AMZ | PopLife.Biz

I don’t know if you are familiar with the old palazzo della Cancelleria or Papal Chancellery in Rome, but, believe me, it’s an amazing place that you should visit next time you are in Rome. The old place was built between 1486 and 1513 and was the first palace to be built in the Renaissance style. Builders used the travertine marble from the Colosseum and the theatre of Pompey (back then lying in ruins).

One is often taken aback by its amazing courtyard, featuring open arcaded loggias probably designed by one of the greatest artists of the period: Bramante. But the place is not only full of beautiful works of art but there are also so many funny stories about it that one is always left thirsty for more. According to an anonymous chronicler, Michelangelo cut short Giorgio Vasari’s boast about the frescoes he had completed in a mere 100 days with one of his most withering remarks: it shows!

Apparently the palazzo was bought by Cardinale Riario with money won at gambling. It was then that the powerful cardinal who had bought the place from Francesco Cybo ( Pope Innocenzo III ‘s nephew) for 14,000 florins ( 6 million euros) asked Bramante to add a new courtyard. During the Sacco of Rome, the palazzo was assaulted and damaged by a fire, but somehow it did manage to survive and though many centuries have passed since those years, the Palazzo della Cancelleria is still an exclave of the Vatican, housing the Sacred Roman Rota

Allegra, Donatella Versace’s daughter, made an appearance at the Fashion Group’s 25th Annual Night of Stars.
The girl still battling with anorexia ( Donatella talked about it in an interview granted to a famous magazine in 2007) looked quite thin. We wish her well and would be so happy to see her put on a few extra healthy pounds.

Allegra Versace è troppo magra

Via | Dlisted

With this new exhibition called “Viva l’Italia. L’Arte italiana racconta le città tra nascita sviluppo. crisi. 1948-2008” (Hooray for Italy. How Italian Art has portrayed Italian cities from their birth and development to their crisis) the city takes centre stage and becomes the muse of great artists. Actually this theme was tackled for the first time at the Venice Biennale in 1948. De Chirico, Sironi, Guttuso, Vedova and Afro were the first artists to focus on it. During the 1960s other great painters such as Giosetta Fiornoni, Mimmo Rotella and Mario Schifano were attracted to this theme.

An interest that somehow has never died out. Arduino Canfora in the eighties, Bruno Zanichelli and Pierluigi Pusole in the nineties and Salvino, Toderi and Botto & Bruno in the New Millennium, just to mention a few. This art exhibition will take place at Palazzo della Penna in Perugia from 25th October to 11th January. One of its chief attractions will be Marco Lodola’s luminous work “Other People’s faces” which will be hung on the façade of the old Palazzo

Viva l’Italia. L’arte italiana racconta le città tra nascita, sviluppo, crisi. 1948-2008 - Palazzo della Penna - Perugia

I love combining mortadella with vegetables; trust me, they go very well together, so I suggest you write down the recipe and try your hand at this rather tasty dish:

Ingredients: 4 aubergines or zucchini, a glass extra-vergin olive oil, 400 hg mortadella, 200 g emmenthal cheese, ½ litre tomato sauce, 1 garlic clove, 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs, two tablespoons stoned olives, marjoram , basil, parsley and salt.

Directions: 1.Wash the aubergines, slice them, sprinkle the shells with salt, and leave them turned upsidedown for an hour. 2. Dry them with a clean towel, heat the oil, fry the aubergines and then let them cool. 3. Place a slice of mortadella and a cube of emmenthal cheese on the fried aubergines, roll in an upwards direction and secure with a toothpick. 4. Place involtini or rolls in a casserole, pour the tomato sauce over them, add the chopped basil, parsley, marjoram, garlic, breadcrumbs and olives and then bake for 10/15 minutes at 180°.

Food and wine pairing tips: this recipe is perfect with Vernaccia di San Giminano or Franciacorta Metodo Classico

Photo | Flickr

Does the name testaroli sound a bell with you? Probably not, as for me I got acquainted with it only a few weeks ago when I had the chance to visit Lunigiana in Liguria and taste this delicious dish for the first time. Testaroli is a variety of pasta made from a mixture of flour water and salt and usually cooked in small terracotta cups; it’s a very old recipe well known to the Romans. Nowadays these disks of pasta can be easily bought at the nearest grocery store ( if you live in Liguria of course) and all you have to do is to bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil, add the testaroli, cook until al dente, drain and then pour pesto over it. Trust me, it’s quite delicious.

Photo | Flickr