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, August 8, 2010

Sunday Song - Paola and Chiara

 

Image courtesy of : http://www.tuttoperinternet.it/musica/italiani/Paola_Chiara.htm

Paola & Chiara are a pop and dance music duo consisting of two sisters born in Milan, Italy and are a little different from the more recent Sunday Song artists I have featured previously as these two young ladies are often referred to as Italy's Sexy Pop Stars.   Chiara Iezzi was born on 27 February 1973, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Paola Iezzi was born on 30 March 1974, with dark hair and a darker complexion.  I think that this first song that I have included is particularly reminiscent of hot August nights, parties and Italian beach music. 'Vamos a Bailar'- 'Let's Dance'  which last summer was declared the most popular single of the last two decades.


Paola & Chiara - Vamos a Bailar - Let's Dance

Italian Version

Courtesy of  Onikimaru

Paola & Chiara - Vamos a Bailar - Let's Dance - Sung mainly in English

 

Courtesy of Rafeker

 

Clicca qui per scoprire le date!

 

Paola e Chiara - Summer Tour 2010 Official Promo video - "Pioggia d'Estate"  "Summer Rains" the new single

 

The information reproduced here is courtesy of My Space - Paola and Chiara with a few tweaks to the language translation by me.

Sisters, singers, song writers, and producers of their disks, Paola & Chiara made themselves known to the public by winning the 1997 Sanremo Festival in the “new artists” category with 'Amici come Prima', a song composed by them, quickly becoming the Italian pop revelation of the year. At the same time, their first album, 'Ci Chiamano Bambine', was released. That same year, they opened the only Italian date on the Michael Jackson tour at the San Siro stadium in Milan. They participated at Festivalbar with their summer single 'Bella'.

In the autumn/winter of 1997/98, they went on their first real tour: 20 dates in the most famous Italian rock clubs, accompanied by their band. In February 1998, they again performed at the Sanremo Festival,  presenting their song 'Per Te'. That November their second album 'Giornata Storica' was released, which had as its leading single 'Non Puoi Dire di No'.

In 2000 their third album, 'Television', was released, anticipated by the single 'Vamos a Bailar (Esta Vida Nueva)', a platinum disk that took victory at Disco per l'estate and Festivalbar and had an enormous international success; the song literally took a trip around the world. From Television came three other singles: 'Amoremidai', 'Viva el Amor' and 'Fino alla Fine'.

In 2002 Paola and Chiara returned with their single 'Festival', that quickly took 1st place on the radio charts. The single anticipated the release of their fourth album, 'Festival'. That autumn 'Hey', the second single, was released.

Paola and Chiara returned with the song 'Kamasutra' in 2003, third and last single from the Festival album. The highly talked about video that accompanied the song was censored by almost all of the television stations for its erotic content. It did, however, become a success on the web, and was downloaded by more than a million users, during the summer of 2003.

In 2004, 'Blu' was released, their fifth album, and the year later their first Greatest Hits, which contained Paola and Chiara's greatest successes, was released.

After almost 2 years of absence, dedicated to research and some personal projects, Paola & Chiara Iezzi returned, in 2007, with the release of their first album in English, 'Win the Game'. It was their first album to be completely produced by the newly founded independent label of Paola & Chiara Iezzi: Trepertre Music. The project has a pop-dance sound, with new wave inspirations, and contains collaborations with some of the most famous DJs of the international scene. The single that anticipated the album was 'Second Life', while the one that accompanied the arrival of autumn was 'Cambiare Pagina'. The entire project supported, through its sales, the Raising Malawi association, that supports the orphan babies of Malawi. In 2008, Paola & Chiara released 'Vanity & Pride' as the last single from 'Win the Game'.

In the summer of 2009, to celebrate the success of 'Vamos a Bailar', which was declared as the lead summer single of the last two decades, an EP called 'Emozioni' was released digitally on iTunes platform.

In 2010 Paola & Chiara are ready to release their new studio album, due to be released this autumn. The first single released at the end of July is 'Pioggia d'Estate' which is available to download on iTunes. 

More biographical and career information can be found about the girls on both Wikipedia - Paola and Chiara and on their Official Website.

 

More Sunday Songs can be found by visiting 5 Minutes Just for Me

Buono Domenica Tutti

Friday, August 6, 2010

Friday Foto - August Blue

 

 Also posting this photo to Beautiful World today.

 

 Lago di Bolsena

 

Update on Dishwasher situation, as already mentioned here the engineer arrived two weeks ago today at exactly 8.30am as promised. That was the last we have seen of him since then, as apparently he is still waiting for the replacement part. Having been told it would be a few days or a week at the most we waited patiently. The date mentioned came and went and a phone call to the engineer has informed us that they are still awaiting delivery of the new part!

Frustrating but we must be patient, nothing much happens quickly in Italy especially in the summer and as it is August now, the factory that makes the parts is probably closed anyway.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Montefiascone - “Sagra della Salsiccia”(Sausage Festival)

 

This Festa was held in the grounds of the Villa San Giuseppe Località Mosse a suburb of Montefiascone one of our nearby towns perched high above the shores of the Lago di Bolsena with the most fantastic westerly views some of which I have posted before and I have also mentioned the town in recent posts such as Volo di Vino and Il Caminetto both favourite places of ours which are in Montefiascone.

The " Sagra della Salsiccia" took place over the weekend of July 24/25th and as one of our daughters and her boyfriend were staying with us at the time, we decided to go along with them plus another couple of friends on the Saturday evening to enjoy the festivities. As you can see from the photos it was held in a beautiful setting high above the lake.  The atmosphere was lively with a real cross section of age groups with traditional Italian music with an accordion player as entertainment. After our sausage supper some of us even joined in with a little dancing, embarrassing for some members of our party maybe.  A fun and light hearted evenings entertainment with delicious food at low cost.  Yet another example of the Italians knowing how to enjoy themselves.

Villa San Giuseppe.

Unusually at this Sagra having purchased your food tickets and wine you then found yourself a table. The food tickets were collected from you and the food delivered to you at the table. No queuing for your food at this one.

 

Bread, Mini Salami Sausages, Pasta, Sausage Chop and Chips, then ice cream for dessert all for 15 Euros.

Sunset that evening as viewed from the Sagra location high above Lago di Bolsena.

Music and dancing under the stars.

 

I have also included here an excellent video from YouTube of Montefiascone to give you more of an idea of the locality.

Courtesy of mhanas

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Top Ten Posts from the Bloggers in Italy

 

 

This week I have been honoured with a lovely compliment by the following blog

italytutto – the blog about the blogs and bloggers in italy

This blog does a fantastic job of keeping track of bloggers in Italy

top 10 posts from the bloggers in Italy

The choice of the posts from the bloggers in Italy this week (in alphabetical order):

  1. At Home in Tuscany: Velvet Encounters
    The power of the web
  2. Experience Tuscany: Porto Azzurro on Elba
    One of the most beautiful harbours on Elba
  3. Friends and Family in Italy:  Another Moth
    Big!
  4. Italian Cycling Journal: Who was the first American to ride in the Giro d’Italia?
    Overlooked in his homeland
  5. Madonna del Piatta: Pickled watermelon rind
    Fusion with prosciutto or pecorino
  6. News from Italy: Our garden in July
    Beautiful!
  7. Path to Self Sufficiency: Wild food of the month July – the pine kernel
    So that’s why they are so expensive
  8. Rome Photo Blog: Even more invaders
    Space invaders in Rome
  9. Rubber Slippers in Italy: From vineyard to bakery – grape seed flour
    Pane di vitigna
  10. Tuscanycious: Tuscan Food Products Google Map
    The DOP and IGP products mapped.

 

This excellent blog is maintained by a freelance writer with wide experience who first started writing this blog at the beginning of 2009 to keep track of all her favourite bloggers in Italy.

At the beginning of 2010, she made a lifestyle choice and gave up full-time corporate life to spend more time at her home in Lunigiana in Northern Tuscany, she now divides her time between Italy and the UK.

I enjoy reading this feature on a regular basis and through italytutto have discovered lots of great blogs on Italy which I hope some of you will now maybe discover for yourselves.