LATEST NEWS FROM BASILICATA
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This September Matera is the host city for the prestigious 2008 Women’s International Fiction Festival. The fifth edition of the show promises to be the best yet, with agents, editors and writers from around the globe participating. Held on 25th and 26 September the festival covers a wide variety of genres from thrillers to romance and offers readers a chance to meet and chat with their favourite authors in the beautiful setting of Matera’s sassi. Take a look at the Festival’s website here. | |
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It was a simple message - ‘Saluti’ - on a postcard franked with a 25 lire stamp. Sent from one friend on holiday in Trento, northern Italy to another back in his home town of Matera, Basilicata. What was unusual about this postcard though was the time it took to arrive. It was posted in 1972 and arrived on 4 September 2008 at the home of Michele Pace, a lawyer who works for a company in Matera. Pace was delighted to receive the card and now numbers it among his most treasured possessions. Even more so because he has since lost touch with the friend who sent it. He said he would love to hear from him again, to catch up on what he’s doing and, of course, to say thank you for the postcard posted on a summer’s holiday 36 years ago. | |
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The famous 120-year-old daily paper serving Basilicata and Puglia La Gazetta del Mezzogiorno has been updated using the latest 21st century technology. The paper is now in full colour tabloid format and one edition serves the four Puglia and two Basilicata provinces, instead of six separate editions. Thanks to new printing technology the daily can produce editions with up to 112 pages. The makeover was overseen by the paper’s director Carlo Bollino and managing director Giuseppe De Tomaso and took three months in total. | |
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Matera has been voted one of Italy’s ten greenest provinces in a survey by ISTAT (Istituto Centrale di Statistica). The list referred to the provinces’ urban ecological credentials in 2007 and there were 111 eligible provinces. Factors taken into consideration included green areas in cities, rubbish, transport, carbon emissions, use of environmentally friendly fuel for heating and air quality. Winner was Trento, followed by Bologna and Venice. | |
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Celebrations in Basilicata as local boy and reigning world champion Roberto Cammarelle won an Olympic gold medal for boxing yesterday on the final day of the games . Fighting for the super heavyweight title (over 91 kg), Cammarelle beat Chinese Zhang Zhilei easily,winning on a technical knock-out. The match was stopped in the fourth round. It was a well-deserved victory for Camarelle who won a bronze in Athens in 2004. With his opponent getting silver, joint bronze medals went to Briton David Price and Vyacheslav Glazkov from the Ukraine. | |
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Since 2000 the Liceo Classico "Duni"-Matera has been the leader of the primary and secondary schools in Matera in the online newspaper project MOL. MOL stands for “Matera’s Online Newspaper” and students from all over the world can contribute articles and reviews. Initially set up by the site of the online paper Mezzogiorno Online, MOL has won numerous prizes. This year is was a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge, the world’s most innovative and pioneering ICT (information and communications technology) award. The biannual event is designed to encourage people in Europe to show ‘best ICT applications for people and society’. MOL now has its own website and is continuing to lead the field in online educational news and cross cultural communication. | |
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The price of bread in Matera and its provinces will remain unchanged until December this year. The announcement was made in a regional press release today. The sharp increase in bread prices has caused much complaint throughout Italy and so the Confcommercio and Confesercenti associations as well as the association of local bakers in the area has agreed to stabilise prices for the next six months. | |
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Rain and hailstones surprised the residents of Lido and Borgo di Metaponte di Bernalda in Matera province yesterday afternoon. Traffic was brought to a standstill due to poor visibility and rain drenched roads brought on by the sudden deluge. The fire brigade came to the rescue of several motorists and used pumps to drain off the excess water. | |
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The seventh Peperoncino Jazz Festival will soon be underway. Starting in Calabria, this popular event culminates in three days of festivities in Basilicata at the end of July. The festival combines music, food, wine and culture and the Basilicata programme at Maratea is dedicated to Calabrian pianist Umberto Napoletano. | |
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The Blu Video film company has released a set of four postcards to celebrate the use of Matera as a historic film set. The four postcards show films made in the Sassi or the centre of Matera. Two postcards show Pasolini and Irazoqui during a break in the making of the 1964 film Il Vangelo secondo Matteo and Manfredi and Randone in a scene from the 1962 film Gli anni Ruggenti. The third shows a scene from Mel Gibson’s 2002 epic The Passion and the last a scene from the 2008 Festa della Maria Bruna, patron saint of Matera. | |
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Sunday 29 June was a day for your earplugs in Basilicata! It was Tuning Racers Day organised by the Matera Tuning Racers Club and 150 cars took part from the four regions of southern Italy: Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. They drove along the SS99 Altamura-Matera road and all kinds of makes of car took part, their owners keen to make their vehicles look or sound as unique as possible. | |
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A concert to promote took place on Sunday 22 June at the Chiesa in via Gravina in Matera. It was organised by the Matera town council in association with the Associazione Compassion of Turin and the Chiesa Evangelica Battista di Matera. The free concert aimed to promote l’adozione a distanza (overseas child sponsorship) and make the public more aware of the many problems facing third world countries including famine and the ensuing loss of many children’s lives. Principal ambassador for these child victims was Luca Durante of the Associazione Compassion while musical accompaniment was provided by Tiziano Canfora and Silvio Marino. | |
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From 16 June until at least 13 September there will be a shuttle bus service from Matera to Bari airport. The service, organised by Matera town council, will be three times daily from Monday to Saturday to and from the airport. The first bus leaves Piazza Matteoti at 5am arriving at the airport at 6.15am. | |
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If you would like to try a really different tasting honey then the bees of Matera may be able to help. The Murgia National Park has over 50 beehives housing three million bees. These feast on the local thyme, asphodel and savory, giving their honey a unique taste. The new honey was presented recently at an event the Casa del Miele (house of honey) organised by the CEA environmental education centre at Masseria Radogna | |