A promising grape harvest for Italy this year

According to Bloomberg.com, Italy’s wine-grape growers expect a good harvest this fall, with the northern Piedmont and Trentino regions poised to produce an “excellent” crop, a study showed.

Overall, Italy will produce about 46.5 million hectoliters (1.2 billion gallons) of wine, around the same level as 2009, according to Rome-based growers’ lobby Confagricoltura. Northern regions will see a 4.3 percent increase in output, compared with a 0.3 percent gain in the south.

“The 2010 harvest will be a good year in terms of quantity and quality,” Confagricoltura said in an e-mailed release today. While weather changes could still affect crops this month, “both climactic conditions and signs from the vineyards allow us to be optimistic about the quality of the new wines.”

The best harvests will probably be in Piedmont, Umbria and Trentino, according to the release. The northwestern region of Piedmont, which produces some of Italy’s best-known wines such as Barolo, is set to increase output by 10 percent from 2009.

The central Tuscany region, famous for Chianti red wine, will have a “good to excellent harvest,” as will southern areas such as Puglia and Sicily, Confagricoltura said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeffrey Donovan in Rome at jdonovan26@bloomberg.net

Sculptures of Borsellino and Falcone vandalized

Eighteen years after they were both killed by Cosa Nostra, Sicilian anti-Mafia investigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino still upset some people in Palermo. Or so it would seem, given that last Saturday sculptures of the investigators, placed in central Viale Della Liberta, were vandalized.

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the Via D’Amelio bomb explosion in Palermo in which Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort were assassinated.

To mark the occasion, artist Tommaso Domina had created two life-size plaster sculptures of Borsellino and his close friend Falcone, placing them on and beside a park bench in central Viale Della Libertà. However, within hours of being put in place by the Falcone-Borsellino association, both sculptures were knocked to the ground, in the process being damaged. The incident prompted an anti-Mafia activist and Sicilian politician Rita Borsellino, sister of the late Paolo, to comment: “There are people in Palermo who are frightened even of two statues and, what is more, there are still people in Palermo who don’t have the gift of speech . . .”

This latter remark was a reference to the fact that, even though the incident happened in the center of Palermo, admittedly probably at night, no one has come forward with information that might help police inquiries. State president Giorgio Napolitano expressed his “profound indignation” while sculptor Domina promised to repair the works.

Remarkably, only about 100 people attended a march through Palermo centre yesterday by the People of the Red Diary, organised by Salvatore Borsellino, brother of Paolo. The red diary is a reference to a diary kept by the late Mafia investigator which, inexplicably, vanished within minutes of the explosion that killed him.

Members of both the Borsellino and Falcone families as well as of the Falcone-Borsellino association have long argued that Italian secret services were involved in both 1992 killings, a point underlined by Salvatore Borsellino at a meeting outside the Palermo courthouse on Saturday: “. . .state forces along with the Mafia stopped Paolo from continuing his work. But we’re gathered here today to express our support for the magistrates . . .”

He continued: “On Monday we will gather at Via D’Amelio to celebrate our own form of state funeral for Paolo and we don’t want to see unworthy politicians and state representatives in attendance . . .”

Source: the IrishTimes.com

Enel just opened Archimede, a new innovative solar plant in Sicily

The Archimede Project is the first integration, worldwide, of a gas combined cycle and a solar thermodynamic power plant.

The Archimede plant is the first in the world to use molten salts as the heat transfer fluid and is also the first in the world to integrate a combined-cycle gas facility and a solar thermal power plant for electricity generation.

Archimede can collect and store the heat of the sun for many hours in order to use it to generate electricity at night or in overcast conditions. This allows to overcome the common limitation of this renewable source, namely that you can use it only when nature makes it available.

Solar thermodynamic technology uses a set of parabolic mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays on pipes carrying a fluid. The latter, collected in special tanks, can be used to power a steam generator. The high-temperature steam and pressure drives the turbine in the adjacent combined-cycle power plant to generate electricity when needed, reducing consumption of fossil fuels.

The special technology used in the Priolo plant was developed by Enea.

The molten salts used in the system are a mixture of sodium nitrates and potassium, which can accumulate heat for prolonged periods.

The capacity of the solar plant is about 5 MW, representing an annual savings of 2,100 tonnes of oil equivalent, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 3,250 tonnes.

The solar thermal power plant consists of a field of about 30,000 square metres of mirrors (the parabolic collectors) that concentrate sunlight onto 5,400 metres of pipe carrying the molten salt fluid. The thermal energy harvested by the system produces high pressure steam that is channelled into the turbines of the power plant to produce electricity, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and, as a result, enhancing the environmental performance of the combined-cycle plant.
The solar collectors (the parabolic mirrors and pipes or receivers), together with a steam generator and two heat storage tanks – one cold and one hot – make up the solar portion of the system.

When the sun shines, the thermal fluid drawn from the cold tank is circulated through the network of parabolic collectors, where it is heated to a temperature of 550 °C and injected into the hot tank, where the thermal energy is stored. The fluid is then drawn from the hot reservoir to produce steam at high pressure and temperature, which is sent to Enel’s nearby combined-cycle plant, where it contributes to electricity generation.

This system enables the plant to generate electricity at any time of the day and in all weather conditions until the stored energy is depleted.

The plant is called “Archimede” after the rows of huge parabolic mirrors used to capture the sun’s rays, which recall the “burning mirrors” that Archimedes is said to have used to set fire to the Roman ships besieging Syracuse during the Punic War of 212 BC.

Source: Enel.com

Magica Italia with Berlusconi speaking on the background (video)

Magica Italia is the new video commercial that is going to air in Italy to boost tourism. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi speaks on the background. Will this video really help tourism and convince Italians to book their summer vacation at home?

Video length 31 sec.

Four Sicilian beaches receive the Bandiera Blu (Blue Flag)

Menfi, Pozzallo, Marina di Ragusa (Ragusa) and Fiumefreddo di Sicilia-Marina di Cottone (Catania) have been awarded by FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) with the prestigious Bandiera Blu (Blue Flag). For Menfi, this is the thirteen consecutive Bandiera Blu!

The Blue Flag Program is owned and run by the independent non-profit organization Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The Blue Flag works towards sustainable development at beaches/marinas through strict criteria dealing with water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management, and safety and other services.

The Blue Flag Program includes environmental education and information for the public, decision makers and tourism operators.

For more information, visit www.blueflag.org and/or see this list of the best Sicilian beaches.

Greenhouses in Sicily cover about 8,500 hectares

Do you know that greenhouses in Sicily cover about 8,500 hectares? Sicily Scene published this article a few days ago. This is an article also appeared in Italy Magazine:

Vittorio, can you tell us about your company?
Yes, it’s an international seed company with about 5,000 employees all over the world. In Sicily we have a team of five people: Two are researchers and they work with plant geneticists. Another person is in charge of developing new plant varieties and two of us work in Sales. The scientists are specialists in species like aubergines, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, lettuce, melons and watermelons. We export seeds to the Italian mainland and around the world.

Do you work from your office or do you travel?
I’m always travelling. I start my working day at about 7 am and I drive out to see my clients who are farmers and growers. I check the plants grown from our seeds in their greenhouses and give them advice. I have to check all the plants for diseases.

What sort of diseases are you looking for and what are the signs?
Well, there’s an insect called bemisia tabaci, also known as whitefly, which attacks tomato leaves. It infects the tomato with a virus called tomato yellow leaf curl [TYLCV]. Then there are parasitic nematodes, which attack the roots causing plant death and low or poor production. On carrots I look for alternaria dauci [carrot leaf blight] which you find in winter when it’s cold and wet. There is also a disease called oidium. You find white spots which are fungal spores on the leaves.

Why does your company develop new varieties? Is it for appearance?
No, it’s always for nutritional reasons or to develop disease-resistant varieties. For instance, we have developed a carrot with some resistance to the diseases I just mentioned. This enables the grower to avoid or reduce the use of pesticides. We have also developed some elongated, cherry and date tomato varieties. Our varieties are not genetically modified, by the way.

I want to ask you more about carrots because the Sicilian carrot is special, isn’t it?
Yes, Sicilian carrots are early and they are the first crop of the new year. The carrots aren’t ready in other parts of Europe. Our carrot season is March until May and at the end of it the rest of Italy harvests its carrots.

Isn’t there something about the Sicilian soil that makes it suitable for carrots?
That’s right. We have what we call red Mediterranean soil. It’s a mixed soil with red sand in it and it’s clayless. Our soil gets hot early in the year. Carrots are cultivated in south-east Sicily because the soil is so near the sea. The Sicilian carrot has a very sweet taste.

I know. I love them! Can you tell us about greenhouse cultivation in Sicily?
Greenhouses in Sicily cover about 8,500 hectares of land and they are concentrated in the south-east of the island in a stretch of land from Agrigento to Pachino, comprising Agrigento itself, Caltanissetta, Ragusa and Siracusa. 80% of these greenhouses are in Ragusa Province.

What species are grown in these greenhouses?
Melons, watermelons, squash, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers. We have different kinds of tomatoes and these are: cluster tomatoes, ribbed beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, date tomatoes and plum tomatoes in three sizes – large, medium and mini-plum. We grow red and yellow peppers and elongated and round aubergines. But in Siracusa and Trapani they still grow lettuce in the open air.

More at SicilyScene

Italy Coach Marcello Lippi overlooking Fabrizio Miccoli is unforgivable

So there were absolutely zero surprises in Marcello Lippi’s 29-man squad to gather in Rome this week. It’s not the final 23, but you can be 99.9 per cent certain that nobody from outside this list – Roma players apart – will be present when Italy take on Paraguay in their World Cup opener in six weeks time.

All of which means the widespread public calls for Sampdoria’s Antonio Cassano, which have barely stopped since the tactician took the reins back from Roberto Donadoni two years ago, have been completely ignored. So too have the more recent pleas for an inclusion for Fabrizio Miccoli of Palermo, who has struck upon the greatest run of his professional career over recent months as the unheralded Sicilians have moved to within two wins of a sensational Champions League appearance.

It is also believed that Inter striker Mario Balotelli will miss out on the final cut, although his exclusion from Lippi’s training party could be explained away by Inter’s participation in the Coppa Italia final tomorrow night, with a decision on Roma’s Francesco Totti being delayed for similar reasons. However, with a u-turn having not been made on other more experienced players, it is highly unlikely that ‘SuperMario’ will get a late call. As Goal.com’s Carlo Garganese argued yesterday, the head coach has decimated one of the best groups of forwards in international football by choosing to ignore much of the greatest talent at his disposal.

The case of Cassano has been debated long and hard for a lengthy period now, whilst there’s something new to talk about with Balotelli by the day. But, the story of Miccoli has become the more fascinating read.

Having suffered during his Juventus days due to his poor relationship with then-director general Luciano Moggi, the ‘Romario del Salento’ has been the centerpiece of the Palermo side since arriving in Sicily in 2007. But only this season has his real potential as a big game player shone through. With finishes in or around mid-table having become the norm in the six years since the Rosanero gained promotion, this campaign has seen the club excel thanks to the players’ united belief in each other’s abilities.

And nobody in that side has more natural ability than Miccoli. Here in Siena on Sunday, the diminutive striker proved his fantastic ability once again, striking a vital second to put Palermo out of sight in a show of great skill, poise, mentality and finishing ability. His 18th league goal of the season also sent him into joint first position in the club’s list of all time top-flight goalscorers.

But it’s not just his goals which have sent him rocketing into analysts’ minds when they talk of possible Azzurri wild cards. Despite his modest 5ft 5in frame, he has demonstrated the stature and self confidence of a man twice his size, with his performances getting better and better in the face of some monumental fixtures in recent months. Nobody is in the vein of form which Miccoli can boast right now… Nobody.

With Palermo having first moved up to fourth spot after a Miccoli-inspired 2-0 win at Juventus, they have since shown great mental toughness to remain in with a strong chance of top continental football with only two games to go, despite having faced Inter and Milan at home and made difficult trips to Cagliari and Genoa in that time. And much of that form can be attributed to the pint-sized attacker. Having bagged eight goals in his last six appearances, the former Benfica man has risen to the occasion at a time when many of his team-mates are dipping their toes in uncharted waters.

More at Goal.com

Palermo plays host to the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles

April 23, 2010 11:00 am

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April 24, 2010 7:00 pm

This weekend the wine world’s reflectors will be pointed on Sicily. From April 23 to 25, Palermo will host the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. Since its first edition in Belgium in 1994, the Concours Mondial has obtained great success.

In order to position the contest internationally, it was decided to let it go beyond its borders. In 2006 the organizing committee chose Lisbon for this première occasion. Then Maastricht, Bordeaux and Valencia followed.

Ezio Rivella, former president of the International Union of Enologists and Committee of Denominazione di Origine of Italy, affirms that the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles has become one of the foremost authorities among the best international competitions.

The contest organizers are already in Palermo to prepare the tastings, supported by the technical team of the “Istituto Regionale della Vite e del Vino” (the Regional Institute of Grapes and Wine). More than 270 judges, all prestigious wine experts, are arriving from 40 different countries to examine and evaluate about 7,000 labels of the world’s best wines and liqueurs.
In the last edition held in Valencia, Sicily was the Italian Region that obtained the highest number of awards, validating the island’s growing trend towards the production of quality wines.

By Maria Lina Bommarito

Map:

Sant’Erasmo, ex deposito ferroviario

Maurizio Zamparini: Palermo will qualify for Champions League

Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini is confident his side will obtain Champions League football, despite losing ground to Sampdoria in the race for fourth spot yesterday.

A 2-2 draw with Cagliari left the Rosanero two points adrift of Samp, who were late winners against Milan in Liguria.

But Zamparini has said his players will show effort for the cause in the final four games of term to secure European football.

“Champions League? I think we will get it because the point at Cagliari will determine it,” he told Calciomercato.it.

“It was a strange game because we went down via a deflection and we made mistakes at the back.”

Palermo take on Milan at the weekend and Zampa knows his side need to tread carefully if they are to move closer to the Champions League.

“Milan already have their minds on next season, but technically they are a strong team, and so we have to pay attention,” he concluded.

Source: Goal.com

Mount Etna might erupt again

On April 14 the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Island began erupting for the second time in a month affecting hundreds of thousands of travelers. Now, Domenico Patanè – director of INGV (The Italian Institute of Geology and Volcanology) – is warning that Mount Etna in Sicily might erupt again. On April 8, Mount Etna recorded two explosive eruptions. According to Wikipedia, such these eruptions are driven by gas accumulating under great pressure and characterized by hot rising magma, which interacts with ground water until the pressure increases to the point at which it bursts violently through the over-mantle of rock.

Mount Etna‘s activity is usually characterized by a slow lava flow. However, explosive eruptions took place in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The most violent eruptions ever documented happened in 122 BC and more recently in ’700 and ’800. Volcanologists fear a new phase of activity for the Sicilian volcano in the next couple of months.

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