The runway stretches into the distance down the rustic brick of Via Mazzini. A warm evening light creeps in from the arched entry at the foot of the street. Lights, photographers, and posing marks for models adorn the catwalk. Railings on either side of the runway carpet split the catwalk from the hundreds of people slowly crowding in to watch.

Next to the top of the runway, a Renaissance-era courtyard now functions as an impromptu dressing room. Models run in and out for styling, hair and make-up, and final choreography before walking the walk. Outside the courtyard, at the top of the carpet, a DJ sits in the center of the chaos, flanked by two towering speakers that billow music at an energetically deafening level. Children dance beside their families and look on with excitement in their eyes for what’s to come.

“We are almost ready to begin,” the announcer says at a quarter to 10.

Models await their turn to start down the catwalk at Urbino’s Sfiliata Sotto Le Stelle–Parade Under the Stars.

This evening looks and feels like something out of Marie Claire or a Mercedes Benz Fashion Week event. But this isn’t Florence, Milan, or Rome. This extravagant night is the brainchild of the boutique owners, designers, and retailers of Urbino, Italy, who have turned an unlikely stretch of Via Mazzini into the perfect setting for a charming fashion night out. What started as a strategic move to drum up business and promotion has turned into a collaborative creative effort, says Stefani Palazzi, owner of Nashville Boutique and an organizer of the event.

“We do this because we feel it can represent the fashion culture in Urbino—we want to try to do our best to make this event very successful,” says Palazzi.

For centuries, Italian fashion has been among the most revered in all of Europe. As early as the 11th century, powerful cities like Venice, Milan, Florence, and Naples produced some of the finest textiles, jewelry, shoes, robes, accessories, and elaborate dress of Europe. At the peak of the Renaissance, Italian fashion became known for its extravagance — velvets, brocades, ribbons, jewels, and fine detail.

However, by the 17th century, Italian fashion was dethroned, and didn’t begin to regain popularity until the 1950s, around the time Giovanni Battista Giorgini, an Italian businessman, began hosting aristocratic soirees and fashion shows. At the most famous of these soirees, “The First Italian High Fashion Show,” held February 12, 1951, several famous designers, like Fabiani, Simonetta, and the Fontana sisters, presented collections at Giorgini’s Florentine residence. The show attracted the attention of international buyers visiting from the Parisian Haute Couture shows. Soon, designers and boutiques across the region began mass-producing the Italian collections and exporting them to foreign markets — thus kick-starting the prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) era in Italian fashion, setting Florence as the birthplace of modern fashion in Italy, and revitalizing the market for the country.

Now, 60 years later and 185 kilometers away, in this walled city of the Le Marche region, designers, boutique owners, and entrepreneurs alike are applying the tactics of innovators like Giorgini to market their ready-to-wear business model to the public. The Sfilata Sotto Le Stelle (Parade Under The Stars) fashion show on Via Mazzini is a highlight of the series of Friday night events called Serate Ducali (Duke’s Nights) that are reminiscent of Giorgini’s soirees. Taking place from early June through the beginning of July, the events are planned by the Associazione Commercianti di Urbino.

The models from Nashville Boutique are paired to compare and contrast styling options.

The association was started around 10 years ago in an effort to cultivate a partnership between the many shop owners of the city and bring more business to the historic center of the town. The organization now works year-round planning events for winter holidays and the summer months that showcase the products and services the shops provide. At the heart of the association’s efforts are the Serate Ducali events. This year, the third year of the celebration, Serate Ducali now offers six different evening events, including the fashion show on Via Mazzini, street art nights, evening dancing, and live performances.

Marco Lazzari, president of the Associazione Commercianti di Urbino, says that when they created the Serate Ducali events, the idea was to have different nights with varying forms of entertainment in the historic center of the city.

“The goal of these events is to make Urbino come alive in the historic center,” says Lazzari.

Each lively event requires months of strategic planning. These kinds of bureaucratic duties are a large part of the event planning process and what the association does as a whole, Lazzari says.

“The association is voluntary; everyone pays a bit of money each year so that we can organize the events, like Serate Ducali. Politics are not involved in these events but we want to engage the administrations here in Urbino,” Lazzari says.

Lazzari works with a four-person team primarily focused on requesting city authorizations needed for events like the fashion show. He also works closely with event organizers and shop owners like Valeria Violini, owner of the Vodafone store in Urbino’s Borgo Mercatale, and one of the three producers in charge of the fashion show. The Sfilata Sotto Le Stelle was first held a year ago when Violini and a few other shop owners hatched the idea for the fashion show as a part of Serate Ducali.

“Our reason for doing this is to make the town more lively and offer something different to the public, but also respecting the rules in the process,” says Violini.

Hairstylist Stefano Iacomucci outfitted his models in Roman-inspired dress.

Now, the Sfilata Sotto Le Stelle fashion show features over a dozen retailers and designers of the region all jammed into an action-filled one-hour runway show. Around 6,000 euros and a prodigious catalog of models are only a few of the essential pieces to make this event happen.

In preparation for this year’s show, Violini and the other producers started contacting boutique owners and designers in the region to provide accessories, clothing collections, jewelry, and other merchandise to be showcased. The organizers of the event met with the association once a week for six months to trade ideas and collectively come up with a formula for the event that best fit everyone’s needs. From there, they cast models and divided them among each boutique. The models were then split up based on categories such as cosmetics, accessories, and other styling details. Then Violini decided on the order of the show. After the models were cast and grouped, the organizers hired a choreographer and had two rehearsals before the event. Violini describes the planning process as a multi-layered undertaking that involves bureaucratic duties, civil responsibility, and creativity all at once.

“The fashion show is a way to give exposure to the stores. It’s a good way for them to get publicity and also give alternative entertainment to citizens, both students and old people,” Violini says.

All the planning lead up to this: One hour before showtime, workers roll the carpet down Via Mazzini. More than a dozen models are in Mazzini Parrucchiere salon being styled by young cosmetologists and the owner, Stefano Iacomucci. The models are all covered with a layer of shimmering golden glitter dust and clad with flowing white gowns, inspired by historic Roman dress designs. Their hair is keenly styled in high buns and up-dos accented by fresh olive branches and leaves. The men are a bronze golden tint from their spray tans—each of them shirtless and wearing revealing white cloths gathered at the waist by a single golden rope. Iacomucci says that he is very inspired by history and wanted to modernize a classic dress practice to offer something different.

It’s now 10 p.m. and on the runway are models representing Palazzi’s Nashville Boutique, wearing glowing neon orange-and-white wigs. A brunette with a bun saunters out of the courtyard in an elegant white trench-style overcoat paired with designer slippers. Following her is a short, petite young woman wearing a shining orange wig and a black romper-style jumpsuit with a low pointed heel.

Palazzi styled the models in pairs to offer a unique presentation on the catwalk. Together the looks compare and contrast each other giving the boutique a well-rounded offering. Palazzi’s vast knowledge of trends and ready-to-wear markets are the product of years working in retail; she now owns the same boutique where she started working 34 years ago. She is precise in the way the models are styled with garments that are either in-season or trending, mixed with classic staples, giving her collection a fashion-forward feel.

Palazzi’s models line up at the end of the runway to make their exit. Standing together, the breadth of styles they cover is staggering: business casual, street chic, evening wear and seasonal dresses that incorporate almost every Pantone color and in-season silhouette.

Many more boutiques hit the runway as the night goes on; what was supposed to be a one-hour event has turned into a full-blown runway show. There are so many different styles: classic, modern street-wear, sportcore. Each shop shows their newest collections and designer items like Gucci and Marc Jacobs. The attention to details and accessories like scarfs, jewelry, and styling speaks to this region’s precise fashion interests.

It’s 11:30 now and the mood changes. The streetlights cast a soft, romantic glow on Via Mazzini. The music slows to a powerful ballad, and out glides a woman with a slicked-back ponytail in a white, halter-collar gown. The model is with five children: four little girls with matching white dresses and flower-bedecked pigtails and one boy with parted hair in a three-piece suit. The girls skip and throws flowers as the boy holds the woman’s hand and walks her down the runway.

Atelier Cardelli’s bridal fashions took the stage at the finale.

This is the finale of the show with the Atelier Cardelli bridal shop taking the stage. Vinicio Cardelli, now lead designer of the shop, was born in Urbino and studied here before he went to work with his family in Acqualagna. Atelier Cardelli has operated for over 70 years. Cardelli says that their gowns are designed with classic details, seeking to fulfill the buyer’s needs.

“We don’t just sell clothes; we sell dreams. The woman who buys the dress doesn’t want the dress [itself]; she is dreaming of something, so we try to give them that dream,” Cardelli says.

Now, a brunette paces onto the runway with an up-do adorned by two large curls that frame her face and lead the eye down the length of her veil. She is wearing a white velvet-and-lace mermaid-style gown. Her hands trace the outline of the dress and she beams widely, as if she is dreaming of her own wedding as she walks. Lace detail sprawls all over the dress and adds an accent on the veil. She has on a small pearl necklace and white gloves. Behind her is a couple, a man in a black Tuxedo with a wing-collar dress shirt and a woman with a gleaming ball gown studded with jewels and complex embroidery patterns.

Cardelli says that he likes to have drama and action in his shows and wants the ending to always be shocking or exciting. He and his three sisters put this elegant grand finale together, something their family often does.

“I love everything about my job but I really like doing fashion shows because if you don’t show what you create it doesn’t mean anything, and that’s why I like to do these shows because you need to show people what we can do,” Cardelli says.

Adele’s “Someone Like You,” starts playing, and the last of the models file out onto the runway. All of them, about a dozen, from the Atelier Cardelli show are lined up side-by-side, taking up the entirety of the runway. Women begin to make their way to the railing on either side of the runway with a look of desire in their eyes.

“Never mind—I’ll find someone like you,” Adele sings from the speakers as the music roars into the night.

The announcer hands each model a rose, and, on cue, they all throw their roses into the air. In that split second, hundreds and hundreds of hands reach up into the sky toward the stars, and everyone erupts into applause for the Sfilata Sotto Le Stelle fashion show.

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This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s Urbino Centro section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.

The post Urbino’s Fashion Night Out appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy — Veli Ljatifovski looked out across Ponte Armellina, a housing development he has lived in for the last 20 years. He saw buildings spotted by mold from the corrosive effects of humidity, open sewers spilling into the streets, and derelict cars and mattresses strewn across weed-filled front lawns.

“It wasn’t like this before,” said Ljatifovski, 44, who arrived here in 1995 as a refugee from Yugoslavia after escaping war in his homeland. Ljatifovski, one of the oldest residents and homeowners in Ponte Armellina, helped found the community of immigrants that have made the neighborhood home.

“It was like paradise, clean, with good buildings,” he said.

Veli Ljatifovski stands outside Bar Raffaello which closed two years ago.

While listed inside the borders of Urbino, one of the most beautifully preserved Renaissance cities, Ponte Armellina is seven miles from the city’s historic center. It is a community formed by documented immigrants who moved to Italy in the mid-90s to chase the dream of a better life. As years passed and the buildings decayed, Ponte Armellina residents faced precarious living conditions and little attention from local authorities. Residents inside the walled city and local media stigmatized the community, labeling it “Urbino 2.”

Since 2009, the municipalities of Urbino and Petriano have been planning to rebuild the neighborhood, believing that by improving the physical decay, social problems will be addressed.

But residents are skeptical and confused. Before the redevelopment occurs, they have a number of worrisome options. Those who own their apartment would have to sell them at huge losses and leave. Those who are renting from private owners could have to move if their apartments are sold. Those in public housing, the largest group, would be moved into other subsidized housing during the rehabilitation. A small group of residents who occupied the apartments without paying rent will be evicted.

The €7.9 million ($8.8 million) urban redevelopment will be funded by the region. The project is meant to build bigger and environmentally friendly affordable housing, expand and create public services, improve urban landscape and sport facilities, and integrate more non-immigrant Italian families into the neighborhood.

According to engineer and assessor of city planning Roberto Cioppi, the project entails of purchasing 45 apartments as small as 320 square feet in buildings owned by the Regional Agency for Public Housing (ERAP) for €7,000 to €8,000 ($7,815 to $8,931) each. They will be turned into 26 apartments of 756 square feet each.

After the redevelopment, a square foot in a new apartment will cost €1,200 ($1,339) said Cioppi.

“The goal of this project is the urban regeneration of the area,” said Cioppi.

When Ljatifovski moved to Ponte Armellina, the neighborhood was a failed student housing project built by a private company in 1990. Parents bought many of the units, but students soon realized they were too far from the campus for an easy commute. The building soon became vacant.

Ljatifovski purchased his apartment from a Neapolitan family for €75,000 ($83,678) when the economy was good and it was easier to obtain a mortgage. His apartment is located in one of the two buildings that will be rebuilt in the redevelopment. As a private owner, Ljatifovski said he has been offered to sell his apartment for €25,000 ($27,903), due to a heavy devaluation of real estate in the area, or to pay a negotiated lease if he wishes to stay in a remodeled apartment.

“We don’t agree with them because we suffered to pay for this apartment,” said Ljatifovski.

Eduardo Barberis, a sociology professor at the University of Urbino and expert in Italian immigration policies, did a quantitative analysis of population, risks and social needs in Ponte Armellina in 2011 along with a team of students. The study, which was presented to the municipalities, revealed 20 percent of Ponte Armellina’s 600 residents owned their homes.

“For a 646 square feet apartment, residents paid more than €150,000 ($167,366) with a mortgage. Property value is now at around €20,000 ($22,322)” said Barberis.

Cioppi said that more funding will be pursued to increase the offers to homeowners unhappy with the current price.

Urbino Mayor Maurizio Gambini said the reason for the devaluation of property in Ponte Armellina is that Italians don’t wish to move into an area heavily inhabited by foreigners and that the quality of the houses is not that good.

“We are working in spite of the fact that many people say we shouldn’t follow through with the project and use this money for the redevelopment,” said Gambini. “These are Italians who don’t want extra-communitarians (people not from the European Union).”

The majority of adult residents in Ponte Armellina migrated from Northern Africa and The Balkans. Barberis’ study found that 60 percent of the residents are Moroccan, while 25 percent are Macedonian.

Many residents are skeptical of the outcome because of previous broken promises.

“They’ve talked about [the redevelopment] for years,” said resident Ben Sabir Mohamed, 40, of Morocco. “Today they say they want to eliminate this, tomorrow they say they want to fix that, another day they say something else. We don’t understand a thing.”

Ljatifovski agreed.

“There are many other things [problems] we told them about, but no one has done anything yet. Now they told us to keep calm, that they have money and will start building,” he said. “They’ve been talking about this for six years.”

The soccer field is a meeting place for children. Two tennis courts and a playground will be built next to it as part of the redevelopment.

Cioppi said the project will start around March 2016 and will take one year to complete.

Resident Abdel Maler, of Morocco, said that it would be a great benefit for everyone if change comes to the neighborhood. He’s been living in Ponte Armellina since 1996.

Maler, who is unemployed and lives in an apartment owned by the court, does not need to pay rent because of his employment status.

“It belonged to a private owner, then they failed to pay their mortgage, so the court took the whole thing.”

According to ERAP, minimum rent is €50 to €100 ($56 to $112) and residents must qualify based on income. The redevelopment will not affect those who legally live in ERAP apartments.

ERAP plans to evict those who moved in illegally, and have no plans to resettle them.

At the initial stage of the project, some families feared a possible eviction if the redevelopment took place. Cioppi said that only those who have occupied the apartments illegally would be evicted, but that the cases are very few.

The mayor has also guaranteed that families will not be removed from their homes.

“They will not be sent away. They will be moved somewhere here in Urbino for the time of the redevelopment,” said Gambini.

The families who live in the apartments that will be remodeled will be temporarily moved to other buildings in the complex.

Gambini said he understands that the project has been promised for years. He is positive it will happen because the municipalities were able to secure funding two months ago.

Despite living in the area for more than 20 years, obtaining a legal status, purchasing property legally and their children being born in Urbino, residents who migrated from outside Europe face discrimination from locals who base their beliefs against them on stereotypes, residents and city officials said.

In 2011 a raid took place in the neighborhood in which 100 carabinieri, Italy’s military police force, stormed into every apartment looking for undocumented people as part of a national stop and search campaign around the country. They didn’t find any irregular activity, and all the residents had proper documents.

“Everyone who lives here is legal and has papers,” said Ljatifovski, who is an Italian citizen.

“The only thing they did was prevent some children to use the school bus because they didn’t have tickets, which is really something horrible,” said Barberis, who was doing research in the neighborhood when the raid took place and remembers the coverage it received from the local media.

Barberis, a member of Regional Anti-discrimination Committee, blames the media coverage of Ponte Armellina for perpetuating stereotypes related to criminal activity in the area. “Local media is extremely racist, perhaps not explicitly. Every day they give ethnic label to criminals. If an Italian makes a robbery, then it’s a person making a robbery, but if it’s a Moroccan making a robbery, then it’s a Moroccan robber,” said Barberis. “It’s giving ethnic labels to behaviors.”

“At first it was kind of a bad neighborhood, but then newspapers made it worst,” said Maler. “They mixed facts with politics.”

Giovanni Lani, editor of the local edition of Il Resto Del Carlino, a national newspaper, does not think his publication gives a bad reputation to Ponte Armellina.

“If you go to Gallo di Petriano or other places near Urbino 2 and ask people what they think, they say it’s dangerous,” said Lani. “We don’t say this, the administration says it and we repeat it.”

Lani said the use of terms that could be seen as problematic could’ve been the case in the past but not now.

“I don’t know if they [residents of Ponte Armellina] can read Italian or if they read the newspaper.”

As a way to break the negative stereotypes tied to the community and neighborhood, filmmaker Andrea Laquidara made a documentary called Fuori dalle mura. In the documentary, Laquidara showed how people consider Ponte Armellina a second Urbino.

“Ponte Armellina is part of Urbino on paper,” said Laquidara.

When he premiered his documentary in Urbino last January a person from the audience asked him why he hadn’t interview Urbino residents. In the documentary, Laquidara interviews a child from Ponte Armellina who was born in Urbino and is of Macedonian descent.

“People don’t consider them as citizens,” he said. “A stereotype is that citizens are only those whose relatives come from Urbino. We have a new kind of society now.”

Ljatifovski said there are two Urbinos.

“People who live inside of the walls don’t know who is outside of them,” he said.

Gambini said Urbino is a city that welcomes immigrants and that they have always been present.

“The main goals are integration and to avoid creating ghettos,” he said. “Schools should be granted to everyone and help the process [of integration].”

Despite the problem residents face, the majority of the community of Ponte Armellina is glued together by faith.

“We are mostly Muslims. The country you’re from doesn’t really matter. What keeps us together is our faith,” said Marel.

Ljatifovski remembers that a few years back a resolution of the region labelled his neighborhood “the worst area in Le Marche.”

“If people don’t come here they won’t see what the reality is,” said Ljatifovski. “We are not animals.” 


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The post The “Other” Urbino appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy - As a customer walks into the small, two-room grocery on Via Nicollo’ Pellipario asking for fresh peaches, shop owner Luigi Valentini greets her with a smile, steps from behind the register and begins to hand-select the ripest fruit. Meanwhile in the adjoining room, his wife, Iside Mancini, is slicing prosciutto and ciabatta for the panini for a regular’s daily order.

“You need to feel affection for your job, you have to have fun!” Luigi said.

Luigi spends around half an hour unloading and organizing his fruit in the morning.

The couple own Frutta E Veroura. It is an alimentary, one of the small, neighborhood grocery stores offering fresh produce and meats that can still be found on the streets of most Italian cities.

As the rest of the world is moving to the impersonal, pre-packaged, bulk shopping at huge discount sellers, the tradition of one-on-one local grocers remains strong in Italy. It seems the alimentary is still valued in a nation with a cultural demand that meals be cooked daily and with the freshest ingredients.

Luigi and Iside have been filling that need in this Urbino neighborhood for 40 years and have no plans to change professions.

“In life you need to have the singular will to do something,” explains Valentini. “Everyone is meant to do one job and you have to enjoy it, and I love this job.”

He begins each morning at 5:30 on their vast farm about 4.5 miles from the two-room store . While most of the city still sleeps, he loads his aging white Ford van with produce grown on their fields. By 7a.m. he’s opening the doors of Frutta E Veroura and Iside has arrived to open the cheese and meat counter for the first of what will be a steady flow of customers begins. 

Costumers from all walks of life come in and out of Valentini’s doors in a consistent, rhythmic flow. From young parents going in for a few hand picked veggies to cook with dinner to old friends just stopping in to say hello, each costumer is greeted with a smile and a warm “Buongiorno!” Luigi tries to make every customer feel valued and appreciated.

With new fruit and veggies coming in every day, chain stores can’t compete with the freshness of alimentaries.

The only break the couple gets on these busy days are during pausa, the traditional Italian three- to four-hour lunch break. Valentini and Iside head back to their lovely home to relax and eat, although Valentini also likes to use this time to maintain his farm. Once they are refreshed, it’s back to the store by 4 p.m. where work continues until 8 p.m.

Luigi and Iside have managed to keep their business strong even as large chains have moved inside the walls of this famed Renaissance city. Luigi believes the strong personal relationships with his customers and the other alimentary owners help them survive.

“In the past, there used to be around fifty shops” he explained. “When Conad (a major Italian chain) came into town, they asked shops to join them and become investors. Some joined and some did not. We were the stubborn ones!”

Stores like Conad carry a large selection of produce at a much cheaper price than an alimentary, so most of the students in this college town as well as many residents tend to opt for the savings and can be seen carrying Conad shopping bags.

Luigi takes pride in his relationships with his customers, making it one of the many reasons why he loves his job.

Alimentary owners have fought back by forming alliances.

Claudio Polidoro, owner of an alimentary in town, explained. “When I am out of a certain kind of food that a customer wants, I will send them to a different shop that I know will have it,” he said

Luigi and his wife remain confident in the future. Luigi makes it clear that in order to be successful in a business where competition always surrounds you, you must have qualities that make you unique.

“Competition is the ugly beast of commerce and you must fight against it!” Valentini says forcefully. “I have fresh fruits here. It’s not pretty but it is good quality. It is why I’m still here.” 

He also says maintaining positive relationships with his costumers have been essential to their success. “Some of our costumers have been shopping here for 38 years!,” he said. 

The alimentary lifestyle apparently appeals to some younger Italians as well. Just up the street from Luigi’s shop, Daniela Formica and her partner run La Verde Mela.

“We bought this shop from our neighbors because they have a child and didn’t have the time to keep up with the shop,” explained Daniela. “[Competition] doesn’t scare me because we keep our products fresh.”

Valentini Luigi says their chances for success are good – as long as they provide fresh products and love the life.

“If you like your job, you will overcome the difficulties,” he said. “It is your art.”

Slideshow

Video (By Rachel Killmeyer & Jules Graham)

The post The Alimentary Rule of Italian Shopping appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy—A faint purring can be heard as Raffaella Betti brings in her two young adoptees for their annual check-up at Oasi Felina di Urbino (Feline Oasis of Urbino). The infirmary is small, with barely enough room for one or two people, a few small animals, and the syringes, medicine bottles, and other medical equipment that adorn the walls. The cat carrier is opened, the mewling increases, and cat eyes widen.

The cats in Oasi Felina are always up for some tug-of-war.

With a firm hold, a visiting veterinarian administers the required vaccines. Meanwhile, Enza Vaccarello, owner and operator of Oasi, quickly writes notes in her extensive records for the two young felines. Vaccarello is adamant about keeping up to date with all the adopted residents of Oasi—always asking for pictures, visiting the new homes, and keeping in close contact with the owners even years later.

“We need to be sure the cats are taken care of once they leave here,” Vaccarello explains. “There are many [people] who aren’t reliable enough to have cats, but adopt them anyway. If so, we can take them back here. At least here we know they live happy lives.”

Having taken their shots with little complaint, the brother-sister duo are well-behaved, sitting calmly on the plastic exam table with no coaxing. They’re back at home; they have no fears here.

Oasi Felina, on the outskirts of Urbino, is a hidden refuge. It may seem overgrown with weeds, and a little far out of the way to most. But Oasi Felina is a sanctuary and paradise to these forgotten felines. There’s room to explore, eat, and live behind the fences that surround Vaccarello’s cat care. Curious eyes dart in and out between bowls full of kibble, cloth mice, and water as Vaccarello makes her way through the rooms. The bright-eyed cats know who she is, and are drawn to her encouraging words, kind smile, and her bag full of treats. She is partial to none. She loves all her cats, but knows not to get attached.

Ana De Angelis grabs Zigghi the cat for a quick cuddle.

“They’re like having children,” says Vaccarello. “They are under your care for a while, then they go off to be happy somewhere else.” She has three cats she calls her own to keep her company at home, so she doesn’t worry.

The average number of resident cats at Oasi is between 80 and 100. They come from all over Italy, some even as far away as Naples. Some have been rescued by volunteers and other Urbino citizens from unfortunate situations and abusive homes; these can be fearful of every human that approaches. But there are many like Zigghy, Alex, and especially Ullo Mao, a tattered looking tabby with a big heart, who never hesitate to trot up to new visitors with a wagging tail. They readily rub up against anyone who pets them.

Vaccarello, a former English language teacher in Urbino, and originally from Turin, is well aware of the problem surrounding stray cats in all of Italy. She says the problem stems from people not taking the responsibility to care for those less able to care for themselves, human or not. It doesn’t affect only cats, either.

“I love cats because I love the world,” Vaccarello says. “If I had found a dog, I would have a dog rescue. Same if I had found a lion. But I found cats.”

Vaccarello came up with the idea for Oasi Felina around 20 years ago purely from seeing three abandoned cats outside a church, not far from where the sanctuary now sits. She then joined an organization called Noah’s Ark. Created in 1998, Noah’s Ark’s goal was to aid the community in awareness and care of street animals. Oasi Felina was founded in 2001, moved to its current residence in 2003, and has bolstered Noah’s Ark’s effort to shelter and adopt formerly wild cats.

Oasi Felina is a volunteer-based enterprise. Generous donors provide all the funding, which pays for veterinary care and infirmary needs for all cat families. Urbino resident Ana De Angelis is a volunteer who Vaccarello says is the true brains behind Oasi. De Angelis has been donating her time and effort since 2013. She names the cats, cares for them, plays with them, and even performs the dirty work of litter box cleaning. De Angelis picked up this mission after leaving her job at a bakery in which she worked 10 years. Even with her time split due to her saxophone playing in a local band, she is giving Oasi Felina almost five hours every day.

Enza Vaccarello looks out at her feline oasis, making sure all cats are playing nicely.

Guilia Baldelli, a biotechnology student at Camerino University in Camerino, Italy, is another major reason for Oasi Felina’s success. She uses her artistic spirit and public relations skills to make the organization a community-known name with active public support. Baldelli runs the Facebook page, as well as Gatti Matti, a website dedicated to the cats, their lives, and which ones are availiable for adoption. To generate donations, Baldelli and her mother make merchandise and sell cat treats and toys at events. “I wanted to be involved in something off campus,” Baldelli says. “And knowing that I’m helping these animals while meeting new people makes me happy.”

On June 5th, 2015, Oasi Felina di Urbino hosted a fundraising dinner at the local restaurant Il Cortegiano. Forty-five people sat at several tables in the garden behind the regular seating area, and were treated to a seven-course affair. The vegetarian plates continued as the volunteers hosted a lottery. The crew proudly donned new Oasi Felina T-shirts with the slogan, “I gatti di un gattile sono la razza piu bella” (The cats of a cattery are of the most beautiful race). Winners received baskets full of ornaments, cat treats, cat-themed bookmarks, and even more. According to Vaccarello, over 2,050 euro was collected that night, a wonderful success.

The dinner ended with a bang as a large cake was wheeled out to the garden. Two sparkling firecrackers erupted from the icing, and the crowd clapped and laughed in response. Vaccarello smiled along with them, knowing that she would carry all the support and love from the fundraiser back to Oasi Felina. Thanks to donors, volunteers, and the citizens of Urbino, unfortunate cats can live out their lives in an oasis all their own.

Slideshow

See the video “Studiolo in Palazzo Ducale” produced by Katie Potter & Isabella Ciano.

The post Saving More Than Nine Lives appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy - As the procession for the elaborate Urbino Press Award entered the Ducal Palace here, they were greeted by the thunderous music from a 40-piece orchestra.

It was the Orchestra di Strumenti a Fiato di Urbino – the Wind Orchestra of Urbino, the name of the city’s official band. Their music is a feature of almost every official city function in a history that dates back to the 18^th century and the formation of a choir.

Duccio Marchi plays the bass drum known in Italian as “grancassa” at the Corpus Domini procession.

Orchestra members come from all walks of life, and represent all ages from the teens to middle-age.

Roberto Burani, manager and leader of the band, said that while more than half the musicians are students, the others come from a variety of professions.

“There are some retired people,” he said. “There are a couple of doctors, people who have grocery stores.”

Burani said a shared passion for music is what inspires the band members and makes them a team.

“In the orchestra we are like a family and we hang out sometimes to go for pizza and stuff,” he said. “Everyone with passion for music can join the band.”

Urbino’s education system provides means for recruiting new members, Burani said.

“We have a project in the school called Settesuoni,” he said. “It is a project that takes music in schools and allows kids to learn how to play and instrument.

“If they get a passion about an instrument they have got the musical language. They have got the means to develop the passion.”

Burani is a product of that system.

“I have started to play an instrument while I was seven or eight,” he recalled. “One day, I was walking outside I heard people playing near the Cappella Musicale (the music school). It was a Thursday night and the band rehearsed. I just got in there and watched the rehearsal and from then I enrolled at the music school there.”

Burani said he spent his first years of study in solfège – a music education system that emphasizes training the ear to hear sounds. That was followed by the study of trumpet, then guitar and other string instruments. Today he plays the trumpet.

“Around the age of 14-15 I got in the band,” he said. “I became the president/leader of the band in 2000.”

Burani’s work has led to involvement with several local associations, including the Festa Dell’Aquilone (Kite Festival), and the Festa Del Duca (Duke’s Festival), which is the main event in Urbino.

The band plays at five main events each year: April 25 – Liberation Day; June 1- Patron Saint festival; June 2 – Republic Day; Nov. 4 – Military Forces Festival and Christmas.

The orchestra even has its fans. Burani mention 50 to 100 people follow them to performance sites.

“It is always the same people in the same seats in the same places,” he said. “When we play in parades, there are many people that are students or tourists. Mostly 50-100 loyal fans we have.”

Roberto Burani who is manager/leader of the band since 2000.

The orchestra has played in Imola and Perugia.

But the future of the orchestra relies on support from the government.

“The future of the band depends on the political facts because if they want to give us money and finance the band, it will be good in future,” he said. .”We play five main events during the year and we should get some money and attention from the municipality because we are like a institution. It depends on the major if he is helping and supporting us.”

Michele Mangani who is a composer and director of the band said “I have been playing in the band since I was eight and it has been 20 years since I have directed the band,” he explained. Giovanni Di Stefano, a saxophone player, was also eight when he joined the band, said in those days the musicians were much older.

“The band age average was middle age,” he said. “Me and two or three others were the young ones. It was more difficult than now because there was no friend at the same age with me.

“Now, I play only for fun. Generally, I spent four hours a week for the band.”

And he echoes Burani for the reason he continues to play.

“We are doing this in order to stay together, to make something with the passion,” he said. “We are all come together and trying to create something unique.”

Slideshow

The post Orchestra di Strumenti a Fiato di Urbino appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

Voices crowd the air of Urbino’s streets in the early morning, each carrying a greeting, a jest, or a warning. The city is alive and awake.

In the Palazzo Ducale square, 20 men and women look about with nervous excitement. On some unseen command, their vocal power joins the morning fracas. But their voices do not vie for attention against the others. Their voices cooperate with one another, working as one to become a river of clear and powerful song that sweeps all other sounds away in the flow.

Ride on King Jesus,
No man can hinder thee.

Ride on King Jesus,

No man can hinder thee.

The other voices and their owners stop as the singing resonates across the square and down every street. The effect is magical—Urbino frozen in time, with only the rhythm of the human metronome to count the passing seconds.

Just as quickly, the song reaches a crescendo, and fades to silence. For a brief moment, the square is completely quiet. Then someone claps, the crowd follows suit, and the people return to life. The people singing by the Palazzo Ducale are a mix of students, teachers, and residents of Le Marche who are all part of the Coro 1506 Dell’Università Degli Studi di Urbino—the 1506 University of Urbino Choir. For them, music is a force that draws people together.

University of Urbino choir member Elisa Baggiarini sings out her name during an end-of-season party.

The choir began in 2001, after a few of the University’s teachers decided that their campus needed a singing group. Over the years, the choir has evolved as students and teachers have come and gone. Through it all, the choir has been first and foremost about making friends and enjoying the beauty of one’s voice; experience is neither considered nor required when joining, and the vocal instruction is applied with a light touch. Choir director Augusta Sammarini says the choir welcomes anyone who wants to sing, even if they have little time to practice.

Says member Elisa Baggiarini, “In this choir we grow together, we enjoy being together, we learn how to listen to each other, to love each other and to grow with music thanks to our wonderful teacher. She made me discover the beauty of singing in a group.”

Other members echo Baggiarini’s sentiments. Guido Dalliolio says, “At first, when Augusta started recruiting people for the choir, I couldn’t attend the rehearsals. I work in Urbino but I live in Ferrara. So I asked Augusta to move the rehearsal day. After that I couldn’t back away, even if I wanted to. I stayed because music creates a bond between people. Singing together is beautiful, I’m happy to be here, and I think I won’t ever leave this group.”

The University of Urbino choir is not alone in their commitment to one another and the power of the human voice. The event near the Palazzo Ducale was part of a program called UNInCanto, which was developed by Urbino choir director Sammarini and brought three other Italian university choirs to Urbino to share their music with one another and with the community. The program is in its second year, and considering the success it has been amongst the choir members thus far, it looks to be the start of a new tradition that will continue long after the current members depart.

“The purpose of UNInCanto was to let university choirs around Italy create a network to share cultural knowledge, to meet and share their experiences. …I think it worked very well,” says Maria Assunta, a founding member of the Urbino choir and a teacher at the University.

Sharing knowledge means more for these choirs than just meeting one another and singing. While the planning and direction took months of time and effort from professors, graphic designers, and the choir directors, the program itself lasted three days and involved lectures and debates on the theme of singing in chorus by professors from all four universities and from scientific, technological, psychological and historical standpoints.

Assunta says, “It’s important for students to get involved [in UNInCanto] because it teaches them how to grow as people from a cultural perspective. …We are important as individuals, but we also have to relate to society as part of a whole.”

This year the lectures took place during the first two days, but the third day was the heart of the program. The enchanting scene in front of the Palazzo Ducale was repeated all across Urbino as the four choirs traveled separately throughout the city and performed for the unsuspecting townsfolk.

Their music styles are as varied as the individuals in the choirs themselves. For example, the University of Urbino choir likes American gospel and rock’n’roll, in contrast to the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria—the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. According to Lucia Vartolo, a member of that university’s student press, their choir prefers songs ranging from classical polyphony like Lauridsen and Bruckner to film tracks like The Mission and popular Italian classics such as Calabrisella.

At 5:30, the four choirs met at the Church of San Domenico, next door to the Palazzo Ducale. They each gave a final performance, spent the rest of the evening chatting and enjoying one another’s company, and exchanged gifts in the hopes that the program will one day become a national event spanning all Italian universities.

For the University of Urbino choir, however, there was still one song left to be sung. A week later, on the 9th of June, they held a party to celebrate the end of the school year and another successful conclusion to the UNInCanto series. The event lasted well into the night, with choir members shouting out their favorite songs and the entire choir singing each composition as it was suggested.

The most requested song by far was Ride On, King Jesus.

Slideshow

This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s Urbino Centro section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.

The post UNInCanto: Urbino In Song appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy - Hanging above the main steps of the Piazza della Repubblica, a bright electronic sign shows a bottle with a red circle and slash through it followed by this warning to the nighttime crowd:

Di uso sostanze alcoliche e super alcoliche su suolo pubblico! 

The message to all Italians is clear: Drinking alcoholic beverages on public streets is prohibited – the result of a law passed last October.

Yet directly below the sign Stefano Marchi, 22, and his friends are sipping from beer bottles.

“The square is a meeting point for students and now we can’t stay,” says Marchi, a cigarette in one hand and a lighter in the other.

Workers of Marche Multiservizi clean the streets of Urbino by disposing filled trash bins before the town awakens.

After decades of casual drinking and socializing in the square, students have lost their favorite place to unwind due to the new drinking law. Yet less than a year later town officials have come to agree with the students – they need a place to call their own, and a search has begun. 

“The main problem is that I know this city is not well equipped for huge groups,” said Mayor Maurizio Gambini, who has promised to find the students a new location.

The change in the nightlife scene since the new law went into effect has been dramatic.

Thursday nights in the main square had been the place to be for students at the University of Urbino. They would purchase beer and wine from the nearby supermarket then drink and socialize until the early hours of Friday. But when they staggered home their feet shuffled through piles of garbage the city would have to clean up.

That left the historic square surrounded by Renaissance structures in no condition to receive the next day’s tourists. Broken glass covered the ground, beer cans floated in the central fountain, litter lined the street corners and the odor of urine drifted over the cobblestone streets.

Last fall residents of the town had enough, some even threatening to “abandon the town” if the newly elected Gambini didn’t solve the problem.

The law forbids holding or carrying alcohol on public property from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. However, drinks can be within three meters of any licensed bar. Violators face a €100 fine, but city officials said only 30 tickets have been issued. 

Gambini says one of the factors in his decision to meet that demand was a concern about students’ safety.

“I had a meeting with a doctor who saw many people who were on the verge of collapsing after excessive drinking,” he says.

“Some years ago a man died because someone killed him with a broken bottle and it was awful.”

Since the mayor’s decision, residents are generally happy with the impacts of the law.

Marchi and Ilaria Celentano, 22, see many visual improvements to the cleanliness of the town but they believe the law must level with the students until a new social space is approved.

They look at one another as they sit in the square and agree that putting a few garbage bins in the piazza doesn’t hurt but it won’t look too great. They have yet to set their heart on a fair idea but all they want is a balance, almost a friendly comprise with the law.

While most university students are home for the weekend, younger students spend their night in the piazza taking a moment to read the alcohol sign.

Resident Andrea Kleinpoppoen, 27, a friend of Marchi says the students may not support the law but he is relieved that the law has come into practice now that he is a father. As Kleinpoppoen sits at a local restaurant with Marchi and friends in the piazza, he looks around nodding his head and says, “the town is cleaner but this space was number one for the students.”

Yet others are sensitive to the students’ complaints.

Pietro Dachille, 49, owner of the restaurant Deliziose Follie says while the litter and rowdiness associated with the public drinking had gotten out of hand, he has also noticed his business has suffered from the ban. 

“Too much freedom is bad because people have showed that they can’t behave well when they have no rules to regulate their behavior,” says Dachille. “But strict rules are also bad because you can’t do anything with them,” he adds. 

And some students are not happy.

Celentano says Urbino was once a happening place for students in and out of the town. “Other students and people our age heard about Thursday’s meeting spot. Students and headlines of papers said Urbino was a relevant place to meet, so people from Chisena, Pesaro and closer towns would come, make a mess and entertained themselves because they heard it was a good time.”

Now, students like Marchi and Celentano, say the law is also an economic hardship on their social life because a bottle of beer at the supermarket sells for as little as € 0.99 compared to €3 at most bars.

Celentano says most students would spend four nights in the piazza to spend time with friends, but now many students prefer to stay in the town twice a week because they don’t want to spend money.

But the mayor says students won’t suffer much longer.

He is working with students and the university on the challenge and the town is open to suggestions.

One possibility is ‘La Data’ – an open space that overlooks the Piazza del Mercatale just outside the city’s historic wall where students can relax and spend time with friends.

While no official decisions have been made, it seems the students’ voices have been heard. They may never regain Piazza della Repubblica as party central but they will have a place eventually.

Slideshow

See the video “The Other Olive Oil Crisis” produced by Alysia Burdi & Christina Botticchio.

The post Looking for a New Place appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy – It is a week before the big dance recital at the Teatro Sanzio in Urbino. All 150 dancers at the school, called A.S.D. Gymnasium, are practicing intensively for the show’s two debut performances. The busy studio is filled with various costumes, props and determined students with one goal in mind: to put on an amazing show.

In contrast to the modern rehearsal studio, the Teatro Sanzio is one of this ancient city’s most elegant spaces. It was completed in 1853 and maintains the authentic look of an opera house. The seats are lined with soft red velvet and are placed in a semi-circular fashion around the stage. The main crystal chandelier draws your attention to the ceiling, which displays an intricate mural painted by 19^th century artist Raffaele Antonioli of Gubbio. Soon, this theatre will be filled with 400 eager parents and guests awaiting their child’s big moment.

Architect Vincenzo Ghinelli built the Teatro Sanzio in 1853. The intricate ceiling was painted by artist Raffaele Antonioli.

The dance school has introduced the playful innocence of youth to this old Renaissance city. Usually, Urbino’s streets are filled with reclusive university students and older locals whose families have been here for generations. But on the two nights of the performance the city is filled with joyous families and energetic children.

Bianca Maria Berardi, the studio’s director, has been preparing for this since the last performance a year ago in June. She works on the choreography throughout the summer and fall and begins teaching it to the students in January. 

This year’s show is based on a fairytale theme. The performance is two and a half hours long, weaving together several classic tales such as Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. The show includes children of all ages, both girls and boys, starting as young as 3 years old. The performance encompasses various styles of dance including hip-hop, contemporary, classical and jazz.

Bianca works closely with each student to ensure they perform the choreography correctly. Her student is practicing her solo dance as Pinocchio.

Berardi’s assistant, Valentina Mangani, 29, has been dancing at the studio for 11 years. She teaches the hip-hop choreography and performs in the show, playing Alice in the Alice in Wonderland dance. 

“This year is particularly difficult,” Mangani says, “because every tale has a protagonist, who is usually one of the adults, who has to teach the dance to all of the kids.”

The A.S.D. Gymnasium is one of four dance schools where Berardi teaches. This is the largest, with 150 students, followed by “Chorus,” which has 90 dancers. The other two, both named Gisele, are much smaller. 

For Bianca Maria Berardi, giving every child the opportunity to dance is a top priority.

“Bianca is force of nature,” Mangani says. “Not only does she teach, but she also makes the costumes for everybody for all the schools she has.”

Berardi notes that usually dance is an art form for wealthier people, so hand-making all the costumes allows more children to be able to dance.

Agnese Garbugli, age 14, has been dancing at the A.S.D. Gymnasium her whole life.

She says Berardi is fabulous. “I feel so comfortable dancing with her.” Agnese says the days leading up to the performance are always the most nerve-racking because there is a lot of pressure to perform well in front of such a large crowd.

The final performance is now only a day away and the students are finishing up their final rehearsals in the theater. The Teatro Sanzio offers a steep “raked” stage, a difficult change from the studio that makes these final practices crucial. Berardi and Mangani anxiously watch as their dancers work through the routine one last time.

All of the dancers gather in the center of the studio to rehearse their closing bows.

June 11. The day is finally here. Families and friends gather around the old Sanzio Theater conversing and enjoying a glass wine before taking their seats. All of Berardi’s time inventing choreography, directing the dancers, and making the costumes has come down to this night.

The curtain opens and the audience is taken through a fairytale adventure filled with princesses, villains, evil stepsisters and all seven dwarfs. The recorded music varies from familiar Disney tunes, to current hip-hop music (some of which includes explicit language apparently having little meaning to the Italian audience and their innocently smiling children on stage). Everyone in the theater is having a great time as the performance continues.

When the last fairytale ends, all the dancers gather on stage and hold hands for the final bow. The audience roars with applause. As the final curtain slowly drapes to a close, all the dancers cheer and rejoice together. The performance was a great success and Berardi, Mangani, and all the dancers are proud of their hard work and dedication.

Slideshow

Video (By Courtney Bochicchio & Ashley Manske)

The post A Look Behind the Curtain appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy - Traffic cop Roberto Rossi had ducked into one of the tunnels beneath the Ducal Palace to cool off away from public view when he made a frightening discovery: the lifeless body of a young woman, lips and ears covered in wax.

While tourists and students strolled the quiet cobblestone streets of this famous Renaissance city, murder was taking place bellow their feet.

At least that’s what German TV viewers will soon discover in the new TV series Der Poliziotto set in this historic city.

The renaissance architecture that makes up Urbino

Germans, it turns out, not only crave crime mysteries, but also love Italy.

Producer Dietrich Duppel said the beauty and mystery of historic Italian towns causes Germans to see Italy as “the land where living is easy.” 

Urbino filled that love perfectly for the author of the novels the TV show is based on, as well as the production team.

“It’s very often I walk here and I think this is not real [it is like] this is built for us,” said director of photography Marcus Stotz.

Urbino is a fourteenth century city of Renaissance architecture preserved within tall brick walls. Tucked away in the foothills of the Apennines Mountains the city’s tall buildings of tan brick overlook cobblestone streets creating scenes that have changed little for 800 years. The Le Marche sunlight often casts a golden glow on the buildings, leading to Stotz’ feeling of living on a movie set.

Author Uli T. Swidler can’t deny his love of the region – he lives part of the year in the hills just outside town. And the idea for setting Der Poliziotto in Urbino came from a proposal from his agent who knew about his love. 

Four years later Roberto Rossi has come to life in a production by Studio Hamburg, Germany’s leading production company. Swidler describes Urbino as a “mystical place” with people who “feel like big city inhabitants” even though they live in a small city. After reading his novel Loretta Piacesi, a German teacher at Liceo Linguistico Raffaello in Urbino, said that his rich descriptions of the city’s buildings and surrounding landscape allow the reader to see his love for Urbino.

Swidler’s comedy-drama following the bumbling Rossi trying to solve the murder has been transformed from a funny story driven by the characters he created to the television drama, Der Poliziotto, edited to be popular with German audiences. 

Swidler’s story tells the tale of Rossi, a superstitious traffic cop described as nice, but a bit lazy. With the regular homicide detectives unavailable, Rossi is given the job of finding the girl, Carmela Tozzi’s, murderer. While trying to solve the crime Rossi discovers that a German neighbor, Thilo Gruber, was a detective, leading to a partnership in the investigation. With the help of other people in Urbino, including Rossi’s best friend Malpomena, an anatomy student who has broken away from her family’s traditions, Rossi is able to uncover the mystery he stumbled upon beneath the city’s streets. 

Director, Uwe Janson, working on set to create the perfect scene

While producer Dietrich Duppel concedes many changes have been made to adapt the story for TV, one very important element has stayed the same: Urbino.

The production team could have chosen other towns in Italy but they decided to shoot the first two pilot episodes of the series here. In addition to Urbino being a great location visually Duppel said the crew has been able to shoot in every corner of the city. Sometimes they have to hide advertising or block off sections of the street for filming but the residents of Urbino have been very helpful and welcoming of the cast and crew, he said.

The actors share the enthusiasm for Urbino as the perfect location for shooting Der Poliziotto. Katharina Wackernagel, playing Malpomena, described filming as “shooting in another world”, as if they are in a studio because anything they need is so close and “everything is so special that it seems not to be real”.

Urbino residents sometimes mistake the actors are real people.

One-day Swiss actor Leonardo Nigro walked around the piazza Raffaello as the kindhearted Roberto Rossi greeting fellow residents and speaking to children. He shook hands with the retired men who sit together each day people watching and directed traffic, waving people by as not to be hit by utility vehicles and was chased by young children who saw Nigro as a real officer, as Roberto Rossi.

It was hard to tell where the real Urbino ended and the movie town began.

Slideshow

See the video “Fruit & Vegetable Merchant – Farmer” produced by Rachel Killmeyer and Jules Graham.

The post Murder in Urbino? appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy - On a warm June morning residents and tourists gathered in the main piazza awaiting the approach of a parade of townsfolk dressed as historic Renaissance personalities escorted by the city’s marching band and flanked by costumed horsemen.

It was not a scene from a movie or an annual cultural celebration. It was the Urbino Press Award – arguably the largest and most impressive award ceremony for American journalists, yet one few Americans have ever heard of.

The Duke congratulates Gwen Ifill on her newest accomplishment.

Even this year’s honoree was surprised by the scope of the celebration. “I had a little bit of an idea of what to expect, but I had no idea it would be this stimulating,” said Gwen Ifill, co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour and one of America’s most honored journalists. “It was overwhelming and exciting.”

Now in its tenth year, the Urbino Press Award already lists some of the best-known and accomplished American journalists, including Wolf Blitzer, Tom Friedman, and David Ignatius.

But this elaborate ceremony is about more than recognizing excellent journalism; it’s about bringing business and attention from the United States to Urbino.

“When the ambassador announces the winner in Washington, it’s like the entire Italian government is giving them this award,” said Gabe Cavalera, spokesman for Urbino and secretary of the award.

It all started ten years ago when Giacomo Guidi, heir to Piero Guidi fashion line, and journalist Giovanni Lani were working at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. The two Urbino natives began discussing the future of writing, art and media – and how to bring the attention of those fields to their beloved hometown. This inspired the idea of an international media-related event that symbolically represented what the courts of Urbino looked like centuries ago.

“The best thing to do was to ask people to come back to Urbino in this century and find inspiration in the Ducal Palace to make a speech like they did centuries ago about the evolution of our society,” said Lani, who has become president of the award committee. “It was natural for us to choose American journalists because the most influential country in our every day life is the United States.”

Urbino may be off the major Italian tourists routes today, but it was recognized as a cultural capitol of art and the intellectual world during the Renaissance. In the second half of the 15th century, regional ruler Federico de Montefeltro invited philosophers, musicians, artists and mathematicians to his court in Urbino to discuss what was happening in Europe and to hear their visions for the world. Urbino remained a center of these exchanges for at least two and a half centuries creating one of the most prestigious courts of Europe. 

Upon returning to Urbino in 2005, Lani and Guidi approached Cavalera for help in developing their idea. After receiving political support from the Italian government and financial support from the Piero Guidi family, the three pioneers established the first edition of the award, won by Diane Rehm. 

Since then, selecting the winner has followed a formula. Throughout the year, Lani, Guidi, and Cavalera regularly watch international news and follow social media. Around September, they start brainstorming for the next winner. They also ask previous winners to nominate three journalists.

“We have our own ideas, but it is very interesting to get their opinions,” said Cavalera. 

Piero Guidi is one of the main financial contributors to the Urbino Press Award.

They narrow it down to three names in January and have the Italian Embassy contact those journalists to make sure they can make the trip to Urbino if selected. It is ultimately up to the three founders to decide who the winner is.

“We pay attention to what was important that year,” said Cavalera “and we look for journalists that don’t go after the usual stories.”

From the beginning, the Urbino Press Award was never a one-day affair. The winner is first recognized during an April reception at the Italian Embassy in Washington. The official announcement is followed with a trip to Urbino in June to receive the award.

At the ceremony in Urbino, the winner, family and friends are greeted by a parade of drums, music and townsfolk dressed in Renaissance clothing, leading to a performance by the city’s orchestra in the courtyard of the Ducal Palace. The winner is then escorted to the vast palace ballroom where hundreds are seated and diplomats from both countries deliver speeches on the importance of American-Italian friendship and international journalism.

Finally, the winner makes an acceptance speech, which is followed by a reception featuring local wines and cuisine.

Cavalera says the reputation of the award has grown in Italy. “Some people call it the Italian Pulitzer,” he said.

By honoring an American journalist, the program develops a strong connection between Urbino and the United States, supporters say. Gian Mario Spacca, president of the Marche Region, told the Italian-American news site Amico, “Thanks to the very potent thrust of culture and of the excellence of the media and thanks to the many parallel initiatives linked to the prize, the knowledge connecting the Marche Region and the USA deepens and becomes richer with new ideas.”

This was a strategic move on Urbino’s part for bringing business and attention to the city. Urbino isn’t one of the most popular stops in Italy, but this award is shining a new light on the town.

Ifill thinks the strategy is working.

“Urbino is like a jewel, it sparkles up out of nowhere,” she said after the ceremony. “I think that everyone that has been here to accept this award comes away with a very positive, uplifting view of the town, which is exactly part of the goal. It’s not just to give an award, it’s also to introduce to people what Urbino is and what Urbino can be.”

Slideshow

See the video “Craftsmanship and Woodworking in Urbino” produced by Michele Goad & Caroline Davis.

The post The Italian Pulitzer? appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.