Hot Spoleto

Highly anticipated US debut of Monkey; Journey to the West

Spoleto is kicking off next week, and if you're not familiar with this festival or Charleston, it means 2.5 weeks of constant buzz of artistic energy around town! Along with the Spoleto wave comes the City of Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto, featuring a lot of local genius-ity, and various other endeavors, like Philip Hyman's Evolution art show(s), and live music everywhere.

Above, Charleston Ballet Theater is performing for Piccolo, and
below, Evolution art show poster.

Je voudrais un verre de vin

"I would like a glass of wine"; this is probably what my friend Kenton is saying as I type because she's attending a wedding in Sonoma Valley, California this weekend. All her clever itinerary planning made me wonder about fun things to do in other parts of wine country. Today we're going to Napa Valley!

Research led me to discover Festival del Sole, a ten day lifestyle festival blending together wine, cuisine, art, literature and music in Napa Valley, California from July 13-22, 2007. This will be the second annual Festivale del Sole, and last year's resounding success foreshadowed many exciting editions to come.

World class performers, celebrity chefs, top winemakers, and a scenic setting make this event very attractive for oenophiles (winos), foodies and culture-seekers. You can be sure there will be opening receptions, luncheons, wrap parties, gala dinners and all sorts of other special events that really make the Festival del Sole a "see and be seen" staple of Napa Valley.

So if it gets too hot here in Charleston, head to Northern California in mid-July and consider Festival del Sole as Spoleto's classy west coast counterpart.


photos by David Patrick Columbia