A portrait of a young woman, which had been dismissed as a fake Raphael and lay forgotten in the basement of an Italian palace for 40 years, has been confirmed as genuine by art experts and could be worth up to £25 million.

The newly-discovered 12 by 16 inch oil painting was long thought to have been a copy made in the style of the Renaissance master long after his death and dismissed as almost worthless.
But art historians now believe it to be a first draft by Raphael of part …

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{Photography © 2010 by Toscana Enterprises Corporation, all rights reserved}

Chrysler was in dire straits earlier this year, and while bankruptcy is now behind the Pentastar, the battle that looms ahead will prove if Chrysler can truly remain a viable company. Chrysler’s hope rests with Fiat, the Italian car comglomerate who took a 30% stake in Chrysler as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. While we’ve heard much and seen little thus far in regards to the future Chrysler lineup, the Detroit International Auto Show should give some hint as to the direction of Chrysler/Fiat.
One such car sure to make …

For all pasta lover the world over, Italy, USA or wherever you are, Barilla needs you to be part of the future of pasta: can you invent the new pasta cut?
If you understand that pasta is like the yin and yang of art and love, sprinkled with a double dose of passion, you might have the right approach to this challenge
So ask yourself: Do I have a love affair with pasta? If the answer is an astounding YES by all means go to CrowdSpring.com and enter the subject of …

Spend a wonderful New Year’s Eve relaxing at one of the many wonderful Tuscan thermal spas. You will be surprised by wonderful shows and entertainment accompanying your hot bath in the beneficial and relaxing waters of these beauty centers immersed in nature. You are sure to meet a very unusual way of celebrating the beginning of a new year, however a very pleasant one, which will bring you in a romantic dimension made of soft colors, warm feelings, delicate scents, exotic tastes and invigorating treatments. You will spend this …

The Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St Lawrence) is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III. It is one of several churches that claim to be the oldest in Florence; when it was consecrated in 393 it stood outside the city walls. For three hundred years it was the city’s cathedral before the official seat of the …

ROME: A moderate earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale shook the central Italian region of Tuscany on Monday, prompting scared residents to rush into the streets, geologists and reports said.
The earthquake struck at 22:04 pm (2004 GMT) and its epicentre was around 30 kilometres northeast of Florence, the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology said on its website.
No damage was immediately reported, according to ANSA news agency.
But several residents ran out of their homes while others hunkered down in their cars in the cities of Borgo San Lorenzo, …

Tape has Italian PM telling escort of unreported find of ancient burial site on his estate

The Silvio Berlusconi tapes released this week have focused, not surprisingly, on lurid discussions of threesomes, condoms and staying power. But today Italy‘s prime minister was facing the bizarre possibility that the most explosive secret in the recordings was neither sexual nor financial, but archaeological.
In one recording posted on the website of the news magazine L’Espresso on Thursday, Berlusconi is supposedly showing the “escort” Patrizia D’Addario around his estate on Sardinia. He points out …

Italian auto designers have a daring sense of flair that is unmatched by their counterparts in other countries. Take, for example, two futuristic cars Concorso Italiano will feature at this year’s gathering of all things Italian: The BAT 11 by Bertone and Streamline X “Gilda” from Ghia.
Even their names sound like they’re doing a hundred miles an hour.

The BAT 11 is, as the name implies, reprises the Bertone aerodynamic concepts that Nuccio Bertone and Alfa Romeo built between 1953 and 1955. BAT is an acronym for Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica …

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi or The Garden of Tarot is a sculpture garden based on the esoteric tarot created by Niki de Saint Phalle in Tuscany (Italy) during the late 1970′s.
Enjoy the photos (more info at the bottom)

Crown of the Empress (photo by Mararie)

The Moon: Face (photo by Mararie)

The Empress (photo by Mararie)

The World (photo by Mararie)

The Moon (photo by Mararie)

The Lovers + Casper & Esther (photo by Mararie)

The Star (photo by Mararie)

The Sun, Temperance (photo by Mararie)

The Top of the Hierophant (photo by Mararie)

Stars and Planets (photo by …

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker run by Fiat SpA, will sell four models of the Italian carmaker’s 500 subcompact in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said.
Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy on June 10, will eventually sell a convertible, wagon and sporty version called the “Abarth” in addition to the four-seat subcompact in the U.S., Marchionne said in an interview on June 30. While the base 500 will go on sale next year, he didn’t say when the other models will be available.
“All of those cars will …

Sail Into the Sunset on the Cassina Furnished ‘Ocean Emerald’

Have you ever drooled at the sight of a yacht? Well, you definitely will after looking at The Ocean Emerald.
Designed by YachtPlus, this 41 meter yacht gives ‘luxury’ a whole new meaning. It has five suites and can accommodate up to 12 lucky guests, who are looked after by 7 crew members. The kitchen and galley are equipped with furnishings by Schiffini, while all the other fittings in this yacht are provided by the Italian manufacturer Cassina. (Read more at: …

It’s a plot better suited for a John Le Carre novel.
Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.
Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds …

ALMOST any connoisseur of the world’s great coasts falls hard for Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi. They’re freakish collisions of rock and sea, and the stretch of shoreline they straddle in southern Italy’s Campania region is the geography of pure fantasy.
The northern Italian region of Liguria, too, has its breathtaking dreamscapes, where mountain halts only at ocean’s edge — around Portofino and the Cinque Terre, for instance. Travelers are forever singing their praises.
But there’s no such song for Forte dei Marmi, no such swoon over Viareggio, both in Tuscany. That’s …

Massa Marittima is a quaint small town perched on the coastal hills of Tuscany.
From Wikipedia: “The town appeared in the early Middle Ages, the bishopric seat of Populonia being moved here around 1000 AD. After the initial domination of the Republic of Pisa, it became an independent commune in the 13th century. In the following century it was conquered by Siena, to which it belonged until it became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the mid-16th century.”   Pop 8,779.
Visiting Massa Marittima is a pleasure of the senses, …

Venice took another step towards establishing itself as a European mecca for modern and contemporary art on Wednesday with the inauguration of two new venues.
Thanks to the Biennale art exhibition and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice has for years been seen as an obligatory destination for contemporary art lovers.
Now the Punta della Dogana, which will provide a semi-permanent home for works from the collection of French billionaire François Pinault, and the Museo Vedova, dedicated to the late Venetian abstract art pioneer Emilio Vedova, will add to the lagoon city’s …

A federal judge on Sunday night cleared a path for Chrysler to exit bankruptcy by approving a sale of most of the carmaker’s assets to a new entity to be run by Fiat of Italy.
Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the government-backed plan after three days of marathon hearings on the proposal, rejecting more than 300 objections to the sale. On Friday, testimony and arguments in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan lasted nearly 12 hours.
“Because of the …