AboutUmbria Collection, Number One – Red

AboutUmbria Collection analyzes, studies, explores and so narrates Umbria through a lens. A lens that assumes every time a different colour, inspiring every issue. Because Umbria is commonly known as the green heart of Italy, but it is also something more.

AboutUmbria Collection addresses to every Umbria lover and to who doesn’t know it yet, but is bound to fall in love with this territory. It’s for the Umbrian people who want to re-discover their territory; it’s for tourists who are looking for all-absorbing experiences; it’s for everyone who loves beauty and shun predictable things.

For this reasons, we really pay attention to research, to information reliability and to details. Since we want to take into consideration the beauty of Umbria without any distortion, we have chosen a minimal layout and artistic pictures, together with a high quality paper which could recall the genuineness of our land.

In this issue:

Issue number 1, RED, narrates Umbria through red’s passion and strength. After an introduction written by one of the greatest Italian colour experts – Renata Pompas – we run through the competition that excites the city of Narni in the first days of May.

We will be warmed up by Alberto Burri’s blowtorch and we will listen to Giuliano Giuman’s musical glass sculptures.

We will discover one of the most ancient Umbrian industries, the 135 years old steel plant of Terni, and we will learn how to respect food with a recycling recipe made with dessert leftovers.

The writer Gaia Servadio, who lives in London, recalls his childhood trip through Umbria. In the same way, the artist Tommaso Cascella –interviewed by the painter Graziano Marini – explains his relationship with the colour red. Red as the red potato of Colfiorito, or as the saffron, the red gold brought in Umbria by Alexander the Great.

Let’s just take a break to taste the beer made with the healing water of Nocera Umbra and the well-known ham from Norcia, while discovering the butchers’ transformation into surgeons. Or we can taste the red wine made in Montefalco, where a Consortium is trying to protect its uniqueness.

Back in the past, with the conspiracy remembered as The Red Wedding, painted by Raffaello and narrated by the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. Don’t forget the red sliver, used by the Umbrian stonecutters to create extremely long lasting works of art, such as cathedrals and monuments.

And then, let’s jump ahead into the 1930s, when the architect Nazareno Biscarini and his brother Francesco reinvented Umbria with terracotta soon after the Italian Unification. And we will discover how Minimetrò, nowadays, reinvents the city of Perugia with his red strip.

We will finish by admiring the beautiful sunsets over Lake Trasimeno, that fascinated even several writers and poets.