News

Summer 2024: 16 Italian museums waiting to be explored!

Published

2 months ago

July 25, 2024

The appeal of Italian museums in the summer months

Summer 2023 turned out to be a highly successful season for Italian museums, with exponential growth in visitor numbers and record ticket sales, confirming Italy as one of the world’s most popular cultural destinations. According to data presented by the Digital Innovation Observatory for Culture of the Milan Polytechnic School of Management, the number of visitors to Italian museums, monuments and archaeological sites rose by 16% last year compared to 2019 and ticket sales were up 27% in the same period.

Record-breaking Italian museums
Among the world’s most popular museums, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence had more than 5 million visitors in 2023, an increase of 27.8% from the previous year. The Vatican Museums in Rome also continued to welcome huge numbers of tourists from around the world, and Turin recorded very positive figures too. The Turin Cinema Museum was seen by more than 800,000 people, attracted in part by the blockbuster exhibition on movie director Tim Burton, while the city’s Egyptian Museum saw an increase in ticket sales thanks to innovative exhibition projects and the newly re-opened Writing Gallery.

Museums and hidden treasures: a heritage just waiting to be discovered
Besides its most famous museums, Italy also boasts an extensive network of less well-known but equally fascinating cultural institutions. The increasing frequency and range of the services run by the FS Group’s Passenger Hub have had a decisive role in facilitating tourism even in the country’s smaller towns. Partly as a result of Trenitalia’s reduced rates and special offers, growing numbers of people have easily been able to reach museums and cultural events across the country. This is also an objective of True Italian Experience, a digital hub that offers sustainable and genuine travel experiences for visitors to savour the essence of Italy, and whose Main Partner is Trenitalia.

The range of Italian museums extends from large cities to lesser-known treasures scattered around the country. Starting in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, places like the Diocesan Museum in Vicenza have attracted attention with their unique collections of sacred art and ethnographic items reflecting the region’s rich culture. Not far away, in Desenzano del Garda, the Museum of the Battle of San Martino opens a window on Italy’s Risorgimento, with its collection of memorabilia and documents on the historic battles fought for the unification of Italy.
In Parma, the Magnani Rocca Foundation, also known as the “Villa of Masterpieces“, is another jewel in northern Italy. Its collection, with works by artists of the calibre of Goya, Monet and Titian, attracts art lovers from around the world keen to admire the paintings in a unique setting.

Moving into central Italy, the museum offer includes many other exceptional sites examining the historical and archaeological roots of the area. With its history-rich towns, Umbria provides fascinating underground experiences in Orvieto and Perugia. Here, visitors can journey through a maze of tunnels and caverns excavated over the centuries beneath the old cities, for a unique opportunity to see the life and construction techniques of the past. In Tuscany, between Grosseto and Orbetello, the Archaeology and Art Museum presents the history of this stretch of coastline through a vast collection of artefacts ranging from the Etruscans to the modern age.
In the Marche region, the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona is an example of an historic building that hosts cultural events and art exhibitions, but it is just one of many museums, like the Rossini Museum in Pesaro or the Augusto Capriotti Museum of the Sea in San Benedetto del Tronto, which houses one of the largest collections of Mediterranean fish.
Travelling south to Puglia, the Sant’Anna Synagogue Museum in Trani looks at the history of the local Jewish community, illustrating its heritage and traditions through collections of artefacts and historic documents. Close by in Polignano a Mare, the Pino Pascali Museum Foundation is dedicated to contemporary art, with works from some of the most innovative artists of the 20th century and temporary exhibitions that attract an international public.
In Naples, the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa tells the history of the Italian railways with its extraordinary collection of locomotives and carriages illustrating the country’s technological and industrial evolution.
Finally, in Palermo in Sicily, the Palazzo dei Normanni and the GAM – Gallery of Modern Art are just two locations that not only hold artworks of inestimable value, but also host cultural events exploring contemporary artistic movements.
From North to South, Italy is a never-ending succession of art, culture and tradition that goes far beyond its best known and most popular destinations: with treasures of incalculable value, the country is a great museum waiting to be discovered step by step.

News

Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

Published

5 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

—

AP MLB:

Source link

News

Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

Published

6 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

___

AP tennis:

Source link

News

Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

Published

6 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

Source link