The final Class 115 working out of Marylebone was in July 1992. The Tyseley sets survived a bit longer, until February 1994.
Pomaia
Pomaia is a little village (it: "frazione"), near the city of (it: "comune") Santa Luce, in the Province of Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The village is a very important point for Buddhism in Italy. In Pomaia, one of biggest Tibetan monasteries, called the "Lama Zong Khapa Institute", can be seen.
Pomaia has an economy based on agriculture and tourism.
On April in Pomaia there is a "Sagra", a local festival about broad beans, followed by a lot of people and many tourists. Many tourists come in Pomaia, for to see the Buddhist manifestations in the Buddhist Monastery of Pomaia.
Morellino di Scansano
Morellino di Scansano DOCG is an Italian red wine made in the hills of the village of Scansano (province of Grosseto), in the Maremma, which includes a part of the coast of southern Tuscany. Morellino is the local name for the Sangiovese grape varietal.
The wine, which gained the DOC status in 1978, and upgraded to DOCG status from the 2007 vintage, is made from of 85% Sangiovese (which is also the base of the tuscan wines: Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano). The remaining 0–15% of any non aromatic black grape varieties included in a list made and periodically updated by the local authorities.
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (in English lit. Noble Wine of Montepulciano) is a red wine with Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status produced in the vineyards in the town of Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy. The wine is made for the main part from the Sangiovese grape varietal (minimum 70%), blended with Canaiolo Nero (10%–20%) and small add of other local varieties such as Mammolo. The wine is aged in oak barrels for 2 years; three years if it is a riserva. The wine should not be confused with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a red wine made from the Montepulciano grape in the Abruzzo region of east-central Italy.
The industry in the wine-producing town of Montepulciano produces a number of different wines:
Some wineries, in addition to wines, also produce Grappa. By Italian law, the same company cannot be both a certified winery and a certified distillery, therefore, the Grappa is produced in cooperation, but, is usually sold by the winery and bears the winery name on its label.
Brunello di Montalcino
Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine. It is made in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino about southwest of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. Brunello, roughly translated as "nice dark one" in the local dialect, is the unofficial name of the clone of Sangiovese (also known as "Sangiovese Grosso") grown in the Montalcino region. In 1980, the Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first "Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita" (DOCG) designation and today is one of the Italy's best-known and most expensive wines.
Borodin Quartet
The Borodin Quartet is a string quartet that was founded in 1945 in what was then the Soviet Union. The four players have not always been the same people: there have been some changes to the group, but it is one of the world's longest lasting string quartets. In 2005 they celebrated their 60th anniversary. Until he retired in 2007 the cellist Valentin Berlinsky had almost always been the cellist of the quartet.
When they started they were known as the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet. In 1955 the quartet changed its name to Borodin Quartet, named after the composer Alexander Borodin who composed two famous string quartets.
They often got invitations to play in the West, but the Soviet communist government would not allow them to travel out of their country. The quartet had to accept the concerts that their government allowed them to do. They played at the funerals of the dictator Stalin and the composer Sergei Prokofiev which were on the same day (both men died on 5 March 1953. However, they were not paid anything for either event.
The quartet knew the composer Dmitri Shostakovich very well. They performed his quartets, and Shostakovich often listened to them practising and discussed with them the way he wanted them to be played. The quartet often played piano quintets with the pianist Sviatoslav Richter.
When they started in 1945 their cellist was Mstislav Rostropovich. Rudolf Barshai was their viola player. Very soon afterwards Rostropovich found he had too many other engagements, so he got Valentin Berlinsky to be their cellist. The four men who then formed the quartet signed an oath in their own blood that they would be faithful and stay together as a group. They stayed together for 20 years. Then Rostislav Dubinsky, the first violinist, defected to the West and the second violinist, Jaroslav Alexandrov, retired because of bad health. With two new players, the quartet spend two years practising together before they performed again in public.
When Communism collapsed and the Soviet Union broke up, the quartet still continued to be very famous. They travelled abroad a lot, performing in places such as London.
They have made many recordings including all Shostakovich's string quartets and all Beethoven quartets.
Pienza
Pienza, a town (it: "commune") in the province of Siena, in the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany (central Italy), between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, is the "touchstone of Renaissance urbanism."
In 1996, UNESCO put the town his list as a World Heritage Site, and in 2004 the all valley, the "Val d'Orcia", was put on the list of UNESCO's World Cultural Landscapes.
Pienza was rebuilt from a village called Corsignano, which was the birthplace (1405) of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Italian: Enea Silvio Piccolomini), a Renaissance humanist born into an exiled Sienese family, who later became Pope Pius II. Once he became Pope, Piccolomini had the entire village rebuilt as an ideal Renaissance town. Intended as a retreat from Rome, it represents the first application of humanist urban planning concepts.The rebuilding was done by Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known as Bernardo Rossellino).
The piazza is made by four buildings. The principal residence, "Palazzo Piccolomini", is on the west side.
The "Duomo" (Cathedral), which dominates the center of the piazza, has a façade that is one of the earliest designed in the Renaissance manner. Artworks in the Duomo include five altar paintings from the Sienese School. The Baptistry, dedicated as usual to "San Giovanni".
The "Palazzo Borgia", on the third side of the piazza, was built as the palace to house the bishops who would travel to Pienza to attend the Pope. Inside the palace there is the Diocesan Museum, and the Museo della Cattedrale. The collection includes a lot of religious artifacts. Paintings include a 7th-century painting of "Christ on the Cross" ("La Croce"), 14th century works by Pietro Lorenzetti ("Madonna with Child") and Bartolo di Fredi ("Madonna della Misericordia"). There are also important works from the 14th and 15th centuries, including a Madonna attributed to Luca Signorelli.
Across from the church is the town hall. Since Corsigniano was originally a village without a town governance, before the transformations there was no town hall. But when Corsigniano was given the status of an official city, a "Palazzo Comunale" was required. A third floor was added in 1599. The "Palazzo Comunale" was probably also designed by Rossellino.
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