It's often said that life
imitates art but in Italy, art imitates life. Italians are a tremendously passionate
people. A walk around any city is likely to reveal similar images: a beautiful
young couple locked in a steamy embrace in the centre of a piazza, a frail and
old man bellowing obscenities at a television set as his beloved soccer team
frustrate him closer to an early grave and the Sicilian
chef, strutting confidently around his kitchen, creating the most artistic of
dishes from the simplest of ingredients. This passion can also be observed set
to music in the most spectacular of settings in Italy's premier opera houses. (continue...)
