Authentic Pesto Sauce - International Day of Italian Cuisine January 17, 2011

Authentic Pesto Sauce from Liguria

Today is the 4th Annual International Day of Italian Cuisine.  To honor the date Genovese pesto was chosen as the official dish of the IDIC 2011, a worldwide celebration of authentic Italian food.

Pesto sauce of Genoa Italy, in the region of Italy is made with 7 ingredients: PDO Genovese basil, garlic, olive oil Riviera Ligure PDO, salt, pine nuts, pecorino and grana padano cheese. Pesto, an oily green sauce beloved by Italian food fans the world over may also soon have its own certification. Italy's Liguria region is seeking a European Union "STG" (Guaranteed Traditional Speciality) mark for pesto meeting strict criteria for genuine, Ligurian ingredients.

The seven ingredients of true pesto are all native to the liguria region.  PDO stands for Protected Designation of Origin, a European certification the Liguria region has already secured for locally produced basil and extra-virgin olive oil.

"With the STG designation we want to protect the seven ingredients of true pesto: PDO Genovese basil, garlic, olive oil Riviera Ligure PDO, salt, pine nuts, pecorino and grana padano cheese," said agricultural councilor Giovanni Barbagallo. "Defending the traditional pesto recipe from imitations is a priority for Liguria."

"We want to unite the name of Liguria with the territory's quality products, like pesto, as a fundamental strategy for tourism development through Ligurian culinary specialties," declared Genoa's tourism councilor Angelo Berlangieri.

The word "pesto" comes from "pestare", or to crush with a pestle and mortar, a reference to the original method for creating the Genovese sauce. Hence pesto is also known as "battuto genovese" or Genovese mince or mash. The pasta condiment was still rare in the days of legendary Genovese explorer Christopher Colombus, but had become well established by the 19th century.

IDIC's Pesto Day is officially sponsored by the Liguria Region, Grana Padano cheese, Genova Pasta and a consortium of olive oil makers, among others.

Over 2,000 participating restaurants in roughly 40 countries will honor real Genovese pesto January 17, and will even see pesto-based Ligurian specialties served on 14 ships of the Italian cruise company Costa Crociere. So get out and visit your local Italian restuarant for authentic pesto. And if you are lucky enough to be cruising with Costa this week, well buon appetito!

For more on authentic Italian food visit WebVisionItaly's Italian Cooking shows, including a video of how to make pesto sauce.

For more about cruises around Italy including Costa cruise itinerary click Italy cruises. To visit Cinque Terre, Genoa and other Ligurian destination click Italian Tourism Italy travel packages for independent Italy travel deals or click Italy tour packages for guided tours of Italy.

Italy Travel Arts Guide - Guide for Italy Cruise Shore Excursions and Italy Tours

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions happening January, February March Winter and Spring 2011. If you are on an Italy tour, Italy cruise or traveling in Italy you may want to add one of these Italy art exhibits to your Italy travel itinerary or Italy shore excursion.

ALBA - Fondazione Ferrero: Giorgio Morandi, The Essence of Landscape; 70 works; until January 16.

BARLETTA - Palazza Marra: Giuseppe De Nittis, 43 engravings; until January 16.

FLORENCE - Palazzo Vecchio: For The Love of God, Damien Hirst's famous diamond-encrusted skull in only third outing since creation in 2007; until May 1.

- Palazzo Strozzi: 'Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court'; 90 works in world's first monographic show; to January 23.

- Palazzo Pitti: Vinum Nostrum. The Art, Science and Myths of Wine in Civilisation; from prehistoric winegrowing to Dionysus cult, Etruscan, Roman use; show features oldest surviving wine container, on loan from Georgia; until April 30.

GENOA - Palazzo Ducale: 'Mediterranean, From Courbet to Monet and Matisse'; 80 mostly Impressionist works including Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Munch; until May 1.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: 'Salvador Dali', The Dream Draws Near'; 50 works, until January 30.

- Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Sandro Botticelli, all of his works in Lombardy museums brought together for first time; until February 28.

PADUA - Palazzo Zabarella: "From Canova to Modigliani, the Face of the 19th Century"; 100 portraits and sculptures; until February 27.

PASSARIANO (UDINE) - Villa Manin: 'Edvard Munch and the Spirit of the North'; 122 works; until March 6.

REGGIO EMILIA - city centre: 150 huge Italian flags marking 150th anniversary of Italian unity; until June 2.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: The Marvellous Years: Impressionism; 100 works from international museums including Monet and Pissarro, Sisley and Degas, Bazille and Renoir, Cezanne and Guillaumin, Morisot and Fantin-Latour, Gauguin and Van Gogh; until March 27.

- same venue: Caravaggio's first religious painting, The Ecstasy of St Francis, back in Italy for first time in 25 years from Wadsworth Museum, Hartford, as well as several contemporaries; until March 27.

ROME - Scuderie del Quirinale: '1861: The Painters of the Risorgimento', war scenes, Garibaldi's Red Shirts, leaders' portraits; to January 16.

- Vittoriano: 'Vincent Van Gogh, Timeless Landscape, Modern City'; 110 masterpieces in first major Rome show in 22 years; until January 30.

- Musei Capitolini: Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of a Musician (1490), loaned by Milan's Biblioteca Ambrosiana for first time ever; until February 27.

- Museo Fondazione Roma: Rome and the Ancient World, more than 140 paintings, sculptures, other works including loans from Prado, Louvre, Hermitage, Victoria and Albert Museum showing how classical works fired the imagination of 18th-century Rome; until March 6.

- Palazzo Venezia: The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon; more than 400 works on Roman (up to Trajan) and Chinese (Qin and Han) empires, spanning second century BC to fourth century AD; marks Year of Chinese Culture in Italy and is paired with other exhibit at Roman Forum; until February 6.

- Palazzo delle Esposizioni: The City of the Gods, 450 artefacts from ancient Mexican site of Teotihuacan (2nd-century BC to 5th-century AD), once the largest city in pre-Columbian Americas; until February 27.

- Galleria Borghese: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Other Renaissance; 45 works from major international museums; until February 13.

- Chiostro del Bramante: Greats from the Veneto, 15th- 18th Century; Bellini, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto; 80 works from Accademia Carrara in Bergamo; until January 30.

SAN MARINO - Palazzo Sums: 25 Impressionist works including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir; until March 27, in tandem with Rimini show.

TRIESTE - Castello di Miramare: Giorgio De Chirico, 70 paintings and 20 sketches; until February 27.

TURIN - Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Chiablese, Castello di Racconigi: "Vittorio Emanuele II: The Gentleman King"; new documents, pictures on life of Italy's first post-unification king; until March 13.

VENICE - Palazzo Grimani: Hieronymous Bosch, Vision of the afterlife (1500-1503), Triptych of Saint Liberata (1505) and Triptych of the Hermits (1510); until March 20.

Click Italy tour packages for guided tours of Italy or click Italy travel packages for independent Italy travel deals.  For Mediterranean cruises to Italy ports call and for cruises from Italy click Italy cruises.

Italy Travel Agent Sells More Than Best Italy Tour Packages

While growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, in a family of proud Americans I was
introduced to the Italian culture and Italy from my family, having one great-grandmother from Ischia, a great-grandfather from Roccamonfino, a grandfather from Naples, a grandmother Mimi from Abruzzo, and another grandmother Mina from Rome.

Justin Del Sesto at a Prosciutto di Parma factory

As a child I was given the best of Italian culture, which included waking weekend mornings to an opera filled home with the smell of garlic and onions on the stove ready for the tomatoes wafting through the halls. Our family culture also included learning to play piano and cello with Mina, Mimi teaching me to recite poetry, learning to play baseball and golf from my grandfather who also spoke five languages, going with my dad every Sunday to buy fresh ravioli, meat and freshly baked bread, with one extra loaf to eat on the way home as our little secret, then learning to cook every Sunday afternoon from Mimi, Mina and my Mom before sitting down at the extended dining room table for long and delicious lunches around which I learned about art, literature, poetry, politics and the world.

Ron Del Sesto and Andrea Bocelli

It was on my first Italy tour with my dad, who is also an Italian diplomat, that I knew I wanted to pursue a career in Italy travel. We are not only proud Americans but we are also Italians - dual passport-holding citizens of both the USA and Italy (I am also a resident of Argentina and hold a Mercosur passport).

Prime Minister Romano Prodi & Ron Del Sesto

Arriving in Rome on my first Italy tour 30 years ago I followed my dad around Italy like a little duck.  Our family Italy tour started in Rome, where we strolled slowly through the streets of Rome's centro storico as if we had lived there for a lifetime. Zig-zagging our way through the ancient streets, just when I thought we were lost out came a story for what seemed every ancient cobblestone as we made our way to one hidden sight after the next, the Rome walking tour only pausing along the way when we stopped for an espresso, a new scarf, or a plate of pasta at a Roman trattoria on some tiny street where everyone was a local, and where we would meet family that still lives in Rome for a 3 hour lunch.

Getting Ready for a Tour of Tuscany

 I knew then I wanted to learn the streets, sights and stories as well as he. I knew that I wanted to bring others to Italy to experience a unique authentic insider's view of Italy. From Michelangelo's facade on Palazzo Spada to Borromini's trick hallway inside Palazzo Spada, just off the Campo de' Fiori, to the stories of Via Giulia, to the false dome inside Sant'Ignazio, to Chiesa di San Pietro and Bramante's Tempietto a perfect example of Renaissance Classic revival and High Renaissance architecture in Rome, to Bernini's and the Pope's Rome I wanted to learn the stories and share the stories with others on an Italy tour. 

I returned to Italy dozens of times since that first Rome holiday, experiencing every month and every season

Italian Tourism Cinque Terre Boat Tour

of the year, the smells. skies, and the seasonal menus, enjoying Piazza Navona at Christmas time and in July for the fashion shows, while taking cover from the rain and the sun inside the Pantheon while also seeing how the weather in Rome changes the hole in the center of its dome and learning how it inspired Brunellschi's Florence Duomo, eating lots of Gelato and taking many espresso searching for the best while enjoying the present, always visiting Pasquino on Via del Governo Vecchio for a reminder that politics and leaks are as old as people, insiders, and society. I've visited Cinque Terre in the pouring rain and the blazing sun, which weather paints a unique picture both beautiful in their own way. I knew that since my first tour of Italy Rome was a city I had to return and also would love to share its Italy's inside secrets, its gems, with others. But I also knew that although Rome had enough sights for a lifetime Italy is a country full of destinations to share with other travelers.

Dad doing interview for WebVisionItaly.com

I felt that others traveling to Italy would appreciate the enriched experience with unique local experiences our Italy travel agency would provide. And I felt that including the vast hidden treasures to off the beaten track destinations away from Rome's crowds is something people would value on an Italy tour.  So, we've designed our Italy tours to provide freedom and flexibility because to experience Italy properly it must be done slowly otherwise a traveler will miss the authentic Italian experience. Whether it is a 7 day tour or a 10 day Italy tour or three weeks on a grand Italy tour, Italian Tourism Italy tours are not a sprint through Italy. Our Italy tours are focused on sharing Italy so our travelers experience the sights of Italy and feel la dolce vita.

Planning an Italy vacation is an investment of time and money.  When you plan your Italy vacation or Italy

Justin Del Sesto filming interview for WebVisionItaly.com

cruise with Italian Tourism you have access to a family owned and operated Italy travel agency that will help you maximize your investment and protect your investment in your Italy vacation.  With Italian Tourism you have access to Italy travel agents that know Italy from the inside and know how to plan an Italy tour so that your Italy vacation gives you an authentic unique insider's view of Italy. Italian Tourism will guide you to visit Italy's hidden treasures to off the beaten track destinations away from crowds. You will experience Italy from the inside, taking away an enriched experience with unique local authentic experiences.  That is our promise and that is why when you contact Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 or by email (travel at italiantourism dot us) you are contacting an Italy travel agency that sells more than Italy cruises and Italy tour packages.

Trento Italy Art Travel - Modigliani Scultptures Brought Together in Trento

Trento Italy travelers will be lucky enough to have the opportunity to see the sculptures by Amedeo Modigliani that remain today in museums around the world united by the Trento and Rovereto Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) for the first show of its kind since the Italian artist's death in 1920. The exhibit near the northern city of Trento, outside Venice, which runs until March 27, displays about a third of his known sculptural works, featuring loans from museums such as Washington's National Gallery of Art, London's Tate and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Modigliani, born in Livorno in 1884 in the Italian port city of Livorno, famous for its canals on Tuscany's coast known by Italy cruise travelers for its Italy cruise port, where Italy cruise shore excursions typically visit Florence and Pisa, is far better known for his portrait paintings, which are identifiable by their mask-like, asymmetrical faces and elongated form. For a brief interval though, from 1911 to 1913, Modigliani dedicated himself entirely to sculpture.

In 1909, Modigliani returned home from Paris to Livorno. Modigliani was sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi.

Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, by 1914 he abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty in acquiring sculptural materials due to the outbreak of World War I, and by Modigliani's physical debilitation.

MART museum curators argue his sculptures represent an under-recognized, seminal period of artistic development, when Modigliani evolved beyond the post-impressionism of his early work to the distinct expressionism that characterized his pieces after 1913. The exhibit features a series of elongated stone heads that bear a striking resemblance to archaic, oriental and tribal art in their simple, highly stylized form. The curators, who worked for six years on the exhibit, verified through extensive research that Modigliani completed 28 sculptures, three more than previously ascribed to him. The show also strives to reconstruct Modigliani's life and influences, retracing the marks of critics, collectors and other artists as well as cultural fashions of his time. Drawings, paintings and sculptures place Modigliani's heads in context, such as an early version of Constantin Brancusi's sculpture The Kiss, oriental sculptures of gods from the seventh and eighth centuries, and a 15th-century marble bust of Battista Sforza by Francesco Laurana, which Modigliani used as a model. Modigliani's portrait of Pablo Picasso, completed in 1915, is also on display, as is a nude by Picasso from 1907.

In life, Modigliani exhibited his sculptures only once, selecting a group of seven heads for the Salon d'Automne of 1912.

To many, Modigliani came to represent the tragic figure of the Bohemian artist. His life inspired nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films. Although he frequented the artistic avante-gard in Paris, where he lived from 1906 to 1920, Modigliani developed a style entirely his own, never falling in step with Fauvism or Cubism.

Modigliani, Picasso & Salmon

Friends who posed for Modigliani's characteristic portrait paintings include Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Diego Rivera, although Modigliani's reputation as a major artist soared only after his premature death from tubercular meningitis at the age of 36. Prey to self-destructive indulgences in hashish and alcohol, Modigliani was as well known during his life for erratic behavior as he was for his talent. He died destitute, when his young lover, Jeanne Heburterne, was nine months pregnant with their second child. Two days after his death, she plunged from a fifth-storey window, killing herself and their unborn child. During his career, Modigliani only pulled off a single one-man show, which was shut down for obscenity shortly after opening, as it featured a number of nudes. A Modigliani nude fetched $42.7 million (42.7 million euros) at auction last November in New York City, setting a new price record for his work. Other Modigliani paintings have recently sold for tens of millions of dollars.

The MART exhibit represents the first major effort to rehabilitate Modigliani's sculptural work since four high school students and a dockworker dumped fake Modigliani heads in a Livornese canal in 1984. The falsified sculptures were found by workers dredging for lost work by the artist, who was rumored to have tossed away pieces in a moment of despair. Art critics who embraced the discoveries saw their reputations dented when the hoax was revealed, and Modigliani's sculptures have suffered a dearth of attention since.

For more on the Italian Arts click WebVisionItaly Italy Arts channel. Click to sign up for our Italy travel newsletter by entering email address in left column below the Italy destinations. If you would like to visit Trento for the Modigliani exhibit contact Italian Tourism Italy travel agents who have all inclusive Italian vacation packages to visit Venice and Trento, as well as Florence and Rome.  If you prefer a Italy cruise contact our Italy travel agents for a cruise from Venice that includes the Modigliani exhibit in its Italy cruise tour.

Top Spring Break Destinations for 2011

So where are the deals? One place to look is the all-inclusive vacation package, especially ones that include alcohol and food. Surprisingly, another place to look is the cruise industry. The cruise industry has been hit hard in recent years, thanks to a few highly public accidents and the recession, so this is a great time to get a deal on a cruise.

Here are some of the most popular Spring Break destinations this year:

    * The Bahamas
    * Panama City, Florida
    * Mazatlan, Mexico
    * Cancun, Mexico
    * Acapulco, Mexico
    * Las Vegas, Nevada
    * South Padre Island, Texas

Of course, for students looking to save some money, some of the best deals and the most fun can be had at destinations that aren't so popular. Consider taking a road trip with friends, or camping, or hanging out in a big city and taking advantage of student discounts.

To get you thinking about alternatives to the beach vacation, here are some more cheap Spring Break travel ideas. And here's a growingly popular Spring Break idea that makes a lot of sense during a recession: devoting your break to volunteer work. Here's more about alternative Spring Breaks for charitable causes.
Spring Break Safety and Travel Scams

For many students, Spring Break is an unforgettable rite of passage – but it can also be a very dangerous adventure if things don't go right! Excessive alcohol consumption and binge drinking can result in real safety problems, like sexual violence or being robbed. In addition, students are perceived by criminals as easy targets, so it's important to use good common sense when it comes to securing your property. Here's a basic guide to Spring Break safety tips to keep your trip memorable for the right reasons.

And speaking of criminals taking advantage of students, here's something bargain-hunting students really need to be aware of: travel scams. Some travel packages really are too good to be true. Here's what students need to know about Spring Break travel scams, and here are some Spring Break travel tips to help you venture safety to, from, and around your destination.

Spring Break can be expensive and dangerous – but it doesn't need to be if you use common sense and take the time to make some money-saving plans. Hopefully these tips will help you have a happy and unforgettable vacation. Happy Spring Break 2011!

Source at http://www.suite101.com/

Italy Holidays- Epiphany

Epiphany January 6 celebration and festivals around the Magi.


To plan your vacation to Rome click for Rome holidays.

Italian Tourism has the best Rome Italy pre-cruise tours and Rome Italy post-cruise tours.

Italian tourism also specializes in Italy cruise tours from Rome. For a Italy cruise from Rome click Rome cruise.

If you'll be on a Rome cruise 2011 be sure to visit the Roman forum. Click for January Rome cruises 2011.

Rome Holiday Season-Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona Rome Italy Christmas

To plan your vacation to Rome click for Rome holidays.

Italian Tourism has the best Rome Italy pre-cruise tours and Rome Italy post-cruise tours.

Italian tourism also specializes in Italy cruise tours from Rome. For a Italy cruise from Rome click Rome cruise.

If you'll be on a Rome cruise 2011 be sure to visit the Roman forum. Click for January Rome cruises 2011.