2007 Events in Italy

MILAN, LA SCALA OPERA SEASON
www.teatroallascala.org
Eighteen. The 2006-2007 La Scala Season includes in 18 titles: 12 operas and 6 ballets. Nineteen actually, if one adds the opera by Paisiello that will be hosted on the Piermarini stage together with the artists of the "Teatro di San Carlo" of Naples.

VENICE, THE VENICE CARNIVAL (February 9/20, 2007)
www.venicecarnival.it
The Carnival of Venice is the most important and magnificent of Venetian celebrations, a much appreciated cocktail of tradition, spectacle, history and transgression set in a unique city, a festival that attracts thousands of people each year to the city from around the world. For two weeks St. Marks' Square, the theaters, streets, squares and public buildings become the protagonists of numerous initiatives and shows: actors, acrobats, dancers and musicians bring a celebration atmosphere to the city for a few days, which is similar to that of the XVII century. The 2007 Carnival edition is dedicated to Carlo Goldoni. The year 2007 is the three-hundred year anniversary of the birth of Venice's most famous and most representative playwright.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA EXHIBITION (March 31/July 22, 2007)
http://www.mostrapierodellafrancesca.it/default_eng.asp
An exhibition on Piero della Francesca, one of the greatest 15th century Italian artists, a pioneer of Italian Renaissance, a "maestro" who had a fundamental role in the development of Italian painting.

VERONA, OPERA AT THE ARENA THEATRE (June 22/September 1, 2007)
www.arena.it
The Arena of Verona, one of Italy's most important Roman amphitheaters, will once again be the setting for the Opera Festival, which has reached its 85th season. The operas scheduled: "Aida", "Nabucco" and "La Traviata" are three of Giuseppe Verdi's most famous works. Also on the calendar are Rossini's "Barber of Seville" and "La Bohème" by Giacomo Puccini. The 2007 Opera Season at the Arena of Verona will begin on Friday, June 22, with "Nabucco" and end on Saturday, September 1 with "Aida".

GUBBIO, CERI FESTIVAL (May 15th, 2007)
http://www.ceri.it/
The Ceri Festival (or race of Ceri) of Gubbio takes place every year in the month of May, on the eve of the patron saint's dead Sant'Ubaldo. The Ceri are three enormous wooden structures, of 400 kg of weight each, surmounted by the statues of Sant'Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant'Antonio. These enormous machines are taken by hand from the historical centre of Gubbio until mount Igino, were there's the basilica of Sant'Ubaldo. The ceraioli (the people carring this statues) make this way running for more than four kilometres. It's an exiting competition and the ceraioli are committed in this wild run through the narrow streets of the city and in the tiring climbing of the mountain, with the acclaiming crowd following them. The Ceri Festival is a religious and popular event with very ancient origins and a great emotional charge involving everyone takes part to it. Every year a great number of tourists come to Gubbio for this unique event.

SPOLETO, FESTIVAL OF TWO WORLDS (June 29/July 15, 2007)
http://www.spoletofestival.it
The Spoleto Festival 2006 , known as Festival of the two Worlds, is organized every year between the end of June and mid-July in the heart of Umbria. After that in 1958 Gian Carlo Menotti inaugurates the first edition, the Spoleto Festival becomes, year after year, a center of big interest for the performances of dance, prose and lyrics. The fact that the Maestro Menotti chooses personally the artists among the most talented professionals of the sector but also among the most promising young talents, has made of the Festival of the two Worlds an inexhaustible font of great professionals of the world of spectacle. The Spoleto Festival 2006, with the president artistic director Francis Menotti, is nowadays a worldwide attraction that gives an international image and fame to the Umbrian city; therefore it is important to remember the period during which the italo-American composer, already from 1956, is looking for an Italian city having the possibility and the characteristics to welcome the musical festival he wants to realize.

SIENA, THE PALIO HORSE RACE (July 2 and August 16)
http://www.ilpaliodisiena.com/indexpal.htm
"Piazza del Campo" is still used today for the well known Palio horse race which is one of the most famous popular Italian manifestations. It takes place every year on July 2 and August 16. The Palio is run to celebrate the miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary near the old houses that belonged to Provenzano Salvani. The holy apparition was therefore called "Madonna di Provenzano" in whose honour the very first Palio was run on August 16, 1656. The Palio is a historical secular tradition strictly connected with the origin of the Contradas of Siena (districts into which the town is divided). The Contradas are spectacular agonistic institutions each having their own government, oratory, coat of arms, appellations, sometimes titles of nobility, emblems and colours, official representatives, festivities, patron Saints, with protectors, delimited territories and population which consist of all those people who were born or live within the topographic limits of the district, according to the proclamation issued by Violante Beatrice of Bavaria on January 7, 1730, at that time, Governess of the town.

PERUGIA, UMBRIA JAZZ FESTIVAL (July 6/15, 2007)
www.umbriajazz.com
Umbria Jazz Festival 2007 is, without any doubt, one of the most important event dedicated to jazz in Europe. Since 1973, when was inaugurated the first edition of the Festival Umbria Jazz, the biggest jazz artists have come to Perugia: during the '70 Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Rivers, Herbie Hanckok, Enrico Rava, Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton and during the more recent editions of the festival Dedee Bridgewater, Gilberto Gil , Milton Nascimento, Terence Blanchard, Paolo Conte, Vinicio Capossela, Nicola Arigliano, Miriam Makeba, Renzo Arbore and its Swing Maniacs, Sergio Cammariere, The Coolbone Brass Band of New Orleans, Lyle Henderson & Emmanuel Gospel Singers. Also the Umbria Jazz Festival 2007 will take place during the month of July for ten days during which from morning to evening, without any continuity, in the historic center of Perugia, will take place dozens of concerts with musical offers covering the entire music kinds to meet the tastes of a public always more heterogeneous. Perugia will become, once again, a meeting point for thousands of music lovers, coming from all over Italy but also from Europe and the United States.

VENICE, REDENTORE FESTIVAL (Saturday July 14 and Sunday July 15, 2007)
http://www.cheapvenice.com/redentore-venice.htm
The Redentore is surely one of the most spectacular Venetian festivals and perhaps the most loved by Venetians. Like the feast of the 'Madonna della Salute', the Redentore began as feast to give thanks for the end of a terrible plague that was wiping out the Venetian population. But while the Madonna della Salute has remained an exclusively religious festival, the Redentore with its 'famous night of fireworks' on the eve of the feast means it is a feastday with more playful connotations.

VENICE, 64th VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (August 29/Sept 8, 2007)
http://www.mostradelcinemadivenezia.tv/2006/en/
In 2007, the Venice Film Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary. This will be an important event and a special Golden Lion for the 75th anniversary will be awarded, in addition to the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

VENICE, HISTORICAL REGATTA (September 2nd, 2007)
http://venicexplorer.net/tradizione/storica.php?hlangs=en
The first Sunday afternoon in September provides a great spectacle in Venice as the Regata Storica takes place. The city's gondoliers and other expert rowers pit their skill against each other. It starts with a procession of decorated historic craft along the Grand Canal course, their crews all decked out in period dress. Like the celebrated Palio of Sienna, the fans and followers of each neighborhood boat and crew are a form of entertainment in themselves. Races take place during the day and in the evening there is a magnificent firework display along the St Marks basin and the Guidecca island.

MONZA, FORMULA 1 GRAN PRIX (September 9th, 2007)
www.formula1.com
No track gets a Formula One fan's pulse racing faster than Monza. It’s the quickest circuit on the calendar and also one of the most evocative: the old banking - last used in 1961 - is clearly visible, as are some of the old stands. When you combine the track’s merits with the cultural delights and shopping of nearby Milan, you are left with one of the most alluring races of the season. As well as the city and the circuit, the charms of Lake Como are just a short drive to the north and the Mediterranean coast is only a couple of hours away. Milan is undoubtedly a great city

PERUGIA, EUROCHOCOLATE (October 13/21, 2007)
www.eurochocolate.com
Also this year the twelfth of October will not just be the date that remembers the cultural encounter with the populations of America: but as of 2005 it is also national Cocoa and Chocolate day: Chocoday! After last year’s success, the event, which is promoted by Eurochocolate and backed by the Ministry of Production and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Policies, has already received supported from important organizations such as Cna Alimentare (National Artisans’ Food Confederation) and Confartigianato Alimentare (Artisans’ Food Confederation), who with their masters chocolatier continue to guarantee the quality of this sweet product. We also wish to highlight the essential support of ICCO (International Cocoa Organization), the international organization that promotes cooperation between Cocoa producing countries. Chocoday, therefore, wishes to celebrate and promote Pure Chocolate, i.e. the product obtained using butter and cocoa mass exclusively, without added fats and vegetable oil that would ruin its properties. This goal is achieved through a Manifesto that also emphasises the need to ensure the protection of ethical and social values that are still not fully guaranteed, as well as the control of the whole cocoa production process, promoting the concepts of traceability and biodiversity in particular.

ROME, 2nd EDITION OF THE ROMEFILMFEST (October 18/27, 2007)
www.romacinemafest.org
The second edition of the RomeFilmFest will run October 18th to 27th, 2007. The main location of the event will be Rome Auditorium. Sections: Cinema2007 (In Competition and Out of Competition), Premiere, Extra, Alice in the City, The Actor´s Craft.

BOLOGNA, MOTORSHOW (December 7/16, 2007)
www.motorshow.it
Motor Show - in December, at the Fiera di Bologna. International car and motorcycle trade show, which has always been sold out