All properties featured have been hand-picked by the owners of Cottages to Castles. The website now features over 150 unique rental villasthroughout the Italian Lakes, Liguria, Tuscany, Le Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Apulia, the Neapolitan Riviera, Sardinia and Sicily.

Certain to be a popular choice with clients is the Capanno di Riorsoli in Tuscany, a renovated property with private swimming pool. Built on two levels and surrounded by acres of olive groves, beyond which distant misty views – this is a brand new quality property for two couples or a small family. Thirty-five kilometres south-west of Florence, between the Tuscan capital and Siena, we are deep in glorious tranquil countryside. The charming medieval town of Gambassi Terme is a few minutes drive away while the more visited tower-strewn hilltop of San Gimignano is less than 20 kilometres away.

Coming soon in Sardinia is a delightful apartment on the north east of the island. Apartment Rosita is one of several purpose built apartments set within beautifully manicured gardens of flowers, bougainvillea and palms. Simple, comfortable and Italian in style, this holiday home is an ideal base to rest after a day of exploration. Within just a short walk is the extremely elegant marina of Puntaldia and the town’s main Piazza with its array of boutiques, restaurants, cafes and bars. A great meeting point for an apperitivo or two, it really comes alive when the sun goes down!

Full details of all the Italian rental properties offered by Cottages to Castles are available online at www.cottagestocastles.com.

These white truffles may be a rare gastronomic delight – at about €3,000 per kilo – but Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt (at the Ritz-Carlton) is offering a seven-course dinner, with every dish (with the exception of dessert) flavoured with truffles. Tickets for the event, on November 5th, which is being held in associated with Vanilla Venture Ireland, with proceeds to the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, are available from the restaurant at €150 each.

Two of the courses will use Alba truffles (including one where the truffle is shaved at table) while the rest will feature other varieties. The evening will also include an auction. Up for bids: an evening at the Chef’s Table at Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt with executive chef Jonathan MacIver.

Below are some of the incredible fares currently available (followed by a text that goes to the flight offers page).

Chicago – Rome for $577*
New York – Madrid for $457*
Los Angeles – Barcelona $566
Book KLM to Europe and take advantage of incredible low fares.

Book KLM to Europe and take advantage of incredible low fares

Dallas Fort Worth – Amsterdam **
Visiting Amsterdam? Find the best deals on KLM. Buy Now!
Visiting Amsterdam? Find the best deals on KLM. Buy Now!

Unveiling exhibitions for 2010, she said six major crowd-pullers were already in the pipeline, with several more to be finalized over coming months. Palazzo Pitti will host the first top event, an unusual show devoted to the art of cameos and intaglio carving, which flourished during the Italian Renaissance. Pregio e Bellezza (Value and Beauty), which runs from March 25 until June 27, features a number of exceptional pieces, with a particular focus on items belonging to the Medici family.

The powerful Florentine family had a passion for stone carving and built up one of the most important collections in history, said Acidini. Among the treasures on show is the so-called ‘Seal of Nero’, an exquisite cornelian carving, admired by dozens of writers and artists over the decades, depicting the myth of Marsyas and Apollo.

On May 22, the Uffizi Gallery will open a large-scale exhibition devoted to Caravaggio, marking 400 years since his death. Over 100 important artworks by the master and his contemporaries are planned for the event, said Acidini, many of which borrowed locally. An exhibition exploring the tradition of 15th-century nuptial art in Florence opens at the Galleria dell Accademia in June.

Rare and precious paintings by masters such as Sandro Botticelli and Fra Filippo Lippi will go on display, alongside exquisitely decorated bedsteads and bridal chests. A tribute from the Medici family to Henry IV of France is the focus of an exhibition in the Medici Chapel Museum, which arrives in Florence in July after a stint in the prestigious Musee National du Chateau in Pau, southwest France. From July until November, Palazzo Pitti will host a wide-ranging exhibition celebrating the art, science and myths of wine in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. The final major event of the year is an exhibition devoted to Giovanfrancesco Rustici, the first significant overview of his work in a big museum, running from September until early 2011. The talented, yet little-known sculptor, studied under and collaborated with Leonardo da Vinci for a number of years. Acidini said details were also being ironed out for a new initiative entitled ‘Florence for Family’, a project aimed at promoting games and educational activities at both the city’s art and science museums. photo: Madonna and child with two angels by Filippo Lippi

Over 350 items are on display in the exhibitions, many of which recently restored or rarely shown pieces. In addition to artwork, including paintings, drawings and sculpture, the initiative features jewellery, fabrics, furniture, ceramics and porcelain.

The centrepiece of the event is an exhibition at Naples’ prestigious Capodimonte Museum, showcasing a selection of paintings by some of the most famous Baroque names, including Caravaggio, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.

Covering the period 1606 to 1750, it includes works by artists operating in all the main strands of Baroque: Caravaggio-inspired naturalism, classical and Rococo.

The Capodimonte will also host a side event devoted entirely to drawings by famous Neapolitan painters of the era, with rarely shown pieces on loan from public and private collections, held both in Italy and abroad.

Castel Sant’Elmo is showing two exhibitions. The first of these features 17th-century paintings, sculptures and furniture from local churches and museums restored over the last decade but which, for various reasons, have not gone on show before. The second event spotlights images by contemporary photographer Luciano Pedicini, who has documented the Baroque aspects of Neapolitan architecture, from hidden decorative detail to the showily grandiose. The Certosa di San Martino complex is itself an architectural temple to Baroque, which is explored in the first of three initiatives on show there.

The second event is a series of paintings by Italian and international artists detailing the city’s Baroque style, with work by Gaspar van Wittel, Didier Barra and Antonio Joli among others. A selection of sculptures by Francesco Celebrano and Giuseppe Sanmartino, on loan from churches around Naples, make up the third event The Duca di Martina National Ceramics Museum focuses on the decorative aspects of Baroque and their interplay, displaying painting, sculpture, applied art, furniture, porcelain and silverwork. The Pignatelli Museum spotlights Baroque’s persistent links to still life, from its roots in naturalism, through its development into a full-blown exuberant movement, and then during its later transition towards neo-naturalism and rococo.

Luca Forte and Jacopo Nani are among the artists on show here. Palazzo Reale plays host to three exhibitions. The first comprises an array of maps, drawings and photography charting the development of the city, and examples of Baroque architecture over the centuries. The second carries visitors through rooms that were once royal apartments, with furniture, frescoes and wall hangings created by the greatest names of their day. The third event is a spectacular 210-figure nativity scene created in the 1700s by leading sculptors, while a selection of paintings from the same time recount the nativity story.

The initiative, Ritorno al Barocco (Return to Baroque) runs until April 11. For more information visit www.ritornoalbarocco.com. photo: Luca Giordano, The Rape of Europa.

2. The French Laundry – Napa Valley
Even the wiliest concierges have trouble scoring reservations at Chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. Each day Keller and his staff create two nine-course $240 menus – a chef’s “tasting” menu and a “vegetable” menu – promising not to repeat a single ingredient on either menu.

3. $1,000 Sultan’s Golden Cake – Istanbul
Upon request the pastry chef at hotel the Ciragan Palace Kempinski will prepare a “golden cake” that has been flavoured with fruits marinated for years, vanilla beans from French Polynesia and French wheat. But what makes this the ultimate bakery bling is the dusting of 24-karat edible gold.

4. White Truffle Dinner at Les Amis – Singapore
For special clients, Les Amis, the elegant French restaurant in Singapore, can arrange a top-to-bottom white truffle menu that starts at $800 per person.

5. $5,000 Fleur Burger – Las Vegas
Created by Fleur de Lys chef Hubert Keller, the man behind Burger Bar in the Mandalay Bay hotel, this burger contains kobe beef, truffles and foie gras. The real cost comes with the concoction’s accompaniment.

6. Nino’s Bellissima Pizza – New York
There’s nothing special about the sauce or the crust. This pizza earns its $1,000 price tag with its toppings. Nino’s in New York loads down this pie with caviar and fresh Maine lobster. There’s also some salmon roe and a little wasabi.

7. Dinner In The Sky
“People were getting bored with just going to the same old restaurants,” says David Ghysels, the Belgian entrepreneur who created this movable restaurant suspended by a crane. If you’ve got the cash, Ghysels will bring his portable dining room anywhere he’s got clearance. Bringing a star chef and his suspended restaurant to a US locale could cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

8. Picnic on Macaroni Beach, Mustique Island
Barbecued chicken, mango and avocado salad, couscous with vegetables and punch sounds like standard picnic fare. Unless, of course, your picnic is on Macaroni Beach, on the exclusive Mustique island in the West Indies. The private island is open only to guests who own or rent some of its stunning villas, all of which come with their own kitchen staff.

9. Chef’s Table at L’Espadon – Paris
This restaurant, complete with a climbing lilac tree in the middle of the opulent dining room, serves up dishes like roast rib of milk-fed veal in a hay-infused stock and filet de boeuf Rossini with “cappuccino-style” mashed potatoes (with truffles and cocoa). Occasionally, Executive Chef Michel Roth invites guests to dine at the chef’s table, offering a ringside seat to the choreography of the Ritz’s mythical kitchens.

10. Private Dinner at Chef Louis Pous
For diners who aren’t into travelling, Little Palm Island resort chef Louis Pous has started making house calls. For $10,000 (for up to 10 people) plus travel costs, the chef and his staff of two will fly anywhere in the United States to prepare a private meal. The package, which must be reserved 30 days in advance, does not include, china or stemware.

11. Dinner at Three on the Bund – Shanghai
This small domed dining room capping Three on the Bund, Shanghai’s upmarket shopping and dining complex, is so intimate it can only squeeze in two diners and a butler. While taking in the panoramic views of Shanghai, you can feast on food from any of the restaurants in the complex including Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean Georges, Laris or Whampoa Club, for about $500 for two

The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology reported the epicenter was 9 km below the surface near the Umbrian town of Spina sending cracks up the walls of local houses.

The civil protection service reported collapsed chimneys and building ledges in addition to scattered gas leaks, but that the damage was by and large superficial.

Two people, one Italian and one foreign, were taken to the hospital with a sprained ankle and broken rib suffered while fleeing their homes.

Umbria regional counselor Vincenzo Riommi confirmed that “strong tremors were also felt in Perugia, where people rushed out of buildings and into the streets”.

Crowds reportedly milled in open spaces for several hours, before civil protection officers told them it was safe to go back inside.

Riommi added that residents closest to the epicenter were “understandably reluctant” to return to their homes, and that local authorities were considering setting up a temporary refuge for the night.

The tremors are among the strongest to rattle Italy since since April 6, when a quake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale killed 299 people in Abruzzo and left more than 50,000 homeless.

The scientists, from Israeli, Canadian and American institutions, say the burial cloth they’ve discovered is made with a much simpler weave than that in the Shroud of Turin.

It’s typical of the burial garments that would have been used in Israel during the first century, they say, and proves that the Shroud of Turin didn’t come from Jerusalem at that time.

The team believes a priest or aristocrat who succumbed to leprosy was buried in the cloth that was discovered, the BBC reported.

The Shroud of Turin long was believed to be the actual cloth in which Christ was buried.

In 1989, a radiocarbon test dated the cloth to the Middle Ages. Skeptics said the cloth could have been forged to scam money out of medieval pilgrims.

Those who still believe in the shroud’s authenticity point to an imprint on the cloth of a face they claim to be Christ’s.

But in 2005, an Italian chemistry professor showed he was able to reproduce the face, using tools and materials available in the Middle Ages. He claimed it was proof the shroud could have been faked during the 13th and 14th centuries.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_jesusera_burial_shroud_discovered_shows_shroud_of_turin_not_used_on_christ_scien.html#ixzz0Zs5Qx9UD

”I wanted to give the sitters an opportunity to become active rather than passive subjects,” said Morrione who asked each to contribute a written piece to accompany her portrait.

“There were no restrictions, they were free to say whatever crossed their minds,” said the photographer who is showing their ‘captions’ beneath their photos.

A group of actresses – including Daniela Stanga, one of the sitters – were so taken by Morrione’s novel idea that they volunteered to record a CD of the writings. They are currently preparing a theatre performance of the women’s ‘voices’ with a photo slide show. The exhibit at the Spaziottagoni gallery in Rome’s historic Trastevere district features a collection of 100 works spanning from 1964 to 2009 and offers a bird’s-eye-view of how Morrione’s art has evolved during the period.

“Initially, I mainly relied on black background, then switched to a lot of light…later I began focusing on hands and arms so much so that they’ve taken on a major importance in my shots. I’ve also used veils and fabrics,” said Morrione, a former architect who is best known for his studies of the female nude.

The exhibit also gives viewers an indication of how women too have changed since 1964, when the photographer shot one of his first portraits.

Francesca Romana wears a headband and pearls in a photo taken in September 1964 and muses about her upcoming wedding and her shyness.

In August 1969, Carla sports a miniskirt and flower-child blouse but today rails at Morrione’s request to write a reaction.

“What! Forty years have gone by, it happened so long ago, everything was about to happen, women were being catapulted into another century….do you have any idea what it means to ask a wrinkled and sagging 70-year-old to look back,” she tells Morrione and visitors.

Maria, tousled hair and unkempt eyebrows in November 1988, wails: “Portrait. If I could ‘unportrait’ myself I would”.

Elena recalls that though her second portrait was taken in 2008, more than 40 years after her first, any apprehension about her age vanishes the minutes she stepped into the photographer’s studio because he immediately recreates “that magic alchemy”. Another wonders if the photographer is not a sort of Prince Charming who lingers over every face “hoping to uncover an unlikely sleeping beauty”.

Like a faithful librarian of sorts, Morrione has catalogued scores of portraits in an unending quest to unravel the meaning of femininity, she says in her caption. Others teasingly accuse the photographer of being “an honest thief” who “wants not just a face but a soul as well” while treating his sitters like “guinea pigs”.

“It took me nearly two years to put the show together because I’d lost touch with some of the women. Others needed to be coaxed to contribute. It wasn’t easy but I got a lot of satisfaction, and it’s been great fun,” said Morrione.

The photographer admitted he is intrigued by the allure of femininity but ruled out interest in physical perfection.

His collection includes women from all walks of life – clerks, architects, teachers, shopgirls, journalists, psychologists, doctors – and though not all are beauties they are radiantly alive.

Morrione’s show, Voices, Women’s Images and Words 1964-2009 runs at the Galleria Spaziottagoni, Via Goffredo Mameli 9, till November 28.

More information is available at his website www.gabrielemorrione.it . photo: Fernanda, July 1971. “Your view, my image. Seeing myself and only then, believing it was me”.