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Opera in Macerata - Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Aida

7 Nights: 10 - 17 August, 2017

£1795 per person sharing a twin or double deluxe room; supplement for junior suite £85
£1995 per person for single occupancy of a deluxe double room; supplement for junior suite £110

Includes: return air travel from the UK to Bologna, 7 nights bed & breakfast at Gallery Hotel Recanati based on deluxe room with panoramic view, 1st category tickets for three performances in Macerata and (subject to confirmation) one performance in Pesaro; three dinners, three lunches all transportation and transfers and a full programme of sightseeing on four days.

This summer we head to the Adriatic hill town of Macerata for their summer Opera Festival and three operas – Aida, Turandot & Madama Butterfly in the wonderful outdoor setting of the ‘Sferisterio’, built in 1829 and one of the most prominent architectural structures of the late European Neoclassical Style.

Often overlooked by visitors to Italy, the Marche region runs along the Adriatic coast to the south of Bologna and is bordered to the west by the Apennine hills and Umbria. Rich in history, monuments, and churches, the hilltop towns of Le Marche are rarely overcrowded and the region is home to an artistic & culinary heritage that include the world-heritage gem of Urbino, the uniquely ‘Marchese’ wines of Verdicchio, Rossini’s home town of Pesaro and the major fishing port of Ancona.

Macerata is a university town perched on a hill top some 15km from the coast and is home to the long established Macerata Opera Festival which in 2017 celebrates its 53rd season. Unlike the touristic mayhem of Verona, the Sferisterio takes place in the perfect setting of a 19th century neo-classical arena setting with the benefit of a solid rear wall which helps the acoustic enormously and excellent view from the elevated position of our 1st category seats (in the raised area to the left of the arch in the picture).

Macerata lacks hotel accommodation suitable for a group without having steep hill climbs involved but we are pleased to have been able to secure excellent 4* accommodation in the charming hill town of Recanati, a 25 minute drive north of Macerata. As well as having the Gallery Hotel Recanati – our home for our seven night stay – the town was also the birthplace of the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi AND the great operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli.  It has a pleasant, relatively flat heart to the town and also has the benefit of good access for our motorcoach which can drop and pick-up within 100 metres of the hotel. The hotel has rooms with ‘city’ or ‘panoramic’ view and we are delighted to have secure a block of deluxe rooms and junior suites, all with ‘panoramic’ view of the surrounding countryside.

We also hope to include a visit to the Rossini Festival in Pesaro for a performance of perhaps the most amusing work in Rossini’s repertoire –the comic opera Il viaggio a Reims performed by the artists of the 2017 Accademia Rossiniana in the historic setting of the Teatro Rossini (pictured right). We have made an application for tickets for this performance and expect confirmation by the end of January.

We will have a full programme of sightseeing including visits to historic Urbino, the fascinating hill towns of the Marche as well as a day at the seaside in Porto Recanati. We will also have a special gala dinner on the occasion of Ferragosto (15th August) which is a public holiday in Italy.

One can fly to Ancona but it requires a change of planes in Munich and, from Manchester a four hour wait on the return and so we have decided to take the new direct Ryanair service (full 20kg baggage, priority assigned seating and boarding included) from Manchester to Bologna from where it’s a little over a two and a half hour drive to our hotel for the next week. 

flight details:

10th August Manchester - Bologna  FR2242 1050 1415
17th August Bologna - Manchester  FR2241 1440 1615

 

 

 

Thank you so much to Ken and all concerned for such a wonderful and memorable holiday. So much planning must have been involved to give us so many different experiences in such an idyllic setting. I am still thinking about our last day.
BG, Formby

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