The plans of Italian finance and industry – Development in private banking, asset management and insurance, partly through acquisitions. That was how Intesa Sanpaolo spoke of its plans for growth Financial Times, 23 – Intesa Sanpaolo’s growth plans*; Les Echos, November 27 – Intesa veut développer divers segments par acquisitions-presse) while the international papers dedicated articles to the Italian banking group, also discussing the possible targets of the acquisitions campaign, such as the British Coutts, today held by the Royal Bank of Scotland (Financial Times, November 23 –Intesa sets sights on UK with possible bid for Coutts*).
The foreign press also showed its interest in industrial plans. While the Algerian Cevital are preparing to take over Lucchini di Piombino ( Les Echos, November 26 – Acier : Lucchini va céder un site à Cevital), there was also interest last week in the progress of Fincantieri, recently listed on the stock exchange and now exploring possible agreements with Chinese groups (Wall Street Journal, November 21 –Carnival, Fincantieri Explore Possible Chinese Shipbuilding Venture*) and could resume its activitie in France together with the Koreans of STX (Les Echos, November 26 – Fincantieri étudie la reprise des chantiers de Saint-Nazaire*).
Science, culture and art – As for culture and science, the Washington Post reported on the arrival of the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti on board the international space station (November 21 – Space station rarity: 2 women on long-term crew), other papers concentrated on art. The Financial Tiems ran an article on the works by Perugino on show in Paris (November 26 – Pietro Perugino, Maître de Raphael, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris – review*), and the Wall Street Journal published a story on the restoration of the most important piece of Renaissance sculpture in North America, the Adam by Tullio Lombardo, the teacher of Michelangelo (November 23 – After the Fall, Restored to Grace*). There was also interest in contemporary art, particularly the artist Maurizio Cattelan (Financial Times, November 21 –Maurizio Cattelan on art and curating his punchy Turin show*).
There was also interest in cinema: El Paid wrote about Madrid’s festival of Italian cinema (November 25 – El eco transalpino) and Le Monde interviewed actor and director Asia Argento (November 21 – Asia Argento, réalisatrice : « J’ai grandi trop vite »)
Tourism from the Lakes to Puglia – The foreign press again showed interest in Italian tourist destinations, starting with Lago Maggiore, the Cinderella of Italian lakes, now attracting buyers (Financial Times, November 21 – Italy’s Lake Maggiore, the ‘Cinderella’ looking to charm buyers*). And, as Bloomberg pointed out (November 25 –Italian Home Sales Rebounding After Eight-Year Slump), the Italian real estate market is reviving, there is also interest in the great villas, the subject of the New York Times column, such as the Limonaia Capponi in Florence (November 25 – Italian Villa With a Scent of Lemon).
So, as El Pais went to Rome to follow the restoration of the Coliseum (November 23 – El Coliseo recupera el color del Imperio), the New York Times, went to Puglia where, in the Borgo Egnazia resort, the low season picked up with cultural courses of all kinds (November 25 – In Quiet Puglia, Lots of Classes*). Finally, the New York paper reported on a trip to Italy, through a taste of amaro with the goal of chosing the best digestive (New York Times, November 26 – That’s Amaro: Jody Williams and Rita Sodi on Their Favorite Postprandial Sips).
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