La Scala, Verona and the Italian Lakes
Destination information
Extracts from Insight Guide, Northern Italy © Apa Publications
The Musical Tradition
Italy has given the world opera, the musical scale, the piano, the accordion and fabulous Stradivarius violins
Without the Italian sensibility, the world of music would be deaf to the seductive strains of Vivaldi and the nobility and intensity of Verdi. Italy is rightly known as the home of music, with Milan’s image inextricably bound up with La Scala.
Italian opera and classical music are not restricted to Milan’s La Scala. Northern Italy as a whole has some of the best music festivals in Europe, from the Rossini Festival performed in Pesaro to the Verona Opera Festival held in the Roman Arena, a glorious summer junket for Europe’s opera elite…
Sex Appeal - Farinelli (1705-82) was the most famous castrato. His singing and stage presence caused women to faint from excitement.
Art & Architecture
Some of Europe’s finest Romanesque and Renaissance art can be found in the towns and villages of northern Italy
Comparatively little survives to remind us that northern Italy was one of the most affluent and sophisticated areas of the Roman empire. A few of the largest structures have endured, however, as symbols of imperial grandeur. The arena at Verona, for example, one of the largest ever to have been built, is still in use, though gladiatorial contests and wild-beast fights have been replaced by colourful performances of operas by Verdi and Puccini…
Food & Drink
The cooking of Italy is really the cooking of its regions, regions that until 1861 were separate, independent and usually hostile states.” – Marcella Hazan
Culinary speaking, Italy is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. Northern taste-buds are tickled by distinctive regional styles and dishes as diverse as the people themselves.
The fertility of the lake district emerged in the wake of the glaciation that formed the lake basins and retreated at the end of the Ice Age. One extremely fortuitous effect of the mild climate and myriad micro-climates is the number of fine vineyards in the region…
Feed the Revolution – In 1860, after the Risorgimento (Italian unification) in Turin’s II Cambio restaurant, Cavour said: “ Today we’ve made history, now let’s have dinner. ”
Slow But Sure – The role of Italy’s esteemed Slow Food Movement is “ to be a bastion against the sadness of the hamburger and the pretensions of haute cuisine. ”
Natural Beauty
“ Beneath is spread like a green sea, The waveless plain of Lombardy, Bounded by the vaporous air, Islanded by cities fair ” – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lago d’Iseo (Lake Iseo) - Lago d’Iseo measures 5km (3 miles) at its broadest point but most of the space is occupied by Monte Isola, the largest lake island in Europe. This resolutely untouristy lake depends on fishing and boat-making, and on the fabrication of nets of all descriptions. Its charms reside in the peaceful hamlets fringed by mountains and the cosy local inns…
Extracts from Insight Guide Northern Italy © Apa Publications
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