In Italia arrivano i  “wagon food” presentati per Food Design Factory al Fuori Salone di Milano 2013 ed ispirati a una nuova idea di mobilità, allo street food e alle materie prime del food e del design. Sono ideati per “vivere” autonomamente o trovare posto all’interno di department o concept store. Progettati attorno a un ingrediente in particolare, ruotano attorno a una cucina, a un nuovo gusto del bere,  tra spazi ad hoc e sapori sinonimo di identità e scoperta di un territorio e delle sue materie prime.

…. Quella del “food truck” diffuso è una tendenza importata dalla California, esplosa negli ultimi anni anche dall’altra parte degli Stati Uniti. E ce n’è per tutti i gusti: venditori di fish & chips, yogurt frozen fino ai più svariati burger. Ma, soprattutto, i “food truck” si sono moltiplicati a dismisura. Se ne incrocia uno a ogni metro quadrato disponibile della City, specialmente nel Midtown in pausa pranzo, dove migliaia di colletti bianchi nine to five si mettono in fila per godersi all’aria aperta porzioni abbondanti di street food a meno di 10 dollari. Ma come rintracciare il proprio “truck” di fiducia? Solo seguendolo su Twitter fino a poco tempo fa, adesso direttamente dallo smartphone con un’app: su Tweat.it o Roaming Hunger è possibile localizzare lo street food più vicino in pochi secondi, selezionandolo per categoria. E se il furgoncino si sposta da una zona all’altra della città, i newyorkesi possono dormire sonni tranquilli: ci sono i live update di ogni suo movimento….

E in Italia ?….

Da “Il Fatto Quotidiano”. Read the full article.

“Italian Portraits” is a collaboration between Donatella Sartorio, an Italian fashion and style journalist, and TOD’s, one of the most important Italian companies producing luxury leather goods. It includes more than 100 Italians of different ages photographed with their families, friends, children and an assortment of dogs in splendid historic palaces and the countryside, representing the Italian way of living and a certain “style” that goes beyond fashion and time.

This absorbing gallery of people includes all kinds of Italian citizens, like the sophisticated Tuscan prince, for example, who teaches International Law at university, edits a daily newspaper and manages his large winery at San Gimignano.

There is the handsome Sicilian prince who rents the family palace for events, but who is also an entrepreneur and owns farms and eco-sustainable real estate.

There is also the young marquis from Liguria who moved from Manhattan to Monferrato to manage the family company.

This little tome is just what you need for your coffee table, commissioned by the Italian luxury goods company Tod’s and published by Skira. A limited edition book celebrating a particular way of life, Italian Style.

Article from the magazine Italian reflections

The dreamy beauty of Botticelli’s portrait of Simonetta Vespucci was the inspiration of Raffaella Curiel‘s couture collection for spring 2013 – an hymn to classic, refined femininity. The Milanese designer, a fixture of Rome’s AltaRoma high fashion week, was one of many couturiers this season to be delving into the joys of a budding garden The sublime femininity depicted by Botticelli was tangible in the flowery bride and in the evening gowns with tight bustiers also featuring floral motifs over full skirts. (Elisa Cecchi).

But who was Simonetta Vespucci?

Simonetta Cattaneo de Candia (ca. 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed la bella Simonetta, was an Italian Renaissance noblewoman from Genoa and the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence. She was renowned for being the greatest beauty of her age – certainly of the city of Florence.

Botticelli finished painting The Birth of Venus in 1485, nine years afetr her death at only 21 years of age. Some have claimed that Venus, in this painting, closely resembles Simonetta and suggest that Botticelli also had fallen in love with her, a view supported by his request to be buried at her feet in the Church of Ognissanti - the parish church of the Vespucci – in Florence. His wish was in fact carried out when he died some 34 years later, in 1510.

Nel 1945 la Piaggio creò uno scooter goffo e scomodo che non entrò mai in produzione. Si chiamava Paperino, come il timido nipote del celebre riccone tratteggiato da Walt Disney.

L’Italia era da poco uscita dall’atmosfera bellica ed in quel tempo la stessa Piaggio, azienda specializzata in produzioni aeronautiche militari,  doveva reinventarsi un futuro in linea con le nuove esigenze dei consumatori italiani.

L’insoddisfatto ma testardo patron Enrico diede allora l’incarico di progettare un mezzo comodo a due ruote, adatto ad uomini e donne,  all’ormai mitico ingegnere Corradino D’Ascanio, poco avvezzo al design motociclistico e da sempre invece appassionato di elicotteri.

Il 23 aprile 1946 fu brevettato lo scooter più famoso del mondo che richiama nelle sue linee un insetto che plana come un aereo attraverso i cieli.  Fianchi arrotondati, vita sottile, faro basso sul parafango anteriore.

Sembra che alla sua vista Enrico Piaggio abbia esclamato “Sembra una Vespa”, battezzando così il mito della dolce vita italiana e… non solo !

Il Nuovo Rinascimento italiano parte dai Fablab:  vere e proprie officine creative in luoghi di produzione del dopolavoro nati per dare la possibilità a chiunque di prodursi “praticamente qualsiasi cosa”.

Il primo è il Fablab Torino delle Officine Arduino Torino che ha introdotto la Digital Fabrication e la cultura Open Source in un luogo fisico, dove macchine idee persone e approcci nuovi si possano mescolare liberamente all’interno di un laboratorio di sperimentazione basato su macchine per la fabbricazione digitale: dalla prototipazione rapida all’elettronica, dalla modellazione in 3D alla produzione di piccole serie.

Consigliato ad aziende ma anche a curiosi, smanettoni, studenti o maniaci del “fai da te”, persone che vogliono costruire qualcosa che non si trova nei negozi o che vogliono mettere in pratica un’idea…

Cappuccino consiglia una visita al sito o … info@fablabtorino.org

At Carnival, in winter time, the ancient town of Ascoli Piceno is not a city like the others but a natural stage where plenty of intimate stories are told on the streets by funny people wearing masks and mimicking tricks in a sort of Street Carnival.

This open-air party dates back to Saturnalia, which is the best-known of several festivals in the Greco-Roman world characterized by role reversals and behavioral license. It was a time for free speech: the Augustan poet Horace calls it “December liberty.” Everyone knew that the leveling of the social hierarchy was temporary and had limits; no social norms were ultimately threatened, because the holiday would end.

Role-playing was implicit in the Saturnalia’s status reversals, and there are hints of mask-wearing or “guising”.No theatrical events are mentioned in connection with the festivities, but the classicist Erich Segal saw Roman comedy, with its cast of impudent, free-wheeling slaves and libertine seniors, as imbued with the Saturnalian spirit. Gambling and dice-playing, normally prohibited or at least frowned upon, were permitted for all, even slaves. Rampant overeating and drunkenness became the rule, and a sober person the exception.

Seneca (born c. 4 bce)  looked forward to the holiday, if somewhat tentatively, in a letter to a friend:

It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business. … Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga.

It seems a contemporay comment… doesn’t it ?

Si chiama Italia Veloce. E’ un’officina artigianale italiana che produce velocipedi di pregio, altamente personalizzati.

Si definiscono sognatori, pionieri, innovatori. Hanno partecipato alla London Tweed Run 2012 definita dagli organizzatori “A metropolitan bicycle ride with a bit of style”.

Brooksfield ha partecipato all’insolita competizione londinese – giunta alla quarta edizione – vestendo gli sfidanti che hanno pedalato, in sella ad Italia Veloce “Ribelle”.

Cappuccino consiglia una visita al sito di questa inusuale e chiccosissima gara ciclistica decisamente “Old Britain” nella quale lo stile conta più della performance. Decine di bizzarri ciclisti metropolitani vestiti di giacche, pantaloni, cappelli e accessori in perfetto stile Inglese anni 30’&40’ si sfidano in un’atmosfera d’altri tempi.

[...] ritti sulla cima del mondo, noi scagliamo, una volta ancora, la nostra sfida alle stelle!

 

Nelle località marinare d’Italia si tramanda da generazioni la ricetta di un corroborante caffé domestico, detto “del marinaio” perchè utilizzato dai pescatori imbarcati nelle navi peschereccio del mar Adriatico.

E’ buonissimo e molto speziato grazie alla presenza di scorza di limone, rum d’importazione e poche gocce di un liquore all’anice distillato da piante autoctone. Ingrediente fondamentale: caffé della moka, dolce, forte e scuro, da servire in bicchierini di vetro trasparente.

Non esistono dosi standard per questa preziosa miscela… Dipende dal gusto!

On the 6th of January some people may decide to seat comfortably home while others could experience the day of the Italian Pasquella, when the famous holy patron of  St Anthony Abbot  is celebrated by the Cantori di Sant’Antonio. They put on a singular travelling event called the “Jeme a cantà Sant’Antonie” when they go begging to houses in the municipal area, in the cold, rain, and sometimes even in the snow. In the past, great bonfires (known as the “fuochi di Sant’Antonio” – St Anthony’s fires)  were lit in the countryside to welcome the beggars and to honour the saint. Traditional “Pasquella songs” were greeted by the people with gifts of chicken, rabbits, preserved meats, eggs, and sweets. The food collected by the pasquerelli was used for a banquet with the old people in the town.

Intense religious events are very much a part of life in Italy, especially in secret, unspoilt counties like Piceno, south of Le Marche region, where many sacred representations and initiatives take place involving the local population.

As well as historical re-enactments during religious festivities in honour of the local patron saint and the countless festivals and fetes that recall saints who are particularly dear to the population (the many rural festivals dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot in the winter are just one example), there are also great celebrations for one of the  most important occasions in popular religious life: Christmas.

At Christmastime, from 24 December to 6 January, a number of “presepi viventi” – live Nativity scenes with people and animals – are staged against the evocative backdrop of little villages in the hills and mountains, with flickering torchlight adding to the mystery and to the mystical atmosphere of Christmas.

The countless representations of the birth of Christ include some that are in particularly evocative settings, such as the one that takes place in the alleyways of the ancient town of Grottammare and the one in Falerone, which has a particularly original location in the archaeological area. The backdrop dates back to Biblical times and hundreds of extras in costume take part.

Porchia, an outlying ward of Montalto Marche, provides the perfect setting for a crib scene that is remarkable for its realism – and indeed it even involves the participation of a newborn baby, aged just a few days, in the part of the Baby Jesus.

In Comunanza, the traditional event sees the participation of 600 extras who evoke the birth of Jesus with an accurate reconstruction of a setting in Palestine at the time. Traditional cribs, which are direct descendants of the first such representation – which is said to have been initiated by St Francis of Assisi – are also very popular.

Quintodecimo di Acquasanta Terme, itself a Nativity-like setting, puts on a whole series of artistic cribs, while at Cupra Marittima, in the church of SS. Annunziata (16th cent.), a multi-scene crib is on permanent display. It consists of 19 meticulously created dioramas made using the technique adopted by the Catalan school, with scenes from the life of Christ.