Chiesi Fun

Ferrara City Tour : Our first trip after the Covid19 Lockdown

Last month we had a chance to do a short trip to cover a couple of cities in the Emilia Romagna and Marche area. One of the first cities was the wonderful town of Ferrara which is a great town to cover by bike. I definitely loved the scale of the city and the marvels it had to offer during our two-day stay.

We stuck to a full apartment AirBnB which was wonderful and wore a mask all during the visit when going into restaurants and museums. The city was relatively empty considering that it was the middle fo the Italian Summer which is quite normal considering the circumstances.

Here is our video for your enjoyment!

Nazim

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The Magical Lake in the mountain : Lago Moro in Val Camonica

As most of you probably can assume we are still in a sort of dream-like state with the COVID 19 pandemonium so before our trip on Friday down to Ferrara, we decided to do a quick pitstop and visit Betti’s Mom who every Summer spends the month of August up in the beautiful mountain setting that is Val Seriana precisely in the town of Bratto.

We have been coming here for about 27 years now but have never ventured out past this valley to visit the wonderful settings that this area has to offer. On a whim and thanks to the previous exploration of Betti’s sister Patty, we decided to visit a location called Lago Moro after hearing the wonderful and enthusiastic descriptions from her sister.

By the way this location is relatively close to the famous Gleno Dam which Betti covered a couple of years ago at this previous blog post.

Yesterday we set out along with our niece Camila, her son Olmo and Betti’s sister Patty by car towards the curious lake located in the middle of the mountains. I was already in a relatively sour mood after I saw the prospects of us skipping a nice Trattoria lunch and having to stick to our diet regime of Bresaola and Integral crackers.

So as we arrived and parked we started our descent from the parking lot toward our destination and loa and behold we stumble upon the most breathtaking view of this beautiful lake: Lago Moro which I immediately decided to call “il lago magico” (the magical lake).

The place was relatively full of lake bathers that take advantage of renting out beautiful homes close to the lake but all and all I have to say that quite friendly and predisposed to free up some space so we could put down our stuff and immediately jump into the water. Betti and I were expecting super-cold freezing water but to our amazement, the water was cool and perfect temperature along with a crystal clear water quality which we were not expecting at all!

After a fantastic swim along with the whole family (plus I forgot to mention our niece’s trusty dog Bolla who made sure that the whole “branco” was protected under his trusty watch. A small picnic calmed my trattoria temptation and was why better due to the beautiful setting. The lake roughly covers 8 km so right after lunch, we decided to take the wooden walkway around the lake from which we shot these photos.

If you ever get a chance and our in this part of Italy I urge you to visit “my magical lake” Lago Moro!

Nazim

Lago Moro in Val Camonica

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Night Painting in the Valtidone Forrest : Confluenze Festival 2019

Festival Confluenze in Valtidone

Every year we typically retreat to the nice quite of the Valtidone hills in which we get a chance to recharge our energies and plan the rest of the year both workwise and Casa ChiesiCasa Chiesi Web Site wise!

This year we took part of the Confluenze festival which is a yearly event organised by our dear friend Azzura Zanoli (along with a vast team of collaborators). The initial editions of this festival use to concentrate on the town of Nibbiano which is directly below us and roughly a 10 minute drive from our country place.

This year the festival ran between August 3rd and August 10th which was perfect for us since we had just started our Summer Holiday.

One of the highlights for Betti and myself was a night walk into the woods with an artist that organised an excersice that consisted of painting on white sheets of paper the reflection cast out by the folliage in the woods. So basically we met in the forrest with a team of roughly 30 people who broke down the task towards someone holding a flashlight or torch (in most cases the mobile phones provided the perfect light source) and the other person trying to recreate the folliage on paper that derived from the shadows.

Festival Confluenze in Valtidone

I have to confess that after seeing Betti so full of entusiasm and egging me on to join her in the fun (mind you I cant remember the last time I took a paint brush in my hands) the experience was so liberating and fun! Quite an interesting experiment with beautiful results in the middle of the evening in the famous Bosco delle Streghe (which means Witch Forrest, a name Azzura came up with years ago).

The theme of this years festival was Walking (Camminare) so most of the events revolved around beautiful walks that helped us better understand and appreciate the beauty which is Valtidone. We are looking forward to next years edition of this ever expanding event.

Check out their website (english version coming soon) at this link

Next year if you are in this neck of the woods we invite you to join in on the festivities.
Here is the location of the town of Nibbiano.

http://www.confluenze.net/confluenze-festival/

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Casa Chiesi and the Italian Countryside

As most of you probably know we are a couple that are living in the city of Milan which is a bit hectic by nature (but not as hectic as New York) so roughly 12 years a go we decided to make a small investment and buy an old abandoned trattoria in the small town of CaBazarri in the beautifu hills of Valtidone close to the town of Nibbiano.

This place is roughly and hour and fifty minutes away from our place in Milan and has been the main center of a lot of wonderful moments in our Italian lifestyle experience. In fact we usually are able to spend weekends and short holiday breaks away from the polluted air in Milan.

For us the most magical moment and one which we cherish the most is the Summer Vacation which here in Italy roughly last 3 weeks and is the perfect time to also turn off the preassure valve and relax. This year is even more special since the hot temperatures that people suffer in the city are far away due to the fact that we are at 700 meters above sea level with a drop of about 10 degrees which makes for sleeping under covers at night and no sweat fests like we had in Milan last month.

This is also a great time to go down and visit the Trebbia River which is roughy 30 minutes away and also explore and enjoy other sites and sounds of the valley. In fact we even had time to whip up another recipe which here in the country is a favourite from Betti’s secret arsenal. This time it’s Italian Lemon Mousse (check out the recipe here).

Anyway to give you an idea of this small secret retreat we enjoy on a regular basis here are some photos

Hope you all enjoy a great Summer break wherever you might find yourself and thanks for the support.
Next month I am heading out to the BorderlessLive event in London to promote our brand and expand our adventures from Italy.

Nazim

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Trento’s Teatro Sociale : A perfect backdrop for Traverse19 the choice traveller bloggers event

Coming back from Traverse19, the traveller bloggers festival that took place last weekend, I want to honor the city of Trento, which hosted us in one of the historical places that well represent the affection of Trento to culture: it Social Theater.

It is a classic Italian theater, with a vaguely neoclassical architectural approach, with a deep stage, a good capacity, its “Palco Reale“, an imposing chandelier, golden decorations and beautiful frescos in the ceiling but It was long considered the most beautiful theater in Tyrol.

It is quite curious to know that in the subsoil important pieces of the building fabric of the Roman Tridentum were discovered with a paved stretch of road, a Domus with mosaics, a craft workshop, and traces of medieval renovations.

As you walk around you can perceive the presence of Roman ruins through the glass frames distribute here and there in the conference rooms.

The history of the social theater of Trento is a story with a happy ending that spans over the life of the city from the beginning of 1800 to today.

The theater was built by a private citizen, Felice Mazzurana, who was also its first owner and its activities started 1819 with the show
“La Cenerentola” by Gioachino Rossini.

Mazzurana believed that Trento was missing a “Real theater” and when the building was completed, he succeeded in selling, in one day, almost all the theater boxes to the rich city families.

In 1835 the theater changed its name to Teatro Sociale and the management passed from Mazzurana to the Società del Teatro.

In 1881 the theater underwent a first restructuring curated by Count Manci and in 1893 the second representation of Manon Lescaut took place there with the presence of the opera author, Giacomo Puccini. These were the golden years of the late nineteenth century, la Belle Epoque when Verdi works came to Trento under the directing of Arturo Toscanini.

Then with the First World War, arrived the closing of the theater and its transformation into a military warehouse.

In 1924 the venue underwent another restoration which signed the beginning of a new era, the cinema. For 60 years the Teatro Sociale hosted prose, opera, and cinema until 1984 when, the impresario Zuliani, unable to bear the costs of the restoration, decided to sell it to the Province Trento which later granted it to the Municipality of Trento.

This ownership change prevented the risk of the theater being turned into a department store
The last restoration, which ended in 2000, gave us back the structure that we see today and we have attended in these days both in his main hall dedicated to entertainment activities and in all the other rooms where the conferences were presented.

Thanks again to Traverse for letting us discover a small Italian jewel and for the city of Trento that hosted this event

Betti

For more articles from the Trento region check out our coverage of the Besano Castle and Fortunato Depero’s Museum

Short video I did before the opening ceremony

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Casa Chiesi City Belly : New Livestreaming Show

So during the Holidays, we did a lot of brainstorming regarding what we would love to do in 2017 as new features for Casa Chiesi.
As you all probably know we love to do and have been doing Livestreams for Casa Chiesi from diverse locations in Italy.

Well now comes a new Show concept that we are introducing with a test pilot run this Sunday: Casa Chiesi City Belly, a live stream which revolves from the center piazza (square) of our favorite Italian cities.
In this 20 minute format we will give you a 360° (hint…) view and analysis of the Italian city we are visiting from the center of each one (from here comes the reference to the Belly!) We would love for you to join us this Sunday at 9 am EST where we will be highlighting the wonderful city of Bologna and provide some feedback of the things that you would love for us to highlight.

These Livestreams are visible on our Facebook Page at this link
http://www.facebook.com/casachiesi
and we will also be featured on this website and YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/casachiesi

Kinda like bring the town center to your Living Room!

Betti and Nazim

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Join us for a glass of virtual Prosecco! (It’s Nazim’s Birthday)

Okay, This is the second time we do something like this (first time was on Google+ and Nazim spilled a glass of wine over the keyboard!)

Video has been removed because Blab closed.

A view from the market in Pianello, Val Tidone

So finally we are on our third day of Holidays (the first two days involved sleeping…sleeping…and more sleeping). This morning we decided to go down to Pianello since we will have guest over for dinner tonight so we had to catch up on provisions. This week we also expect to make 200 kilos of tomato sauce this weekend (yes, Betti is nuts!). Next week on the 15th we leave for Tuscany (somewhere close to Poppi) where we stay with friends and do some more Ingredients for Casa Chiesi.

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