Who knows what Duchamp, a famous exponent of the French avant-garde, would think if he had seen us busy around a toilet, wanting to reproduce a new ‘Fountain’ – his ready-made work/urinal, created by the artist in 1917. The original piece, which was widely known for its sensation, was lost. Today only copies are preserved in various museums around the world.
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The exhibition “The Great Illusion” set up at the Crociani Civic Museum – Pinacoteca in Montepulciano, offers a visual and conceptual exploration of the reflections of the artist Tomaini on the impact of modern technologies on contemporary society.
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We are with the newly elected Councillor for Culture Roberto Trabalzini for our, now customary, appointment with Torrita di Siena: its ancient history, unspoiled nature and the many events that the city associations have been carrying out with enthusiasm, for decades, together with the Municipal Administration.
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“Phase two of this newly branded ‘Terme Miele’, which we have called ‘water’ – he continues – will see the commissioning of two therapeutic whirlpools, two private soaking tubs for specific bath oil and salt treatments and an anti-gravity mini-pool”. The architecture of the new Spa will recall a beehive, combining well-being with the prodigious magic world of bees and honey inspired treatments.
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My work arises from a constant dialogue between ideal forms and the material that expresses them, a process that is not purely instinctive nor totally rational. It is a fusion of intuition and reflection, in which natural laws and ideas meet, with geometry marrying to living form. I do not try to separate these aspects, because I believe that beauty emerges precisely from this synthesis between ideal perfection and material imperfection, between thought and gesture.
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While one morning at the beginning of June I am absent-mindedly going through the mass of emails on my laptop, I come across the formal and enthusiastic message from Chris Romani – who invites me to visit ‘Poggio Paradiso’, a recently renovated accommodation facility on the hilly spurs overlooking Torrita di Siena, along the road that leads to Pienza and Valdorcia: “Come to us, I would like you to see and touch the care and love that we have put into our project, to which we have completely dedicated ourselves.”
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In 1991 he set up the art workshop La Scultura di Andrea Roggi, where he has been crafting his sculptures from start to finish and, with the help of his assistants, he manages to create large-sized yet finely detailed pieces. Bronze is the material he chose, which he puts through the lost-wax casting process to finally transform the clay models into masterpieces.
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Today we are oriented towards the selection of mainly foreign markets and operators, wanting to consolidate the relationships already undertaken at an international level. Using a winemaking metaphor, the last decade has really made us ‘mature’ thanks to the creation of the ‘Private Collection’ which has decisively raised the target audience with high-profile wines, also dragging with it the ‘Classic’ line.
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In Montepulciano there have been many handicraft productions, stories of local productions that, handed down over time, have contributed to creating a real history of tradition and culture. Visiting the artisan workshops of Montepulciano is a bit like taking a journey through history: here, women and men adapt a thousand-year-old tradition to the contemporary, made up of specialized practices and techniques starting from the elements that mother nature has granted.
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The Belli butcher’s shop is renowned for its artisanal and traditional workmanship, from cured meats and hams of its own production to fresh pork and the prized ‘Cinta Senese’ breed; from Chianina veal to ‘Porchetta’. The typical ‘agliata’ is made following the ancient custom: with farmer’s wine, strictly fresh garlic and pepper. Fennel is used to flavour other cuts and modernity is supported only in the reduced use of salt. On the counter or hanging, on the ceiling and on the walls, we can also find specialties of all kinds such as loins, ‘capocolli’, ‘rigatini’ and ‘gota’ and “L’Imbrogliona”, a typical Tuscan salami flavoured with fennel, ‘sopressata’ and ‘buristo’, marinated pork, ‘coppiette’, ‘bresaola’, truffle salami; as well as wild boar derivatives such as thigh, loin, capocollo, salami and cured sausage. The raw material, selected by the patron Alfiero as we said, comes entirely from local farms.
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An undoubtedly romantic and dreamy restaurant, whose atmosphere seems to be set to music by Puccini’s Turandot: housed in the historic ‘belly’ of the Tuscan village in a stately palace of late medieval origin, in the well-known square in front of the Signorelli Theatre, we get to know it with a happy soul and curiosity. We are with Daniela Polezzi, chef from Cortona from ‘inside the city walls’, and Maurizio Menci who – with his third level AIS – is a sommelier of rank, increasingly well-known connoisseur of the world of truffles.
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Jutta was born in Coblenz in the Rhineland in Germany during the War, and went to study art and design in Dusseldorf. She had always dreamed of leaving Germany to travel, and spent a year abroad studying and working in Rome. When, after 6 years of art school, the possibility to spend a period in South Africa working for a textile company presented itself, the young Jutta jumped at the opportunity.
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Bruno and Marisella Batinti, after several productive years of hospitality experience with their business “Le Torri di Porsenna” (named for Chiusi’s ancient and powerful Etruscan king) found a new and inspiring site for their country house in Petrignano del Lago, in the Comune of Castiglione del Lago. Overlooking the rolling hills and vineyards near to Lake Trasimeno, the new location for their country house and working vineyard is well named, as it is certainly fit for a king.
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Founded in July of 1937 as a cooperative of fourteen local winemakers who banded together to facilitate both the production and the sales of their wines. Vecchia Cantina bottled its first wine in 1940 during the war. After the difficult war years, in the 1950’s and the reorganization of the lands, the Vecchia Cantina acted as a driving force for wine production in the area, a role that they cover to this day with the over 400 member vineyard owners and over a thousand hectares of vineyards producing around seven million bottles of wine annually.
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The oldest part of the house, the central tower, goes back to the 15th century, its original incarnation being a watchtower protecting Tuscany’s flank with Papal Umbria. It became a house when two wings to the left and right of the tower were added in 1771 by the Tommasi family, whose coat of arms adorns a large stone set into the wall above the main door.
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At the end of the Val D’Esse, nestled under the hill separating Tuoro and Lake Trasimeno from the countryside below Cortona sits the tiny hamlet of Piazzano. Just inside the border of Umbria, it is surrounded by farmland, olive terraces and woodland. This ancient area may have gotten its name during the famous battle between the Carthaginian general Hannibal and Roman consul Gaius Flaminius in 217 B.C.E. when it is thought the Roman contingent set up a military camp there with a “piazza d’armi” or a parade ground.
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