Perugia - Umbria Jazz - 8th to 17th July 2005

Umbria Jazz Festival 2005 is, without any doubt, one of the most important event dedicated to jazz in Europe. Since 1973, when the first edition of the Festival Umbria Jazz was inaugurated, the biggest jazz artists have come to Perugia:
During the '70�s artists have included Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Rivers, Herbie Hancock, Enrico Rava, Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton and during the more recent editions of the festival Dedee Bridgewater, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Terence Blanchard, Paolo Conte, Vinicio Capossela, Nicola Arigliano, Miriam Makeba, Renzo Arbore and its Swing Maniacs, Sergio Cammariere, The Coolbone Brass Band of New Orleans, Lyle Henderson & Emmanuel Gospel Singers.
The Umbria Jazz Festival 2005 will take place during the month of July for ten days from 8th to 17th July, when the streets and piazzas of Perugia come alive with a choice of dozens of concerts and each bar, restaurant or club has groups performing live jazz from morning to evening� Perugia will become, once again, a meeting point for thousands of music lovers, coming from all over Italy but also from Europe and the United States.

Montone - Umbrian Film Festival - 6th to 10th July 2005-06-20

Montone, voted one of the most attractive and well preserved medieval villages in Umbria, is host to the Umbrian Film Festival in early July. Situated only 10 minutes drive away from La Preghiera, films are shown on a huge screen hung over a moonlit square. A magical atmosphere, with children playing, people sitting at tables and chairs in the piazza chatting, drinking or simply just watching the film�.

The Umbrian Film Festival is sponsored by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame.

Televisions and VCRs, UK tvs will pick up sound or vision, not both without conversion. UK VCRs can be used to play back English or Italian tapes as long as they are relayed through an English tv. The Italian PAL system is different from the UK one. Tapes work fine, but don't mix tv's and VCRs.

There are about a dozen available channels in our area, all obviously in Italian. BBC world service can be received with any reasonable wireless set. And now, with satellite systems, there must be a couple of hundred stations to choose from.

Music tapes and CDs are now international and easily obtained, videos can be hired, but usually in Italian. DVDs are usually dual-language (Italian and English) (Region 2).

In many restaurants and all homes the television is always on. Trying to cope with the babble of Italian, with everyone usually speaking at the same time, and the television roaring away, can be a problem.