Eurochocolate 2008

Eurochocolate is preparing to inaugurate its fourteenth edition with ChocolAge, the Chocolate Era, that will take place from the 18th to the 26th October in Perugia. (www.eurochocolate.com).

The Food of the Gods becomes today's protagonist, influencing the habits daily life. Though it means, for example, communicating through a chocolate bar instead of a mobile phone, as it appears on the Italian communication campaign: “Cioccolato, senti quanto è buono” -“Chocolate, feel how good it is ”.

The images of the campaign actually portray many ordinary people using a chocolate bar as a cellphone for chatting, texting, taking pictures, listening to the music…Chocolate succeeds in catching modern technology in a funny and tempting trap. It turns in sweet batteries – The Chocopower – that bucks your day up and belongs to wellness and health after the entry of Chocopirin-A, already rebaptized “Chocolate Aspirin”. In Eurochocolate, then, insatiable lovers of chocolate, adults and children, will experience the Chocolate Era plunging in a present and futuristic dimension of over glowing delicacy.

Eurochocolate means also going through the culture of a fascinating town like Perugia, plenty of history, art and traditions that in nine days time becomes a huge chocolaterie en plein air to discover, also thanks to the successful Chococard offering sweet advantages for a funny experience in the name of leisure and goodness of chocolate. Advantages that will be immediately tangible among the stands of the Chocolate Show and those of the Rocca Pralina, two suggestive areas with more then 150 chocolate brands coming from each angle of the world.

Eurochocolate is also the instrument for promoting protection of important values as solidarity, biodiversity, traceability and sustainability of the production process of cocoa, aiming to guarantee a sustainable future based on the decrease of the differences between developed and developing countries.

With that mission, Eurochocolate World was born three years ago: a really appreciated vessel that promotes joint activities sponsored by international organization as ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) and Fairtrade TransFair Italia, one of the main organization for the certification of fair-trade products. Since then, Eurochocolate World confirms the success of the event in Perugia on this field as well, through concrete actions for economy development and awareness campaigns, beginning with the lessons of Equoscuola focused on fair-trade chocolate culture and addressed to the youngest generations.

Eurochocolate World hosts the second edition of the C8 (Thursday 18th October), the International Summit of the first eight countries world producers of Cocoa, that following the debate of last year on quality in cocoa production, will meet again in order to deal with the theme of Sustainability in the cocoa production process.

Another important vessel will be Equochocolate, the area dedicated to chocolate produced pursuing fair trade criteria, realized in collaboration with Fairtrade TransFair Italia.

www.umbriaonline.com

www.eurochocolate.com

OCTOBER FEST - WITHOUT THE LEDERHOSEN

This months offering in the Upper Tiber Valley, lots to eat if you like chocolate, truffles and fruits of the forest but also things to see, do and watch.

Until the 19th October, Tiferno Comics Exhibition of artwork by Vittorio Giardin, Citta di Castello, Palazzo Vitelli S. Egidio.

3rd - 5th October, Art Exhibition, Fighille, Citerna
5th October, Half Marathon, Lama, S Giustino.
10th - 12th October, Potato and Truffle Festival, Piertralunga
11th - 12th October, Chestnut Festa, Morra
11th - 12th October, Truffle Produce Fair, Citerna
11th - 12th October, Chestnut Festival, S. Giustino
17th - 19th October, Chestnut Festival, Preggio
18th - 19th October, Autumn Festival. Truffle and Fruits of the Forest Festa, M.S.M. Tiberina
14th - 22nd October, Eurochocolate Festival, Perugia
19th October, Antique Market, Citta di Castello, Centro Storico
20th - 23rd October, Chocolate Fair, Gubbio
25th - 26th October, Endurance Championship of Italy, Motocross, Trestina
28th - 1st November, Festival of the Forests, Montone

10 Italian Coffee’s to get you started

For the tourist it is essential to understand the different types of coffee available in Italy. In between the simple British cup of coffee and the American Grande, “double half caf decaf, skinny and hold the foam“, there is a logical order of caffe. So when you are asked “Mi dica”, "tell me", here are your options to probably ensure you get the drink you desire.

1) Espresso or just caffe’ - Small, strong, black coffee in a little cup.
2) Caffe' lungo - As above but with more hot water.
3) Cappuccino - Espresso shot with milk and a foamy top to keep the heat in, coated in cocoa or cinnamon and served in a large cup. Normally a breakfast drink. The name comes from the Franciscan order called the Capuchin, who wore a beige pointed hooded cloak, a "cappuccio".
4) Caffelatte - Large milky coffee, normally delivered in a tall glass. Although it is common within the UK and America to refer to this drink as a Latte, in Italy this will get you a glass of milk.
5) Caffe Doppio - A double or long espressso shot.
6) Americano - Espresso, hot water and milk, meant to emulate peculated coffee for the American soldiers in the Second World War.
7) Caffe macchiato - Espresso shot with a dash of milk in, a "stained" coffee.
8) Ristretto - A very strong, small black coffee, a half-sized, double strength espresso.
9) Caffe’ Freddo - Espresso poured over ice to chill, ideal for a hot summer's day.
10) Caffe’ Corretto - Coffee with a shot of liqueur, but not for breakfast!

La Lollobrigida revisits stardom with sculpture show

Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida will be flashing her artistic talents in this Tuscan town, with an exhibition devoted to her sculpture.
Pietrasanta, a coastal town north of Lucca, is to showcase 30 bronze, marble and plastic sculptures by the actress.
The pieces will go on display later this month in the 14th-century Sant'Agostino Church, now an exhibition space, as well as outdoors in the central Piazza del Duomo.
The collection, the result of over ten years' work, is clearly inspired by the 81-year-old star's cinema career.
Many of the sculptures are portraits of her most famous screen characters.
A five-metre-high bronze statue, completed in 2002, will hold pride of place in Piazza Del Duomo. This depicts La Lollo as the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn's Quasimodo in the 1957 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A marble statue recalls the role that first won her international acclaim, the headstrong ''La Bersagliera'' in Pane Amore e Fantasia (1953).
Another marble piece 'La Amica' pays tribute to Lollobrigida's friendship with Marilyn Monroe while living in Hollywood.
But the exhibit also highlights the Italian's concern with the wider world, with a piece entitled Il Mondo per i Bambini (The World for the Children), recalling her years of work with UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.
This is not the first exhibit of sculpture by La Lollo, who is an honorary citizen of Pietrasanta where she has had an artist's studio for the last ten years.
A travelling collection of her work wrapped up with an exhibition in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 2003.
But while her sculpting talents have only come to public light in recent decades, La Lollo has had a lifelong passion for art.
As a young woman, she set her heart on an artistic career, winning a valuable scholarship to study sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before turning to acting.
In April 2000 she told Parade magazine that she ''studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake''.
In 1992 she represented Italy at the Seville Expo with a sculpture entitled Living Together, showing a child on an eagle, intended to represent harmony between humankind and nature.
Then French president, Francois Mitterrand, complimented her on the piece, later awarding her the Legion of Honour for artistic merit.
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in Subiaco, a town near Rome. She first came to the attention of Italian film directors as a beauty queen, after coming third in the 1947 Miss Italy competition.
Her Hollywood breakout film was the 1953 John Houston movie Beat the Devil although today she is still best known for the ''Pane, Amore...'' series
She rose to fame on the back of her prototype Latin beauty and her short ''tossed salad'' hairstyle. A kind of curly lettuce was even named ''Lollo'' in her honour.
In the 1970s she drifted away from acting but became a highly successful photographer and photojournalist, once scooping an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The exhibition runs in Pietrasanta from September 20 until November 16, after which it will tour the US.

www.italymag.co.uk

ORIGINS of ROMAN NUMERATION

Book Review, albeit 21 years late!

A 108 page book, written in Italian, and delivered as a paper in 1902 at an historical association meeting in Terni, Umbria, and later first published in book form in Perugia in 1906, updated, enlarged, investigated and published by Sig.ra Maria Raffaella Trabalza in 1987, with research and help from Livia Giacardi and Clara Silvia Roero, investigative mathematicians.

L'Origine della Numerazione Romana, un'Ipotesi di Giuseppe Nicasi. Published by Edizioni dell'Arquarta, via Oberdan 49, Folignio, PG, Italia.

An amazing voyage of discovery from the land and the peasant farmers belonging to Giuseppi Nicasi in the Morra Valley of Umbria; to the north of Perugia; where the Etruscan system of numeration had continued; despite the various School Acts promulgated by the Italian state; well into the 20th Century.

I knew Nicasi's grandson, and have in fact purchased properties from him in the local area www.propertiesumbria.com

Grandfather Nicasi was puzzled by the system of counting used by his share-cropping "serfs" or contadini, and made notes regarding the symbols used. These notes, plus further investigation by Sig.ra Trabalza formed the basis for this book, first published 21 years ago.

Profusely illustrated and with an excellent bibliography. An excellent and intriguing volume.

John Tunstill

Medieval Festival - Citta di Castello 30 - 31 August

The local people of Centro Storico, Citta di Castello laid on an excellent weekend of Medieval exploration. The whole of the Campo quarter was decked out as if it had returned to the 1300s, with lots of stalls, taverna, exhibitions and activities for the family.

Throughout the evening you could watch knights and guards fighting, a falconry display and join in the street processions and singing as the locals all clad in tradtional costume entertained the crowds. There was everything from small furnaces, making swords and armour, potters and weavers, to travelling bands of street performers. Something for everyone, street archery for the kids, fortune tellers for mum, and dad could call over a host of wenches to quench his thirst!

This was neighbourhood watch at its best, with mock public executions, stocks and town guard to keep order, but trouble was never going to be an issue.

Umbrian Birth Certificate

Hello John,

My name is Ellana Fortuna, and I'm contacting with hope you might offer me advice. My cousin and I are trying to locate a copy of my great-grandfather's birth certificate. He was born in Capo D'Acqua outside of Asissi most likely in the Umbria region. We tried to obtain it through the services at myitaliancitizenship.com, but no luck. Do you know of any services that specialize in obtaining records throughout the Umbria region? My cousin speaks fluent Italian, so a local service would be just fine.

I would appreciate any advice you could offer, as this search is very important to us, as well as our Grandmother.

Best,

Ellana Fortuna

Ummmmmmm..........No, is the short answer. But each Comune has an office of Anagrafe, the local Register of births, deaths, etc etc. Try writing to them. Or maybe the local priest would help. Have you looked up family history researchers italy on Google?

Good luck, and we'll blog your letter, maybe sopmeone else knows.

John Tunstill