The Italian première of the latest Dom Pérignon vintage would hardly be a humble affair. In fact, it’s to be a week-long event in an exclusive ad hoc installation in the magnificent courtyard of 15th-century Palazzo Carmagnola in central Milan. Check your diary, because it starts today, May 21. 

The Dom Pérignon Temporary Lounge is stylishly ensconced under the colonnades and out in the open court of the building which houses the Piccolo Teatro Grassi, with original antique décor by Leonardo and Bramante and contemporary furnishings by Calligaris.

It comprises an indoor lounge, a restaurant proper, an outdoor area for aperitifs and informal eating and a bar serving the new vintage with all the ceremony it undoubtedly deserves.

The food on offer is conceived for exquisite pairing with the unique organoleptic properties of Dom Pérignon 2004, of course. It comes bento-style, with vegetarian, landfare, seafood or mixed design options.

And, again of course, a Dom Pérignon boutique is on hand to tempt you with the whole story of the world’s finest champagne and the entire range of vintages.

Dom Pérignon Temporary Lounge  May 21 to 26, 2013
Via Rov­ello 2
20121 Milano

For one of the most dashing country hotels south of Rome, push on all the way down to eastern Sicily and the lower slopes of Mount Etna, where you’ll find Zash, tucked away among orange and lemon groves just south of the coastal town of Riposto.

If the setting is bucolic and the name evokes one of nature’s gentler sounds, the hotel is an archetype of contemporary urban sophistication. Zash unfolds within an old country house and its adjacent winery and cellars, all masterfully renovated, and out into ample gardens.

In the main building are two swanky, two-bedroom suites with site-specific, flawlessly white design interiors. They feature high vaulted ceilings, wooden flooring, a lava stone fireplace in the larger of the two, and huge windows framing stunning vistas of the volcano on one side and blue sea on the other. The cellars house three rooms, each enclosed in its own immaculate shell, detached from the bare lava-stone walls of the original structure. And two more stunning rooms — one with private spa facilities - are contained in a garden annexe, glass-fronted so that the lawns and citrus trees are part of the décor.

Zash has its own restaurant inside the ancient winery, where the concept is slow, local and simple to enhance the finest flavours of Sicilian cuisine. And a lounge bar serves cocktails and dispenses wines from an impressive list which favours the best producers of the Etna wine region but also extends beyond national borders.

Outdoor facilities include the garden for relaxation, and a jogging track and fitness area in the citrus orchard. Coming soon, a pool and spa centre. Fine beaches are only 2 km away. Whatever else you might need, Zash can help provide: service here is as befits such classy hospitality.

Zash Country Boutique Hotel
Strada Provinciale 2/I-II 60
95018 Archi — Riposto (CT)
+39 095 7828932
info@zash.it

Coming very soon, a grand celebration of greenery — of the garden and landscape variety — in Rome. And not in any old exhibition area or park but magnificently atop Renzo Piano’s Auditorium Parco della Musica, in the hanging garden designed by landscape architect Franco Zagari.

In its third edition, the Festival del Verde e del Paesaggio exalts flora in its more elevated, cultural facets. For three whole days from May 17th, architecture and art engage with nature in a variegated programme covering landscape and garden design, outdoor installations and furnishings, competitions, book presentations, gardening courses for grown-ups and ecology workshops for kids, and, necessarily given the venue, music.

In the 38,000 square metre park on the rooftop of Italy’s most prestigious multi-function facility, inaugurated in 2002 on the site of the 1960 Olympic Games to the north of Rome’s centre, a Festival Market of the most beautiful and exotic plants along with the ultimate in furnishing design for gardens, terraces and balconies stretches along a 1 km itinerary, with numerous exhibitors and specialist garden design projects.

Franco Zagari himself will be up there judging the best of a call for creative landscape installations. Temporary gardens are the theme of another competition, while experimental balcony design is the challenge for young creatives.

An exhibition of sculptures by the students of Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts, concerts by excellent performers with the accent on jazz and gourmet areas complement gardening matters and complete the delights of a green day out in quite exceptional surroundings.

The event is open from 10 am until 8.30 pm on May 17, 18 and 19, 2013. Admission costs €10 with a discount for all three days and no charge for children under 12. See the programme for full details.

Festival del Verde e del Paesagggio
Auditorium Parco della Musica
Viale Pietro de Coubertin
00196 Roma
+39 06 87909043
info@festivaldelverdeedelpaesaggio.it

And what on earth does that mean? Well, it’s the title given to a nationwide spree of events where the digital universe and planet science meet around a table with the excuse of a culinary binge!

Fruit of an alliance between Digital Festival, a Turin-based outfit concerned with how digital technologies influence all aspects of our daily lives, and Gnammo, an online community of DIY foodies, Digital Food Days are on all over Italy right now, from today through to May 20th, with a prodigious array of happenings. Professional and amateur cooks, bloggers, digital gurus and geeks are getting together with a host, a venue, a theme and a feast in common and anyone can join in.

So in Milan they’ll be talking about gaming in the digital era at a 24h shared kitchen space called Presso Kook Sharing this very evening, while architecture and food is tonight’s theme in Rome. Turin has a Food Revolution Day picnic à la Jamie Oliver tomorrow. The people of Parma, large and small, are broaching the matter of food education for kids over a healthy afternoon snack on Monday 13th. Social networking and zero food miles is the topic for discussion in Pisa on the 15th, while in Padova it’s foodblogging the day after. The list could go on and on as digital events with food and mostly about it are planned from Bergamo down to Lecce, from Genoa to Pescara, from Venice over to Cagliari.

See the DFD events page for details of venues, menus and themes, and to book yourself a place around the table.

Buon appetito!

An extraordinary restaurant opened in the Florentine suburbs a few months ago.

It’s a case of split personality, in which the modest canteen hall of a working silverware factory is transmogrified as the sun sets to become the city’s coolest eatery, offbeat and even surreal. Like a respectable Dr. Jekyll whose Mr. Hyde is tongue-in-cheek outlandish.

Tables are lavishly set with home-made silver cutlery and candelabra, a ceiling lamp in the form of the hammer and sickle testifies to the staunch communist tradition of the Tuscan workforce, and daytime metalworkers wait on in unlikely livery and white gloves.

In Fabbrica is an aristocratic eccentricity, the brainchild of the Brothers Pampaloni, they of the superb silverware, jewellery and porcelain creations, long-established in Florence and coveted the world over. Gianfranco Pampaloni is well-known for visionary projects and outside-the-box thinking, and this is no exception.

The entrance to In Fabbrica is through the offices and then the factory itself, glass of wine in hand. The cuisine is communist-cum-Japanese, responsability in the kitchen being shared by a silversmith with culinary propensities and the one exotic acquisition, chef Huigi San. Choice of dishes is limited, indeed the menu is practically fixed as is the price: including wine €35 for men and €30 for women at the last count.

If it’s an experience more than a dinner, it’s still an unmissable one.

In Fabbrica
Via del Gelsomino 99
50125 Firenze
+39 347 5145468
info@pampaloni.it

From the crumbling ruins of a 17th century watchtower, a little gem of architectural reclamation. Apulian architects Gloria Valente and Vittorio Carofiglio  just won a first prize at the Apulia Marble Awards 2013 for the project which lent new life to one of the region’s network of coastal lookouts.

Apulia is rocky. Much of it, indeed, is one vast limestone plateau. Dry stone walls are a feature of rural landscapes and the stuff of the trulli themselves. What the Apulia Marble Awards aim to do is promote the finer varieties of local stone and their use in contemporary architecture. Best known are marbles from Trani and around Lecce, but Apricena stone and butter-coloured mazzaro from Gravina in Puglia, to name just a couple, scarsely suffer by comparison.

Torre da Boraco (one of several versions of the name) dominates the coastline near Campomarino on the Ionian coast south of Taranto. Square-based and squat, it was built to guard against Saracen incursions and long ago abandoned. There are 20 more of its kind along this stretch of coastline alone. Torre da Boraco is the first to be restored, purely for its iconic value in the landscape.

Architects Valente of Netti Architetti in Bari and Carofiglio, also Bari-based, oversaw a faithful restoration of the main body of the building. The delectable stroke of virtuosity is in the detached external staircase which rises straight and true, parallel to the north wall of the tower, like steps to heaven. It’s constructed in local limestones, and connects to the raised tower entance via a bridge in contrasting weathered corten steel.

The Apulian Marble Awards winners in all three categories (stone design and urban furnishings as well as architecture) will be illustrating their projects at the MediStone Expo event in Bari on May 18 2013.

No. 22 Via San Quirino, in Pordenone, that is. An address to note if you’re looking for something a little different in the way of hospitality up there in the North East.

A peculiarly attractive modernistic construction with an overhanging terrace on its second floor, it’s the corner house on a quiet and leafy residential street just a stone’s throw from the centre of town. And within, Civico 22, as the B&B is called, is similarly modern, essential, very white and neat as a pin, with just a hint of woody tones and a startling splash of colour and design here and there.

There are three generous B&B rooms — a single, a double and a twin — and a bright, airy common room opening onto the terrace where host Natalia Paoletto serves up the kind of healthy, locally-sourced and home-made breakfast that makes lunch superfluous. All at a very reasonable cost.

Don’t move on without taking in the old town centre, well-preserved and charming with its arcades and frescoed palaces. Pordenone has a dynamic cultural scene, and lovely walks (or rides — you can hire the bikes direct from Civico 22) along the river banks taking you out into the countryside.

Civico 22
Via San Quirino 22
33170 Pordenone
+39 335 6791330
info@bbcivico22.it

Or What Didn’t We Get Up To During Design Week 2013.

Once upon a time, Design Week in Milan was synonymous with the International Furnishings Fair, aka I Saloni. That’s still the official, trade face of it, of course, up at the Exhibition Centre in Rho. But downtown there’s a whole parallel universe of design delirium, a fringe festival of creativity, a tsunami of innovation. That’s the Fuorisalone, or everything that’s outside the businesslike Saloni.

In design districts and temporary spaces all over town, from store premises and lofts to museums and disused factories, just about everyone is there. Not just interior design brands but fashion labels, road vehicle manufacturers, food and drinks companies, telecom providers, you name it. From big names to one-man/one-woman shows. And all competing to be cooler, more original, more flabbergasting than the rest. With showrooms, installations, events and parties for 6 whole days from April 9 to 14, the Fuorisalone 2013 was this year’s big chance to suss out the trends, network with other designaholics, and generally have a ball…

So I was there too, with the Can’t Forget Italy team and a few other choice friends.

At Samsung’s What a Wonderful World we played at interacting with our smartphones. Still in Zona Tortona, we put our feet up at  Moooi’s Unexpected Welcome, and were amazed by Hyundai’s Fluidic — Sculpture in Motion.

In the Brera Design District, Moroso’s Revolving Room had us all befuddled, and the Nike Art+Science of Super Natural Motion event turned out as bending for the mind as for the body.

Tom Dixon had again turned the MOST into a design location where we stood agape in front of the Adidas installation. At the Triennale we gawped at the prototype Renault Twin’Z, all-electric carbon fibre concept car with Ross Lovegrove’s signature, and got a bit too close for the security guard’s peace of mind… Sarpi Bridge is a new one this year, an Oriental Design District in the heart of Milan’s Chinatown where we sampled Enrico Ascoli’s Opium before heading for a last rooftop aperitif in the Ventura Lambrate quarter.

On Sunday, my grand finale. I got to be Oprah Winfrey for a day, anchorwoman at the ultra-smart Milan Design Awards! Run by Elita, they attribute prizes and assure dollops of publicity for outstanding designs presented at the Fuorisalone.

And if it’s taken me ages to get this post up, that’s because it was one long, utterly awesome, totally exhausting Design Week.

All photos by John Gubertini.

Gianni Versace is the undisputed if absent protagonist of an exhibition at Naples’ Palazzo Mondragone.

Eclectic inspirations, boundless imagination, vivid colour, fearless patterns, and the metal bits — they’re all there in around 200 items designed by one of the planet’s foremost stylists and fashion-businesspersons ever. Unmistakeable couture creations, accessories and furnishings are on display in the halls, courtyard and gardens of the downtown historic building, designated Fashion Hub of the Campania region and seat of the Elena Aldobrandini Musuem of Textiles and Clothing.

All this bounty hails from a private collection, that of Neapolitan Antonio Caravano, who currently owns something like 900 pieces from 1990s collections until Versace’s death in 1997. The testimonial exhibition is organised to attract fashionistas to Naples, and admission is free.

Nineties — Gianni Versace Tribute is open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm until May 18 2013.

Palazzo Mondragone
Piazzetta Mondragone, 18
80132 Napoli
+39 081 4976 104
info@fondazionemondragone.it

It’s not often we get news from Sardinia, still less the chance to get over there and scout for ourselves. But Li Licci sounds like heaven for outdoorsy travellers and gourmets.

In a valley on the uplands of central Gallura in the north-east of the island, near the hill town of Calangianus, Li Licci has progressed from working farm to renowned Michelin-mentioned restaurant and B&B under the inspired direction of Brit Jane and her Italian husband Gian Michele.

No mean cook herself, Jane now has qualified help running the restaurant kitchen and turning out Mediterranean but mostly traditional Sardinian dishes of superior standard, with roast suckling pig never missing from the menu whatever the season. Most of the ingredients are home-grown or otherwise locally sourced, and guests regularly claim to have eaten the best food in Sardinia - served out on a timbered terrace with sweeping views, weather permitting.

The rooms are simple but trim and spotless, rustic with their whitewashed walls and ceiling beams, and all accessed separately from a patio.

Li Licci is secluded and utterly peaceful in its park of cork oak groves, ancient olive trees, rocky outcrops and horses, well off the beaten track in what is already rugged mountain country, where the peaks have mythical-sounding names like Lu Casteddu, Gaspareddu, Casiddu and Lu Colbu. Adventurous types can go trekking, canyoning and mountain biking nearby, while Olbia with its seaport and airport, the mythical Costa Smeralda and the breathtaking archipelago of La Maddalena are a short drive away.

Li Licci
Località Valentino
07023 Calangianus (OT)
+39 079 665114 / +39 347 1440896
info@lilicci.com

No barrelling past the Botticellis or scurrying through the sculpture hall on April 27. Slow Art Day, celebrated worldwide with events inviting if not actually obliging us to slacken the pace and take a good long look at some artwork, is upon us.

It all started over here with Slow Food, when Carlo Petrini got serious about promoting what we eat in terms of culture, identity, traditions, lifestyle, respect for the environment — and pleasure. That was 1986. Now there are Slow movements for just about everything, advocating relaxing the pace the better to appreciate and preserve the good things in life. Slow Art took its first tentative steps in 2009 in the US. This year 252 (and still counting) venues, the vast majority in the US with the rest spread around the globe, are hosting Slow Art events, all on the last Saturday in April.

To take part, you need to register online for one of the venues in advance. Then turn up at the required time, pay the normal admission fee where it applies, and linger to observe each of 5 pre-assigned works of art for around 10 minutes. The idea is to discover your inner talent for art appreciation, without the help of critics or experts but just by really seeing whatever you stop to look at. Later you meet up with your volunteer host and other participants to talk about the whole epiphanic experience over lunch.

Slow Down You Look Too Fast

    Title of a 2010 ARTNews feature article

Italy has 4 venues so far, two of which are in Florence: at Palazzo Strozzi within the exhibition entitled The Springtime of the Renaissance; and at the Modern Art Gallery in Palazzo Pitti. A third venue in Tuscany is La Macina di San Cresci in Greve in Chianti, while the fourth is way down in Sicily at Palermo’s Modern Art Gallery.

The Slow Art Day website explains all, with some fascinating tales of the experience and details for every single venue.

When three smart and determined women get together to fulfil a dream, it’s going to work.

These particular three, Letizia, Rossella and Valentina, opened their Turin kitchen and shop with the aim of providing good cooking and healthy food, sustainably and affordably, in a laid-back, familiar setting. It works.

At Le Papille, with a team of talented co-workers, they procure honest-to-goodness seasonal products locally for traditional and creative cuisine you can sample from 10 am onwards. Sweet and savoury late breakfasts, quick gourmet panini or a choice from a vast colourful array at the big deli counter at lunchtime, yummy home-made cakes and biscuits during the afternoon, and aperitifs or proper dining upstairs (not quite so universally affordable) come evening. They do delicious desserts, and there’s a good wine list too.

Le Papille is the pheonix born from the ashes of a historical Turin eatery run by the Lerda family, in the vibrant Cit Turin neighbourhood packed with sumptuous examples of Art Nouveau architecture. It’s inside the courtyard of one of these buildings, with terrace space both at ground level and upstairs.

The regenerated interiors are fun, gorgeously shabby-chic, with lots of recycled, worn-and-torn or vintage furnishings. There’s a sort of bazaar atmosphere, as the shop goods — foodstuffs and wines but also furniture, plants and loads of offbeat things for interiors, many from small fairtrade and/or social sources  - are displayed around and among the tables.

See their facebook page for information and a taste of the great atmosphere as well as the fare.

Le Papille
Via Principi d’Acaja 37
10136 Torino
+39 011 2761857
lepapille@gmail.com

Hot on the heels of Design Week in Milan is an event dedicated to another icon of Italian culture, possibly even more appetizing. Starting today, the Exhibition Centre in Parma is hosting the first ever Pizza World Show, international trade fair covering everything anyone anywhere might need to prepare, bake and serve up pizzas in commercial quantities. Which is probably very interesting if that’s your line of work.

If it isn’t, and your concern with pizza starts with scrolling down the menu, there’s something there for you too. For the trade show has taken on board both the Pizza World Championship, a pizza-making contest now at its 22nd edition, and to wash that down an expo of Italian micro-brewery beers under the title Birra Nostra.  

This year’s World Championship sees over 600 pizza-chefs from more than 30 countries competing for prizes in four categories: Neapolitan pizza with its softer crust which puffs up around the edges; classic pizza which has a thinner crunchier crust; tray-baked pizza; and the gluten-free variety. That’s the serious stuff. More entertaining are the competitions for pizza-chef duos, the biggest pizza, the fastest pizza, original presentation, and even pizza acrobatics — individual and team! Now that’s worth seeing.

Birra Nostra, on the other hand, is a show that’s done the rounds of several Italian venues this year before Parma, aiming to promote the product and its producers via a programme of meetings, events and tastings. Perfect with pizza.

And the cherry tomato on top? It seems that TV personality and descendant of the once-royal House of Savoy Emanuele Filiberto will grace the event with his princely charm on the final afternoon. Long may he promote Italian gastronomy!

Fiere di Parma
Viale Delle Esposizioni, 393/A
43126 Parma
See the various sites for contacts.

Crisp and cool in the turquoise-on-white of Greek island postcards, the Piccolo Grand Hotel basks on another Mediterranean shore, on Calabria’s Tyrrhenian coast. More precisely, at Pizzo, an engaging little port built on a rocky outcrop with steep narrow streets, the usual Aragonese castle and a reputation for superb ice cream confections.

More a grand little hotel than a little grand one, it has just 12 rooms or suites all as neat as a new pin, decked out in a playful mix of retro and contemporary design which manages to be both 4-star luxurious and lighthearted. The views around the bay and across to the Aeolian islands are simply awe-inspiring.

The Piccolo Grand Hotel ticks a lot of the eco-boxes too, using solar power and/or energy-efficiency technologies for water heating and flushing, space heating and cooling, lighting and cooking. It has a curious little electric vehicle to ferry guests to and from the beach, the station or wherever they managed to park the car, and, for the more adventurous, a bike-hire service.

Pizzo is only 20 km from the airport at Lamezia Terme. And the local strand at Marina di Pizzo is just one of the gorgeous beaches in the area around more fashionable Tropea.

Piccolo Grand Hotel
Via Leoluca Chiaravalloti 32
89812 Pizzo (VV)
+39 0963 533293
info@piccolograndhotel.it

If eco-credentials aren’t already a design ante, they should be. In the 21st century, no product or idea is quite so cutting-edge if it isn’t also ethical and responsible. As Design Week 2013 takes off in Milan, here’s a motley green Italian selection from the international Fuorisalone.

IOricicloTUricicli — which appears utterly unpronouncable even to Italians until you realize it’s just I recycle You recycle all squashed up — is in its 4th year and practically a fixture in Zona Tortona. It’s a competition for sustainable design and projects using salvaged or recycled materials, with IMperfect Design as its theme this year. The winning entries are on display at the NHow Hotel in Via Tortona and in the magnificent frescoed hall of Palazzo Isimbardi in the centre of town, in Corso Monforte.

Clara Rigamonti made a name for herself with her Resurrection Bijoux, entirely handmade with love from discarded bits and bobs. At a location in Via Carmine 11 in Brera, she’s proudly presenting Resurrection Design, a range of unique and vintage-flavoured furnishings and home accessories created according to the same philosophy.

Casabio is all about green architecture and sustainable building. It showcases the ideas of more than 30 Italian companies specialising in energy-efficient and eco-friendly living. You get to see, hear, touch, taste and smell the benefits of their eco-wisdom in a spacious loft at Green Stage in Zona Tortona.

Then there’s a fetching offering called Urban Design from Studiofluido at Mecenate Area Design: a show of garden benches and planters made from old doors, inner tubes and whatever the group of young designers from Seregno, north of Milan, were inspired to salvage and reuse.

Meanwhile, in Ventura Lambrate, eco-activist Carmela La Salandra is getting her message across ironically with artworks in the form of high-fashion clothing and accessories created from domestic and industrial waste products. You’ll find the off-beat show entitled Rifiuti d’Alta Moda at the Acli Lambrate location.

And since the really eco-responsible way to get from one location to another is by pedalling (get the means from the BikeMi public bike sharing service, then use the BikeDistrict map to find the fastest or safest route), call in at Rossignoli Milano in Brera for Biciclette Ritrovate, an event revealing the history of cycling through film, photos and art, and with green bike design by Comunicare in Eco.

Finally, to follow up on some recent UI eco-posts…  Hell’s Kitchen is at Coontemporary Mood in Via Tortona to present a new collection featuring lots of colour, while Fattelo! can be found at the same address with the 01 Lamp in black. Waste Recycling is in Via Carlo Goldoni with SCART fashion, and you can catch up with useDesign both at Foodmade c/o PadiglioneItalia in Lambrate in an exhibition of things created from food products, and at Ultradesign inspired by Intel in Brera. 

For all the rest — and for sheer amount and variety it’s positively discombobulating — see Fuorisalone.it.

I haven’t actually been there myself, yet, but anyone who has can’t commend the Relais del Colle enough. It’s a little out of the way, but then that’s the whole point: a rural pile in a superb hilltop location where only birdsong breaks the silence.

The Relais is an old farmhouse typical of the Marche region, refurbished a few years ago according to strictly green architectural criteria and still the heart of a small organic-biodynamic farm producing  fruit, vegetables, grapes and olives. Views stretch over cultivated slopes to the Gran Sasso and Sibillini mountains and take in several medieval villages including Ripatransone, while a 10-minute drive gets you to the beaches at Cupra Marittima, Grottammare or San Benedetto del Tronto.

Patrizia Weiszflog is the woman of eclectic inspirations behind the agricultural and boutique hotel project. She has six spacious rooms with balcony or terrace as well as common rooms for guests, all beautifully appointed in a warm, traditional style that takes its cue from antique pieces used by generations of Weiszflogs. Then there’s the spa area, with a lovely grotto pool, jacuzzi, Turkish bath, and massages by appointment. Outdoors are a sunbathing terrace and a shady arbour for al fresco breakfasts and dining.

And, one of Patrizia’s many talents being culinary, eating at the Relais is a treat. All the food is organic or biodynamic and what isn’t produced on the home farm has clocked up as few miles as possible. Dishes are simple to preserve both excellent regional traditions and subtle flavours, but clearly pondered. The restaurant opens only at weekends and you have to book.

The Relais is a kindly sort of place. Child-friendly, pet-friendly, people–friendly as well as eco-friendly. Biodynamics on the farm, sustainably-sourced energy, feng shui in the bedrooms, organic textiles, superb hospitality and harmony. It’s all part and parcel of what is, for Patrizia, a mission.

Relais del Colle 
Contrada San Gregorio 1
63038 Ripatransone (AP)
+39 0735 987003 / +39 335 215859
info@relaisdelcolle.it

The temperature’s rising in Milan. It’s a seasonal thing: April is here and the biggest and best, the original Design Week is only a few days away.

Around 2000 exhibitors are right now fretting about their stand layout in the mainstream Saloni at the Rho Exhibition Centre, gearing up to show off the hottest designs for home and office under the banner Interiors for Tomorrow. Add to that at least 700 young designers — including students from 17 international design schools — parading their creative energy in the seriously innovative Satellite section, and we’ve said it all, except that the whole bonanza this year occupies over 530,000 sqm.

But we haven’t said it all, of course, nowhere near, so here are a few random salient details.

So many emerging talents are producing their own stuff that the Satellite pavilions this year boast a joinery, a foundry, a glassworks and a digital studio, to show how it’s done.

Meanwhile the SaloneUfficio is proud to present a huge ad hoc project for workspace organisation by none other than Pritzker Prizewinner Jean Nouvel, who’s come up with five different scenarios for habitable offices.

Next, organisers Cosmit and the City of Milan have agreed there’s to be free entry to Milan’s state museums and galleries for the whole of Design Week.

And then there’s the increasingly expansive virtual face of the event: the Saloni have their own blog, Youtube channel, Facebook and Twitter pages, Flickr gallery and more, plus an updated smartphone app. Look ‘em up here for all the latest updates and comments.

I Saloni in Milan 2013, April 9th to 14th, open to the public on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th.

And all the rest? Back downtown, the radical and reckless Fuorisalone is simply immense. The whole city will be teeming with the coolest showrooms and events in locations way beyond the established design districts like Brera, Zona Porta Romana and Zona Tortona. More about that soon.

Trento has a new museum as architecturally futuristic as it is conceptually innovative. Or rather, for the moment it has the magnificent structure designed by Renzo Piano, already part of a new urban landscape, while internal fixtures and fittings by the same Renzo Piano Building Workshop are nearing completion.

The Science Museum, cannily named MUSE from MUseo delle ScienzE,  will add to the wealth of educational and scientific facilities already up and running in this cosmopolitan city, one of Italy’s richest and ranking way up at or near the top for quality of life and opportunities. Typically, it breaks new ground by putting the accent on ethical and social questions, ecology and sustainable development. And of course hi-tech interactivity is a keyword: visitors are protagonists.

Renzo Piano has designed a complex with the contours of the mountains around the city, all sharp peaks and slopes. Inside is the plateau, a broad covered piazza where the visitor experience starts. On one side are the offices, research labs, workshops, storerooms etc. serving the staff. The rest of the roughly 12 000 sqm area is dedicated to the public, with almost 4,200 sqm of exhibition space, tropical greenhouse, conference hall, library, children’s area and café.

It’s a state-of-the-art eco-MUSEum. Energy efficiency was a priority in the design and building materials were sourced locally as far (or as near) as possible. Power comes from a variety of renewable sources, rainwater is used for irrigation and more, and a profusion of other virtuous eco-practices too technical to list make for minimal environmental impact.

It all adds up — or soon will - to a grand experience emcompassing nature, science and society, anchored in the Trentino but utterly universal, contained and mirrored in another seriously remarkable Renzo Piano production.

July 27, 2013 is the date set for the opening, and with that the launch of the new museum website.

MUSE — Museo delle Scienze
Via Calepina 14
38122 Trento
+39 0461 270311

Among the lovely people I was lucky enough to meet while prospecting up in the Veneto not long ago was Elisabetta Venturelli, an achingly young but singularly talented fashion designer from Belluno.

A recent virtuoso graduate of Milan’s Istituto Marangoni, world-class fashion academy which counts Franco Moschino and Domenico Dolce among its alumni, she’d just opened her own atelier in the very heart of her home town, on Via Roma. Some of the creations of her student years are part of the décor in sumptuous, feminine spaces designed to invite and relax. But in the workroom, with a judicious nod to historical continuity, Elisabetta sometimes cuts and sews alongside one Maria Antonietta Mezzacasa, time-honoured seamstress of this parish — indeed of these very rooms — enticed from retirement to confer the benefits of long experience.

Elisabetta plays with contrasting fabrics and twists on historical or vintage looks. The distinctive collections on her CV include outfits in boiled wool and heavy furnishing fabrics, a sort of Amish look with the saving grace of added colour, or ultra-chic dresses which are a cubist makeover of the sharp little suits of the 50s and 60s.

Now she actually prefers working directly with the women — of all ages but women only —  who’ll wear her original clothing, reviving the luxury of that unique, custom-tailored designer outfit.

Take advantage if you’re in the area. In any case, watch out for her name in the fashion news.

Atelier Via Roma 10
Via Roma 10
32100 Belluno
+39 0437 944031 / +39 329 3975381
atelierviaroma10@gmail.com

Fear not. We’re talking about a consummately metropolitan diversion here, truffle hunting made very easy. No tramping through the undergrowth, no pigs or hounds required. Just an address in one of Rome’s swankiest shopping streets, Via Borgognona. This is where the city’s first truffle lounge opened just over a week ago.

In interiors timelessly luxurious to a fault, Tartufi and Friends is both outlet for every kind of truffle-based grocery you can imagine, and eatery of the highest order and international format. Patrons dining in choose from a range of simple dishes — from crostini and tagliolini to carpaccio, cheeses and salamis to salads and ice cream — exquisitely prepared by chef Christophe Reali and served at any time between 11am and 9pm. And along with the packets and jars on sale in the antechamber, you can order gourmet panini to go.

Behind the truffle boutique is the Sermoneta family, forging ahead from luxury fashion through luxury living to luxury food, internationally (yes, they’re already planning to open similar truffle lounges in London, Paris and Moscow as well as Milan). And behind the truffles, the Savini family, Tuscan truffle hunters since the 1920s and guarantors of quality.

An exploratory incursion alone will have your olfactory system humming and cost you nothing. But again, fear not. I’m told you can get a delectable truffle apertitif with wine for €15.

Tartufi & Friends
Via Borgognona 4c
00187 Roma
+39 06 679 4980
info@tartufiandfriends.it

An extraordinary project inspired by Futurism, interpreted by young artists, and overseen by an architect-designer: that would be Balarte Hotel & Other, down in Sicily’s south-eastern corner, about halfway between Modica and the beach at Pozzallo.

Definitely other, even in the category of art hotels. With the Atelier sul Mare somewhere in the back of their minds, the owners and their chosen architect Sergio Adamo enlisted the collaboration of the local Fine Arts Academy, in Catania. Students and graduates competed for the chance to produce an experimental theme and original artwork for each of the seven rooms, somehow harking back to that all-embracing early 20th-century cultural phenomenon that was Futurism. Reproductions of Futurist parolibera works hang in the corridor opposite each room.

Well, having dealt with the conceptual aspect, there are others that make boutique Balarte well worth a try.

Local stone contrasts with glass and steel in the angular contemporary structure, located in and communing with open countryside. Design furnishings flirt with copious cultural references for lots of colour and atmosphere indoors. There’s highbrow conversation to be had with your host Cinzia. And — getting right down to the nitty-gritty now — they do a great organic breakfast!

Balarte Hotel & Other
Contrada Scorrione
97015 Modica (RG)
+39 0932 779014
info@balarte.com

When you’ve seen the unmissable and marvelled at the top sights of this still lawless, querulous, unique city of extremes, it’s time to get to know Naples better. It’s time to delve deeper into its lesser quarters, off the beaten track, to see other sights and smell the real smells —  of which there are indeed plenty.

In other words it’s time to connect with a group of good citizens who regularly organise a multitude of cultural events in some of the truly characteristic neighbourhoods, specialising  in guided walks.  When I say specialising it’s no exaggeration: the Sunday walking tour in the Vergini and Sanità districts arranged by Viviquartiere has barely missed a week since the association was founded in 1996!

Here’s a taste of what they’re up to in the next week or so.

An evening walk around Materdei, a  district of two souls caught between the lower reaches of the city and the smarter Vomero hill, takes place next Saturday, March 23. The bottom end is where Vittorio de Sica filmed L’Oro di Napoli in 1954, with a shamelessly curvaceous Sophia Loren kneading pizza dough at a street stall. Naples’ gold may be pizza, but its also the wealth of second-fiddle churches and palaces. This walk takes in both: food tasting and artistic treasures. The meeting point is the Materdei underground station (Line 1 — don’t miss it!), at 5.30pm.

On Sunday 24th and then again the following Sunday, the Viviquartiere staple: a walking tour of the Vergini and Sanità quarters. There’s a cinematic connection here too, these being the favourite haunts of one of Italy’s 20th-century geniuses: comedian, actor, writer and singer Totò. It takes in visits to convents and catacombs, Palazzo Sanfelice and Palazzo Spagnolo as well as the much-venerated Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità. Again, not without sustenance in the form of exquisitely local snacks. This walk starts at the Piazza Cavour (Line 2) underground station at 10.00am.

There’s fun to be had too, with animation during deambulation by Neapolitan theatre companies Scugnizzi ‘e mò and Pazzianne e Redenne. All for a modest fee. Call or email for details and to let them know you’re interested.

Viviquartiere
+39 339 6304072
viviquartiere@libero.it

An impressive recent addition to the mainstream drinking and dining scene in style capital Milan is Pisacco, gastro-bistrot in Via Solferino, on the edge of one of the coolest areas of the new Milanese movida in the northern reaches of Brera.

Put together by an eclectic group of professionals including architects, art collectors and celebrated chef Andrea Berton (formerly of Trussardi alla Scala), the new restaurant and bar on two floors is a feast of contemporary design and art under brick-vaulted ceilings, offering first-rate but affordable modern Italian cuisine.

At street level is the dazzling bar and café, while the more sober restaurant area occupies the basement, no less light and airy as it backs onto a hidden garden once part of Milan’s historic canal system. Architects Tiziano Vudafieri and Claudio Saverino are responsible for the renovation and the décor, which includes a variety of stunning lighting solutions, and biodegradable furniture by sustainable design company Discipline.

Photographs, paintings, video art and installations are displayed throughout in a changing exhibition on the white walls of the basement and against the backdrop of a bold wall drawing by Sicilian artist Gabriella Ciancimino upstairs.

The menu is short and sweet, just 3 or 4 choices per course of dishes which are tasteful gourmet takes on simple mainstays of Italian cuisine. They’re conceived by Berton but it’s Matteo Gelmini who prepares everything from fresh locally-sourced ingredients. The wine list is a bit of a curiosity, with few of the usual suspects and a lot of carefully selected new entries at surprisingly modest prices.

Pisacco feels welcoming and unpretentious; still it’s become the place to be seen at since opening in September last year.

Pisacco
Via Solferino 48
20122 Milano
+39 02 91765472
info@pisacco.it

I recently found myself in one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places on earth.

Scouting around with people who’ve now become friends (Elisa, Mauro and the other guys who were part of our troupe), my photographer John and I set out to discover the Alta Langa, sometimes translated as Upper Langa.

In Piedmont dialect langa means tongue, and in this case a long strip of land between two valleys. The Alta Langa is the road less travelled, but the cons of getting to this marginal frontier area turn into pros when you find yourself among time-forgotten hills and really begin to detox. At this altitude there are fewer of the vineyards that distinguish the Lower Langa, but they do have a bit of a reputation for hazelnuts.

There are 43 stone-built villages clinging to the hilltops, some with barely 200 inhabitants. But I was struck by the number of foreigners I met along the way, people who’d chosen to ditch the urban lifestyle and live on the edge right here. Among them were Verena and Mario Schlatter-Weltert and their kids.

They moved from Switzerland when Nora, their first born, was just a few weeks old and set out to restore their new home. Brick by brick. Five years on, the family is practically self-sustaining. They grow their own vegetables, raise sheep and make their own cheeses, keep hens, a couple of donkeys too, and Mario manages to run a carpentry workshop. They’re happy in an ever-after sort of way they wouldn’t change for the world with no TV, no WiFi, no i-anything (and Mikaela comes along and feels like some kind of techno-junkie dependent on a four-bar connection at all times).

The homestead near Levice includes the family dwelling and two beautifully decked out farm-holiday apartments, one in a tiny old stone barn originally used for drying chestnuts. I’ve booked for this summer, to take my kids back to nature for a while, show them it’s still possible to live without all that tech and gadgetry…

Casa La Barca
Santa Lucia 12
12070 Levice (CN)
+39 0173 833002
info@casalabarca.it

Urban Italy’s been on line for just over two years now. I know I boast about how undemocratic the whole thing is, but that’s really just the stubborn Capricorn in me that rears its head every now and then. A couple of hundred people read our undemocratic travel tips every day, mostly from Canada and the US:  the truth is I’d really love to know your thoughts.

For our second birthday, I decided to sex the whole thing up a bit: no surgery just yet; just up a pair of 5-inch Ferragamos on the home page and a dash of Rouge Allure to the graphics.

Judith and I would love to have some feedback on what we are doing on this side. And do let us know what you’d like to hear more — or less — about.

That’s all for now from deep inside the boot. Without smelling like feet.