city and has been a port town for over 6 millenniums, we have to admit that recently a lot has been done down in the area of the old harbour, Porto Antico, to attract tourists and that the typical Genoese alleys, known as caruggi, and the magnificent Renaissance Palaces, of which one is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, are effectively worth the visit.

Certainly, as already mentioned, there were many others to add, but that is, after all, our task. Patiently, one by one, on these pages.

Pubblicato in Breaking news, Genoa, Liguria, Ligurian towns and cities, Tuscan towns and cities, Tuscany | Contrassegnato , , , , , | Lascia un commento