Welcome Everyone.

Welcome to News From Italy, my blog about our Italian Adventure. Although this blog has now ceased publication I will be continuing to blog and I am sincerely hoping that my many followers here will move with me to Travel Tales blog to follow my next adventures wherever they may take me. The links to my other blogs are:-


I look forward to keeping in touch with you via them, thanks once again for all the support you have given 'News From Italy' over the years.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Foligno, Perugia.

Foligno is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunnoriver system. It is located 40 km (25 mi) south-east of Perugia, 10 km (6 mi) north-north-west of Trevi and 6 km (4 mi) south of Spello.

When we went off to Assisi for our celebration weekend last month we decided to stop and take a stroll round the town of Foligno en route. Our guidebook had nothing at all to say about this Umbrian town, but you can find out more by checking out the Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia Foligno. It was indeed very quiet when we were there but it is not a town that I imagine is on the average tourists list. If you want to see something of the real Italy is is worth a visit.

I was planning to share some collages of our visit, but as you will read further on this is not going to happen, so sharing some individual photos instead. The full album can be viewed at Flickr.com. 
Umbria Weekend Foligno April 2012







My apologies for the rather unimaginative post, but once again I am working from the iPad which has limited ability for posting as it does not support Adobe Flash Player. I am now taking another enforced blogging break until my VAIO has been fully repaired. There was a setback as it needs to be reprogrammed with all the specific Sony VAIO features. 

If you are able to do so please join me on the Facebook page for News From Italy, the link can be found in the sidebar, where I am continuing to share snippets of  News From Italy.

This post is published on News From Italy and Travel Tales. Back soon I hope!


Monday, May 21, 2012

Musical Moment - Momento Musicale - Eurovision 2012 - Nina Zilli - Italian Entry



Eurovision 2012 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan this year when 43 countries will be taking part in the 57th contest. The semi finals are to be held on the 22nd and the 24th of May with the grand final next weekend on the 26th of May. 


The Italian entry L'Amore E'Femmina (Out Of Love) is to be performed by Nina Zilli. The Italians have great expectations for their entry as they were runners up in 2011. I wrote a post about this last year Eurovision Song Contest 2011Nina will be performing in the second of the semi finals.


Part of L'Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love) is in English, when Nina was asked why she did not sing completely in Italian. She answered 'I decided to sing in English, I like people to understand what I'm saying. If I sing completely in Italian, a lot of people wouldn't be able to keep up with the lyrics, and it is important for me that they can.' 
Dare I say that I actually prefer 'Per Sempre' which she sang at San Remo earlier this year and was originally planned to be the Italian entry, I will maybe share it here another time.


Nina Zilli -Profile




Born and named Maria Chiara Fraschetta on February 2nd 1980 in Piaceneza, Italy. She spent part of her education in Ireland learning English, returning to finish her education in Italy and then spending a couple of years in the USA.  In 2009 she took the stage name of Nina Zilli combining her mother's surname with that of a favourite artist Nina Simone.  I first featured her here on News from Italy in a Sunday Song feature in July 2010 when I mentioned I thought we might hear more of her after she had done well at San Remo earlier in the year.
Sunday Song - Nina Zilli


During the San Remo Music Festival 2012 Nina  was chosen to represent Italy in theEurovision Song Contest 2012 


The Italians have already arrived in Baku for rehearsals, photos and other information can be viewed on the official Eurovision website along with details of all the other participants and which of the semi finals they are performing in.
This is a video of the first rehearsal courtesy of  the Eurovision website and I must say I am not at all convinced that this is the winner that Italy is hoping for, but you never know!  Eurovision is always an extremely unpredictable event and to be honest I am often not impressed with the entries. 
Published on 19 May 2012 by 
The second video shows part of her second rehearsal plus an interview with her which is interesting.
Published on 20 May 2012 by 
Do let me know your thoughts on Italy's entry. Do you think they stand a chance?  I have not yet listened to entries from any other countries although I have heard that the UK have Engelbert Humperdink performing their entry.

You may also be interested in learning more about the host country by checking out the comprehensive information pages on the Eurovision site for Azerbaijan and the host city of Baku
With thanks to the following websites for information that helped me to compile this post.
Eurovision 2012  YouTube - Nina Zilli    Facebook - Nina Zilli    Official Website - Nina Zilli and Wikipedia


If you are interested in listening to music from around the world, I recommend this blog which I have linked with for music posts many times in the last few years and am happy to be doing so again today.



NatashaInOz - Sunday Song


Finally I would also like to pay my respects to the people of Italy that have suffered during  this sad weekend that Italy has experienced, I have not written separate posts about the bombing in Brindisi or the earthquake in Northern Italy but you can find related up to date news items of interest on my News From Italy FB Page.  Please consider visiting this Public Page and sharing your thoughts, thankyou.







Thursday, May 17, 2012

Assisi - Through My Camera Lens




On April 22nd 1972 David and I got married and came to Italy for our honeymoon, as we had already developed a shared love of this beautiful country. We decided that we would like to celebrate this years special Ruby Wedding Anniversary and forty years of marriage quietly just the two of us.
We chose Assisi as somewhere we would like to spend a few days. We spent two nights there at the Hotel Pallotta which I have posted about specifically on my Travel Tales blog. It was the perfect choice, not very far away from us to drive but rather than do a tourists rush exploration we had time to stroll around and soak up the atmosphere, which I hope to share with you via this selection of photographs. We did visit a couple of other Umbrian towns on the way to Assisi and on the way home again which I hope may be the subjects of other posts sometime.


If you are interested in more photos from the weekend they can be viewed in my Flickr Albums Umbria Weekend - April 2012 



                                                                Hotel Pallotta

Assisi is a town and local commune (council area), in the province of Perugia in the region of Umbria on the western slopes of Monte Subasio at 400 metres. The town is built of white and rose coloured stone and has retained its charm for many centuries with its narrow steep and winding roads. Despite the many tourists, wander away from the main areas and you are taken back to another era.



Famous as the birthplace of St Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in Assisi in 1208 and St Clare who formed the Poor Sisters, later known as the Order of the Poor Clares.   Assisi contains many examples of  the genius and creativity of the human race stretching right back to the Middle Ages, so it is no surprise that since 2000 the town has been listed on Unesco's World Heritage List.
As mentioned earlier this collection of collages of my photos are casual shots taken during our wanderings so I have left them unlabelled for informality. The main tourist attractions are all easily identified from guidebooks in print and on-line for those of you not already familiar with the town. My intention is just to try and share some of the atmosphere via the photos not provide a historical or factual post.
There are plenty of sources for those of you that are interested in reading more about the history of Assisi, stating with Wikipedia and Assisi Online.











 That is the end of the Assisi tour as seen through the lens of my camera, which I hope has been of interest.


Assisi Coat of Arms with thanks to Wikipedia, the rest of the photos are my own from My Flickr Photo Albums Umbria Weekend - April 2012 


I have decided that I will also publish posts that are about our travel within Italy on my other blog Travel Tales as it is attracting a different selection of readers.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Our Garden in April - Il Nostro Giardino in Aprile

My Vaio computer is still at the repair shop for the second time as the repairs carried out at the end of April have unfortunately not resolved the issue. I have so much to share with you on my blogs and a busy time ahead with friends arriving tomorrow, I decided that I had to find a way to try and write posts via my iPad.Here I am then having purchased a special app called Blogsy which means I can at least publish some basic posts, no fancy collages. We are already well ino May but I know from statistics how popular my garden posts are, so I amsharing with you today a few of my favourite photos taken around the garden during April. For those of you that are keen gardeners and or photographers the full set can be viewed in my album on Flickr.com entitled Our Garden in April 2012. I have unsuccessfully tried to insert this as a link, sorry.

Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the photos. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully I will be back soon posting from my Vaio.

Camellia
Apple Blossom
Lilac
Viburnum Snowball Tree about to bloom.
The Magnolia tree looking very sick with few blooms.

Walnut Tree.