Italy’s wineries aren’t like those in the United States. Many wine estates are essentially working farms. Wine is normal for all, not just a means of placating the wealthy. Thus, many wineries are mere farmhouses.

So when you go looking for “wine tasting” you might be disappointed. Many estates require reservations or aren’t open to tasting at all.

One of the more Interesting places for tasting and purchase is Cantine Lunae in the Val di Magra in Ortonovo on Via Bozzi, 63. It’s part of the Colli di Luni wine region, or Luni hills. So, it is convenient if you’re visiting the Lunigiana, but it’s actually in Liguria. They also host quite a few events, as the winery is perfectly suited to it.

Lunae was the Roman name of the settlement near the mouth of the Magra which became rich from the shipping of Marble from nearby the marble quarries near today’s Massa and Carrara.

Cantine Lunae has a small museum of old wine and winery memorabilia to visit (it’s free, don’t worry). Above is a tableau of an old dining table at the museum.

The winery has a modern web site, although it annoyingly takes over your monitor full screen: Cantine Lunae

Cantine Lunae has a wide range of wines (and prices). As you see to the left, if you’re on a budget and happen to have have a big, clean bottle or two with you, you can buy Lunae’s vino sfuso by the liter for cheap.

Be sure to watch for “Cantine Aperte” to visit wineries hosting special events for wine tourists and locals. See: Cantine Aperte at Cantine Lunae to see last year’s happenings.

Essentials:

Cantine Lunae
Via Bozzi, 63
19034 Ortonovo
tel +39 0187 660187

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Need a Tuscany wine touring map? Perhaps these Tuscany Wine Guides can help.

In the southern Italian village of Rosaneto in the Basilicata region of Italy, they have cats, lots of them.  Indeed, there are so many of these felines that the residents of Rosaneto didn’t know what to do with them.  Until, that was, an enterprising local entrepreneur, Franco Latitante had a bright idea.  Why not use cat’s milk to make mozzarella?

Putting his money where his mouth was, in a whisker he had set up Italy’s first, and so far, only cat milking facility.  Next door, the cat’s milk is transformed into creamy mozzarella cheese.  Italy’s president Napolitano recently paid a visit to Latitante’s new business and gave his presidential thumbs up to Italy’s latest natural product.

Local resident, Monica Fusa, is very enthusiastic about Latitante’s creamy creation, and says that her kids love it.  Several local shop owners and a supermarket chain are stocking this new mozzarella, and are very happy with sales so far.  Mario Contropelo, who owns a supermarket in nearby Castrocucco says that his customers cannot get enough of this new cheese. “This new cat’s milk mozzarella has everyone licking their lips in anticipation”, he commented when interviewed by local newspaper Il Gattopardo.

Federico Fantozzi is also a happy chap, seeing as he now has a new job as Rosaneto’s official cat catcher and milker.  “Yesterday,”, he purred, “I caught seventy three strays.  Most of them were pregnant females, and were attached to the cat milking equipment in Latitiante’s new dairy facility.” He loves his new work, but, as the scratches on his arms attest, it can be a little hazardous at times.

To keep Italy’s animal rights activists happy, Latitante, Italy’s first cat’s milk mozzarella maker, has released some photographs of the moggies being milked.  Here’s one, so you can see that the cats concerned are perfectly happy to be subjected to the milking procedure.

This cat, Rosella, as she’s been called, is one of Latitante’s most productive pussies, putting out a litre of high quality milk daily.  Around 4.5 litres of fresh cat’s milk is needed to produce each kilo of tasty cat’s milk mozzarella.

Latitante has even coined a name for this new mozzarella, he calls it “Gazzarella” (The Italian for cat is “gatto”), and is on the point of applying to have his new cheese product registered with the EU as an official ‘Made in Italy’ foodstuff.  Soon after, Latitante hopes to start distributing his new cheese all over the world.

Try Gazzarella Pizza

At the Hotel Ristorante La Tana: Via delle amicizie 22, Castrocucco di Maratea, 85046, in Basilicata, you can now order pizza topped with Gazzarella mozzarella cheese.  But be sure to get there early on in the evening, as these particular pizzas are being lapped up very quickly.  Give the La Tana pizzeria restaurant a call on (0039) 34 625 5948 to book a table.

Not Everyone is Happy

Gaetano Pudore of the Italian Mozzarella Makers Federation is not purring with contentment over this new cat’s milk mozzarella, as he fears that it may dent sales of Italy’s famous Buffalo Mozzarella.  He is reportedly considering taking Latitante to court for using the mozzarella name.

Top Cat Sponsor

Latitante, when questioned about this, said that he was not worried, indeed, he has recently signed a sponsorship deal with one of Italy’s top football players.  Who? Why, Milan player, Gennaro Gattuso, of course!  Find out more about the Gattuso sponsorship deal by clicking here.

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Italy’s regional election results are in.  Silvio Berlusconi and his ally, Umberto Bossi have cause for celebration.  Italy’s right led by inimitable Mr Media Berlusconi has claimed a victory which in times of hardship, and in the face of endless sleaze and corruption scandals, has surprised some in Italy.

The key Italian regions of Piedmont and Latium went to Italy’s right, leaving the battered left nursing two open wounds, and wondering what the heck happened.

In part, Berlusconi’s vice like grip in Italy’s media, combined with his media manipulation talents have contributed towards his leaving Italy’s left in his wake.  But Italy’s left must share some of the blame.  The main left wing party, the centre-left PD Democratic Party, is led by the rather grey and dull Bersani.  In keeping with his own persona, Bersani fielded candidates which were equally dull, or at least, were perceived as being so.  The left does not have a great reputation in Italy, and Italians may well suspect that opening their arms to the left once more will result in Italy returning to the kind of revolving door politics which characterised the country since the end of the Second World War.

You’ve got to hand it to Silvio, love him or hate him.

Supreme Silvio

Berlusconi is the only Italian politician who has managed to keep an Italian government in power for considerably longer than a year.  Maybe by giving Berlusconi their vote, Italians are hoping that the stability he is able to bring will transform Italy for the better.  On the other hand, it does look as though in the hands of Berlusconi, Italy is falling back to the period in the mid-90s when the country was rocked by the huge corruption scandal and the nationwide “mani pulite” investigations.  Only this time round, Italy’s power mongers know which traps to avoid, and “reforms” to Italy’s judiciary should help keep irritating investigators off the backs of those who employ somewhat illicit methods.

Vendola’s Miracle

Still, despite an outlook which some Italians may regard as being dull as a wet weekend in Weston-Super-Mare, a ray of light has penetrated the seemingly overcast sky.  Down in the Italian region of Puglia, the victory of left winger, and a communist to boot, Nichi Vendola, has rocked the boat of Italy’s traditionally dilatory, grey, and watery, left.  To some, Vendola’s victory is nothing short of a miracle, coming, as it has in the face of the very anti-communist Berlusconi.  And Vendola is gay, a fact which adds to the miraculous nature of Vendola’s triumph in Italy’s south with its notoriously traditional values.

But the real reason why Vendola is a winner, is that he is honest, and has detached himself from the rest of Italy’s left.  He represents something new, and is someone who provides people with hope, as all political leaders should do.  The rest of Italy’s left should take note, for unless they buck up their ideas, become more decisive, and present new, credible candidates, they will never make any headway against Mr Media.  Berlusconi has managed to give the impression that his government is different from the traditional crowd, and this has done him no harm in terms of votes.  Of course, his grip on Italy’s media has helped enormously, but instead of regarding this as an obstacle, as with all problems, it should be looked at as an opportunity.

A Comics Progress

Beppe Grillo, the Italian comic turned political activist, used the Berlusconi tactic as an opportunity.  The comic, who works with the web, as well as standing up in Italian piazzas, fielded candidates in the current elections, and they have made headway. Why? Because they are new and different.  Even the Italian Values party led by the man with less than perfect oratory skills, Antonio Di Pietro, has done OK.  By the time Italy faces its next general elections, Grillo and Di Pietro may well end up stealing the thunder from the dreary Mr Bersani and his lack lustre left.  By the way, 1 in 3 Italians did not bother voting in these elections.  The same old, same old, is so uninspiring.

In the meantime, some predictions: Berlusconi will continue to angle for absolute power, Italy will become more corrupt, and the country’s Constitutional Court will have plenty of work on its hands, provided that it is not abolished!

Still, in difficult times, as the English saying goes, “when the going gets tough,…”  I’m sure you know the rest.

RAI News 24: Il voto nelle analisi dei quotidiani – The Vote Analysed by [Italy's] Dailies – in Italian

Vendola photo by Giovanni Dall’Orto.

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Silvio Berlusconi is now being formally investigated for interfering with the media in Italy.  Apparently, Berlusconi is particularly irked with one Michele Santoro, the presenter of a political talk show called Annozero.  It has to be said that Santoro and his team often probe into the seedier affairs of Italy’s current, and controversial, prime minister.

Reports on the Mills case, plus assertions that Berlusconi is involved with the mafia rattled the tanned supremo’s cage so much that he allegedly gave a television watchdog boss an ear bashing in an attempt to have Santoro’s talk-show silenced.  Berlusconi’s attempt, this time, failed, however previous attempts did bear fruit. The partiality of one of Italy’s prime time news programmes, TG1, which goes out at 8 every evening on the RAI 1 Italian government controlled television channel, has been called into question.

The TG1 case involved the misreporting of the facts of the now internationally well known bribery case involving English lawyer, John Mills, and Italy’s number one politician, Silvio Berlusconi.  On the day that the Mills case was brought to an end by a statute of limitations, the TG1 news reported that Mills had been absolved of all guilt.  This was not accurate.  The case fizzled out due to Italy’s notoriously slow legal mechanisms which often brings cases to an inconclusive end.  It would have been more accurate to have reported that the case had been brought to an end by Italy’s statutory limitation laws.  Such a report, however, would not have made Italy’s master, Silvio Berlusconi look too good.

What may well have happened, but we will probably never know for sure, is that the right leaning Augusto Minzolini, the editor of the TG1 news programme concerned, received advice from upon high as to how to present the conclusion of the Mills’ bribery case.  The advice was designed to ensure that someone, possibly Italy’s prime minister, was bathed in a favourable light.  The TG1 case caught a fair amount of attention, but has not caused much of a stir, owning to the power someone exerts over Italy’s television.

Reportedly, Berlusconi controls around 90% of Italy’s media, a figure which, I think many will agree, is somewhat excessive for a serving prime minister in what is supposed to be a democracy.  Indeed, such a high level of control is not good for democracy.  Not good at all.  Now, though, the clever Mr Berlusconi, who is trying hard to gloss over recent, and embarrassing bungles regarding this weekend’s regional elections, amongst other scandals, has been claiming that he is the democratic one, and that it is everybody else who is undemocratic.

Hang on a moment – but who is being investigated for trying to keep his opponents off air?

Why, Silvio Berlusconi, of course, that champion of democracy.

Indeed, talking of gagging the opposition and any televised criticism, it was the Berlusconi government who introduced a convenient little law which shut down all political talk-shows on Italian state television, and even, initially, all talk-shows on any television channel broadcasting in Italy.  Murdoch’s Sky, and another private Italian national broadcaster, La7, had a word or two to say on this, and the gag was removed from the mouths of private broadcasters.  Despite the decision in favour of Sky and La7 , Italy’s RAI channels, unsurprisingly decided that they would continue to respect the ban.  Had somebody been making a few telephone calls?

Of course, Berlusconi’s own Mediaset channels decided to respect the ban, even though the Sky decision meant that technically they did not have to.

It is well known in Italy that governments can ensure Italy’s state funded RAI television network only broadcasts the right information.  To an extent, Berlusconi has not been doing anything new, only his interference has been a little more direct.  And, he was allegedly caught on tape trying to ensure that programmes were taken off-air.

AnnoZero, the programme Berlusconi wanted to ban, moved for a night to the web.  All the usual AnnoZero faces were there, as well as a few others.  The web programme, which attracted a fair amount of attention, over 350,000 viewers, mentioned the Watergate affair, and how President Nixon had been forced to resign over compromising tape recordings.  Effectively, Santoro, the presenter of RaiPerUnaNotte – RAI for a Night – as the web broadcast was called, was intimating that Silvio Berlusconi should go.  The broadcast also suggested, indirectly, that Berlusconi was Mussolini mark two.  Some might agree with this observation when they hear that Berlusconi, during a political rally, declared that he wished to introduce legislation which will give him something close to absolute power.

Absolute Power

Another thing Berlusconi is openly angling for is tighter controls on wire-tapping in Italy.  The war cry is that tapping people’s phones means that many will end up being spied upon in their own homes.  Well, this is not exactly true.  Some 20,000 Italians have their phones tapped annually.  Italy has a population of around 60 million, so only a tiny percentage of the population is being ’spied’ upon.  As journalist Marco Travaglio observed during the RaiPerUnaNotte AnnoZero clone: How come Berlusconi tends to end up chatting to the wrong people?  After all, there are another 59.98 million Italians to chat to.

The trouble is when you have the power, the opportunity to use it, and you live in a country where status is as important as style, wielding that power must be a temptation which is difficult to resist.  And this temptation has also been used on the Vatican.

Vatican Support

The Vatican, which is not supposed to interfere in Italian politics, voiced its support for Berlusconi in the week before the regional elections.  Indeed, just for good measure, Italian television was graced with images of Silvio Berlusconi in the company of a few cardinals.  One cardinal in particular, Bagnasco, called on Italians to vote against abortion. Guess what?  Berlusconi’s party’s official line is that it is against abortion.  How convenient that the kind cardinal should express an opinion on this very subject right on the eve elections in Italy.  More phone calls?

Honestly, watching goings on in Italy at the moment, one might confuse what are regional elections with a full blown national election.  To an extent though, these regional votes are as important as a national election, as the election results will demonstrate is just how tight a hold Silvio Berlusconi and his band have on Italy.  Italy’s younger generations will also be watching what happens with interest.

Italy’s Image Problem

A number of young Italians I’ve spoken to at the business school where I often find myself; people who’ve spent time in Spain and other countries; have insinuated that Silvio Berlusconi has been giving Italy, and Italians, a bad name.  Admitting they are Italian has been embarrassing, I have been told.  But Berlusconi and his cohorts do not give a hoot about what others think of Italy.  Is this a problem?

At the moment Italy’s economy is starting to drag itself out of the international economic crisis, but jobs are still being lost, and levels of public debt are horrendously high.  The head of Italy’s employers’ federation, Emma Marcegaglia, who knows full well that Italy is still in a mess, has been making repeated calls for reform.  I’m sure Marcegaglia would admit to the importance of exports for Italy’s economy.  However, Marcegaglia’s voice of reason has, alas, fallen on deaf ears and has been virtually ignored by Italy’s government, who seem to prefer passing laws to benefit the business interests of someone and his friends, as well as passing time partying with prostitutes, as opposed to passing legislation which will help Italy’s flagging economy pick itself up.  Some would go further and claim that Berlusconi’s government has introduced legislation which will perpetuate Italy’s age-old organised crime problem.  Just ask the leader of Libera, an Italian anti-mafia association.  A source of mine tells me that Italy’s official anti-mafia people are not overly happy with the way things are going in Italy either.  This does not bode well.

Want to Invest in Italy?

Let’s look at this scandalous situation from the viewpoint of a foreign investor.  Italy’s laws are horribly complex, its legal system is devilishly complex and snails-pace slow, corruption levels are rising, and in league with the Italian government is a political partly which is fairly openly xenophobic.  Legal system reforms are being proposed, but it is likely that such ‘reforms’ will merely serve to cripple the system, not render it more efficient.  This worrying situation might explain in part why foreign direct investment in Italy fell by an estimated 94% in 2008.  It is possible that foreign money is continuing to discount Italy as an investment opportunity and looking elsewhere.  As a consequence, jobs will not be created and Italy will continue to drift in the doldrums, ultimately ending up as a thinly veiled dictatorship.

Italy’s disenchanted younger generations are already seriously considering looking outside of the country for work, which means these bright minds will not drive the change which the Living Museum so desperately needs.

It appears, sadly, that Berlusconi does not give one jot for Italy’s youth.

For a supposedly democratic leader, Berlusconi does not really care about some sectors of Italy’s population.  Maybe he wants the women to be escorts and the men to work for shady organisations?  And how come such a democratic leader feels that he needs to have a very own defence lawyer in his government?  Isn’t this somewhat undemocratic? Does it not demonstrate that far from being a proponent of democracy, Berlusconi is displays disdain for it?

The regional election results will mark a crucial turning point for Italy – for better, or for worse.

Further Reading and Viewing:

Ansa, 26 March 2010: Regional elections seen as test

Ansa, 25 March 2010: Berlusconi probe moves to Rome

RaiPerUnaNotte - Part 1 of 7 – well worth watching, as long as you can understand Italian.

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Ever heard of Alessandro Acerra?  I hope so, but if you have not, you may well do quite soon, for his work as been creating quite a stir in Italy’s contemporary art scene.  This weekend an event is being held at the headquarters of Italian financial newspaper and publishing group, Il Sole 24 Ore at Via Monte Rosa, 91.

Aside from Acerra’s provocative work, an example of which you will see shortly, there are plenty of other works of art on display at the ‘Arte Acessibile’ – Accessible Art exhibition which runs this Saturday and Sunday, the 27 and 28 March.  In keeping with the accessible art theme, entrance to the the exhibition is free.  Sponsoring the show are PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Il Sole 24 Ore, and 1ring – an innovative, and free, new web service which promises to help us link the real world to the web.  If the idea of connecting the real world with the virtual one the sounds intriguing, then watch the brief video on the 1ring website.  Sorry, technology got the better of me, as usual. I digress.

Apparently, the very real works of contemporary art on show have one thing in common: The artists featured are not represented by any gallery owners.  I feel that after seeing examples of just what  some of these artists are capable of, a few will end up having their work featured in some gallery or other, either in Italy, or further afield.

Should you care to pay a visit, you will find a varied collection of paintings, photography, sculpture, and installations to view.  You may also be able to chat with the artists concerned, although I have no idea how many of them speak English.  You could always use this as an opportunity to brush up your Italian, I suppose.

What follows is an example of Alessandro Acerra’s work, which you may not see ever again.  It was there this Thursday, but, somewhat mysteriously, Acerra’s installation had disappeared on Friday.  Why?  Take a look, and I believe all will become clear.

The Installation Which is No More by Alessandro Acerra

If you are in Milan this weekend, like art, and are otherwise twiddling your thumbs, then why not hop on the Red metro line from Il Duomo, and jump off at the Lotto stop.  Just make sure you catch the train heading for Milan’s exhibition complexes and you will be fine.

I might be there too.

Have an arty weekend!

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