Italian Truth Magazine

the magazine for Italians in New York

tutto grazie a woody allen

78

The big movie star changed her life for the better by talking to her dad.

Pain and Joy of Dreamworld

86

An old-fashioned modern spin off of the classic LA Dreamer love story.

Snow and Dolomites

94

The beauty of spending your cold winter days in the most beautiful views.

quiet poems

106

The art of photogrphy and storytelling by Matilde Minauro.

table of content

December2016

Lenses Discover our favorite movies right now.

3 8

Textile World Discover the latest fashion trends.

9

Culinary World Find your home tastes in the big city.

17

Eargasm Find out about our music crushes.

Eye Candy Discover the latest book releases.

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Wanderlust City of the month

45

Meet Us Discover our meeting times in Italy and NYC.

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contributors

merry

Helpers Francesca Linati What is your biggest craving?

Oh...definitely my grandmother's lasagna! That was the best! francescalinati@gmail.com

Gianpiero Petriglieri How do you survive the cold days?

By curling up on my sofa with a good book and a hot cup of tea. gianpiero@petriglieri.it

Roberta Esposito How will you spend the holidays?

With my family back home. I haven't been back for about a year and i miss everyone. resposito@gmail.com

Our famiglia PUBLISHER Adeline Tafuri Jurecka EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lois Anzelowitz Levine DESIGN DIRECTOR Arianna Montana EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Angelina Hernadez ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cecilia Rodriguez ASSISTANT EDITOR Alessia Amoruso PHOTO EDITOR Donna Leon WRITERS Roger Kimmell Anne Morra Roger Cilantro Vito Montedoro PRESIDENT SALES DEVELOPMENT Giorgio De Castro DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES Federico Iarlori SENIOR SALE MANAGER Allen Fink CIRCULATION&EVENTS MANAGER Gabrielle Santo CLIENT SERVICES MANAGER Dyxa Cubi ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Sarabeth Brusati MARKETING EDITOR Katie Labovitz SENIOR MARKETING DESIGNER Marisa Bairros WEBMASTER Lynn Rickert MARKETING INTERN Natalie Colon BUSINESS MANAGER Sandra Azor SENIOR CREDIT MANAGER Daniel Finnegan NEW YORK OFFICE 109 Park Avenue, 10th Floor New York, NY 10010 ITALY OFFICE Piazza Castello, 27 20121 Milano, IT

Giorgia Pagani What do you love about Christmas?

A thousand percent the crib.

I love decorating the house. giorgiapagani@outlook.com

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PHONE 2125573010 WEBSITE www.itmagazine.com EMAIL lastname@itmagazine.com

italian truth

letter to editor

The art of

Christmas W

hen it comes to Christmas traditions, celebrations and, most importantly, la famiglia, there is no other place in the world quite like Italy. It is a great place to be at Christmas time, as the colorful ways and traditions in which the festival is celebrated captivates many. Over the years I have been fortunate and blessed to have experienced and witnessed the celebrations and events that occur throughout Italy during this very special time of the year.

Christmas in Italy means a season of celebrations and not just celebrating one particular day. If you are weary of how commercialized Christmas has become in the United States, Italy would be a lovely change of pace. Shying away from the commercial, which seems to overwhelm us here in the USA, Christmas in Italy is really about the joy of family. Children in Italy do not write letters to Santa. Rather, they write letters to their parents, telling them how much they love and appreciate them. The letters are placed under the father's plate for the Christmas Eve dinner and ceremoniously read after the meal. Christmas season in Italy is traditionally celebrated from Christmas Eve through the Epiphany (January 6).This follows the pagan season of celebrations that started with Saturnalia, a winter solstice festival, and ended with the Roman New Year.

The Italian Christmas season generally lasts three weeks beginning with the Novena, the eight days before Christmas. This is a period of celebration when music fills the air. Young musicians go around playing their musical instruments, singing Christmas carols and reciting Christmas poems. Preparations for the Christmas holiday are begun in earnest by families during the Novena.

Alessandra D'attoma 12

italian truth

Highlight Fall in love with Italy's superhero. festival Italian movies releases in the big apple.

Throwback Movies you might have forgotten about.

lenses Discover our favorite movie of the moment.

December 2016 • italian truth 15

b y Ro g e r K i m m e l l

Italy finally has its very own superhero with Gabriele Mainetti’s new movie "They call me Jeeg Robot".

our superhero

cinema • highlight

T

he 1970s cartoon series “Steel Jeeg,” created

by Go Nagai, has long been popular in Italy, so it’s not so odd that scripters Nicola Guaglianone and Menotti (the pen name of Roberto Marchionni) chose the character to hang their story on. In fact, pretty much everything here balances on the edge of believability, apart from the powers of protag Enzo (Claudio Santamaria), which is why the pic works so well. While it doesn’t conjure the understated magic of last year’s “Vincent,” “They Call Me Jeeg” fits into a new, distinctive brand of European superhero film, creatively playing with the rehashed formulas that persist in U.S. productions.

An attractive drone shot over Rome leads to a chase sequence, with watch thief Enzo escaping from the cops by way of the Tiber River. While in the water, he steps onto a toxic waste drum and becomes submerged in muck; once back in his rundown apartment, he vomits viscous liquid.

Though he feels like crap, he joins neighbor Sergio (Stefano Ambrogi) to collect the goods from a couple of drug mules, but the pickup goes awry, Sergio is killed, and Enzo is blown off a nine-story building. Oddly enough, he’s only momentarily stunned and walks away.

The drugs belong to wannabe crime kingpin Fabio (Luca Marinelli), a one-time talent-contest runner-up with a hunger for fame and a psychopathic predilection for violence. But they really belong to Neapolitan Mafia queen Nunzia (Antonia Truppo), and unless Fabio gets the cocaine back or pays Nunzia off, he’s in big trouble. He and his gang invade Sergio’s place but only find his daughter, Alessia (Ilenia Pastorelli),

"A down-andouter with limited social skills, existing on a diet of pudding and porn movies"

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italian truth

a woman traumatized into the mental state of a 12-year-old. Enzo, who has no friends and barely knows Alessia, comes to her rescue by crushing Fabio’s posse, and the disturbed woman is positive he’s Jeeg Robot come to help humanity.

However, Enzo doesn’t give a damn about humanity — he’s a down-and-outer with limited social skills, existing on a diet of pudding and porn movies. Once he realizes his new strength, the first thing he does is rip a cash machine out of a wall, not knowing they’re designed to spray dye onto money removed illicitly. The surveillance video goes viral, infuriating Fabio, who’s beyond jealous of the celebrity status of this mystery “supercriminal,” as he’s nicknamed in the press. Battle lines are drawn between Enzo the reluctant savior and Fabio the sadistic nutjob, culminating in a gripping finale.

The script contextualizes it all via background news reports of presumed terrorist bombs, which puts the population in a state of heightened apprehension. There’s a hint that organized crime is responsible, sowing panic in the city so they can make sure politicians don’t step on their toes — a rather sensitive contemporary issue in Rome, since trials are underway in what’s known as the “Mafia Capital” scandal. Also topical is Fabio’s pathological hunger for fame, though in our reality show-obsessed world, that particular psychosis is hardly limited to Italy.

Ironically, debuting actress Pastorelli is a former “Big Brother” contestant, yet her performance in an extremely tricky role eliminates any thoughts of small-screen antics. Playing a woman-child is always dangerous, since it can so easily tip into simpering or just plain tedious.

cinema festival

Diva Homage Italy finally has its very own superhero with Gabriele Mainetti’s new movie "They call me Jeeg Robot".

b y A n n e Mor r a

E

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arly Italian cinema’s tradition of venerated screen goddesses (le dive) brought actresses such as Lydia Borelli, Pina Menichelli, and Francesca Bertini, with their theatrical stylings and dramatic postures, to national prominence. Yet melodramatic methods of acting soon shifted to a more realistic mode, spurred, perhaps, by the 1916 Futurist Cinema manifesto, which stated that “cinema is an autonomous art. The cinema must therefore never copy the stage.” Add to this the pragmatic directorial techniques of Italian filmmakers working during the Fascist regime of 1922–43 and a new cinematic language that often used nonprofessional actors and location shooting.

However, a new class of le dive arose in the wake of Fascism, with professional actresses portraying characters imbued with strength, determination, passion, moral outrage, self-possession, and proto-

italian truth

feminist leanings in a male- and church-dominated society. Not to mention their great beauty and grace in even the most unyielding situations.

These strong women, le grandi donne, are often taciturn members of family clans in which powerful men rule. But don't underestimate their nascent strength, growing as a formidable force in the quiet realms of home, bedroom, and church.

This series is an expansive survey of this generation of actresses—a prodigious lineup of talent including Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Silvana Mangano, Gina Lollobrigida, Giulietta Masina, and Monica Vitti—and the characters they developed, mirroring a rapidly changing Italian society. Drawn primarily from MoMA’s collection, these films offer a close-up look at how a select group of redoubtable actresses contributed to a modern language of screen performance.

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cinema ¡ throwback

White Christmas Italian comedies never disappoint and neither does this gem from 2006.

b y Ro g e r C i l a n t r o

This year's comedy Name: Natale al Sud Director: Federuci Marsicano Actors: Massimo Boldi Biagio Izzo Anna Tatangelo Paolo Conticini Debora Villa Release Date: Thurs Dec 1st, 2016 Plot Peppino, a policeman from Milan, and Ambroglio, a florist from Naples, along with beloved wives Bianca and Celeste, celebrate Christmas in the same resort town. It is during these holidays that the sets of parents discover that their children, Richard and Simon, are engaged with two peers: Giulia and Ludovica. All is well except that the four lovers...have never met in person!

Determined to put an end to this practice of "virtual love", that they just can not understand, Peppino and Ambroglio manage to convince the young lovers to participate in the annual event of "Cupid 2.0" app, where users met to make love blossom between young adults. But to make the plan will involve parents too! The event turns out to be a hellish pit where among former virtual users hunting for real love, an infatuated fashion blogger and a confused web influencers, the two couples' lost compass cripple in their marriages and the stories of the children. But we are so confident that the love stories of the past were more true than 2.0 today?

20

italian truth

atale a New York (Christmas in New York) is a 2006 Italian comedy film directed by Neri Parenti, with Christian De Sica and Massimo Ghini.

During the holidays of Christmas, three groups of funny characters depart from Italy to spend the Christmas season in New York.

Camillo is a penniless pianist who meets the fortune marrying a rich woman. However Camillo, although the happy living in comfort with a dependent daughter (Canalis), is still in love with Barbara, a Roman working with whom he had an affair. Barbara, however, is now married to Claudio, but this is segretely in love with the daughter of Camillo.

Dr. Severino Benci ships to New York his assistant Filippo, with a mandate to deliver a gift to his son Francesco, who studies in the most important university in the city.

But Francesco is a pleasure-loving slacker who opens an illegal trade of joints. Filippo covers both he and his friend Paolo, and he's having fun with them, while falls in love with a beautiful pompom girl. But Filippo shouldld marry with the love of his life.During the holidays of Christmas, three groups of funny characters depart from Italy to spend the Christmas season in New York. Camillo is a penniless pianist who meets the fortune marrying a rich woman. However Camillo, although the happy living in comfort with a dependent daughter.

Spotlight Discover our favorite emerging fashion designer. trends Winter 2016-2017 fashion trends.

Fashion 101 Our top 5 fashion tips of the month.

Textile world

Discover the latest fashion trends.

December 2016 • italian truth 23

fashion · spotlight

24

b y Vi t o Mon t e d or o

Find out about our fashion brand crush and her amazing designer.

emerging gold

F

rancesca Giglio was born in Brindisi, Puglia.

Since when she was a child she acts, dances, sings, paints and sketches.

When she is 14 she learns how to sew, perfectly, in a Fashion Professional Institute.

Turning 19 she moves to Milan for studying at the prestigious Fashion International Academy Marangoni Institute.

Working at the highest levels in large distribution, she specializes in prints. She is responsible for the graphic design of the label Just for You. In the meantime Francesca continues to explore. She acts and creates costumes for the theatre, she researches for harmony and beauty in the ballet, she loves fashion photography when it tells stories about life.

One day she urgently feels the need of going back to fabrics, modeling, and rather than say she does it .

She thinks that when you begin something, you have to start from the ground. Her roots. Where bauxite stone glitters between the fields. Where if you hear the echoes of “Pizzica”, a traditional music from Puglia, you leave everything and start following the rhythm of the music. An imperfect land, red, beating. As a woman.

Bauxite woman changes her mind so often that nobody can forecast her future.

She mixes vintage fabrics in a classic dress with dark details.

A woman with a gipsy glance. She let herself to be domesticated by the city like it was a patient lover, but her need to feel the sand between her fingers is so strong that she doesn’t think twice before throwing her heels into the sea.

Bauxite woman bites life as she has never eaten before. Her life isn’t a straight path.

Also for this reason, she loves Bauxite. She looks for pieces of her life in the design of her outfits: surprising seams, unexpected combinations, slits like wounds.

Her dresses reflect all the street she has gone through, layer on layer. For each of those she has chosen sounds, smells and shining colors, as when she was a child and she used to choose candies.

Bauxite woman, laught loudy when somebody call her “Woman” Bauxite woman: Tu-Tum. Look. TuTum. Scream. Tu-Tum. Touch. Tu-Tum. Listen. Tu-Tum.

1

MUSt HAVES

fashion • trends

2. Leather Jacket from from Asos($150)

1. Velvet Choker from TopShop ($15)

DO you know what never goes out of style? our tote Sells at $20 online at our site itmag.com

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2

Winter 2016-2017 fashion trends we are loving. b y Vi t o Mon t e d or o

3. Mustard Yellow Dress from Forever21 ($30)

3

4 itiitalian tatal alilian ali an trttruth ruth

5. Clutch/Crossbody from UO ($30)

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4. Over-the-knee Boots from Stuart Weitzman Highland ($800)

fashion 101

HElp needed

Our top 5 fashion tips of the month. b y A r i a n na M o n ta na

good shoemaker can fully 1 Arebuild your favorite pair, even if the arch is cracked.

2

3

Who has the time to hand wash bras?

Machine wash them in cold water in a mesh zipper bag and drape them over a hanger to air dry.

4

5 A modern trick to looking like the most effortlessly stylish girl in the room: Pair dressy bottoms (a velvet maxi, a leather or beaded skirt, silk pants) with a worn gray crew-neck sweatshirt or T-shirt.

italian truth

If you’re unsure about an impulse or sale purchase, leave it at the store. If you’re still thinking about it when you wake up the next day, buy it.

Hoop earrings are a classic style that every woman—regardless of age— should have, but the type depends on your face. If you have a thin face, go for larger round or embellished hoops. If you have a round face an elongated hoop or drop style is best.

fall in love Discover every Salentino's saviour.

Shock factor Real italian extra virgin olive oil: the big lies. cravings How we see is based on how we eat.

Culinary love Find your home tastes in the big city.

December 2016 • italian truth 31

food • fall in love

Q

Salento's saviour

uarta Caffè began in Lecce in the 1950s, the postwar decade of reconstruction and the desire to start over.

A small artisanal roasting factory with a tasting caffè in the small historical center of Lecce. A hand-maneuvred roaster with a capacity of 5 kilograms, a blend created with passion for a handful of clients.

Soon enough that caffè became a reference point for Lecce citizens and for the entire province and for coffee lovers who found themselves passing through town. A constant coming and going of youth, women and most of all the military, in particular those of the nearby military airbasea in Galatina. The colour of the airforce offers’ uniforms soon became the inspiring name of the caffè and of the historical blend of the

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Quarta Roasting Company: the Avio Bar and Avio blend.Avio Bar began to grow and soon after the very first elegant espresso cups with the Quarta Caffè brand were produced.

Beyond tasting the coffee in the caffè, many requested to purchase the coffee in grains to enjoy at home or share with friends and far away relatives. The frst packages of Avio were born and from that moment forward, Quarta Caffè became the coffee of Salento.

Other caffès and bars request to offer that special coffee to their own clients as well as the botteghe and shops in the surrounding province desire coffee from Quarta Roasting Company. The company grows alongside its territory, the handmaneuvred roaster is substituted with larger machines, the production increases to

italian truth

You're not a Salentino if your biggest fear isn't running low on Quarta coffee home stock.

b y A ng e l i na H e r na de z

such a point to have to abandon the small roasting plant in the center and move to the industrial zone, a new and larger factory, where still today the company resides.

Right from the beginning, Quarta Caffè coffee distinguished itself for the quality of the selected raw materials and the passion in the prodution process. This care, this attention for the most imperceptible details, have led the company in its path of growth.

Today, Quarta Caffè continues its commitment to the consumer and territory incorporating within the prodcut a philosophy and policy to safeguard and enhance the quality of its product. Quality

food • fall in love Know your coffee Espresso The espresso (aka “short black”) is the foundation and the most important part to every espresso based drink. It consists of one shot of espresso in an espresso cup.

Double Espresso A double espresso (aka “Doppio”) is simply two espresso shots in one cup.

Short Macchiato A short macchiato is similar to an espresso but with a dollop of steamed milk and foam to mellow the harsh taste of an espresso.

Long Macchiato A long macchiato is the same as a short macchiato but with a double shot of espresso.

Ristretto A ristretto is an espresso shot that is extracted with the same amount of coffee but half the amount of water. The end result is a more concentrated and darker espresso extraction.

Long Black (Americano) A long black (aka “americano”) is hot water with an espresso shot extracted on top of the hot water.

Café Latte A café latte, or “latte” for short, is an espresso based drink with steamed milk and micro-foam added to the coffee.

Cappuccino A cappuccino is similar to a latte. However the key difference between a latte and cappuccino is that a cappuccino has more foam and chocolate placed on top of the drink. Further a cappuccino is made in a cup rather than a tumbler glass.

Flat White A flat white is a coffee you’ll primarily find in Australia and New Zealand. It is made the same as a cappuccino expect it does not have any foam or chocolate on top.

Piccolo Latte A piccolo latte is a café latte made in an espresso cup. This means it has a very strong but mellowed down espresso taste thanks to the steamed milk and micro foam within it.

Mocha A mocha is a mix between a cappuccino and a hot chocolate. It is made by putting mixing chocolate powder with an espresso shot and then adding steamed milk and micro-foam into the beverage.

Affogato An affogato is a simple dessert coffee that is treat during summer and after dinner. It is made by placing one big scoope of vanilla ice cream within a single or double shot of espresso.

learn more on itmag.com

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minutely researched through a rigorous selection of the rarest types of green coffee.

Q

uarta Caffè brings forth the business with the same commitment and determination begun over sixty years ago by Don Antonio, the grandfather of Antonio Quarta, current president and CEO of the company.

As a family business, which has reached its fourth generation, over the years the company has been greatly successful in innovating with continuity never losing sight of the quality and attention to the product, at the heart of the philosory of the Quarta group. Great attention is carried out during the selection of the best green coffee beans, the separate roasting of the different beans, and the care for the blends have characterised our products and placed Quarta Caffè among the top 15 roasting companies in Italy.

The structure expands over an area of 12,000 square meters, divided among the production plant, administrative offices, and warehouses. The plant is completely computerized, each year transforming over 60,000 bags of green coffee into a rich assortment of fragrant blends with an unmistakable aroma and flavour.

The roasting phase is the most important and delicate link in the roasting process of the green coffee. During this phase, which is done at 220° C, the green coffee beans turn a typical color of toasted coffee that we all know: this is how it takes on body, flavour, and aroma.

The different varieties of coffee require different cooking times and temperatures.

And for this reason the company separates

italian truth

this process for each origin called "separate roasting": that which gives the optimal and homogeneous roasting of each bean.

From a chemical standpoint, during roasting the coffee undergoes a considerable decrease in weight yet gains in volume, beyond taking on a dark brown color.

Once the roasting machine reaches the pre-established temperature, the roasted coffee passes onto the cooling plate, where turning over disperses heat and maintains unalterated the organoleptic characteristics.

The diverse grade of roasting is a fundamental aspect for the flavour of coffee: in Salento a hearty roast is preferred, with a full-bodied flavour and intense aroma.

The coffee blends are the secret recipes of every roasting company, a knowledgable fusion of different origins of coffee which give life to a unique and unimitable product.

The Quarta Caffè blends are created with the best selections of arabica and robusta beans from Central America, Brazil, and Indonesia.

To create a good blend one must know the single characteristics of each coffee bean utilized in order to calibrate balance and taste. All of the Quarta Caffè products are created with each variety of coffee roasted singularly and blended afterwards.

A good blend must be ground to perfection in order to bring out its best in a coffee prepared in house with the coffee Moka machine. If the ground is too fine or too coarse, the coffee will not express at its best its characteristics, and the flavour will be compromised.

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b y C e c i l i a Rod r ig u e z

The Olive Oil Scam: 80% is fake or mixed and why you should stop buying it.

true virgin?

food • shock factor

I

t’s reliably reported that 80% of the Italian olive oil on the market is fraudulent. Some experts think that percentage is an exaggeration. Others believe that the bigger problem is poor quality olive oil, deliberately mislabeled as virgin or extra virgin.

In any case, it’s likely that when you buy olive oil, you’re not buying what it says on the labelGangsters in the kitchen. Food Crime. Agromafia. Elite Food Police. FBI of Food. Police Food Squads. Hidden cameras. Wiretaps. Tampering. Corruption.

Counterfiting. Smuggling. These are terms frequently repeated in recent news stories related to olive oil. “Much of the extra virgin Italian olive oil flooding the world’s market shelves is neither Italian, nor virgin,” the New York Times warns. So unless you bought it directly from a producer or a certified distributor, the olive oil in your kitchen marked “Italian extra virgin” is very probably a fake. Either it’s low quality falsely marked as virgin or extravirgin – and not even from Italy – or it’s been mixed with other oils of dubious provenance. At worst, it’s not olive oil at all but a vegetable oil disguised with coloring and aroma. Yet, you bought it despite the fact that its low price should have tipped you off.

You want the worst news? Traditional, well-known brands haven’t escaped the evil: Many adulterated olive oils are sold under quality brand names.Yet, supermarkets are full of them.

italian truth

Oh, my mistake – that wasn’t the worst. Here it is: Even the labels bearing the coveted “Protected Designation of Origin” or PDO stamp indicating the precise geographical origin of a particular extra virgin olive oil to ensure the quality of that region’s agricultural products, and which are subjected to more strict controls, have not escaped the illegal trend.Yet, governments continue to permit the entry and commercialization of those products.

For years, David Neuman, an olive oil expert and taster who is CEO of the Greek food company Gaea North America, has been warning about adulterated and mislabeled oils and finds it particularly frustrating that consumers, retailers and governments are turning a blind eye to the widespread fraud. “There is good olive oil and bad olive oil everywhere, and there are many Italian producers who stand by their product,” he told me. “But the extended nature of the Italian problem is affecting all the rest of Europe.”

For him, the most serious issue is the fraud committed against the consumer: “The olive oil sold in supermarkets should meet the established standards. And that is not being upheld.”

Even in Italian supermarkets, the rate of fake olive oil on the shelves is estimated at 50%.

Let’s start with the most recent revelation, related to labels. Generally, if a label says that the virgin or extra-virgin olive oil comes from a controlled place of origin – Puglia, for example “There’s no – it’s reasonable to expect incentive for that the product has passed through the required quality grocery stores controls, particularly when to get the it’s destined for export.But despite the efforts of the good stuff.”

Italian government to stop what’s become known as the agro mafia now controlling most of the olive oil production and marketing – as well as numerous campaigns by the region’s producers to regain their reputation and cleanse the “made in Italy” branding – a massive olive oil scandal is being uncovered in Southern Italy ( Puglia, Umbria and Campania). It involves olive oils from Syria, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia, bottled and sold as authentic Italian extra virgin to foreign markets, particularly the United States and Japan. That discovery came to light in a bigger undercover operation by the Italian police, dubbed “Mamma Mia,” that last week revealed another massive scam in the same region: Thousands of tons of low-quality oils from Spain and Greece also passed off as extra virgin Italian.

food • cravings

tummy rumblings Recepies that will make you feel back at home.

b y A l e s s i a A mor u s o

Paccheri al sugo di calamari Ingredients: • Calamari già puliti 500 g • Paccheri 320 g • Pomodorini ciliegino 200 g • Passata di pomodoro 200 g • Olio extravergine d'oliva q.b • Vino bianco 50 g • Peperoncino fresco 1 • Aglio 3 spicchi • Prezzemolo tritato 2 cucchiai • Sale fino q.b.

Pappardelle al ragù di cinghiale Ingredients: • Pappardelle all'uovo 250 g • Cinghiale macinato 500 g • Passata di pomodoro 375 g • Vino rosso 50 g • Cipolle 50 g • Sedano 40 g • Carote 50 g • Olio extravergine d'oliva 15 g • Aglio 1 spicchio • Rosmarino 1 rametto • Alloro 2 foglie • Sale fino q.b.

• Pepe nero q.b.

1 Poi tagliate a metà i pomodorini e tenete da parte 2 Per finire affettate sottilmente il peperoncino, dal quale eliminerete il picciolo 3 Spremete gli spicchi d’aglio (eventualmente potete utilizzare gli spicchi interi sbucciati ed eliminarli a fine cottura) in un tegame dove avrete versato un giro d’olio 4 e lasciate insaporire per qualche minuto a fiamma bassa, insieme al peperoncino 5 Aggiungete gli anelli di calamaro insieme ai tentacoli e cuocete ad alta fiamma per 1 minuto appena 6 in modo che la carne dei calamari non si indurisca troppo.Sfumate con il vino bianco 7 e lasciate evaporare per un paio di minuti. Unite i pomodorini 8 e la passata di pomodoro 9 Mescolate 10 e cuocete a fuoco basso per 5-6 minuti. Intanto tuffate i paccheri in acqua bollente e salata 11 e poi scolateli (tenendo da parte un pò di acqua di cottura) a metà cottura versandoli direttamente nel tegame col sugo 12 Per risottare la pasta avrete bisogno di qualche mestolo d’acqua di cottura della pasta

1 Spuntate e pelate la carota con un pela verdure 2 private anche il sedano dei filamenti più esterni e mondate sia l’aglio che la cipolla. Lavate e tritate finemente il tutto, tenendo da parte l’aglio intero 3 Versate l’olio in una pentola con il fondo spesso e unite le carote 4 il sedano 5 e la cipolla tritati 6 Unite anche l’aglio a pezzi grandi (così potrete toglierlo più facilmente a fine cottura) e lasciate stufare il tutto per una decina di minuti a fiamma dolce 7 Aggiungete anche il trito di cinghiale 8 il rosmarino sminuzzato e le foglie di alloro 9 Alzate leggermente la fiamma e lasciate rosolare il tutto per altri 10 minuti mescolando con una spatola 10 in modo da cuocere la carne in maniera uniforme. A questo punto sfumate con il vino rosso 11 e solo quando la parte alcolica sarà totalmente evaporata unite la passata di pomodoro 12 Salate

cooking tips: 1. Take one minute to mentally walk through what you're cooking.

Before you start cooking, taking just one minute to think through what you're about to do makes all the difference in the world.

2. Get the water boiling immediately.

Get that pot of water for boiling or steaming onto the stove ASAP so you can prep while it's heating up. Don't forget to put a lid on it; lids are your friends! Water will boil faster and covered food cooks faster, too.

3. Figure out your prepping order and multitask.

Well-written recipes list ingredients in the order they're used and are usually a great guide for the order your should prep things. While those just learning to cook should prep everything beforehand so they can fully focus on cooking, more experienced cooks can multitask.

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4. Grate your butter so you don't have to wait for it to soften.

A quick trick is to grate cold or preferably frozen butter on a box grater into nice flaky shreds; grated butter will soften in the same amount of time it takes to heat the oven.

italian truth

New York Italian book released in New York.

Italy Best new italian books releases.

Eye candy Discover the latest book releases.

December 2016 • italian truth 41

literature • new york

A voissia di persona personalmente

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ontalbano investigates a robbery at a supermarket, a standard case that takes a spin when manager Guido Borsellino is later found hanging in his office. Was it a suicide? The inspector and the coroner have their doubts, and further investigation leads to the director of a powerful local company.

Meanwhile, a girl is found brutally murdered in Giovanni Strangio’s apartment—Giovanni has a flawless alibi, and it’s no coincidence that Michele Strangio, president of the province, is his father. Weaving together these two crimes, Montalbano realizes that he’s in a difficult spot where political power is enmeshed with the mafia underworld.

When the distressed manager of a robbed supermarket winds up dead after being questioned, a seasoned investigator and his team are quick to discover that this crime has many layers.

Inspector Montalbano is celebrating his 58th birthday at the start of this 20th installment (A Beam of Light, 2015, etc.), though he’s easily distracted from it thanks to an insatiable appetite, an encounter with an enraged driver, and a robbery call from store manager Borsellino, who curiously seems more upset at the police than about the money stolen overnight. When Montalbano arrives at the market to help out officers Augello and Fazio, he finds a man so terrified of the police’s inquiries that he believes “you want to see me sentenced to death!” But Montalbano can’t deny that the lack of forced entry seems suspicious. Was Borsellino aware of plans for the robbery? It’s no secret that this business—along with many of the businesses in Sicily’s Piano Lanterna—is

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Two deaths lead Inspector Montalbano into investigations of corruption and power in the twentieth installment of the New York Times bestselling series. b y D o n na L e o n

owned by a powerful Mafia family, the Cuffaros. With their initial questioning complete, Montalbano returns with his officers to the station in Vigàta, where he has another matter to deal with: the enraged driver from earlier, Giovanni Strangio, whom he had arrested, has turned out to be the son of the province president. Montalbano knows better than most that the interests of local politicians

and the Mafia are steadily aligned; the hoops he’ll have to jump through to get anything done in either case are not lost on him. But frustrations turn deadly serious when Borsellino is found hanged in his office that same evening. Montalbano has barely digested another helping of

italian truth

birthday octopus when Strangio is back in his presence—calm this time—in order to report the violent murder of his live-in girlfriend, Mariangela. Both deaths raise red flags, and Montalbano must resort to late-night sleuthing to catch suspected killers when they least expect it. And while this tale may have overarching themes, the small clues and revelations are what make it special.

Camilleri’s trusty inspector keeps things lighthearted while catching powerful men with their pants down; you can trust in his razor-sharp investigative mind even as basic skills amusingly escape him.

The writer, Andrea Camilleri, has this to say about his story: “In this novel I had fun, as I something do, to make tributes to various people and in this particular case I made one honor of in Brian DePalma, which you will be able to recognize quite easily. Montalbano is fifty-eight years old and he is struggling with the problems of old age, but ofcourse at fifty-eight he is not as old as he tries to convince us. The truth is that, in actuality, he is tired of his job. He has long sustained that the murderers are imbeciles, and having to deal with idiots all of his life is certainly not a pleasant scenario. This novel, Montalbano is grappling with the politics. This novel is a novel that sees and denounces the recurring corruption that continues, or at least the way corruption manages to reign in Italy, as we may notice in current news. It is a novel against corruption and is a novel that manages to wins the corrupt, but maybe because it is just a merely novel.”

literature • italy

Rain, hot cocoa and...

Must read Italian books for this winter season that will keep you sucked in during those cold rainy days.

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title: Il giardino di Amelia. author: Marcela Serrano release year: 2016

hile, eighties, under the dictatorship of General Pinochet. A young subversive, Miguel Flores, who is suspected of carrying out revolutionary activities, was sent into exile in a town near the large estate of La Novena, owned by a rich landowner, Amelia. Between the two, after initial suspicion, was born a deep bond, enriched by the taste for reading. Amelia is a very intelligent lady advanced in years, widow with children, who has traveled widely and was a translator. His mentor was her cousin, Sybil, who lives in London and worked in a large publishing house. The pace is slow, Amelia and Miguel, meditate on their present life, while discussing books. The link is getting closer, he goes to live with her, until one night the military arrived to hunt him due to weapons discovered in the estate. Miguel manages to escape, Amelia instead is captured, tortured, and released. Many years later Miguel, though it has been rebuilt a life in Europe, remains haunted by memories and through Sybil finds out what happened to Amelia after his escape. Thrown into utter despair, he realizes that the only key to overcome his guilt is to return to Chile and confront its past.

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title: Un matrimoio, un funerale, per non parlar del gatto. author: Francesco Guccini release year: 2016

rom behind the ridge of the hill you see get the little procession, preceded by the accordion player and wine pourer. The groom and the bride are on the way from dawn, the church does not reach its freshest and then, after the ceremony, will resume the road with the other, again for mule, ready to enjoy a lunch and a dinner with appetite invigorated the trek. A wedding unimaginable today, which was perfectly normal when the little Francesco Guccini took part in it, bearing a gift for the bride and groom a truly precious gift ... And again, the funeral of the legendary Gigi dell’Orbo, the ever-drunken tailor, lyric tenor cycling enthusiast, the farmer poet, the man who was convinced of having to hold up the sky, and many other “snapshots”, full of irony and barely veiled melancholy, of a bygone era that will never return. Sometimes, in these pages, the film of the author’s memory remains impressed by elusive figures, sly as cats, sweet like the memory of who he is gone, or perhaps a bit ‘mocking like ghosts ... These stories are a journey through time and narrative registers, and bring to life for us minimum existences, destined to be forgotten should not be made if the words in rievocarle.

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literature • italy

...a great book!

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title: Scrivere é un mestiere pericoloso. author: Alice Basso release year: 2016

gesture, a word, an expression of the face. To Vani small details are enough to understand a person, to understand their way of thinking. A special quality she would rather avoid. Because Vani is happy only by herself, keeping others away. She only loves her books, her music and her inexorably blacks clothes.

Yet, this innate empathy is essential to her work: Vani is a ghostwriter for a famous publisher. A job that forces her to remain in the shadows. He writes books instead of other authors, perfectly imitating their style. This time around she has to write a recipe from an old cook's memories. A veture rather unusual and difficult, almost impossible, especially for someone who doesn't know the first thing about cooking. She never picked up a frying pan and does not have the foggiest idea of w ​​ hat is meant by terms such as scallions or Jerusalem artichokes. There is only one person who can help her: the Commissioner Berganza, an old acquaintance with a passion for cooking. He knows that Vani only speaks the language of books: the language of Simenon, of Vázquez Montalbán, Rex Stout and their foodie protagonists. And, between a literary reference and the other, their odd lessons become day by day more intriguing.

But Vani's mind is not entirely clear: whether she liked it or not, Richard, the charming author with whom he had an incredible relationship keeps coming back into her life.

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title: L’imperfetta Meraviglia. author: Andrea De Carlo release year: 2016

t happened in Provence, during autumn, a season that mixes the raw damp mists with a long trails of summer heat. The villages and villas are draining the locals and tourists. But still a great event is prepared. Almost surprisingly, the local airfield, will host the concert of a famous British band, Bebonkers, a little bit for humanitarian purposes, a little bit to celebrate the third marriage of Nick Cruickshank, vocalist of the group and charismatic leader. The preparations in full swing, all organized with a firm look from Aileen, future wife of Nick. In the village there was an ice cream parlor run by Milena Migliari, a young Italian woman who makes ice cream, it thinks, experiences them with artist voltage.

A continuous torment that revolves around the unstable equilibrium of the ice cream, to its imperfect wonder why meant to be consumed or to melt, not to last. Milena said goodbye to the men and lives for some years with Viviane. A solid relationship, as if to compensate for the blurring of ice cream, the support of a stable and strong woman, to the point that, in a few days, Milena will undergo assisted fertilization. Yet, after all, Milena did not want to do it really this passage that perhaps has not quite decided. Uncertain without admitting it, Milena.

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italian truth

Spotlight Discover our musician of the month.

TOP 10 Italy's most listened songs of the month.

Concerts LIst of Italian artists on tour.

eargasm Find our music crush.

December 2016 • italian truth 49

music • spotlight

Italy’s Jamie Cullum?

T

50

here is a queue outside the New Morning venue half an hour before Raphael Gualazzi’s concert starts in Paris. Interest in the young artist from Urbino (from the Marche region in central Italy) has peaked since his success at Italy’s 61st Sanremo Giovani music festival, as well as his coming second at the eurovision song contest. Even so, the man that I meet in a nearby coffee shop has no celebrity attitude as he discretely smokes his evening cigarette. He politely yet firmly refuses an offer to buy him a drink; in velvety tones and with a timid look, he explains that he never drinks before concerts.

Gualazzi replies just as honestly when I mention his success at this year’s eurovision. ‘I didn’t even know it existed, given that Italy hasn’t taken part in it in over fourteen years.’ Apparently, Gualazzi mostly considered the festival to be an opportunity to promote his latest album Reality and Fantasy; he never believed in the competitive nature of such events. To the refined observer, Raphael appears to be a fish out of water. He prefers not to comment on my suggestion that he is too elegant for a ‘trashy’ music festival. Instead, he explains that the highlight of his experience was having the opportunity to engage in behind the scene jamming sessions with foreign artists. ‘Watching the Dutch band 3JS singing Dean Martin (aka ‘Dino Crocetti’) was unbelievable!’ he says.

For Gualazzi music comes before anything else. That, along with his intense love for jazz, is the first impression I get from his serious and passionate style. It is a musical

The weekly German magazine Die Zeit called him ‘the perfect synthesis between Paolo Conte and Jamie Cullum’. In person, the 30-year-old is shy, but onstage he turns into a wild devilish creature. b y F e de r ic o I a r l or i

genre which is less appreciated in Italy compared to other parts of the world.

However Raphael argues that Italy is actually a lot more connected to jazz than many might think. ‘Few people know that one of the first ever recordings in jazz history was done by Italian immigrants in America, the orchestra of Nick La Rocca at the beginning of the century. According to Jelly Roll Morton (one of the inventors of the jazz piano), jazz music comes from a Sicilian square dance.’

Gualazzi knows his stuff: tradition is extremely important and he appreciates the efforts of musical scholars who dedicate themselves to fostering music like medieval friars, without giving up the chance to modernise it as well.

Raphael includes all those people who helped re-launch jazz music in Italy in this category, from Stefano di Battista, Sergio Cammariere and Paolo Conte to Stefano Bollani. The latter was even able to bring jazz to the small screen thanks to a new Sunday television programme, Sostiene Bollani.

Raphael claims to not be part of such a group of ‘scholars’, seeing himself as more an ‘artisan of music’.

It’s an art that he’s cherished since his youth where he studied at the Rossini conservatory of Pesaro, as he enjoyed recreating the sounds he heard all around him.

His ambition is to bring the jazz tradition of the beginning of the twentieth century back to life. His retro look is one element of this, as is the intense emotion he shows when he reflects back on those ‘hysterical’ years. There is a sense of nostalgia in his voice as he remembers how fun it was to play live music for Charles Bowers films.

Raphael is at his best onstage rather than in interviews.

When he sits in front of an instrument, surrounded by musicians, he seems to be possessed by the music itself.

music • top 10

1

Sound of Italy Find out where out what are the top 10 italian songs that our beloved country is listening to.

b y G i or g io D e C a s t r o

G come Giungla Ligabue

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L'estate di John Wayne Raphael Gualazzi

big voice in the big apple Andrea Boccelli will be performing at Madison Square Garden on December 15th, 2016 at 7:30 pm.

Andrea Bocelli, OMRI, OMDSM is an Italian classical crossover tenor, recording artist, and singersongwriter. Born with poor eyesight, he became permanently blind at the age of 12 following a football accident.

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italian truth

Bruciare per te Elisa

music • top 10

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5

Vorrei ma on posso J-ax (ft. Fedez)

Che ne sanno i 2000 Gabry Ponte

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Vivere a Colori Alessandra Amoroso

Blind Chiara Grispo

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Andiamo a comandare Fabio Rovazzi

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Unici Nek

italian truth

D'improvviso Lorenzo Fragola

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Book your plane

music • concerts

Discover where and when you can attend the concert of yoru favorite Italian Artists.

Alborosie 03.12 Estragon Bologna (BO) Calcutta 11.12 Alcatraz Milano (MI) 13.12 Teatro della Concordia Venaria Reale (TO) 17.12 Atlantico Roma (RM) Colle Der Fomento 02.12 Vidia Rock Club Cesana (FC) Eduardo De Crescenzo 03.12 Teatro Colosseo Torino (TO) Cristina D'avena 31.12 Teatro della Luna Assago (MI) Daniele Silvestri 27.12-28.12 Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma (RM) Elisa 01.12 Palasport Giovanni Paolo II Pescara (PE) 03.12 Teatro PalaPartenope Napoli (NA) 04.12 Palaflorio Bari (BA) 06.12 Palacalafiore Reggio di Calabira (RC) 07.12 Pal'Art Hotel Acireale (CT) Eros Ramazzotti 20.12 Mediolanum Forum Assago (MI) Finley 03.12 Legend Club Milano (MI) 17.12 Jailbreak Live Roma (RM) Fiorella Mannoia 01.12 Creberg teatro Bergamo Bergamo (BG) 02.12 Palabalco Brescia (BS)

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04.12 Teatro Verdi Firenze (FI) 05.12 Teatro Europauditorium Bologna (BO) 07.12 Teatro delle Muse Ancona (AN) 10.12 Carisport Cesena (FC) 12.12 Teatro degli Arcimboldi Milano (MI) 15.12 Grand Teatro Geox Padova (PD) 16.12 Aditorium del Lingotto G. Agnelli Torino (TO) 17.12 Teatro Ariston Sanremo (IM) Francesco Guccini 03.12 Teatro Europauditorium Bologna (BO) 13.12 Pala Phenomenon Fontaneto D'Agogna (NO) Gianluca Grigiani 01.12 Alcatraz, Milano (MI) 03.12 Atlantico Roma (RM) Giò Sada 01.12 Teatro Quirinetta Roma (RM) 02.12 New Age Roncade (TV) 03.12 Vidia Rock Club Cesena 10.12 New Demodé Modugno (BA) 15.12 Chalet Club Torino (TO) 16.12 Viper Club Firenze (FI) 17.12 Mamamia Senigallia (AP) 18.12 Magazzini Generali Milano (MI) Giovanni Allevi 16.12 Teatro PalaPartenope Napoli (NA) Luca Carboni 05.12 Teatro Degli Arcimboldi Milano (MI)

italian truth

b y F r a nc e s c a L i nat i

08.12 Teatro Europauditorium Bologna (BO) 12.12 Auditorium Parco Della Musica Roma (RM) Ludovico Einaudi 06.12-13.12 Teatro Dal Verme Milano (MI) 16.12 Teatro Carlo Felice Genova (GE) Marco Mengoni 02.12 PalaPrometeo Ancona (AN) 04.12 Eiswelle Palaonda Bolzano (BZ) Modà 02.12-03.12 Nelson Mandel Forum Firenze (FI) 06.12 Unipol Arena Casalecchio di Reno (BO) 07.12 Pala Alpitour Torino (TO) Niccolò Fabi 07.12 Teatro Nuovo Giovnno da Udine Udine (UD) 08.12 Teatro Astra Schio (VI) 17.12 Teatro la Fenice Senigallia (AN) 22.12 Teatro Cinema Nestor Frosinone (FR) 26.12 Teatro Europa Aprilia (LT) 28.12 Teatro Redano Cosenza (CS) Noemi 02.12 Vox Club Nonantola (MO) 03.12 New Age Club Rondace (TV) 09.12 Papillon 78 Monteroni d'Arbia (SI) 16.12 Pala Phenomenon Fontaneto D'Agogna (NO) 17.12 Villa del Colle Collesalvetti (LI)

music • concerts Ornella Vanoni 19.12 Teatro Dal Verme Milano (MI) 21.12 Teatro Europauditorium Bologna (BO) Paolo Conte 12.12 Teatro Regio Torino (TO) Planet Funk 02.12 Orion Ciampino 03.12 New Demodé Modugno (BA) Pooh 10.12 Pal'Art Hotel Acireale (CT) 14.12 Pala Maggiò Caserta 17.12 Pala Alpitour Torino (TO) 20.12 Palalottomatica Roma (RM) 22.12 Mediolanum Forum Assago (MI) 27.12 Pala Verde di Treviso Villorba (TV) 30.12 Unipol Arena Casalecchio di Reno (BO) Raphael Gualazzi 02.12 Teatro la Fenice Senigallia (AN) 09.12 Teatro Ariston Sanremo (IM) 10.12 Palabanco Brescia (BS) 12.12 Teatro Nazionale CheBanca Milano (MI) 13.12 Teatro Auditorium Santa Chiara Trento (TN) 22.12 LIME Theatre Reggio nell'Emilia (RE) 23.12 Carisport Cesena (FC)

Rocco Hunt 10.12 Campus Industry Music Parma 27.12 Officina Giovani Prato Ludovico Einaudi 06.12-13.12 Teatro Dal Verme Milano (MI) 16.12 Teatro Carlo Felice Genova (GE) Salmo 15.12 Fabrique MIlano (MI) Sfera Ebbasta 03.12 Demodé Bari (BA) 07.12 Campus Industry Music Parma (PA) 09.12 Chalet Torino (TO) 10.12 Casa della Musica Napoli (NA) 17.12 Cocò Cagliari 21.12 Industrie Catania 23.21 Sky Club Porto Potenza PIcena (MC) 27.12 Druso Bergamo (BG) Thegiornalisti 02.12 Hiroshima Mon Amour Torino (TO) Valerio Scanu 17.12 Auditorium Parco della Musica Roma (RM)

Renato Zero 03.12 Adriatic Arena Pesaro (PS) 06.12-14.12 Palalottomatica Roma (RM) 16.12-20.12 Nelson Mandela Forum Firenze (FI) 22.12-23.12 Arena Spettacoli Padova Padova (PD)

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italian truth

bigger and better than ever Not a flake has fallen, not a small light has been turned on. Christmas, for those living in Italian cities, it is still a few weeks away. Only Laura Pausini seems not to care about the time difference. "Laura X-Mas" album that contains the Christmas tradition, reinterpreted in key swing, is ready to make its debut. On November 4, in 60 countries around the world and in two languages ​​ (Italian, Spanish), Pausini has chosen to release your atypical disk, the result of a desire ageless. "I always wanted to sing the songs that I learned as a child and I always sang in church or at home with my family", the singer says. It has been her first Christmas album in 30 years.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow !, Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bell Rock, White Christmas and Jingle Bells are some of the songs that Pausini has chosen to reinterpret in his disk.

Product that combines heterogeneous cores.

"In the album, I tried to combine two of my desires: to make the Christmas disc and arrange it swing." Thing that has been made easier by the presence of Patrick Williams.

Spotlight City of the month.

Italian trips 101 DOs and DONTs when visiting our home country. roots Find here monthly articles from fellow italian nomads.

wanderlust City of the month, dos and don’ts when traveling to Italy.

December 2016 • italian truth

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wanderlust · spotlight

U

ntil 1918, the city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian administrative region known as “Tyrol.” Today, it is part of a district that enjoys the highest level of per capita wealth in Italy, that of Bolzano (which encompasses hundreds of municipalities).

Despite being part of the Italian province of Alto Adige/Südtirol, the conspicuous sight of disciplined motorists and motorcyclists waiting patiently at traffic lights adds a distinctly un-Italian flavour to the city. Of the two newspapers published in Bolzano, one is written in Italian, the other in German.

Interestingly, a sister language to the old Latin of Roman times, called Ladin, is still spoken in the area, particularly around Val Gardena.

The staple bread, which is ubiquitous throughout Bolzano, is made with crunchy whole grains in a style reminiscent of Viennese bread. When it comes to drinks, the locals have a slight preference for beer over wine. But this should come as no surprise given that a vast majority of the region’s residents have Germanic origins. Not far from Bolzano are the Dolomite Mountains — a large outcrop of limestone, featuring karst lithology that climbers are particularly fond of. The mountain range is home to extreme peaks, including eighteen that reach altitudes of over 3000 metres. The region is a playground for hikers. During high season, cozy huts welcome them with food, shelter and, of course, wine. The cable car ride between Via Renòn (Rittnerstrasse) and Soprabolzano (Oberbozen) is one of the longest in Europe. Be sure to have a camera on hand to capture the sublime landscapes, which change dramatically from one side of the mountain to the other. The local tourism offices (Azienda di Soggiorno e Turismo), in conjunction with the specialized mountain guides at Arc Alpin, offer an interesting array of excursions.

Heart of the

Dolomites

Located in the heart of the Italian Dolomites, Bolzano, also known as Bozen, is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in Italy.

by Gianpiero Petriglieri

Where to stay Feel snug and at home this winter with a stay at the lovely Hotel Alder in Ortiesi, Bolzano. This beautiful hotel will treat you to the best spa treatments after a long day skiing in the Dolomites.

Via Rezia, 7 - 39046 Ortiesi (BZ)

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italian truth

wanderlust · italian travel 101

DOs and Donts

When visiting Italy there are some unwritten rules to follow ensure a stay more enjoyable.

DO try to speak the language.

Italians appreciate the effort, but may respond in English as they love to practice what they’ve learned.

b y Rob e r ta E s p o s i t o

DO expect to walk a lot so wear comfortable shoes but try to avoid sneakers unless you really want to stand out as an American tourist.

DO tip taxi drivers about one euro, more if it was a longer trip.

DO expect a 10%-15% service charge to be added to your restaurant bill and do leave a small tip on top of that if the service was good (don’t leave the American 15% however.)

DO wear stylish clothing if you want to fit in with Italians. They take pride in their appearance.

DO keep track of your purchases as U.S. Customs will ask you about them when you return to the country. You can bring up to $800 worth of goods back to the U.S. without paying duty. If you bring back more, don’t even try to lie. The penalties are stiff.

Do make reservations. If you know there’s a restaurant you want to eat at, call ahead and reserve. Reservations are common at most nice restaurants, especially for dinner.

DON'T be surprised to find businesses and shows closed for an hour or two between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Most Italians take a two-hour break to return home for lunch.

DO dress appropriately when visiting churches.

When entering any church in Italy, be sure that your shoulders, knees and midriff are covered.

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DO ask about a VAT (value-added tax) refund when you purchase more than 155 euros of goods in one store.

DON'T eat and do turn off cell phones when visiting museums and churches.

Also, Do keep your voice down at all times.

italian truth

DON'T rent a car with manual transmission (the most common) if you are not comfortable with it.

Pay the extra amount for an automatic.

wanderlust · roots

Misfit by choice

Traveling around without loosing your roots. See how this writer and his family deal with it.

by Gianpiero Petriglieri

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italian truth

B

ig questions always strike unexpectedly, when our guard is down. I was watching my toddlers splash in the pool last summer when a fellow dad plunged me into revisiting the meaning of home in a globalized world.

He didn’t mean to. He just asked where we were from.

“We live in Boston,” I started, “but we’re from Europe. How about you?”

I learned the name of his hometown, where he owned a business, and prepared myself to tack towards our common ground next — the children’s age, the local weather, the economic climate. Not quite yet.

“Where from in Europe?”

Fair enough, it’s a diverse continent.

“I am from Italy, my wife is British, and we live in France. We are in the US for a year, for work.” This explains why the children speak Italian with me, and a very British English with my wife, while sporting an American accent with their little friends; which is what usually sparks these conversations.

“Did you meet her in France?”

I felt the impulse to lie and get it over with. (Isn’t Paris the perfect setting for a blossoming romance?)

I let it go.

“We met in Switzerland when I worked there.” And there it was, the subtle shift in look. My interlocutor had moved me, in his mental filing cabinet, from a folder labeled ‘foreigner’ to one marked ‘stranger.’

I didn’t just hail from a different place.

I had a different kind of life.

Those conversations always make me pause. Especially when they involve someone from back home. A relative, a high school classmate who remained anchored there while I moved around. I don’t even need to meet them. A Facebook picture of an old friend’s kids on the same beaches where we grew up can be enough to spark that vague unease, the feeling that our bond is made of blood and history but no longer of shared habits, context or enterprise. It is in those encounters, where I am not even a foreigner, that I feel most like a stranger — a misfit by choice.

For many years now, I have spent my days in circles where careers and families like mine are the norm. The school where I work, my fourth employer to date, has campuses on three continents. My

wanderlust · roots

" colleagues hail from 46 countries and have lived, worked and loved in many more — as have my students. Compared with most managers I teach, I have moved infrequently, and not that far.

T

hese are my people,” one told me recently, pointing to her classmates. “I feel more at home with them than I do where I was born.” I hear that sentiment often, in those oases and breeding grounds for nomadic professionals that business schools have become. It comes with the realization that for all their transience and diversity, people who find their way there have much in common.

They are as eager to broaden their personal horizons as they are to expand their professional prospects. They do not expect or desire to spend their career in the same organization or country. They enjoy mobility and view it as necessary to gather the experience, ability, connections and credibility that will turn them from nomadic professionals into global leaders.

I think of them as a peculiar tribe. A tribe

This is why I worry when senior executives tell aspiring leaders that membership in global elites requires sacrificing an existence grounded in one place. Framing the struggle for home as a private reckoning with loss is simplistic and dangerous. It makes global elites more isolated and disconnected, less intelligible and trustworthy. It puts them in no position to lead.

No one wants to follow a stranger. Without some sense of home, nomadic professionals don’t become global leaders. They only turn into professional nomads. Leaders need homes to keep their vision, passion and courage alive — and to remain connected both to the people they are meant to serve, and to themselves.

To forego the possibility of feeling at home, or to make do with the surrogate of a dispersed cohort of fellow nomads is to give up the possibility of intimacy, of commitment, of trust. It is all that it takes to give up being human and become “human resources.” And once we do that to ourselves, it’s a short step to viewing everyone else as such.

Yet home need not always be a place. It can

"It is in those encounters, where I am not even a foreigner, that I feel most like a stranger."

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for people unfit for tribalism.

Their unwillingness or inability to settle — to embrace and be defined by one place only — draws them to each other. It makes them restless and curious. It helps them develop the sensitivity to multiple perspectives and the ability to work across cultures that are indeed hallmarks of global leadership. It also comes with a price.

That price is struggling with the question of home and its troublesome acolytes: identity and belonging.

The struggle is neither an Odyssean longing for the comfortable mooring of a home left behind, nor the pathetic moaning of privileged neurotics who romanticize a simple life that doesn’t exist in the real world.

It is not just those, at least.

“The trouble with moving around and falling in love with new places,” a colleague once shared, “is that you leave a piece of your heart in each of them.” That resonated with my experience. In Italy, professionals working abroad are described as “runaway brains.” My brain, however, never ran away. My heart just took it elsewhere.

be a territory, a relationship, a craft, a way of expression. Home is an experience of belonging, a feeling of being whole and known, sometimes too close for comfort. It’s those attachments that liberate us more than they constrain. As the expression suggests, home is where we are from — the place where we begin to be.

Rather than learning to live away from home or do without one, global leaders must learn to live in and between two homes — a local and a global home. Become familiar with local and global communities, and use neither to escape the other.

This takes physical and emotional presence. It requires staying put long enough and traveling a fair amount. Spending time with those who live nearby and staying close to those who are far away — showing and being shown around. Leaving a piece of heart with people and places, and keeping them in your heart wherever you are.

Hard as it may be to reconcile local and global homes, it is a privilege to have a chance to inhabit both. A privilege that we must extend to others.

italian truth

You’re the best Our favorite photos from past events.

New York Future events in NYC. Italy Future events all across Italy.

meet us Find the events where you can meet us.

Decemberr 2016 • italian truth

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meet us ¡ you're the best

Past Events These are the people who attended some of our past events, from last month's issue, and their thoughts on the experience.

"It was a wonderful evening spent with some incredible people. It was nice to finall be able to speak in Italian with somebody and share similar stories and adventures, I even found someone who used to live a few hundred meters from my childhood home. Thank you so much for letting this happen."

- Alessandro

"I think this group is wonderful. Has a variety of things to do. Educational, heritage, food, theater and most of al new yorkers italian . Love it."

- Marco

"Today I met the most wonderful person, we started chatting about my lack of knowledge of the Italian language and the origin on my name, long story short she's one my gandmother's cousin but they lost touch after she had to move to LA at the age of 18."

- Giorgio

"It's always a pleasure to attend these events.

The IT Mag family is the best and makes me feel at home even though i'm thousands of miles away."

- Xavier

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"The best part for me was the great wine and cheese, I mean, let's be honest, who doesn't like a wine and cheese party."

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"I've been attendng at these events from almost a year now and everyone is always really warm and welcoming. There are always new faces but some are regulars and, I have to say, we're like a big happy family."

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italian truth

"This is the BEST italian organization/group in town!

Warm and hospitable, as would be the case in most Italian homes.Great people, great place, fun evening!."

- Richard

italian truth

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meet us¡ events in it

Upcoming Meet us at the upcoming events in Italy. We're a big happy family who doesn't know distance.

Bari 01.12 Ristorante Biancofiore Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 13 +39 080 5235446 15.12 Al Pescatore Piazza Federico II di Svevia, 6/8 +39 080 5237039 Firenze 02.12 Enoteca Pinchiorri Via Ghibellina, 87 +39 055 242757 23.12 Osteria dei Centopoveri Via Palazzuolo, 31r +39 055 218846 Roma 05.12 Ristorante Maestrale Roma Pesce Piazza Callistio Elio, 5 +39 068 6391914 18.12 Terzo Gusto Via Appia Nuova, 1055 +39 067 185865 Milano 09.12 Trattoria Arlati Via Alberto Nota, 47 +39 026 433327 28.12 Trattoria Mirta Piazza S. Materno, 12 +39 029 1180496 Torino 11.12 La Campannina Via Vitaliano Donati, 1 +39 011 545405 27.12 Ristorante Solferino Piazza Solferino, 3 +39 011 535851

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meet us ¡ events in ny

Upcoming Meet us at the upcoming events in New York. Let's not fall into the big apple trap and let's meet.

Gramercy 01.12 Maialino 2 Lexington Avenue +1 212 7772410 17.12 NovitĂ 102 E 22nd Street +1 212 6772222 West Village 05.12 Ceci 46 W 46th Street +1 212 3075484 20.12 L' Artusi 228 W 10th Street #1 +1 212 2555757 Greenwich 10.12 La Lanterna di Vittorio 129 Mcdougal Street +1 212 5295945 23.12 Carbone 181 Thompson Street +1 212 2543000 East Village 11.12 Porsena 21 E 7th Street +1 212 2284923 18.12 Lavagna 545 E 5th Street +1 212 9791005 Uptown 21.12 Sfoglia 1402 Lexington Avenue +1 212 8311402 30.12 Pisticci 125 La Salle Street +1 212 9323500

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Tutto Grazie a Woody Allen Il regista ha voluto incontrare papà Luigi, psichiatra: “Non so cosa gli abbia detto, ma dopo è cambiato tutto” b y G i or g i a A m b r o s i n i

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n misto di malizia e apparente fragilità, un’aria da signorina della porta accanto che da un momento all’altro potrebbe rivelarsi il contrario di quello che sembra. Un pizzico di ironia e una vaga tristezza. E poi il tono schietto di una ragazza nata a Napoli e cresciuta a Roma, da genitori che con il suo lavoro non c’entrano niente e che, quando l’hanno vista muovere i primi passi nel mondo dello spettacolo, erano preoccupati e spaventati.

Trent’anni, fidanzata con l’attore irlandese Liam McMahon (con cui vive da cinque), lanciata dalla serie I Cesaroni, scoperta da Woody Allen che le ha affidato un ruolo clou in To Rome with Love, Alessandra Mastronardi è la piccola Audrey Hepburn italiana. Elegante e briosa, «con i piedi ben piantati per terra».

Ha cominciato presto e ha avuto subito soddisfazioni. C’era il pericolo di montarsi la testa.

«Purtroppo sono sempre stata molto rigida, onesta, e severa con me stessa. Se faccio un errore non me lo perdono. E poi sono concreta, per esempio, per me, il valore degli affetti è fondamentale, e forse è proprio quello che mi aiuta a mantenere sempre vivo il rapporto con la realtà».

Che ricordi ha dei suoi inizi?

«Mentre le mie amiche prendevano lezioni di danza, io, nel weekend, andavo sui set. Dopo la maturità ho seguito per un anno Psicologia, ma ho deciso presto che volevo fare questo lavoro sul serio. Ho cominciato con piccole parti, poi mi hanno presa per I Cesaroni. Sono andata a fare il provino, insieme a tante altre persone, sapevamo solo che si trattava di una serie spagnola. Non speravamo nulla, nessuno avrebbe mai scommesso una lira su di me, e invece andò bene».

I suoi genitori come la presero?

«Non sono figlia d’arte, loro sono professionisti, mio padre ha due lauree, è psichiatra, l’idea di una figlia che si mettesse a fare l’attrice era una follia, una macchia nella famiglia... Ma quella era la mia passione. Proibita e fortissima. Quando ho iniziato i miei erano terrorizzati».

Fa l’attrice, ma non è mai stata iscritta al Centro sperimentale o ad altre scuole di recitazione. Mai avuto paura di fare errori?

«Eccome. Sbagliare per me è terribile e io di sbagli ne ho fatti tanti, e davanti alla macchina da presa, che è come una lente di ingrandimento, quindi una vera tragedia. Recitavo nelle fiction e sapevo di sbagliare davanti a milioni e milioni di italiani. O mi si amava o mi si odiava, e io sono venuta su restando aperta alle critiche e ai giudizi. Non ho fatto scuole, appena potevo seguivo corsi e stage... Poi, però, non c’è più stato tempo».

itiitalian tatal n ttruth uth

Dopo «I Cesaroni» è successo tutto. L’ha scelta Woody Allen. Come andò? «È stato come vivere un sogno, Woody Allen è uno dei miei più grandi miti, un grande maestro. Quando tornavo a casa dal set mi sedevo sul divano e restavo lì muta almeno per un’ora. Ho un ricordo meraviglioso di quella esperienza, agli attori Allen diceva pochissimo, ma quando parlava sul set tutto si rivoluzionava.

E poi, dopo From Rome with Love, mio padre ha accettato la mia professione».

Come mai?

«Ho raccontato a Woody Allen che mio padre fa lo psicoterapeuta, il giorno dopo lo ha invitato sul set, si sono conosciuti e parlati, ma non so cosa si siano detti, è un segreto tra loro. Però, da quella volta, mio padre ha cambiato atteggiamento».

Una fiction seguitissima, un film con un regista venerato. Così è arrivata la popolarità.

Che è bella, ma anche difficile da gestire. Lei come la vive?

«Quando I Cesaroni andarono in onda l’ho vissuta come un problema, direi che è stato uno shock. Ho capito che stavo perdendo la mia normalità, andare a passeggio con le amiche, in centro a fare shopping. Mi ha aiutato la mia famiglia, con la sua solidità. Adesso ho imparato che, purtroppo, il mio è un mestiere cinico, ti leva spesso la possibilità di partecipare alla vita dei tuoi cari. E questo è il rovescio della medaglia che a me fa più male».

E il lato che le piace di più?

«Quando mi fermano per strada per dirmi che mi hanno vista e magari si sono commossi. Mi è successo quando sono stata Micol, nelle Sorelle Fontana, una signora mi disse che l’avevo fatta piangere. E questo è l’onore più grande, perché noi lavoriamo per il pubblico».

Adesso è in tv, protagonista de «L’allieva», tratto dal best-seller di Alessia Gazzola. Che tipo è Alice Allevi?

«Una studentessa di medicina legale, perennemente insoddisfatta, incerta tra due amori, quello stabile e sicuro per Arthur che però fa il reporter di guerra e quindi non c’è mai, e quello per Carlo, insensibile e indomabile, ma sempre presente perché lavora con lei».

Che cosa l’ha attratta di questo progetto?

«Conoscevo i romanzi della Gazzola, mi piace il suo modo di scrivere molto cinematografico e mi ha affascinato il carattere della protagonista, un’antieroina umana, piena di difetti, sempre fra le nuvole. La difficoltà stava proprio nel rendere la sua fragilità, e poi lei ha un suo look molto speciale, si veste malissimo, assembla robe tremende, pantaloni color pesca... Insomma, un gran divertimento».

ititalian tal aalilliliaia ttrtruth ruth

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a fiction sta andando molto bene, ma lei è già altrove, a New York. Per fare cosa? «È un progetto americano, una serie Netflix che mi terrà per qualche mese in America, con alcune scene a Modena. Si chiama Master of None».

Che effetto le fa lavorare in un ambito così nuovo?

«Mi fa impressione, è molto emozionante e anche divertente perché sono alle prese con un linguaggio diverso, con un modo di raccontare che non avevo ancora sperimentato. E poi per la prima volta ho partecipato alla sceneggiatura di alcuni episodi, mi è piaciuto tanto». È anche apparsa in un servizio fotografico firmato dal regista cult Nicolas Winding Refn.

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«Sì, mi è sembrato di stare in una specie di sequel del suo film Neon Demon, un’esperienza allucinante. Refn è un pazzo visionario, bisogna seguirlo e basta, io ho fatto così».

Che ricordi ha dei suoi inizi?

«Mentre le mie amiche prendevano lezioni di danza, io, nel weekend, andavo sui set. Dopo la maturità ho seguito per un anno Psicologia, ma ho deciso presto che volevo fare questo lavoro sul serio. Ho cominciato con piccole parti, poi mi hanno presa per I Cesaroni. Sono andata a fare il provino, insieme a tante altre persone, sapevamo solo che si trattava di una serie spagnola. Non speravamo nulla, nessuno avrebbe mai scommesso una lira su di me, e invece andò bene».

I suoi genitori come la presero?

«Non sono figlia d’arte, loro sono professionisti, mio padre ha due lauree, è psichiatra, l’idea di una figlia che si mettesse a fare l’attrice era una follia, una macchia nella famiglia... Ma quella era la mia passione. Proibita e fortissima. Quando ho iniziato i miei erano terrorizzati».

Fa l’attrice, ma non è mai stata iscritta al Centro sperimentale o ad altre scuole di recitazione. Mai avuto paura di fare errori?

«Eccome. Sbagliare per me è terribile e io di sbagli ne ho fatti tanti, e davanti alla macchina da presa, che è come una lente di ingrandimento, quindi una vera tragedia. Recitavo nelle fiction e sapevo di sbagliare davanti a milioni e milioni di italiani. O mi si amava o mi si odiava, e io sono venuta su restando aperta alle critiche e ai giudizi. Non ho fatto scuole, appena potevo seguivo corsi e stage... Poi, però, non c’è più stato tempo».

Dopo «I Cesaroni» è successo tutto. L’ha scelta Woody Allen. Come andò? «È stato come vivere un sogno, Woody Allen è uno dei miei più grandi miti, un grande maestro. Quando tornavo a casa dal set mi sedevo sul divano e restavo lì muta almeno per un’ora. Ho un ricordo meraviglioso di quella esperienza, agli attori Allen diceva pochissimo, ma quando parlava sul set tutto si rivoluzionava.

E poi, dopo From Rome with Love, mio padre ha accettato la mia professione».

Come mai?

«Ho raccontato a Woody Allen che mio padre fa lo psicoterapeuta, il giorno dopo lo ha invitato sul set, si sono conosciuti e parlati, ma non so cosa si siano detti, è un segreto tra loro. Però, da quella volta, mio padre ha cambiato atteggiamento».

Una fiction seguitissima, un film con un regista venerato. Così è arrivata la popolarità.

Che è bella, ma anche difficile da gestire. Lei come la vive?

«Quando I Cesaroni andarono in onda l’ho vissuta come un problema, direi che è stato uno shock. Ho capito che stavo perdendo la mia normalità, andare a passeggio con le amiche, in centro a fare shopping. Mi ha aiutato la mia famiglia, con la sua solidità. Adesso ho imparato che, purtroppo, il mio è un mestiere cinico, ti leva spesso la possibilità di partecipare alla vita dei tuoi cari. E questo è il rovescio della medaglia che a me fa più male».

E il lato che le piace di più?

«Quando mi fermano per strada per dirmi che mi hanno vista e magari si sono commossi. Mi è successo quando sono stata Micol, nelle Sorelle Fontana, una signora mi disse che l’avevo fatta piangere.

E questo è l’onore più grande, perché noi lavoriamo per il pubblico».

Adesso è in tv, protagonista de «L’allieva», tratto dal best-seller di Alessia Gazzola. Che tipo è Alice Allevi?

«Una studentessa di medicina legale, perennemente insoddisfatta, incerta tra due amori, quello stabile e sicuro per Arthur che però fa il reporter di guerra e quindi non c’è mai,

"L’idea di una figlia che si mettesse a fare l’attrice era una follia, una macchia nella famiglia."

e quello per Carlo, insensibile e indomabile, ma sempre presente perché lavora con lei».

Che cosa l’ha attratta di questo progetto?

«Conoscevo i romanzi della Gazzola, mi piace il suo modo di scrivere molto cinematografico e mi ha affascinato il carattere della protagonista, un’antieroina umana, piena di difetti, sempre fra le nuvole. La difficoltà stava proprio nel rendere la sua fragilità, e poi lei ha un suo look molto speciale, si veste malissimo, assembla robe tremende, pantaloni color pesca... Insomma, un gran divertimento».

La fiction sta andando molto bene, ma lei è già altrove, a New York. Per fare cosa? «È un progetto americano, una serie Netflix che mi terrà per qualche mese in America, con alcune scene a Modena. Si chiama Master of None».

Che effetto le fa lavorare in un ambito così nuovo?

«Mi fa impressione, è molto emozionante e anche divertente perché sono alle prese con un linguaggio diverso, con un modo di raccontare che non avevo ancora sperimentato. E poi per la prima volta ho partecipato alla sceneggiatura di alcuni episodi, mi è piaciuto tanto».

Che ricordi ha dei suoi inizi?

«Mentre le mie amiche prendevano lezioni di danza, io, nel weekend, andavo sui set. Dopo la maturità ho seguito per un anno Psicologia, ma

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ho deciso presto che volevo fare questo lavoro sul serio. Ho cominciato con piccole parti, poi mi hanno presa per I Cesaroni. Sono andata a fare il provino, insieme a tante altre persone, sapevamo solo che si trattava di una serie spagnola. Non speravamo nulla, nessuno avrebbe mai scommesso una lira su di me, e invece andò bene».

I

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suoi genitori come la presero?

«Non sono figlia d’arte, loro sono professionisti, mio padre ha due lauree, è psichiatra, l’idea di una figlia che si mettesse a fare l’attrice era una follia, una macchia nella famiglia... Ma quella era la mia passione. Proibita e fortissima. Quando ho iniziato i miei erano terrorizzati».

Fa l’attrice, ma non è mai stata iscritta al Centro sperimentale o ad altre scuole di recitazione. Mai avuto paura di fare errori?

«Eccome. Sbagliare per me è terribile e io di sbagli ne ho fatti tanti, e davanti alla macchina da presa, che è come una lente di ingrandimento, quindi una vera tragedia. Recitavo nelle fiction e sapevo di sbagliare davanti a milioni e milioni di italiani. O mi si amava o mi si odiava, e io sono venuta su restando aperta alle critiche e ai giudizi. Non ho fatto scuole, appena potevo seguivo corsi e stage... Poi, però, non c’è più stato tempo».

Dopo «I Cesaroni» è successo tutto. L’ha scelta Woody Allen. Come andò? «È stato come vivere un sogno, Woody Allen è uno dei miei più grandi miti, un grande maestro. Quando tornavo a casa dal set mi sedevo sul divano e restavo lì muta almeno per un’ora. Ho un ricordo meraviglioso di quella esperienza, agli attori Allen diceva pochissimo, ma quando parlava sul set tutto si rivoluzionava.

E poi, dopo From Rome with Love, mio padre ha accettato la mia professione».

Come mai?

«Ho raccontato a Woody Allen che mio padre fa lo psicoterapeuta, il giorno dopo lo ha invitato sul set, si sono conosciuti e parlati, ma non so cosa si siano detti, è un segreto tra loro. Però, da quella volta, mio padre ha cambiato atteggiamento».

Una fiction seguitissima, un film con un regista venerato. Così è arrivata la popolarità.

Che è bella, ma anche difficile da gestire. Lei come la vive?

«Quando I Cesaroni andarono in onda l’ho vissuta come un problema, direi che è stato uno shock. Ho capito che stavo perdendo la mia normalità, andare a passeggio con le amiche, in centro a fare shopping. Mi ha aiutato la mia famiglia, con la sua solidità. Adesso ho imparato che, purtroppo, il mio è un mestiere cinico, ti leva spesso la possibilità di partecipare alla vita

dei tuoi cari. E questo è il rovescio della medaglia che a me fa più male».

E il lato che le piace di più?

«Quando mi fermano per strada per dirmi che mi hanno vista e magari si sono commossi. Mi è

"Sbagliare per me è terribile e io di sbagli ne ho fatti tanti." successo quando sono stata Micol, nelle Sorelle Fontana, una signora mi disse che l’avevo fatta piangere. E questo è l’onore più grande, perché noi lavoriamo per il pubblico».

Adesso è in tv, protagonista de «L’allieva», tratto dal best-seller di Alessia Gazzola. Che tipo è Alice Allevi?

«Una studentessa di medicina legale, perennemente insoddisfatta, incerta tra due amori, quello stabile e sicuro per Arthur che però fa il reporter di guerra e quindi non c’è mai,

italian truth

linguaggio diverso, con un modo di raccontare che non avevo ancora sperimentato. E poi per la prima volta ho partecipato alla sceneggiatura di alcuni episodi, mi è piaciuto tanto». È anche apparsa in un servizio fotografico firmato dal regista cult Nicolas Winding Refn.

«Sì, mi è sembrato di stare in una specie di sequel del suo film Neon Demon, un’esperienza allucinante. Refn è un pazzo visionario, bisogna seguirlo e basta, io ho fatto così».

“ Ho raccontato a Woody Allen che mio padre fa lo psicoterapeuta."

e quello per Carlo, insensibile e indomabile, ma sempre presente perché lavora con lei».

Che cosa l’ha attratta di questo progetto?

«Conoscevo i romanzi della Gazzola, mi piace il suo modo di scrivere molto cinematografico e mi ha affascinato il carattere della protagonista, un’antieroina umana, piena di difetti, sempre fra le nuvole. La difficoltà stava proprio nel rendere la sua fragilità, e poi lei ha un suo look molto speciale, si veste malissimo, assembla robe tremende, pantaloni color pesca... Insomma, un gran divertimento».

La fiction sta andando molto bene, ma lei è già altrove, a New York. Per fare cosa? «È un progetto americano, una serie Netflix che mi terrà per qualche mese in America, con alcune scene a Modena. Si chiama Master of None».

Che effetto le fa lavorare in un ambito così nuovo?

«Mi fa impressione, è molto emozionante e anche divertente perché sono alle prese con un

Che ricordi ha dei suoi inizi?

«Mentre le mie amiche prendevano lezioni di danza, io, nel weekend, andavo sui set. Dopo la maturità ho seguito per un anno Psicologia, ma ho deciso presto che volevo fare questo lavoro sul serio. Ho cominciato con piccole parti, poi mi hanno presa per I Cesaroni. Sono andata a fare il provino, insieme a tante altre persone, sapevamo solo che si trattava di una serie spagnola. Non speravamo nulla, nessuno avrebbe mai scommesso una lira su di me, e invece andò bene».

I suoi genitori come la presero?

«Non sono figlia d’arte, loro sono professionisti, mio padre ha due lauree, è psichiatra, l’idea di una figlia che si mettesse a fare l’attrice era una follia, una macchia nella famiglia... Ma quella era la mia passione. Proibita e fortissima. Quando ho iniziato i miei erano terrorizzati».

Fa l’attrice, ma non è mai stata iscritta al Centro sperimentale o ad altre scuole di recitazione. Mai avuto paura di fare errori?

«Eccome. Sbagliare per me è terribile e io di sbagli ne ho fatti tanti, e davanti alla macchina da presa, che è come una lente di ingrandimento, quindi una vera tragedia. Recitavo nelle fiction e sapevo di sbagliare davanti a milioni e milioni di italiani. O mi si amava o mi si odiava, e io sono venuta su restando aperta alle critiche e ai giudizi. Non ho fatto scuole, appena potevo seguivo corsi e stage... Poi, però, non c’è più stato tempo».

Dopo «I Cesaroni» è successo tutto. L’ha scelta Woody Allen. Come andò? «È stato come vivere un sogno, Woody Allen è uno dei miei più grandi miti, un grande maestro. Quando tornavo a casa dal set mi sedevo sul divano e restavo lì muta almeno per un’ora. Ho un ricordo meraviglioso di quella esperienza, agli attori Allen diceva pochissimo, ma quando parlava sul set tutto si rivoluzionava.».

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In his first film since 'Whiplash,' Damien Chazelle stages a lavish song-and-dance musical that dares to swoon the old-fashioned way, with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as L.A. dreamers.

by OWen Gleiberman

The joy and the pain of

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here was a moment back in the 1970s, sometime before “Grease” came out, when the image of people bursting into song and dance in the middle of a motion picture wasn’t simply corny and antiquated; it had come to seem downright strange. Not any more. Our era is immersed in retro musical culture, and it has been for a while — from the visionary postmodern pop swoon of “Moulin Rouge!” to the online resurgence of music video to the highcamp a cappella sincerity of “Glee” and the “Pitch Perfect” films. So what does it take to make a musical today look unabashedly exotic?

Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land,” which opened the Venice Film Festival on a voluptuous high note of retro glamour and style, is the most audacious big-screen musical in a long time, and — irony of ironies — that’s because it’s the most traditional. In his splashy, impassioned, shoot-the-moon third feature, Chazelle, the 31-year-old writer-director of “Whiplash,” pays virtuoso homage to the look and mood and stylized trappings of the Hollywood musicals of the ’40s and, especially, the ’50s (glorious soundstage spectacles of star-spangled rapture), with added shades of Jacques Demy and “New York, New York.” A lot of people still find old musicals corny or think (mistakenly) that they’re quaint. Yet the form remains stubbornly alive in the bones of our culture.

That’s why it feels so right, in “La La Land,” to see a daring filmmaker go whole hog in re-creating a lavish studio-system musical, replete with starry nights and street lamps lighting up the innocence of soft-shoe romance, and two people who were meant for each other literally dancing on air.

“La La Land” is set in contemporary Los Angeles, but its heart and soul are rooted in the past, and so are its characters: Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a sleek jazz pianist in silk ties who’s a cranky purist about what he listens to, what he plays, and where he plays it, and Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress and playwright who’s deep into the magic of the old movie stars, though she’s a tad less obsessive about her fixation. She works as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot and is always cutting out of work to get to auditions; if one of them ever resulted in her landing an acting job, she’d probably be ecstatic no matter what it was.

These two meet, scuffle, and fall in love, and they do it through a series of song-anddance numbers, composed by Justin Hurwitz (the lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul),

"What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again."

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that are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty. The film’s score is such a melodious achievement that there are moments it evokes the bittersweet majesty of George Gershwin.

The movie opens with one of the most extraordinary sequences in years: a musical number, set in the middle of a morning drive-time traffic jam along a vast stretch of L.A. freeway, that is all done in one shot, in the look-ma-no-hands! tradition of the famous openings of “Touch of Evil” or “The Player.”

Chazelle’s camera glides and twirls with astonishing choreographic intricacy among the passengers on their way to work, as they emerge, one by one, from their cars and flip and dance on top of them, fusing into the chorus of a song called “Another Day of Sun.” Cinematically, the sequence makes the impossible look easy, and it suggests a “gotta see” factor that could help to turn “La La Land” into a prestige novelty hit. In its way, though, the sequence, with its giddy optimism, sets up certain emotional expectations. The movie has a lot of time to get moodier, and it ultimately does. Yet Chazelle, by staging this number with so much seductive pizazz, taps our hunger to return to — and stay inside — an enchanted romantic universe.

Sebastian and Mia are among the freeway drivers, and they’re introduced, after a flurry of angry horn honks, by flipping each other the bird, at which point the film travels into Mia’s life: her bedroom with its posters of “Lilies of the Field” and “The Black Cat,” her three glam roommates, and a party that leads to another all-in-one-take musical number (or close enough to it — there are a couple of cuts). Then, finally, Mia is standing there, a little desolate, on the street, and she hears a lonely piano and heads into the bar the music is coming from, and the whole image fades to darkness (except for her), as she lays her eyes on… him. Across a crowded room. A stranger playing the piano.

Except that the look on her face tells you he’s no stranger at all. She’s not just staring — she’s falling. That’s the sublimity of Old Hollywood, where we believed that it could happen just like this.

When Sebastian gets up from the piano, he brushes by Mia, nearly hitting her (we learn why later on), and the film then rotates into his life, and we see how deliciously parallel the two are: old-school dreamers trapped in a world of entertainment commerce that’s designed to crush the life out of you. They reunite at a pool party, where he’s playing synth-keyboards in a tacky ’80s cover band. He’s been fired from the club (by J.K. Simmons, winkingly reprising the

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hanging-judge hostility of his Oscar-winning performance in “Whiplash”), and Mia hasn’t forgiven him for literally giving her the cold shoulder. But that means they’re ready for that old-time Hollywood religion, when two lucky people get to discover what the audience already knows: that the reason they “don’t like” each other is that they already love each other.

They just need to figure it out.

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he two take a stroll, over to a view of L.A.’s glittering carpet of lights that merges into the pastel twilight, and Chazelle stages a gorgeous scene in which they sit, and talk, and start dancing, just the way actors did on sets in the 1950s. The sheer beauty of the staging creates a calm logic of devotion. These two belong together because Gosling, his slight edge of

malice dipped in honey, and Stone, her vivacity cut by a pensive awareness, create a teasing erotic connection, but mostly they belong together because… they dance like this. That’s called the poetry of the 20th century, and the reverent way that Chazelle and his two actors revive it is a delicate and moving thing. Gosling and Stone click together as effervescently as they did in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” At the Griffith Observatory, where Sebastian and Mia go after having just seen it in “Rebel Without a Cause,” they enter the planetarium and are swept up into the stars, and it’s a transcendently goofy, gorgeously blissed-out moment.

The movie needs a complication, of course, and once Sebastian and Mia become a couple, it gets one, in the form of a question: How are either of these people going to make good on their dream? Sebastian wants to open a club, but the kind of music he obsesses over is ripe for a museum. Almost no one is going to shell out to hear it. But it’s not until he lands a paycheck gig with his old musician colleague, played by a charmingly no-nonsense John Legend, that he starts to listen to reason. He’s got to earn a living, and he knows it, so he submits to being part of a commercial pop-jazz band in which he stands in front of screaming crowds and plays funk synthesizer lines that sound just a little bit greasy.

“La La Land” starts as a twinkly fantasy of sophisticated innocence, cut with a touch of modern L.A. sass (especially in Mia’s casually cruel audition scenes). In its second half, though, the film gives itself over to a slightly murky version of the art-vs.-commerce, how-to-hold-onto-your-dream theme. Should Sebastian even be in this band? Oddly, it’s Mia who suddenly says that he shouldn’t (she’s bothered by his relentless touring schedule), and the two get into a fight about it. It’s portrayed as one of those things that just happens between a couple, but given that Sebastian was trying to step up and grow up, on some basic level it’s a little hard to buy that Mia is now the purist. But then, it turns out that her own purity is going to take her far. She just needs a little prodding. Emma Stone, in a luminous performance, is by turns plucky, furious, hopeful, distraught, and devoted, and when she sings the wistful ballad “Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” she is every inch a star.

As their fortunes start to seesaw, the film acquires some of the stormy turbulence of “A Star Is Born,” as well as glimmers of the doubt and disconnection of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” But all of that can feel just a bit discordant. Chazelle wants to make a musical that celebrates the classic Hollywood vision of love as spiritual perfection. But he also wants to

make an age-of-alienation love story that undercuts the old simplicities. He has the right to do both; that’s what “Moulin Rouge!” did.

But the form he’s chosen may not be completely conducive to the emotional complexity he’s after. “La La Land” has one too many moody solos and duets. It ceases to be a big-scale musical. And given the vibrance of the film’s first half, there’s a twinge of disappointment built into that. Chazelle sticks to the bittersweet truth of the story he’s telling, but there’s a part of you that wants to see him shoot the works, to make good on that opening sequence by topping it.

“La La Land” isn’t a masterpiece (and on some level it wants to be). Yet it’s an elating ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely controlled. It winds up swimming in melancholy, yet its most convincing pleasures are the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, “What a glorious feeling.

I’m happy again.”

There was a moment back in the 1970s, sometime before “Grease” came out, when the image of people bursting into song and dance in the middle of a motion picture wasn’t simply corny and antiquated; it had come to seem downright strange. Not any more. Our era is immersed in retro musical culture, and it has been for a while — from the visionary postmodern pop swoon of “Moulin Rouge!” to

the online resurgence of music video to the highcamp a cappella sincerity of “Glee” and the “Pitch Perfect” films. So what does it take to make a musical today look unabashedly exotic?

Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land,” which opened the Venice Film Festival on a voluptuous high note of retro glamour and style, is the most audacious big-screen musical in a long time, and — irony of ironies — that’s because it’s the most traditional. In his splashy, impassioned, shoot-the-moon third feature, Chazelle, the 31-year-old writer-director of “Whiplash,” pays virtuoso homage to the look and mood and stylized trappings of the Hollywood musicals of the ’40s and, especially, the ’50s (glorious soundstage spectacles of star-spangled rapture), with added shades of Jacques Demy and “New York, New York.” A lot of people still find old musicals corny or think

"The most extraordinary sequences in years: a musical number, set in the middle of a morning drive-time traffic jam along a vast stretch of L.A. freeway, that is all done in one shot."

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(mistakenly) that they’re quaint. Yet the form remains stubbornly alive in the bones of our culture. That’s why it feels so right, in “La La Land,” to see a daring filmmaker go whole hog in re-creating a lavish studio-system musical, replete with starry nights and street lamps lighting up the innocence of soft-shoe romance, and two people who were meant for each other literally dancing on air. " a La Land” is set in contemporary Los Angeles, but its heart and soul are rooted in the past, and so are its characters: Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a sleek jazz pianist in silk ties who’s a cranky purist about what he listens to, what he plays, and where he plays it, and Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress and playwright who’s deep into the magic of the old movie stars, though she’s a tad less obsessive about her fixation. She works as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot and is always cutting out of work to get to auditions; if one of them ever resulted in her landing an acting job, she’d probably be ecstatic no matter what it was.

These two meet, scuffle, and fall in love, and they do it through a series of song-and-dance numbers, composed by Justin Hurwitz (the lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), that are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty. The film’s score is such a melodious achievement that there are moments it evokes the bittersweet majesty of George Gershwin.

The movie opens with one of the most extraordinary sequences in years: a musical number, set in the middle of a morning drive-time traffic jam along a vast stretch of L.A. freeway, that is all done in one shot, in the look-ma-no-hands! tradition of the famous openings of “Touch of Evil” or “The Player.”

Chazelle’s camera glides and twirls with astonishing choreographic intricacy among the passengers on their way to work, as they emerge, one by one, from their cars and flip and dance on top of them, fusing into the chorus of a song called “Another Day of Sun.” Cinematically, the sequence makes the impossible look easy, and it suggests a “gotta see” factor that could help to turn “La La Land” into a prestige novelty hit. In its way, though, the sequence, with its giddy optimism, sets up certain emotional expectations. The movie has a lot of time to get moodier, and it ultimately does. Yet Chazelle, by staging this number with so much seductive pizazz, taps our hunger to return to — and stay inside — an enchanted romantic universe.

Sebastian and Mia are among the freeway drivers, and they’re introduced, after a flurry of angry horn honks, by flipping each other the bird, at which point the film travels into Mia’s

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life: her bedroom with its posters of “Lilies of the Field” and “The Black Cat,” her three glam roommates, and a party that leads to another all-in-one-take musical number (or close enough to it — there are a couple of cuts). Then, finally, Mia is standing there, a little desolate, on the street, and she hears a lonely piano and heads into the bar the music is coming from, and the whole image fades to darkness (except for her), as she lays her eyes on… him. Across a crowded room. A stranger playing the piano.

Except that the look on her face tells you he’s no stranger at all. She’s not just staring — she’s falling. That’s the sublimity of Old Hollywood, where we believed that it could happen just like this.

When Sebastian gets up from the piano, he brushes by Mia, nearly hitting her (we learn why later on), and the film then rotates into his life, and we see how deliciously parallel the two are: old-school dreamers trapped in a world of entertainment commerce that’s designed to

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dancing, just the way actors did on sets in the 1950s. The sheer beauty of the staging creates a calm logic of devotion. These two belong together because Gosling, his slight edge of malice dipped in honey, and Stone, her vivacity

“ 'La La Land' isn’t a masterpiece."

crush the life out of you. They reunite at a pool party, where he’s playing synth-keyboards in a tacky ’80s cover band. He’s been fired from the club (by J.K. Simmons, winkingly reprising the hanging-judge hostility of his Oscar-winning performance in “Whiplash”), and Mia hasn’t forgiven him for literally giving her the cold shoulder. But that means they’re ready for that old-time Hollywood religion, when two lucky people get to discover what the audience already knows: that the reason they “don’t like” each other is that they already love each other. They just need to figure it out.

The two take a stroll, over to a view of L.A.’s glittering carpet of lights that merges into the pastel twilight, and Chazelle stages a gorgeous scene in which they sit, and talk, and start

"A twinkly fantasy of sophisticated innocence, cut with a touch of modern L.A. sass."

cut by a pensive awareness, create a teasing erotic connection, but mostly they belong together because… they dance like this. That’s called the poetry of the 20th century, and the reverent way that Chazelle and his two actors revive it is a delicate and moving thing. Gosling and Stone click together as effervescently as they did in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” At the Griffith Observatory, where Sebastian and Mia go after having just seen it in “Rebel Without a Cause,” they enter the planetarium and are swept up into the stars, and it’s a transcendently goofy, gorgeously blissed-out moment.

The movie needs a complication, of course, and once Sebastian and Mia become a couple, it gets one, in the form of a question: How are either of these people going to make good on their dream? Sebastian wants to open a club, but the kind of music he obsesses over is ripe for a museum.

Almost no one is going to shell out to hear it.

But it’s not until he lands a paycheck gig with his old musician colleague, played by a charmingly no-nonsense John Legend, that he starts to listen to reason. He’s got to earn a living, and he knows it, so he submits to being part of a commercial pop-jazz band in which he stands in front of screaming crowds and plays funk synthesizer lines that sound just a little bit greasy.

“La La Land” starts as a twinkly fantasy of sophisticated innocence, cut with a touch of modern L.A. sass (especially in Mia’s casually cruel audition scenes). In its second half, though, the film gives itself over to a slightly murky version of the art-vs.-commerce, how-to-hold-onto-your-dream theme. Should Sebastian even be in this band? Oddly, it’s Mia who suddenly says that he shouldn’t (she’s bothered by his relentless touring schedule), and the two get into a fight about it. It’s portrayed as one of those things that just happens between a couple, but given that Sebastian was trying to step up and grow up, on some basic level it’s a little hard to buy that Mia is now the purist. But then, it turns out that her own purity is going to take her far. She just needs a little prodding.

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Dolomites

Snow and

In winter,hiking trails through forests and ower-filled meadows beckon, and enticing meals are never far away.

By: Roberta Esposito

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he most sensible approach to the Alpine geological wonderland known as the Dolomites is also the most evocative one. Here’s how it’s done: After the three-hour drive from Venice Marco Polo Airport toward Austria, pull off the autostrada into the inviting city of Bolzano.

In the pedestrian zone on Piazza della Mostra you will encounter the town’s best restaurant, Zur Kaiserkron. The lunchtime flavors — smoke-cured ham known as speck, orange-infused ravioli, honey-glazed duck with beet sauce, an array of local mountain cheeses — inform you that you’ve arrived in a distinctive place with a robust Mitteleuropean sensibility that also has the capacity to surprise.

As you proceed northward, note how the city gives way to silky green meadowland. And then suddenly you see it: the asymmetrical limestone spires of the Dolomites erupting from the placid landscape like a gigantic prehistoric paw in gruff welcome.

I’d been to the Dolomites several times before my recent trip, but always in winter, when the hotels are monopolized by ski bums and many of the slender, high-altitude roads are impassable. Its high-season epicenter is the resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the site of the 1956 Winter Olympics and today a snowy haven for fanciers of chic.

An altogether different experience awaits a summer visitor. Prices are lower, rooms and tables at the best places are more accessible, the lifts are open to any and all sightseers, and its picturesque, if at times nerve-rackingly corkscrew, thoroughfares are far more easily negotiated. Shorn of its wintry curtain, the mountainous landscape leaves no doubt that — with apologies to Tuscany, Sicily and Campania, home of the Amalfi Coast — the Trentino-Alto Adige region bordering Austria and Switzerland features Italy’s most stunning topography.

But the Dolomites aren’t for mere gazing, as I discovered in July after leaving Bolzano and ascending into the mountain village of Castelrotto.

All around my car, an outbreak of physical fitness materialized: hundreds of men, women and children in jogging shorts or mounted on cycles or clacking downhill with their walking sticks. And a few miles outside of town, at the Adler Mountain Lodge where I checked in, a wellness convention seemed to be underway, with the hotel’s entire clientele shuffling cultlike in their terry cloth robes and slippers from sauna to massage to outdoor pool, which overlooked what has to be the most entrancing view in the entire region.

The Adler is barely a year old and is as sleek and solicitous as any resort one might encounter in Aspen or Chamonix. I sat on the torchlit patio with a glass of local riesling and appraised the Dolomites.

The 18 peaks — some exceeding 9,000 feet — form the centerpiece of a national park as well as a Unesco World Heritage site.

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hey loom over deep valleys, wildflowerspeckled meadows and a multitude of glistening lakes. Encased in their flinty bulk is the fossilized narrative of a rich marine life that perished in the Triassic period over 200 million years ago.

As I sat there, the fading sun brushed dabs of gold and lavender against the rock faces. I contented myself by sending taunting photographs to my friends back home in Washington until a waiter appeared and gently inquired if I intended to eat dinner, as it was

note of the day’s various hotel-sponsored physical activities that I would be missing. I had places to go, and the one road leading out of the hotel would soon be closed for several hours to accommodate a half-marathon whose participants would include members of Nigeria’s national track team (they train here annually because of the thin mountain air).

My own wellness program was of a different sort. I was headed two hours east to San Vito di Cadore, an otherwise unimpressive town that hosted, inside a somewhat dreary hotel, the

"Briol is manifestly a destination for solitude-seekers." getting on 9:30. I submitted to an excellent five-course meal that included cauliflower soup with pine nuts, conchiglie pasta with prawns and lamb chops on a bed of anise-laced cabbage, and then returned to my room, drew back the curtains and opened the windows, so that when I awoke I could encounter immediate visual evidence that I hadn’t dreamed all of this.

The next morning I perused the bulletin board next to the Adler’s reception desk, taking

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hottest new restaurant in the Dolomites. Aga is its name — “like acqua, or water,” explained the impish co-chef and owner (with his partner Alessandra Del Favero) Oliver Piras, “because we’re simple, limpid and transparent.” He managed to say this with a straight face.

The tiny, four-table restaurant has spartan, Scandinavian-like furnishings, with cuisine that showcases the 35 local herbs grown in Aga’s adjacent garden. But decidedly un-limpid

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courses like elderberry broth with eggplantstuffed pasta, guinea fowl in juniper sauce and a sorbet with dwarf pine needles were as daring as they were delicious. I consumed everything fearlessly, knowing that my war on calories would soon begin at my next lodging, which was not accessible by car.

Two miles outside the mountain village of Barbiano, I found the parking lot for Briol. I left my luggage in the trunk, stuffed a change of clothes into a backpack and proceeded toward a trail that maintained a murderous grade until, one hour later, the hotel at last came into view at an altitude of 4,000 feet.

Continue reading the main story close story-body close supplemental close story-body-supplemental Briol is the warm and funky former mountain retreat of a Bolzano entrepreneur that has remained in his family since its construction in 1871. Some 50 family members still reside in the 15 residences strewn across the rolling property.

In one such dwelling, irregularly shaped with a maze of small rooms, Freud stayed for a time as a guest of the architect who had built it.

The inn itself is a reminder of the region’s peculiarities. German is the primary language

spoken at the hotel (a legacy of the AustroHungarian empire, which possessed Alto Adige until surrendering it to Italy after the end of World War I). As is customary among mountaineers, I was greeted not with an aperitif but with a shot of grappa. The shaggy hikers hunched on wooden benches drinking beer.

Creaky wooden floors, communal bathrooms and the complete absence of spa culture suggest that the featured attraction at Briol is not luxury but splendid isolation.

While awaiting dinner on the balcony, I saw a young bearded man with a backpack trudging up the steep hill. He entered the dining room as I did, offered his hand and introduced himself as Martin Gojer — one of the best winemakers in the region who had, to my surprise, taken me up on my offer to join me for dinner, which meant driving from his cellar in Bolzano and hiking up from Barbiano.

Where the traditional mountain cuisine of the Dolomites is hearty and no-frills, its wine is precise but somewhat characterless, owing to the cooperatives that predominate in Alto Adige. Mr. Gojer’s winery, Pranzegg (named after his family’s 455-year-old property), represents a welcome break. From his backpack he produced a bottle of one of Pranzegg’s red wines — made from the indigenous schiava grape, long understood to be a lowly varietal (“schiava” means “slave”) — and poured it as our beef with polenta arrived. Its austere elegance was almost Burgundian.

“I had a conversation with Josko Gravner that had a big impact on me,” Mr. Gojer, 36, said, referring to the revered if quixotic Friuli winemaker who ferments his white wines in terra-cotta amphoras. “He said, ‘A wine without a soul is just a beverage.’ He encouraged me to find my own path.”

I did the same myself, at 5 the next morning.

A tangerine ribbon of sunlight creased the horizon as I began the first of my daily climbs.

Black squirrels and a single mountain goat scurried off at my huffing approach along the forest path.

The hundreds of hiking trails throughout the Dolomites are well marked; many of them feel scarcely used, plunging you into a remoteness that might be disquieting, except that at every clearing you look up to find yourself saluted by that familiar 18-fingered paw.

Briol is manifestly a destination for solitudeseekers. Departing that morning after a stout breakfast and hiking downhill to my car, I made my way northward to the much-visited but charming town of Corvara. I had known to stay away from it the day before: The roads around Corvara had been closed all morning because of

the Maratona, an annual cycling event that had attracted 9,000 participants from 67 countries.

A day later, and indeed throughout my six-day stay, I encountered packs of two-wheelers gamely surging up every mountain road I traversed.

“Biking is the new golf,” the Maratona’s affable president, Michil Costa, told me as we sat over espressos in the reception room of his family’s handsome hotel, appropriately named La Perla, where I would stay the next two days. “You look at these bikes they’re riding — they cost thousands of dollars.

Back in 1997 when I became president of this event, biking was for the poor. Now it’s turned into a big business for this area.”

Elements of the Dolomites’ native inhabitants, the Ladins, remain, including the Ladino language itself (commonly spoken wherever I visited) and the sense of reserve prevalent in isolated mountain communities.

"The asymmetrical limestone spires of the Dolomites erupting from the placid landscape like a gigantic prehistoric paw in gruff welcome."

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therwise, the 54-year-old Mr. Costa told me, the region had seen much change during his lifetime here.

His father had built La Perla in 1956, back when Corvara’s visitors got around on foot rather than on bicycles. At the son’s prodding, in 1982 the hotel opened the first fine-dining establishment in the Dolomites, La Stua di Michil. “For a full year, the concept didn’t work at all,” he said. “People here just wanted to eat polenta.” But as high-dollar tourism seeped into the region, so did a demand for food that transcended mountain sustenance.

La Stua di Michil became a Michelin-star restaurant, and before long two other nearby first-class hotels — Rosa Alpina and Ciasa Salares, both in San Cassiano — would also offer outstanding cuisine. And though the standard

"The storm abruptly stopped just as I took my place among the stone sculptures." fare at the mountain osterias known as rifugios largely remains slabs of speck and strong local cheese, there are exceptions — most notably Col Alt, a rifugio above Corvara accessible only by ski lift, where meat dishes take the form of succulent venison or rabbit, and bottles of aged Barolo offer a noble complement to the soaring mountain vistas.

One night I was having an excellent dinner at La Stua di Michil, an intimate wood-paneled restaurant with a featured soundtrack of the American jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (whose tragic life was distilled into a few loving paragraphs alongside the evening’s menu), when La Perla’s resident hiking guide, Marco Sacchelli, strolled in. The lean, ponytailed guide went from table to table, wanting to know who was game for a fairly challenging four-hour hike the next day. I said that I was in.

The next morning at 10, the hotel van deposited eight of us at the Alpe di Fanes, the plains from which we began a ferocious ascent, followed by a walk through a blissful stretch of meadow and silvery springs before the uphill climb recommenced for nearly an hour. At last we found ourselves at a plateau, standing directly between two peaks of the Dolomites, Cima del Lago and Cima Scotoni, 7,500 feet above sea level.

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stubborn pocket of the previous winter’s snow remained beside our feet. Directly below us, perhaps a thousand feet downhill, a fava bean-shaped lake of impossible exquisiteness shimmered. It looked no less beautiful when we stood right beside it an hour later.

Close story-body close supplemental close story-body-supplemental I did not think any experience could trump what I had already had, until I roller-coasterrode my way westward from Corvara and into the sumptuous Val di Sarentino.

After driving through the town of Sarentino, the road shot uphill again and narrowed into essentially a one-lane, paved trail for about four miles. It dead-ended at Auener Hof, a 10-room Relais & Chateaux wellness resort affixed to its Michelin-star restaurant, Terra. The hotel is owned and operated by two siblings, Gisela and Heinrich Schneider, who respectively double as the restaurant’s sommelier and chef and whose grandfather built the original structure in 1940, back when the area lacked plumbing and electricity and, for that matter, a roadway.

Now Auener Hof lacks for nothing. Opting for rigor over Zen, I forwent the spa’s silver quartzite primordial stone massage and set out uphill for a 75-minute hike to something more straightforwardly primitive: the Stoanernen Mandeln, or Stone Men, a bizarre assemblage of 100 or so sandstone figures presumably constructed by ancient shepherds for reasons of their own. Midway into the trek, the skies suddenly went dark and I found myself in the middle of a hailstorm. I kept going, telling myself that the icy stones pummeling my back were akin to a massage and that my fingers would eventually regain their warmth.

The storm abruptly stopped just as I took my place among the stone sculptures. Before long, sunlight drenched the meadows; a half-dozen cattle lay on the trail in front of me, blocking my passage. I climbed a fence, jogged the rest of the way downhill and concluded I’d earned myself an epic dinner.

Which was precisely what I got that evening at Terra, an architecturally theatrical structure, with its birch trunk pillars and 13 well-spaced tables and glass-encased kitchen — not to mention a view through the glass wall that took in not only the Dolomites but, directly below, the spectacle of a deer nursing her fawn.

Each of the 16 courses (many of them bite-size) was intricately sculpted and served on ceramic or stone works of art themselves,

accompanied by beguiling wines that reflected Gisela Schneider’s affection for small and offbeat producers like Norbert Kofler and Andi Solva. From the saffron, lavender and salmon-tinted breadsticks to the slow-baked wild carrots to a crunchy fried pigeon cannelloni to the pike with a sauce of wheatgrass and mangel beet, I coasted through my three hours at Terra with the giddiness of a Ladin schoolboy tumbling through a field of edelweiss.

I would have given anything to stay another night at Auener Hof. But the hiking guide Marco Sacchelli had urged me to consider one last outdoor rendezvous before I said goodbye to the Dolomites.

Begrudgingly, I left the hotel the next morning and headed eastward under a dulcet blue sky to Cortina d’Ampezzo.

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Need more information?

A little over a month to Christmas, every city lights giving a magical kaleidoscope of light and color.

Enjoy the enchantment of these colors on our website by choosing one of the destinations of our selection. There you will find all the information you need to sleep, eat, drink and entertain yourself from morning till night during your stay in the beautiful dolomites.

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Quiet Poems Quiet Poems: the art of photogrphy and storytelling by the up-and-coming photographer , Matilde Minauro.

By: Roberta Esposito

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e’ve come across Rome, Italy based photographer Matilde Minauro‘s amazing photostream on Instagram. She depicts her world in visual poems. They sometimes appear as a snow white swan on the lake, a book on a clean linen, a pure tulip in a woman’s hand or a warm cup of fruit tea on the table. In our e-mail interview with her, she described her artwork as follows “Photography for me is a collection of quiet poems. They tell you stories; speak to you in emotions and feelings. My quiet poems are felt deep inside my soul. They are delicate whispers that speak to me and ask me to come out everyday, to tell my story. However not in words, but in a collection of single frames, caught in that light that silently paints and brings them to life. My quiet poems, they exist in your eyes and slowly lead you into my imperfect world.”

Matilde Minauro is a young Italian photographer who lives in Rome. He approached photography as a child and 8 years already has its first camera. Studying architecture significantly influence his photographic style allowing it to use the lines and light as expressive languages. What binds to photography is the idea that every single moment is to be observed not only with the eyes, but also with the heart and can be made eternal through a click. His portfolio is a corner of inner secret, a collection of poems that tell a silent story of intangible feelings that words would fail to express. A story that only light can delicately painted in every little detail. Almost never portrayed in a complete, Matilde likes to describe photographically in an almost intermittent. Use the aim not only to frame the image, but to give it a soul, that the system may result in a poetic composition. Floral elements, strictly selected in soft tones and natural to want to communicate purity and fragility, are a constant in his photographic compositions. White prevails in the dominant mode, as a color and as a search for simplicity, elegance and harmony. The atmosphere of his work is dreamlike, melancholy, silent and increasingly diluted and rarefied tones to define an intimate and deep, in which the artist is able to easily communicate with itself. The light falls on subjects like the impalpable movement of a wave or a silk veil and scale to the viewer what is visible and what is given only imagine.

Matilde began to withdraw itself, trying to know from the inside out and to understand in about the merits as in its defects. Then comes the desire to express themselves and to want to tell through personal frames. Soon his pictures start to turn on the web, through his Instagram profile and his personal page on PhotoVogue.

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Almost never portrayed in a complete, Matilde likes to describe photographically in an almost intermittent, proving to be a very introverted person. The goal always delivers a distinct area of his body, naked or partially covered.

The flowers represent the other important component of the fixed photographs of Matilde.

Nymphs, roses, freesias, are often used to cover nakedness, or create still life with a strong emotional component, all chosen strictly in the ubiquitous shades of white, as if to communicate the purity, the fragility and uniqueness of the inner being.

Photographs that tell the artist's relationship with itself, in a continuous quest for understanding of his delicate soul. Made public a secret diary from the intimate power of Matilde, that through the camera and sharing of his works has been able to assert itself and to believe in his potential as an artist.

Defines himself "was able to face his inner weaknesses to learn to love each other through the camera, the only means that objectively describes the outside of things, while at the same time to communicate the essence of a little imperfect creatures", Matilde.

Autumn is a time of silence. A time to take a step back and calm down.

It is a time for hiking in clean, crisp air and colorful surroundings, waiting for winter to arrive…

It is the pause just before the leap where you realize how beautiful all the things are that you are about to lose. Autumn has always been my favorite season.

The colors, the leaves dancing in the wind, the melancholy of foggy days, the visible spirit of change, the enchantment of a new beginning and the reminiscing of sweet memories is all so magical to me.

Autumn, with its ever changing faces, allows me to collect many thoughts and memories from my childhood days spent in the forests with my dad and his dogs, hours spent on the couch near the fireplace with my mum and my sister, watching rain tap against the window and listening to the sound of wood burning, all inebriated by the scent of a freshly baked apple pie.There is not a day that goes by in this wonderful season where you don’t want to reach out and grab everything you are seeing, in the hope to preserve those unique moments… even for just a moment. All of the delightful layers of Autumn inspired me to return to Parco Naturale Regionale Taburno – Camposauro near to my hometown and sent me on a captivating adventure where I found myself wandering through the forests, reliving cherished moments and creating new ones.

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that only light can delicately paint in every detail.

Matilde, you called your project Quiet Poem. What is the message you want to communicate?

I like to think that my photography is as a quiet collection of poems, haiku (Japanese elegant poems, editor's note) simple and immediate visual. I like to tell my story through details and nuances; dwell on the particular look or a hand, the movement of a wave or the reflection of a ray of sunshine, wrapping it all in a thin silk veil and leaving only a glimpse of a track that is the observer complete and understand.

Intimacy. What is the meaning you attribute to this word today, in a world where the private aspect is overexposed?

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atilde Minauro is a photographer based in Florence, Italy. Introduced to photography through the work and influence of her grandfather, she owned her first camera at age 8.

Her studies in architecture influence her photographic style significantly, and this is evident in her use of lines and light as expressive languages. The atmosphere of her work is notably dreamlike, melancholic and quiet with consistently diluted and rarefied tones to define an intimate and profound space. Her portfolio is a secret corner of interiority, a collection of quiet poems that tell a story of almost impalpable sensations that words fail to express‌ A story

The word intimacy for me is a kind of emotional journey to discover myself, sharing small details of my daily life in an almost suspended between dream and reality in which everyone can get lost and find yourself. They are very quiet and pretty introverted, but I always felt the need to tell the world hidden inside me.

And I agree, we live in a world where the private aspect is very overexposed but, through my photographs, I try to tell a perspective never intrusive or indiscreet.

Your images are clear, I would say "soft".

What is the technique you use and why did you choose that?

My shots, as I said, seem wrapped in a thin silk veil: I like to create a rarefied atmosphere, light colored, it is able to convey lightness and inner peace. Do not use any special technique, my photographs are bright and slightly desaturated, to want to make gentle even that which is not delicate You have embarked on a journey in Morocco you have reported through your photos. What were the aspects that you have impressed you most?

The trip to Morocco was a truly amazing: in ten days I have traveled more than 2000 km by car, from the chaos of Marrakech to Fez, through the calm and silence of the villages of the Atlas Mountains and dunes Sahara, reaching Chefchaouen, the enchanted village of Ref. I can say I felt Morocco under the skin, I grasped the essence in looks proud of the men, in the discretion of the women and their veils, in the children's smiles . Its perfumes, its colors, in its slow tempo, punctuated by the symphonic Adhan and the voice of the Muezzin. Morocco is a truly amazing land, which protects his soul and its identity and is not afraid to let discover.

What are your future plans?

I do not like to make plans and generally do not like to think about the future. Life is that wonderful gear that never ceases to surprise. I change my mind all the time, I make a lot of mistakes, but I follow my heart and that, somehow, he makes me happy.

Matilde, you called your project Quiet Poem. What is the message you want to communicate?

I like to think that my photography is as a quiet collection of poems, haiku (Japanese elegant poems, editor's note) simple and immediate visual. I like to tell my story through details and nuances; dwell on the particular look or a hand, the movement of a wave or the reflection of a ray of sunshine, wrapping it all in a thin silk veil and leaving only a glimpse of a track that is the observer complete and understand.

Intimacy. What is the meaning you attribute to this word today, in a world where the private aspect is overexposed?

The word intimacy for me is a kind of emotional journey to discover myself, sharing small details of my daily life in an almost suspended between dream and reality in which everyone can get lost and find yourself. They are very quiet and pretty introverted, but I always felt the need to tell the world hidden inside me.

And I agree, we live in a world where the private aspect is very overexposed but, through my photographs, I try to tell a perspective never intrusive or indiscreet.

Your images are clear, I would say "soft". What is the technique you use and why did you choose that?

My shots, as I said, seem wrapped in a thin silk veil: I like to create a rarefied atmosphere, light colored, it is able to convey lightness and inner peace. Do not use any special technique, my photographs are bright and slightly desaturated, to want to make gentle even that which is not delicate You have embarked on a journey in Morocco you have reported through your

"The camera is like a mirror through which to know yourself and to tell your story."

photos. What were the aspects that you have impressed you most?

The trip to Morocco was a truly amazing: in ten days I have traveled more than 2000 km by car, from the chaos of Marrakech to Fez, through the calm and silence of the villages of the Atlas Mountains and dunes Sahara, reaching Chefchaouen, the enchanted village of Ref. I can say I felt Morocco under the skin, I grasped the essence in looks proud of the men, in the discretion of the women and their veils, in the children's smiles . Its perfumes, its colors, in its slow tempo, punctuated by the symphonic Adhan and the voice of the Muezzin. Morocco is a truly amazing land, which protects his soul and its identity and is not afraid to let discover.

What are your future plans?

I do not like to make plans and generally do not like to think about the future. Life is that wonderful gear that never ceases to surprise. I change my mind all the time, I make a lot of mistakes, but I follow my heart and that, somehow, he makes me happy.

Matilde, you called your project Quiet Poem. What is the message you want to communicate?

I like to think that my photography is as a quiet collection of poems, haiku (Japanese elegant poems, editor's note) simple and immediate visual. I like to tell my story through details and nuances; dwell on the particular look

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or a hand, the movement of a wave or the reflection of a ray of sunshine, wrapping it all in a thin silk veil and leaving only a glimpse of a track that is the observer complete and understand.

Intimacy. What is the meaning you attribute to this word today, in a world where the private aspect is overexposed?

The word intimacy for me is a kind of emotional journey to discover myself, sharing small details of my daily life in an almost suspended between dream and reality in which everyone can get lost and find yourself. They are very quiet and pretty introverted, but I always felt the need to tell the world hidden inside me.

And I agree, we live in a world where the private aspect is very overexposed but, through my photographs, I try to tell a perspective never intrusive or indiscreet.

Your images are clear, I would say "soft".

What is the technique you use and why did you choose that?

My shots, as I said, seem wrapped in a thin silk veil: I like to create a rarefied atmosphere, light colored, it is able to convey lightness and inner peace. Do not use any special technique, my photographs are bright and slightly desaturated, to want to make gentle even that which is not delicate You have embarked on a journey in Morocco you have reported through your photos. What were the aspects that you have impressed you most?

The trip to Morocco was a truly amazing: in ten days I have traveled more than 2000 km by car, from the chaos of Marrakech to Fez, through the calm and silence of the villages of the Atlas Mountains and dunes Sahara, reaching Chefchaouen, the enchanted village of Ref. I can say I felt Morocco under the skin, I grasped the essence in looks proud of the men, in the discretion of the women and their veils, in the children's smiles . Its perfumes, its colors, in its slow tempo, punctuated by the symphonic Adhan and the voice of the Muezzin. Morocco is a truly amazing land, which protects his soul and its identity and is not afraid to let discover.

What are your future plans?

I do not like to make plans and generally do not like to think about the future. Life is that wonderful gear that never ceases to surprise. I change my mind all the time, I make a lot of mistakes, but I follow my heart and that, somehow, he makes me happy.

Matilde, you called your project Quiet Poem. What is the message you want to communicate?

I like to think that my photography is as a quiet collection of poems, haiku (Japanese elegant poems, editor's note) simple and immediate visual. I like to tell my story through

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details and nuances; dwell on the particular look or a hand, the movement of a wave or the reflection of a ray of sunshine, wrapping it all in a thin silk veil and leaving only a glimpse of a track that is the observer complete and understand.

Intimacy. What is the meaning you attribute to this word today, in a world where the private aspect is overexposed?

The word intimacy for me is a kind of emotional journey to discover myself, sharing small details of my daily life in an almost suspended between dream and reality in which everyone can get lost and find yourself. They are very quiet and pretty introverted, but I always felt the need to tell the world hidden inside me.

And I agree, we live in a world where the private aspect is very overexposed but, through my

"My quiet poems are felt deep inside my soul."

italian truth

Mountains and dunes Sahara, reaching Chefchaouen, the enchanted village of Ref. I can say I felt Morocco under the skin, I grasped the essence in looks proud of the men, in the discretion of the women and their veils, in the children's smiles . Its perfumes, its colors, in its slow tempo, punctuated by the symphonic Adhan and the voice of the Muezzin. Morocco is a truly amazing land, which protects his soul and its identity and is not afraid to let discover.

"I believe every story is worth telling."

photographs, I try to tell a perspective never intrusive or indiscreet.

Your images are clear, I would say "soft".

What is the technique you use and why did you choose that?

My shots, as I said, seem wrapped in a thin silk veil: I like to create a rarefied atmosphere, light colored, it is able to convey lightness and inner peace. Do not use any special technique, my photographs are bright and slightly desaturated, to want to make gentle even that which is not delicate You have embarked on a journey in Morocco you have reported through your photos. What were the aspects that you have impressed you most?

The trip to Morocco was a truly amazing: in ten days I have traveled more than 2000 km by car, from the chaos of Marrakech to Fez, through the calm and silence of the villages of the Atlas

italian truth

What are your future plans?

I do not like to make plans and generally do not like to think about the future. Life is that wonderful gear that never ceases to surprise. I change my mind all the time, I make a lot of mistakes, but I follow my heart and that, somehow, he makes me happy.

Matilde, you called your project Quiet Poem. What is the message you want to communicate?

I like to think that my photography is as a quiet collection of poems, haiku (Japanese elegant poems, editor's note) simple and immediate visual. I like to tell my story through details and nuances; dwell on the particular look or a hand, the movement of a wave or the reflection of a ray of sunshine, wrapping it all in a thin silk veil and leaving only a glimpse of a track that is the observer complete and understand.

Intimacy. What is the meaning you attribute to this word today, in a world where the private aspect is overexposed?

The word intimacy for me is a kind of emotional journey to discover myself, sharing small details of my daily life in an almost suspended between dream and reality in which everyone can get lost and find yourself. They are very quiet and pretty introverted, but I always felt the need to tell the world hidden inside me.

And I agree, we live in a world where the private aspect is very overexposed but, through my photographs, I try to tell a perspective never intrusive or indiscreet.

Your images are clear, I would say "soft".

What is the technique you use and why did you choose that?

My shots, as I said, seem wrapped in a thin silk veil: I like to create a rarefied atmosphere, light colored, it is able to convey lightness and inner peace. Do not use any special technique, my photographs are bright and slightly desaturated, to want to make gentle even that which is not delicate.

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sneak peek Next month we will interview an amaizing photographer. Luna Simoncini is a 26 photographer who was born in Macerata, a city at the center of Italy. Her passion for photography was born in Bologna during college years. Now she currently studies photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, Italy. Luna also has a photography blog named Fotografica Mente Luna where she writes about analog and digital photography, instant photography, lomography, and much more!

We had fun sharing with you our Italian Truth.

Until next time!

Alessandra D'attoma

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italian truth

italian truth

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