Jan. 19 - For Dante Alighieri’s 750th birthday, the network of the Italian Institutes of Culture has decided to celebrate the father of Italian language. On the banks of the Danube, IIC Budapest is scheduling numerous events on the author of the Divine Comedy. On January 26, the Federico Fellini Hall of the Institute hosts the show "Vita Nuova / Dante Alighieri" with Paolo Simioni Antonio (also director) and Giuseppe Paolo Cecere. "The show has the interpreters accompany the public in an uninterrupted flow – commented a statement by the IIC – of monologues, poetic diction, narrative, and musical performance." Specialist of the Stanivslavskij method, Simioni was one of Susan Batson’s youngest students; he now performs mainly between Italy and Hungary. As director and actor, Simione worked with some of the major cultural institutions of the two countries for film, television, theater and art. (Red)

THE IIC BUDAPEST: A PRESTIGIOUS OFFICE

The eighth district of Budapest hosts, in Bródy Sándor utca 8, a building that from 1865 to 1902 was the seat of the Hungarian Parliament and which currently houses the Italian Cultural Institute in Budapest. This building is one of the nineteenth century most remarkable monuments in Budapest; it was designed by Miklós Ybl, one of the greatest Hungarian architects, who also designed the Opera, the Saint Stephen's Basilica and the University of Economics. The building of the Institute is perhaps the best example of the neo-Renaissance Eclecticism school, and is also a key monument in the history of Hungarian politics. In 1902, the Parliament moved to the final seat on the Danube bank, and until 1920 the Bródy Sándor utca 8 building hosted fairs and exhibitions. In November 1920, a projection booth was built upstairs to project movies; in 1942, the Italian government came into possession of the building, according to an agreement signed in Rome in 1935. After extensive restoration work, the headquarters of the Italian Cultural Institute for Hungary was inaugurated on June 21, 1943, in the presence of Italian and Hungarian political figures. The Institute has a cinema hall (140 seats) and a hall for exhibitions, conferences, concerts and theater (500 seats).