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The Chiorri Winemakers Company is a vineyard under family management, which with special care from their very own vines, produces D.O.C. Colli Perugini and IGT dell'Umbria white, red and rosè wines. The family, together with the help of experienced workers,...
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The first traces of Bisol family in the heart of the Prosecco D.O.C area date to the 16th century and are contained in a census carried out for fiscal reasons by the aristocratic Venetian family Da Pola, who were landowners of the leading the very prestigious...
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Country House Palazzone was built in medieval times and is located not far from Rocca Ripesena in the area northwest of Orvieto, in Umbria. This building is an exceptional example of a country residence: it possesses all the characteristics of a town...
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Hundred and ten years of vinegrowing starter at the end of 1800 when Francesco Marcato bought the first 3 hectares of vineyards in Roncà. Afetr few years he started to produce also the white wine Soave with the Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave grapes....
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The CASTELLO di BOSSI is located in the commune of Castelnuovo Berardenga, on the road that leaves the old Chiantigiana road, at Pianella, and ascends to Brolio amidst evergreen forests and long rows of vines. With its centuries-old trees, its fossil...
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The Mattanza of the Tuna
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The mattanza (from the Spanish word matar, meaning to kill) is a complex and ritual way of catching tuna fish which characterized the island of Favignana every year at the end of May. The tuna fishing has very ancient origin, possibly even to the Phoenicians, but it was under the Arabian domination that the most fundamental elements of this "rite" were firmly established. The fishermen of tune (also called tonnaroti) make the same gestures, pronounce the same prayers, sing the same "cialome" (ritual sings) for many centuries.
Times and practices are fixed by the rais, the chief of the tuna station, who is magician, saint and sorcerer at the same time. Gioacchino Cataldo, also known as Poseidon, is the actual rais of the tuna station of Favignana, listed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage: he is a living treasure which can transmit to the future generations oral traditions, expressions and ancient rituals.
The fishing boats put out to sea to lay the nets in a long corridor which the tuna are forced to follow. The last nets are dropped like barriers to form antechambers that will prevent too many fish from being gathered in a single unit, thus averting the risk of the nets being torn and the fish escaping. Beyond these antechambers is laid the "camera della morte" (the room of the death), an enclosure provided by tougher netting and often closed along the bottom. When an appropriate number of fish are deemed to be trapped in the chamber, the rais orders to begin the mattanza.