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Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian composer and virtuoso violinist who lived in the 18th century. Until today, Niccolo Paganini is considered one of the greatest violinists in the world that has ever lived!

The greatest violinist, Niccolo Paganini

The radical and brilliant innovations in the violin technique of Paganini are still heralded to this day! Niccolo Paganini Caprice no 24 is considered some of the most difficult music ever composed! Only a handful of violinists at any period of time ever reach the heights of technique and musical ability required to play Niccolo Paganini’s music.

Although Paganini displayed a fearsome level of virtuosity that surpassed everyone else’s, he didn’t restrict himself to running fast scales and sweeping wide-interval arpeggios constantly. He also played the most tender and the most lyrical passages that charmed audiences so much they would openly weep and even swoon upon hearing him.

Life of Niccolo Paganini

Paganini was born on the 27th of October,1782 in Genoa. He began playing the violin at the age of seven under the instruction of his father, Antonio Paganini (although Niccolò had previously started on the mandolin at age five). By the time he was twelve, he had already given his first public violin concert, but he went on to study under various teachers, such as Giovanni Servetto, and he quickly surpassed each of his teacher’s abilities.

Once, at age 13, Niccolò Paganini was taken to see the famous violinist Alessandro Rolla, but after hearing the young man play, Rolla responded that he had nothing to teach the boy. Still filled with determination to be the best violinist who ever lived, Paganini embarked on a course of self-study and a harsh practice regimen in which he would play up to 15 hours a day. Later, at the age of 23, when he wasn’t touring, Paganini acted as music director to Elisa Baciocchi, Princess of Lucca, who was Napoleon’s sister.

Paganini’s tour in Europe

In 1828, Niccolo Paganini went on a tour of Europe that lasted for six and a half straight years. He toured mainly as a solo performer and was the first of his kind not to travel with backup musicians. He would go from town to town playing unaccompanied on his violin.

On his European tour, he gave thrilling performances throughout Poland, Germany, Vienna, Bohemia, Paris, and London. Everywhere he went, audiences were astounded and claimed they had never heard anything like his playing! His final journey through Scotland and England ended up making Paganini a rich man.

The devil’s violinist

When Paganini’s reputation began to spread throughout Europe, some people started referring to him as “ Hexensohn “, which means ‘ Witch’s brat ‘. They claimed that Paganini was in league with Lucifer for being able to play so well,  suggesting that Niccolo Paganini made a deal with the Devil to be able to perform his almost supernatural displays of technique. Paganini loved the rumor and went out of his way to cultivate a dark persona after hearing it.

He would dress all in black and occasionally arrive at his concerts in a black carriage pulled by four black horses. His physique was always quite emaciated and pale, which contributed even more to his “demonic” appearance. Whenever he performed, Paganini’s thin body would sway back and forth eerily on the stage, and his eyes would look white from them having rolled up inside of his head.  With his long, wild hair swaying to and fro, he embodied the perfect image of the damned artist.

Also, in 1828, he lost his teeth which gave his face a sunken, ghost-like appearance. But these macabre qualities ended up working much to Paganini’s advantage: his unusual appearance and the rumors of his supernatural abilities and the talk of Paganini’s deal with the Devil only caused more people to be intrigued with him and they flocked to his concerts. In a way, he could be considered the first rock star. A German poet, Boerne, once described a Niccolo Paganini concert thus: “It was a heavenly and diabolical enthusiasm, I have never seen or heard anything alike in my life.”

But Niccolò had a difficult time coping with his wealth and fame. He developed a drinking and gambling problem by the time he reached the age of 16. At one point, he was taken in by an unknown woman who gave him sanctuary and helped cure his problems. He stayed with her a total of three years, practicing his violin and even taking up the guitar seriously, becoming a virtuoso on that instrument as well, and composing 200 pieces for it.

Paganini’s Violin Technique

Paganini is credited with bringing about radical modern violin techniques, and his innovations in this area border on the miraculous. In 1829, the German violinist Guhr documented all the technical innovations Paganini had developed, most of them unheard of at the time:

• A) Ricochet bowing – an unorthodox technique of bouncing the bow against the strings.
• B) Scordatura – mistuning the violin strings so the performer can play in various keys without shifting hand positions.
• C) Pizzicato – plucking the violin strings instead of bowing them to create a staccato effect; he used both right and left hands for this.
• D) Harmonics – Paganini used many types of harmonics to create unusual sounds.
• E) Unorthodox fingering techniques – this was possible because of his various physical ailments (see below).
• F) Playing an entire composition using only the G-string.

Niccolo Paganini never relied on sheet music during his performances: he wouldn’t take a music stand on stage with him, preferring to memorize every line he played, which was very rare for a musician at the time. He was the first performer ever to incorporate this extensive memorization into his concerts, and audiences were amazed that someone could manage to recall an entire program of music. He was also quite secretive about his solos, never playing them fully at rehearsals, but instead saving them for the performance.

Paganini’s main instrument was the Cannone Guarnerius violin made by the great Italian luthier, Giuseppe Antonio Guarnieri . Paganini gave the name “Cannon” to the model because of its explosive sound which reminded him of that particular weapon. He came to use Guarnerius violins as a result of his gambling addiction: he once lost a highly valuable Amati violin at the betting tables, and an amateur violinist allowed him to use his own Guarnieri violin. After that, Paganini played them exclusively.

He is thought to have suffered from various ailments that actually increased his technical abilities. Ehlers-Danlos is a genetic disorder that causes hypermobility in the joints because of a collagen synthesis defect. This is said to have allowed Paganini’s joints to be so flexible that he could play up to three octaves across the fretboard without ever shifting the position of his hand. He also had very long limbs and fingers, which is a condition thought to be due to Niccolo Paganini’s Marfan syndrome , a disorder of the connective tissue.

Niccolo Paganini’s death and legacy

On the 27th of May in 1840, Paganini died in Nice, at the age of 58, from cancer of the larynx. During his life, he composed 24 caprices, a series of sonatas, and six violin concertos. At his death, his Cannone Guarnerius violin was given to the city of Genoa, where it is still housed in the Palazzo Tursi Museum.

Every year in Genoa, the “ Paganini Competition ” is held, and anyone under 34 years of age from any nation may participate. The winner of the contest is allowed to play one of Paganini’s original violins and also receives a recording contract.

And now we’ll end with a famous quote by Niccolo Paganini: “I am not handsome, but when women hear me play, they come crawling to my feet”.

The Devil’s Violinist movie

The Devil’s Violinist is somewhat presenting the life of Paganini, but it obviously isn’t 100% true to history. Though, you can hear his most famous plays, as well as you can have an idea about the type of life he’s been living. As it was believed that Niccolo Paganini is the devil’s violinist, this is interpreted in the movie as well. The movie is also highlighting that Niccolo Paganini and Charlotte Watson were in love and she was somewhat his muse as well. All in all, the Devil’s Violinist movie is really worth watching!

By Jason Earls

Edited and updated by Helga Dosa

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Pagani factory and museum tour

  FACTORY TOURS are held,  only by reservation , from Monday to Friday (excluding holidays) and have a duration of about 1 hour. The price includes a guided tour of the Horacio Pagani museum and of the factory production area.

• FACTORY AND MUSEUM TOUR FULL PRICE TICKET: € 55.00
• OVER 65: € 48,00
• REDUCED FEE FROM 13 TO 18 YEARS (Accompanied by an adult): € 25.00
• REDUCED FEE FROM 3 TO 12 YEARS (Accompanied by an adult): FREE (but you need to reserve the ticket while booking)
• REDUCED GROUPS (MINIMUM 15 PEOPLE): € 48.00 (To book a tour for a group write to  paga [email protected] ) 

Important: if you are interested in visiting  only the Horacio Pagani Museum , there is no need to book. In this case, the Museum entrance ticket can be purchased directly on site (rates: € 18 full, € 15 reduced up to 18 years, free up to 12 years). No guided tour included.

GENERAL BOOKING CONDITIONS 

• Pagani factory tours are not intended to be “private tours” (other visitors may be added in the same tour).
• Visitors are allowed to take pictures only in the museum and for private use. Pictures in all production areas are strongly forbidden.
• Please note that for safety reasons  children under 3 will not be allowed into the factory  and we warmly discourage pregnant women to take the factory tour.
• Cancellation by Pagani   Pagani Automobili reserves the right to alter the duration, content and schedule of the tour or to cancel it in case of unforeseen circumstances, privacy policies or unexpected events related to the production areas. In case of total cancellation by Pagani the tour ticket will be reimbursed. The acceptance of a tour confirmation means and implies that the client/visitor agrees with these conditions and that he/her accepts that Pagani and Modenatur cannot be held liable for any other client personal expenses or economic loss that may be related to the cancellation.
• Cancellation by the visitor  free cancellation is possible within 2 working days from the day of your tour. In case of a later cancellation or in case of no-show, paid tickets will not be refunded. In case of refund due, Modenatur will keep € 5 per ticket to cover booking fees and refund management. Different conditions are applied to groups and reservation from 6 visitors and above. 

HOW TO BOOK A PAGANI FACTORY TOUR

• Click on the blue button here below
• Choose the date and time, the number and type of tickets you want to buy
• Pay by credit card
• Receive your ticket by email

Please note that tours are definitively confirmed upon reaching 4 participants. If the chosen tour has not yet reached the minimum number of participants for activation, you will receive an email notice specifying that the request has been correctly received but that the card will be charged and confirmed when the minimum number is reached. If the tour does not reach the minimum number, you will be contacted a few days before the visit to check the possibility of rescheduling the visit on another date.

Please note that we usually publish dates for online booking 2 months ahead. If a day or month is not bookable online or if you need any additional information regarding tour booking and availability we advise you to send a request using the form below on this page or to send a request to  [email protected]  with the desired date and time. We will be glad to check if there are any further availabilities, and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Description

Pagani Automobili S.p.A. is an Italian Supercar manufacturer.

The company was founded in 1998 by Horacio Pagani and is based in San Cesario sul Panaro, in the province of Modena, Italy.

The philosophy driving the company embraces a concept borrowed from the Renaissance and embodied by the great Leonardo da Vinci who, over 500 years ago, once stated: “Art and Science are disciplines that must walk together hand in hand.”

Pagani Automobili creates in accordance with this inspirational creed, combining technique and taste, functionality and aesthetics, handcraft work and technological know-how.

Pagani Automobili is honoured to welcome you at the new Atelier in San Cesario Sul Panaro (Modena), in Via dell’Industria 26, for a guided tour throughout the factory.

It is possible to book a guided tour to the factory and to the Pagani museum located in San Cesario sul Panaro, between Modena and Bologna.

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Factory Tour

Book your Pagani tour now | Guided museum and factory tours are available by reservation only.

 Discover the details and book online!

Fill the form

Book a pagani factory and museum tour.

FACTORY TOURS are held, only by reservation , from Monday to Friday (excluding holidays) and have a duration of about 1 hour. The price includes a guided tour of the Horacio Pagani museum and of the factory production area.

• FACTORY AND MUSEUM TOUR FULL PRICE TICKET: € 55.00
• OVER 65: € 48,00
• REDUCED FEE FROM 13 TO 18 YEARS (Accompanied by an adult): € 25.00
• REDUCED FEE FROM 3 TO 12 YEARS (Accompanied by an adult): FREE (but you need to reserve the ticket while booking)
• REDUCED GROUPS (MINIMUM 15 PEOPLE): € 48.00 (To book a tour for a group write to   paga [email protected] ) 

Important: if you are interested in visiting only the Horacio Pagani Museum , there is no need to book. In this case, the Museum entrance ticket can be purchased directly on site (rates: € 18 full, € 15 reduced up to 18 years, free up to 12 years). No guided tour included.

The museum and plant will be closed on April 19th, April 25th, May 1st, June 2nd

GENERAL BOOKING CONDITIONS 

• Pagani factory tours are not intended to be “private tours” (other visitors may be added in the same tour).
• Visitors are allowed to take pictures only in the museum and for private use. Pictures in all production areas are strongly forbidden.
• Please note that for safety reasons children under 3 will not be allowed into the factory and we warmly discourage pregnant women to take the factory tour.
• Cancellation by Pagani   Pagani Automobili reserves the right to alter the duration, content and schedule of the tour or to cancel it in case of unforeseen circumstances, privacy policies or unexpected events related to the production areas. In case of total cancellation by Pagani the tour ticket will be reimbursed. The acceptance of a tour confirmation means and implies that the client/visitor agrees with these conditions and that he/her accepts that Pagani and Modenatur cannot be held liable for any other client personal expenses or economic loss that may be related to the cancellation.
• Cancellation by the visitor  free cancellation is possible within 2 working days from the day of your tour. In case of a later cancellation or in case of no-show, paid tickets will not be refunded. In case of refund due, Modenatur will keep € 5 per ticket to cover booking fees and refund management. Different conditions are applied to groups and reservation from 6 visitors and above. 

HOW TO BOOK A PAGANI FACTORY TOUR

• Click on the blue button here below
• Choose the date and time, the number and type of tickets you want to buy
• Pay by credit card
• Receive your ticket by email

Please note that we usually publish dates for online booking 2 months ahead. If a day or month is not bookable online or if you need any additional information regarding tour booking and availability we advise you to send a request using the form below on this page or to send a request to [email protected]   with the desired date and time.  We will be glad to check if there are any further availabilities, and we will contact you as soon as possible.

IF YOU WISH TO BOOK A TOUR FOR A GROUP OR IF YOU ARE A TOUR OPERATOR/TRAVEL AGENT PLEASE FILL-IN THE FORM DOWN IN THIS PAGE:

• Group Information
• Tour Information
• Billing Information
• Send Request

Pagani Factory Tour

Welcome on Pagani factory tour request page, managed by the official booking center Modenatur.

Pay attention!

For requests referring to the next 36 hours, please call the following number to check for availability: +39 059 220022 , from 9:30am to 1:30pm and from 2:30pm to 6:00pm (except for saturdays, sundayd, public holidays and monday mornings).

Pagani reserves the right to refuse the guided tour service, if the internal rules of conduct are not respected.

Tour Language

Our tours are usually in English. We can organize a tour in a different language, only if we reach a minimum number of participants for the same tour.

Invoice billing address

These data are mandatory for reservations for 6 participants or more (payment due in advance).

Policies and restrictions

• Pagani Automobili reserves the right to alter the duration, content and schedule of the tour in case of unforeseen circumstances, privacy policies or unexpected events related to the production areas.
• The number of participants can't be modified, unless notified in advance by email.
• Visitors are allowed to take pictures only in the showroom and for private use. Pictures in all production areas are forbidden.
• Visitors are not allowed to touch or sit inside the vehicles exhibited.
• It’s forbidden to touch or remove any object or material inside the production area, unless approved by the guide.
• Visitors are kindly asked to respect the scheduled time of the tour; they are asked to show up just 10 mins before the tour starts. In case of delay, they lose the right to attend the tour.
• We strongly recommend not to leave valuables and luggages in the car as there’s no private parking in the area.

This is not a booking confirmation. You will get an email to schedule your tour.

We will contact you as soon as possible.

Discover the region

We are a local tour operator and we have a deep knowledge of Emilia Romagna region. We can support you in the booking of any other touristic service (tours to other cars factories, museums and private collections, food & wine and cultural tours, transfers, hotels and restaurants..).

Take a look inside the incredible Pagani museum

From a home-built motorbike to Hondas and beyond: join TG for a sneaky tour

Fancy some Top Gear holiday advice? If you happen to be walking past the Pagani factory based at San Cesario sul Panaro in Modena, Italy, here’s a tip.

You’re welcome to walk up the front door, and for a small fee at the reception desk, take a wander down Pagani’s own memory lane. But in case you’re not passing Modena any time soon, allow us to take you on a guided tour through the Pagani Museo. Be warned: it’s a slobbering, NSFW collection of car pornography.

The OG Pagani

Yep, this is Genesis. And as the eagle-eyed will have spotted, the first Pagani was also the only Pagani not to powered by Mercedes-AMG. Have that one for free, pub quiz fact fans.

While still living in his native Argentina as a 20-year old talented engineer, Horacio Pagani was hired by Renault to help improve its F2 racer. Horacio worked chiefly on the body and aerodynamics, and the car’s results dramatically improved. So much so, that when he decided to up and move to Europe, Argentine racing legend and family friend Juan-Manuel Fangio wrote him a letter of reference. Said letter is also showcased in the museo.

Note that one of several sketches of Leonardo da Vinci is hanging on the wall. Mr Pagani is fascinated by da Vinci, whose innovation and respect for art and science inspires the attention to detail of the company’s supercars.

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Four wheels good, two wheels also good.

Before Horacio got to building cars, he was building motorcycles out of whatever he could find. Well, it’s certainly easier to commute on than a Huayra BC, but not quite as quick around Monza.

Grandma Zonda

If you really know your Paganis, you’ll have heard of the car they call ‘la Nonna’. The 'grandmother’.

This is Pagani chassis 002. While 001 was used for crash testing and recently rebuilt to original Zonda C12 spec, 002 lived a very different life – one of constant evolution. It’s been the test bed for the constant improvement of the Zonda, starting life with a 6.0-litre V12 but gradually being upgraded with the 7.3-litre engine, more power, lighter components, Zonda F bodywork and wheels, and then better suspension.

Originally, it had a manual transmission, but right now the car is living out its days in 760bhp Zonda Cinque spec, complete with a paddleshift gearbox. This chassis has, through its hard life of testing, trial and improvement, covered over 620,000 miles over more than 20 years, on roads and racetracks all over the world.

La Nonna has earned her retirement, you’ll agree.

Gran Turismo

Is it rude to take a photograph of an Italian grandmother in a state of undress? We’ll let you be the judge.

A Zonda fit for a prince

This is a very early Zonda S, painted a bespoke shade of blue as commissioned by a wealthy (duh) Arab prince. Nowadays, it looks almost quaint – paint on a Pagani, instead of bare carbon fibre. How very old-school. Pagani bought back this car because of a rare spec choice – painted inner wheel rims, matching the car’s bodywork.

Depreciation? Never heard of it

It’s been a dream of Mr Pagani to have a museum showcasing the progression of the cars bearing his name for some time, but putting it together has been a painstaking process. The reason? Well, Pagani never retained ‘one of each’ for nostalgia’s sake. Each car built was individually specced and sold, with only the factory test mule remaining behind.

As each new iteration of Zonda and Huayra has emerged, customers have sent their supercars back to Italy to be upgraded and tweaked. So, originality is a rare thing in the world of Pagani. The company has had to persuade customers to sell cars back to the museum, at up to three times the original price paid for them. Triple interest!

Toilet stop…

Sorry, had to have a swift bathroom break midway through the tour. Hope you understand. But, I thought you might like to see inside. Because where else but the home of Pagani would you expect to rinse your hands in a carbon-fibre sink, under a carbon-fibre tap? On a carbon-fibre worktop, too. Welcome to Top Gear’s Loo of the Year.

Recognise this? It’s the original 2005 Zonda F press car, now fully detoxed of journalistic bodily fluids.

This is the very machine you saw blowing Richard Hammond’s mind on Top Gear telly, before setting what was for a long time the TG test track lap record of 1min 18.4sec. This 602bhp example, with the suppliers' logos stencilled onto the side, also featured in Top Trumps cards, posters, and all of the press photography of the Zonda F. Is this the perfect Zonda spec?

F. (Roof) Off

Course, you might prefer an all-original Zonda F Roadster. Faster around the Top Gear test track than a Bugatti Veyron, you might remember.

Is this man the owner? Is that colour-coordinated rucksack just a coincidence? Yes. Yes it is.

It’s pronounced ‘Chin-kwuh’

The Cinque was supposed to be the last hurrah for the Zonda – and we know how that turned out. But the fact that more powerful, more aero-obsessed special editions came later doesn’t mean that the five hard-top and five topless Zonda Cinques are any less awesome. That roof scoop has become a Zonda icon. Is it just us, or can you hear this picture?

Pick a Zonda your own size: part one

Pagani very kindly supplied a Zonda Cinque more suited to a Top Gear oik’s budget.

Pick a Zonda your own size: part two

Who says supercars bring out the inner kid in all of us? Oh. Whoops.

When Pagani revealed the 739bhp Zonda R back in 2009, we didn’t really understand it. Too loud for a private track day, too crazy for the road, too unrestricted to be eligible to race. Oh, and the small matter of £1.5million. What was the point?

Underneath, this was really a test bed for the Huayra, allowing Pagani to work on racetrack-proven suspension and material tech in plain sight. And it was a nice little bit of business on the side, truth be told. Ten years on, we don’t question the point of the gloriously loud, batsh*t mad Zonda R. We just thank the lord (no, not that one, Horacio) that it exists.

Game of thrones

Yep, the seat bolsters in the no-compromise Zonda R are actually colour-matched to the Italian flag. Personally, if we were going for a 6min 47sec lap time at the Nürburgring, we’d have gone for a nice rich brown. Parp.

The end of the beginning

After the Zonda, the Huayra carried on the Pagani name. This matte silver example is chassis 001, as seen on the cover of Top Gear magazine, on Top Gear telly, setting the TG test track lap record, and probably in a few other  magazines over the years. But mainly in Top Gear.

Funny how it looks almost plain, these days. We’re too used to an Instagram diet of Huayras in clear-coat carbon with zany colours and big wings attached.

Door to door service

And here’s a bonus shot of the original Huayra for you, with the doors raised. You could argue that no supercar deserves to live out its days posed in a museum, but the Huayra surely gets close to qualifying as art.

No really, this is the last Zonda

And Horacio should know. This one’s his.

Really. It’s the last one

This is the Zonda Barchetta. A chopped-windscreen, roofless version of the Zonda, uprated to 789bhp and wedded to a manual gearbox. Imagine the noise.

Horacio specced this one, complete with plaid interior fabrics, for himself. Only two more will be built, costing their faithful Pagani buyers a cool €15million each. That’s £13.4million, to us Brits. A fittingly bonkers finale for one of the greatest supercars of all time. We’ll leave you with a few extra images to pine over…

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Ara Malikian

Ara Malikian is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and expressive violinists of his generation. In possession of a personal style, forged from his own origins and rich musical experience, his artistic voice has emerged as an original and innovative presence on the world and musical scene.

Born in Lebanon in 1968 to an Armenian family, Ara Malikian began studying the violin at a very early age with his father. His talent was recognized and nurtured despite the difficulties encountered because of the war, forcing him to study during long periods of time in air-raid shelters. He gave his first serious concert at the age of 12 and when he was 14, he obtained a scholarship from the German Culture Ministry to study at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. At 15, he was the youngest pupil to be admitted in this prestigious centre. He later furthered his studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and studied with renowned professors such as Franco Gulli, Ruggiero Ricci, Ivry Gitlis, Herman Krebbers and members of the Alban Berg Quartet.

An undiminishing musical and human restlessness have led Ara to deepen his relationship with his own Armenian roots and to assimilate music of other cultures, like those of the Middle East (Arab and Jewish), Central Europe (Gypsy and Klezmer), Argentina (Tango) and Spain (Flamenco). All this is achieved within a personal language in which the rhythmic and emotional strength of these types of music go hand in hand with the virtuosity and expressiveness of the great European classical tradition.

With a wide-ranging repertoire that includes a majority of the important pieces written for violin (concertos with orchestra, sonatas and pieces with piano and chamber music), he has also premiered works by modern composers such as Franco Danatoni, Malcolm Lipkin, Luciano Chailly, Ladislav Kupkovich, Loris Tjeknavorian, Lawrence Roman and Yervand Yernakian. Malikian is also one of the few violinists who plays recitals for solo violin with programs featuring complete cycles of such as the 24 Paganini Caprices, the 6 sonatas of Eugene Ysaÿe and the sonatas and partitas of Bach.

Malikian has been recognized in may competitions of worldwide reputation, including first prizes at the International Competitions “Felix Mendelssohn” (1987, Berlin, Germany) and “Pablo Sarasate” (1995, Pamplona, Spain). In addition, “Zino Francescatti”(Marseille, France), “Rodolfo Lipizer” (Gorizia, Italy), Jeunesses Musicales” (Belgrade, Serbia), “Rameau” (Le Mans, France), “International Artists Guild” (New York, USA) and the “International Music Competition of Japan”. In 1993 he received the “Prize for Artistic Devotion and Achievement” from the German Ministry of Culture.

Malikian has performed in the most important concert halls of the world in more than 40 countries on five continents: New York (Carnegie Hall), Paris (Salle Pleyel), Vienna (Musikverein), Toronto (Ford Centre), Madrid (Auditorio Nacional and Teatro Real), Venice, Los Angeles, Taipei, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Cuba, Barcelona, Bilbao and many more. He has also participated in festivals at Aspen, Colamar, Prades, Schleswig-Holstein, Braunschweig, San Sebastian, Segovia, Bergen, Freden, Metlach and Prague.

Malikian has worked with figures such as Joaquín Cortés and Belén Maya, film composers such as Pascal Gainge and Alberto Iglesias with whom he recorded the soundtrack for “Talk to her”, the Academy Award winning movie by Pedro Almodóvar.

Ara currently resides in Madrid, for more information please visit his official website at  www.aramalikian.com .

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"Pagagnini no es un espectáculo para que te guste, es un espectáculo para amarlo" "Pagagnini is not a show to like, is a show to love"

The Gazette, Montreal

Motor Valley Activity

Pagani museum and factory tour.

The most complete experience to enter the world of Horacio Pagani. Visit the atelier and the collection of super sports cars that impress with their technology and design.

ADMISSION + GUIDED TOUR: MUSEUM AND PRODUCTION

ADULTS €55.00 GROUPS (min. 15 people/Over 65) €48.00 UNDER 18 YEARS OLD €25.00 UNDER 12 YEARS OLD FREE OF CHARGE

MUSEUM ENTRANCE

ADULTS €18.00 REDUCED (Under 18 and Over 65) €15.00 UNDER 12 YEARS FREE

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Israel was an amazing guide. My only critique would be how I was shuffled into other tours but with different timetables

From Copenhagen to Helsinki

The whole tour from start to finish was very good, the guide sometimes were not very professional with the group and did not consider the disability of some people. I guess she is young and not very experienced. All the hotels were top class. Maybe more time in Oslo, was a bit rushed. Overall a tour to be recommend.

• In-depth Cultural

Best of Central Europe

It was my very first Intrepid trip and I enjoyed every moment of it. It was more than I expected! I loved the chemistry of the group (I miss them dearly), the accommodation location as well as the included activities. Being in a small group also has a lot of advantages like getting to know each of them personally and build friendships even after the trip. I was just so glad I took the trip through Intrepid!

La Dolce Adventure

The inability of the tour operator to stay on schedule diminished the value of the tour. Activities and free time to explore the cities were cut short due to late starts in the morning.

Genuine Europe

Very good hotels Very friendly and fun tour guides specially Eva Overall good tour for short period of time to see and visit many places

Europe Taster

We had an amazing time Steve as our tour guide and Damien as our Driver were both phenomenal! Amazing group of people and the tour itself was amazing. Thank you

Baltic Experience

We loved the whole itinerary except for the long Vilnius to Warsaw bus ride. No other way it seems ..at this point.

Enchanted Landscapes

I want to thank and shoutout to all of the amazing tour guides especially Gabriella from Rome-Italy and Patricia from France to Switzerland. Despite how tight the schedule is, and the limited time given to experience and explore different destinations. It was exhausting and I feel like you are always on the go, and it felt rushed, but I understand because of a lot of factors that may affect it by the traffic and how other passengers are prompt with time that is why there are adjustments. I have met a lot of wonderful people on the tour, and I will for sure come back to Europe and explore what is out there.

Balkan Discovery (4 Star Hotels)

Excellent accommodation excellent tour Guide Bayan.. Bus driver excellent 10/10

• €150 deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Rome to Berlin: Piazzas, Prague & the Past

Great diversity of countries and cities but WAY too fast paced. One night in Slovenia and Poland was ridiculous and with travel time some days we spent less than 15 hours in the city. The guide was a but inexperienced so we didn't have a good description of some of the cities. Great way to make friends and see cities! Would recommend going end of August or later as it was still very hot going through the cities!!

European Cavalcade (End Paris, 18 Days)

Excellent 18 days itineraries!

European Highlights

Pre-trip support was awful. Up until the bus arrived we thought we were being scammed. The trip itself was great, but too much time on the bus. Tim was a super guy. The best! Wonderful personality and very helpful. (He could have provided more commentary along the way.) James was a kind man and skilled driver. We liked him a lot.

Essential Britain & Ireland

Tour was action packed Sometimes too busy Scottish evening was too soon and too much like the Irish Cabaret the night before John Tour Guide and Juilian Driver were absolutely the best Hotels were too big I found... I found the best ones were smaller I dont understand Hotels not having wash cloths anymore... I dont like that

Tour from Athens to Dubrovnik or Split: 7 Balkan countries in 14 days

we had a great trip so many places we saw in only 14 days even with the covid 19

What people love about Fully Guided Tours in Europe

Awesome tour. Great people. Super tour guide and driver - Adam & Florin.

Eva and Rene were amazing tour guides. Disappointed that we didn't see the Eiffel Tower at night. Several times we were dropped in town at night with not enough time to get a meal before being taken to the hotel. Some hotels were out of town with nothing within walking distance. Thank you to Rene for arranging for a group of us to go to the Moulin Rouge.

I was worried about the culturally mixed tour clients due to some negative reviews from previous clients. But I enjoyed the experiences of mixing with participants from Mexico and the Philippines. Yes sometimes bilingual guides’ presentations were not clear, and I had to ask for clarifications. Hotels were better than I had expected from the reviews; except in one-hotel the lightening was so bd

Travel Styles

• Fully Guided
• Best 3 Weeks Europe Itineraries 2024/2025 (with Reviews)
• 10 Best Luxury River Cruises & Lines 2022
• Hiking in Europe in February
• Hiking in Europe in January
• Hiking in Europe in March
• Hiking in Europe in April
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• Hiking in Europe in June
• Hiking in Europe in July
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THE NEW 2023 CALENDAR - With the Pagani Utopia, the tribute to a special year, the 25th anniversary of the company

• The unreleased photos of the Pagani Utopia taken at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan show off the new Pagani Calendar
• A tribute to both the new Hypercar that was launched last September and the company’s first 25 years
• Together, included with the wall calendar, will be the brochure for the Pagani Utopia with exclusive photos  of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings
• The Calendar is on sale only online at paganistore.com and in the Atelier in San Cesario sul Panaro   

San Cesario sul Panaro, 1 December 2022 –  2023 will be the year of the Utopia, and the year of a remarkable milestone: the company founded by Horacio Pagani in 1998 is preparing to celebrate its quarter century. It’s an important date that, as such, should be celebrated with an equally exclusive calendar.

The star of this year’s story will be six images of the new Pagani Utopia, immortalized in the striking setting of the Sala del Cenacolo inside the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, where the new hypercar was presented last September, providing the inspiration for the temporary exhibition entitled “The Shape of Air. From Leonardo to Pagani Utopia”.

Flanked by six original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci – a special loan from the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana – the Utopia represents the synthesis of that winning idea of “art and science” that has always formed the basis of Horacio Pagani’s creations and that is expressed in the new hypercar. To reinforce this combination and to give even greater strength to the aesthetic aspects of the car and its special setting, six unreleased images that immortalize precious details of the Utopia are ready to reflect the artistic context of the room, mirroring the “art in art”, in an ongoing exchange between the lines and shapes of the car with the frescoes of the room and the lines of the Leonardo drawings.

For this special year, the Calendar will be sold together with the brochure for the Pagani Utopia that contains reproductions of the six works of Leonardo printed on vellum. These are placed transparently on the photos to recreate the spectacular atmosphere of the Sala del Cenacolo where the drawings flanked the car.

The Calendar will be available exclusively online on paganistore.com and at the Atelier in San Cesario sul Panaro.

Pagani Press Office

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I'm planning to spend $5,000 to see Taylor Swift in Europe with my kids. Our floor tickets, hotel, and flights are set to cost less than our nosebleed seats in the US did.

• I saw Taylor Swift on the US leg of The Eras Tour, and two nosebleed seats cost us $5,000.
• My daughter and I loved the show, so I scored us floor seats for one of Swift's Poland shows.
• Our European trip includes three VIP Swift tickets and is set to be cheaper than our seats in the US.

When Taylor Swift first announced her Eras Tour , I laughed when I heard colleagues had cleared their work schedules to buy tickets.

I couldn't understand why they were looking for tickets for shows hours away. I liked a few of Swift's songs, but I wasn't a "Swiftie" and didn't understand the frenzy.

That all changed when my daughter started asking intensely for tickets . And once The Eras Tour started, it became clear that it was the concert of the century. It was also nearly impossible to get tickets.

Seeing the US tour was difficult and expensive, but the show turned me into a full-on Swiftie

I didn't want my kid to miss out on this generation-defining event, but I couldn't stomach spending $4,000 or more on the resale market for two nosebleed seats on top of travel costs to another city.

Fortunately, five cousins chipped in to buy my daughter tickets for her birthday.

My daughter, a devoted Swiftie, predictably loved every second of The Eras Tour. At first, I wasn't sure how I would get through a 3 ½-hour show by an artist I barely knew — but I left in awe of Swift's talent.

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In the weeks that followed, I listened exclusively to Swift. On a trip to Nashville, I sang my heart out to Swift's songs at the Country Music Hall of Fame. I wondered whether I would be able to see her perform again, this time going all in.

Getting tickets to see Swift in Poland was easier than I expected

As soon as Swift announced international dates on her tour in June, I took the first of many steps to get tickets to one of her shows abroad. I set my sights on a show in Warsaw, Poland, for several reasons.

My children and I are Polish citizens but have never set foot in the country. I've wanted to go for years, and snagging Swift tickets would allow me to finally make the trip. I reasoned that Warsaw was unlikely to be as popular as marquee destinations like Paris. It's also a less expensive city than many other international stops on The Eras Tour.

Also, tickets for the Warsaw show were not being sold through Ticketmaster. I found the idea of not having to deal with the company that botched sales to the US leg of the tour very appealing.

A few days before tickets went on sale, I got a code for the chance to buy tickets before they became available to the rest of the public. Based on how popular presales were in the US , I knew I was unlikely to get tickets, but I set an alarm for 5 a.m. anyway.

Much to my surprise, I was able to enter the ticket-buying portal right away. I scored three VIP floor seats for the first night of Swift's Eras Tour in Warsaw for less than $1,000. My daughter, my son, and I started making friendship bracelets immediately to exchange with other concert-goers, an Eras Tour tradition.

Our trip hasn't happened yet, but I already know it'll be worth it

Although tickets to the Warsaw show were not cheap, the total cost plus our European trip is set to be about the same as or less than the two nosebleed seats I got when I saw Swift in the US.

I hope to use credit-card points to book our flights, but even if I don't, I estimate the total cost of the trip could be from $4,000 to $5,000. This isn't significantly more than my family usually spends on our annual family vacation, and I have more than a year to save.

However, unlike other family vacations, this one comes with the chance to explore our roots and see a new part of the world. I never would have guessed that Swift would be what finally got me to Poland, but it's just one more reason for me to love her.

This story was originally published on July 24, 2023, and most recently updated on April 10, 2024.

Watch: All the Easter eggs in Taylor Swift's 'Willow' music video

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Holmes Chapel, English village of Harry Styles' youth, needs fans to be tour guides

Many tourists visit sites such as a bakery where Styles once worked and a Chinese restaurant where he once dined with Taylor Swift. Tourism has been great for local businesses.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

Holmes Chapel, the English village of Harry Styles' youth, is looking for superfans to work as tour guides. The village gets a lot of tourists, Harries visiting sites like a bakery where Styles once worked and a Chinese restaurant where he once dined with Taylor Swift. The not-for-profit calling for tour guides says tourism has been great for local business, and now it wants to elevate its offerings.

(Singing) Why don't we leave it at that?

It's MORNING EDITION.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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European cities hope jet-setting Taylor Swift fans will splash the cash for Eras tour

The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing

T im Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets.

A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in history.

The pop culture event of the summer will arrive in Europe next month, kicking off in Paris on 9 May and wrapping up in London on 20 August with 49 dates in between in Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The unique nature of the tour’s ticketing system, which was tweaked after a number of hitches last year, means there will be a mass movement of travelling fans who will not only be Swiftie in affiliation but swift-like in their willingness to travel across the continent.

In expectation of intense demand, Ticketmaster introduced a pre-registration system that rewarded some early applicants with access codes to the ticket sale proper, via staggered windows for each city.

Notionally designed to prioritise genuine fans over “scalpers” – people who buy and resell tickets for a quick profit – the pre-sales system also meant many fans registered for tickets in multiple destinations across Europe to increase their chances.

Tim and Marcella, who live in Norwich, registered not just for the nearest concerts – in London and Liverpool – but also in Amsterdam and Lisbon. The pair got lucky with a pair of €91 tickets in the Portuguese capital and have turned the trip into a weekend break. “I used to live in Lisbon so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone,” Tim said. “We booked ourselves flights and four nights’ accommodation the same day.” They are far from alone.

Katie Soo, the chief business officer of DICE, a rival ticketing company, said: “The excitement and uncertainty inherent in the ticket-purchasing process might have inadvertently incentivised fans to apply for tickets in multiple cities, thereby increasing the likelihood of travelling across Europe to attend the concerts.”

Hotel prices

Several European cities have already reported a sharp rise in demand for hotel and short-term rental accommodation over the summer, when the Swift hurricane will arrive. In Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, rooms at the Travelodge chain around Swift’s June dates have been sold out since August 2023, a month after tickets for the shows went on sale.

In Paris, where fans anticipate Swift to debut an updated version of the Eras show with songs from the new Tortured Poets Department album, 80% of hotels and apartments listed on Booking.com are already full up. In Warsaw on 2 August, only 9% of hotels listed on the same site are still available.

Not all of the 18 cities covered by the Eras tour are obvious tourism destinations. From 17-19 July, Swift will play three concerts at the 65,000-capacity home ground of the football club Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen in Ruhr valley, western Germany. The city’s less-than-familiar name prompted one US chatshow host to quip that “the place might not even exist”.

Yet even in Germany’s rust belt the influx of Swift fans is temporarily transforming the hotel market: any two-bedroom apartments that remain available are going for €800-2,000 a night, with cheaper accommodation available only in surrounding cities that are just as off the usual tourist track as Gelsenkirchen, such as Essen, Bochum or Herne.

Cities with stricter rules on allowing Airbnb-style holiday lets and a more limited stock of short-term rental apartments are reporting a particularly marked increase in rates during Swift’s visit, with about 30% year-on-year spikes in rental rates in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Milan, according to AirDNA, a data analytics company specialising in the short-term rentals market.

Of all the tour’s European stops, Vienna is experiencing the most notable impact on its rental market, with booking rates for the nights of Swift’s concerts recorded in February 44% higher than at the same point the previous year. By the end of March the number of nights booked in the Austrian capital for the length of Swift’s stay in the second week of August had risen by 430% compared with the same period in 2023.

When Luke Tilden’s wife, Tatjana, suggested last summer that the couple buy their 13- and 15-year-old daughters, Lena and Maya, tickets to a Taylor Swift gig for Christmas, the 53-year-old Briton initially waved it off. “There’s no chance in hell we’d get a ticket without paying through our noses, I thought,” said Tilden, who works as an interpreter at the European parliament in Brussels.

But after pre-registering for tickets in London, Paris and Munich, the Tildens got unexpectedly lucky for four tickets in southern Germany and have turned the concert visit into a mini-holiday: “We’ll visit the in-laws in Bavaria, enjoy the countryside, do a bit of hiking.”

The hope in cities across Europe is that this will be replicated on a massive scale, with fans’ excitement translating into generous spending sprees on food, shopping and leisure. In Stockholm, for example, where authorities are expecting 159,000 visitors to arrive from 135 countries in mid-May, the chamber of commerce has forecast a spending boost of €50m. “We hope the whole town will buzz from the Eras tour,” said Tomas Andersson, a spokesperson for the Swedish capital’s tourism board.

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Whether fans will necessarily act like ordinary tourists, however, is up for debate. “Pop-culture tourists do not necessarily care about traditional buildings and authentic restaurants,” said Maria Lexhagen, a professor at the European Tourism Research Institute, Mid Sweden University.

“Joining up with other fan communities is stronger motivation, as is the idea that they might get closer to the stars themselves. Many of them will map out where Swift is spending her time in the city – they will seek out seemingly marginal but meaningful places like back alleys or coffee shops.” Venues may be hoping for a repeat of Sydney in February, when Swift swept into an unassuming Italian restaurant in the suburbs and sent its name into global media headlines.

In Stockholm the tourism board said it was expecting bookshops and secondhand clothes stores, rather than museums and royal palaces, to attract most of the arriving visitors. Some venues are being proactive: one restaurant within walking distance of the multipurpose Friends Arena in the Solna municipality is putting on a “Taylor Swift brunch experience” with a karaoke stage; the waterfront nightclub Debaser is hosting a pre-concert party on 16 May, an all-ages all-day party with a Swift-themed quiz on 19 May and an afterparty the day after.

Environment

As the Swift circus rolls across the continent, the transport infrastructure of urban centres will also be put to the test. Around the tour’s three-night stop in Dublin at the end of June, Irish Rail has announced additional late-night services to Cork and Limerick to meet an expected increase in demand. Extra tram and bus services are likely to be announced nearer the time.

Unlike rail operators, most airlines do not have capacity to charter additional flights. Due to yield management – airlines adjusting prices based on expected demand – a scramble for airborne journeys into cities that host the Eras tour is more likely to result in more expensive tickets rather than additional flights.

Officials at Lisbon airport said no additional flights had been chartered around Swift’s concerts on 24 and 25 May but that demand would probably be reflected in slightly higher load factors. A spokesperson for Amsterdam Schiphol said general aviation slots could be requested at short notice but nothing out of the ordinary had been logged so far.

Calculating the environmental impact of the tour with any certainty was difficult, experts said. “We can expect that some Swift fans will travel a long way to see one, if not several, shows across Europe”, said Stefan Gössling, a professor of tourism at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. “But measuring the environmental impact of these trips is extremely difficult – it would involve a lot of guesswork.”

This did not mean the carbon footprint was negligible. “Every flight taken by a person adds to demand and hence influences supply considerations,” Gössling said. “The greater the demand, the more aircrafts are in service.”

The pop star’s carbon footprint is easier to estimate. Swift owns two jets by the French manufacturer Dassault, whose journeys are trackable. During the 2023 leg of the Eras tour, Swift’s planes spent 166 hours crisscrossing the US in about 75 individual journeys, though it is possible they were used by people other than the singer.

According to data available through the open-access aviation tracker ADS-B exchange, Swift’s jets caused carbon emissions of about 2,830 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent over the course of the US Eras tour – about 1,700 times the annual contribution of an average person.

A spokesperson for Swift told US media last year that in advance of the tour’s start in March 2023, the pop star bought more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel. Carbon offset credits are tradable certificates that allow purchasers to compensate for emissions by investing in environmental projects that claim to reduce carbon emissions, though recent studies have questioned the efficacy of these schemes.

Additional reporting by Ajit Niranjan

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The Masters 2024: Danny Willett making injury comeback six months earlier than expected

The doctors told Danny Willett he would be out for 12-18 months after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder. Instead, he’s making his comeback at The Masters this week after just six months away from the game.

The 2016 Masters champion had been struggling with a long-term shoulder tear that was exacerbated by playing golf, and it all came to a head during his appearance at the BMW PGA Championship last September.

Having withdrawn from the Horizon Irish Open due to a flare-up, Willett continued on his recurring cycle of rehabbing and playing and teed up feeling good the following week at Wentworth. Despite an MRI revealing the tear had doubled in size earlier in the week, things initially seemed OK during a birdie burst in the first round, but that quickly changed during the back nine.

While he made the cut and finished tied 67th, the following Monday he met with a surgeon and the outcome was worse than he and his team had initially thought.

With surgery the best option for him long-term, Willett quickly accepted that he was facing a long break from the game, but exceeded both doctors and his own expectations by being able to make his return this week at the scene of his memorable Major Championship triumph in 2016.

"It was something that needed doing," Willett told the DP World Tour from Augusta National.

"The last couple of events I played were the Irish Open where I pulled out and Wentworth where I played alright and then it flared up again, it's just been really hard. Week in, week out, it was painful, and you're training so much just to try and get it into a place where you can think you can be able to move and swing a golf club all week, but ultimately, when the doctors went into the shoulder, it was worse than what we thought. In the end it's a good decision, and mentally I've come around to the fact that it needed doing, and I needed to do it now.

"The doctors said it would take 12 to 18 months, and we're just over six. I don't think any of them really would have given me a sniff of playing this week so even the fact there's a chance, you know, of being able to you know to peg it up. Obviously I'll definitely play two rounds, but hopefully you know we can keep knocking off the rust and try and play well."

Putting it down to both an exceptional team and his gritty personality, Willett says his ability to make a comeback at The Masters has been the result of countless hours of hard work.

The Englishman spent six weeks in a 90 degree cast that he could only take off to shower, and spent four months doing an extensive daily rehab routine that included ice baths, saunas, gym work - in addition to spending time visiting and working with a variety of specialists.

Part of that routine was keeping a daily diary that Willett used to reflect on and improve his rehab, looking back to try and learn from both good and bad days as they developed the best regime for him to follow.

"I'm a relatively gritty human being.

"And we just had a great team of people that was helping with the rehab and I made it my goal to kind of do that every day. You know, my job for three or four months was to get up and do all the boring stuff that I needed to do to make sure that the movement was there.

"I really invested in myself. I went down to London to see the specialists and did all the work with them, I had people around me that knew what they were talking about and then ultimately I put the hours in myself in the gym at the house with the saunas and the ice baths and your rehab and then the gym stuff. Just kind of really building it back up from zero. It's just time and hard work, but it's proven to work.

"I had that on (a 90 degree cast) for six weeks, and that's not pleasant. I was sleeping in it, and then you only take it off when you shower. You can't really do anything in it. Luckily it was my left arm. Obviously not great for golf with my left arm, but just in terms of general life stuff.

"I took video clips along the way and, I look back and in the first three or four weeks every time you took it out of that cast to kind of stretch it off or do some of your shoulder mobility stuff it felt like my shoulder was going to fall off. So from there to come to where we are now with the ability to lift the weights and do the bits and be stronger, it's now about knocking the rust off.

"I kept a journal for myself. You know, documenting good days, bad days. When you have a good day, looking at what was it? And then see if you can obviously replicate that. Bad days, can you look back and see if there is anything that you've done that didn't help. And again, the guys helped me out. It's the same with the exercises: Were there any of the exercises that really resonated and helped more than what others did, or were there ones that kind of just aggravated a bit?

"Between us all, we've now got a pretty in-depth thing of weights lifted, reps done, the amount of weight we've shifted over the course of the six months - all of that. Fingers crossed nothing ever happens like that again, but if anything was to happen like that, or even if a friend had a shoulder injury, I'd be pretty confident that I could then really help them out and know what I'm doing."

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With his hard work paid off earlier than he anticipated, Willett is making a cautious return to Augusta National admittedly pain-free but admittedly rusty when it comes to his golf game as he adapts to slightly changed mechanics.

"Now it's just a case of knocking the rust off and practising all the shots that I'll need for this week, because I was never planning on me being ready for this. So after this I've still got eight weeks off until the next tournament so you know, the goal is to then keep getting stronger with it and keep playing and practising to make sure that when I come back fully in the beginning of June that hopefully we're coming back with a shout of actually competing.

"The body feels really good, the body’s strong. I'm able to hit balls. It is purely the just reps of standing over a tee shot and knowing that the swing you're going to make is going to produce the shot you want to make. That’s really now the side of it that I'm trying to get my head around because before I made this move, the ball would do this, or you'd make this move and the ball would do this.

"I've not quite hit enough, and obviously things have changed. The mechanics of my actual body have changed, the muscle structure around my shoulder has changed, so everything's kind of different. It's one of them where you've just got to then really be patient with yourself and you know. I said I'm playing and you've got to just take it easy and really just try and come up with the way and a strategy of getting around the golf course that's going to ultimately be the easiest and less stressful through the week, not taking on any shots that you really don't think you've got a chance of hitting all that kind of stuff just. And then, ultimately really trying to enjoy yourself at what is a really special place for us.

"I guess the work I'm doing will always be classed as rehab but the training now is really good solid training. Lifting a lot, fitness stuff's been fine, but now it's a little bit more of the golf specific stuff in how the hip and pelvis and stuff moves. But in terms of the shoulder now, it's just trying to make sure that it can take as much load as possible and the mechanics of it are now fine.

"Like I said, now that we're back fully fit, it doesn't hurt at all. So it's now just trying to get it to a place where mechanically it's sound, and it's now golf reps and hitting the different shots."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Danny Willett (@danny.willett)

The significance of this week for Willett is a special one, and his feelings towards this tournament helped him to decide to make his comeback at Augusta National - despite the difficulty of the actual course.

"It's a tough golf course to make your comeback on, but in terms of a week, it's amazing, it's it's always going to be a really special place.

"The patrons, you know, all the staff up here at Augusta, I know everyone and it's just nice to come back. You really do feel like you know you are part of something really special when you come and step on property so to be coming back is probably not the wisest move in terms of your golf game (the challenge), but in terms of the whole week, you know there's probably no event better than this to come back to.

"It's the one place that everyone wants to play every year. Obviously being British, The Open is a massive Major for me, but in terms of globally, it's got to be the biggest Major in the world. Obviously being at the same place every year makes it that extra bit special and then the history around it adds to that because you've seen the same shot from the same places, it really is just an incredibly special place. And fortunately for me, I get to come back here for the rest of my life, so it's a pretty cool ticket."

It will be a slightly different week for the Englishman though, who comes with his wife Nicole but without the rest of his family.

He'll be forgoing one of his favourite traditions - the Par 3 contest - this year too, in order to focus purely on making his return. And while he counts memories of those times celebrating with his family among his best memories at Augusta, Willett is still very much looking forward to enjoying everything he can about his favourite week of the year.

"We usually come up with all the family but this week is different because I wasn't going to play, so it's just me and my wife this year," he said.

"It'll be a bit quieter, but by the same token you know it'll still be nice, but unfortunately not going to be doing all the family stuff like the Par 3 and bits like that.

"It was more one of them where if I was going to try and compete and play, it was kind of just get the head down and see if we can kind of just push that extra little bit these last few days and really see if we can be in a place where we feel like we've at least got a sniff of playing all right.

"So, being back here and just being on the property and walking the fairways, being part of it and everything that goes around it, it's a pretty special week for me."

The Masters 2024: Ludvig Åberg embracing expectations on Major debut

Ludvig Åberg says he is embracing the moment amid high expectations as he makes his Major Championship debut at the 88th Masters Tournament.

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Paganini Prize

The Paganini Prize is an international violin competition held in Genoa, the birthplace of the violinist Niccolò Paganini.

During the various stages, the competitors, by performing the pieces selected from those indicated in the musical program of the call for participation, must highlight their personalities and musical skills, proving their acclaimed artistic and technical abilities, respecting Paganini’s text and original aesthetic and stylistic style, performing pieces of high difficulty for solo violin – such as the 24 Capricci – with piano accompaniment and – in the final stage – playing with the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

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A pianist and chamber musician, a pupil of Alexis Weissenberg and Viktor Merzhanov, his encounters with Isaac Stern and Adriano Vendramelli were decisive for his training. Riccardo Muti called him ‘a superlative musician’.

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