Italian tennis makes history – In a match that will go down in the history books, Flavia Pennetta won the US final against fellow Italian Roberta Vinci and the international press had nothing but praise for the two Italian tennis players. There were many articles describing the match and Pennetta’s announcement afterwards that she intended to retire. On 12 September, the Wall Street Journal said: Still smiling, Roberta Vinci savors 1st Grand Slam final* and also Flavia Pennetta of Italy says after winning US Open title that she plans to retire* and a day later, the New York Times wrote – Flavia Pennetta Wins 1st Major Title in Grand Slam Finale*. The 12 September issue of Time magazine went with a simple – Italy’s Flavia Pennetta Wins U.S. Open whilst the headline in London’s The Times on 13 September read – Fantastic Flavia wins…then quits and a day later, Germany’s Die Welt, wrote Italienisches Märchen. On 13 September, the New York Times went as far as suggesting the two Italians should be celebrated in the manner of US presidents– ‘Build a Mount Rushmore’ for Pennetta and Vinci* and on the 14 September, The Times featured a profile of the triumphant Pennetta – Retiring Flavia Pennetta makes history,* whilst runner-up Roberta Vinci was featured in a piece in Time magazine on 11 September entitled – Meet the Woman Who Just Beat Serena Williams).
The Venice Film Festival – the end of the Festival means that the spotlights the foreign press has been shining on Venice have now dimmed and the last few wrap up articles to appear came from the Financial Times, on 11 September, that wrote of its particular idiosyncrasies – Venice Film Festival: stranger than fiction* and the New York Times that chose, on the same day, to concentrate on the prize winners, starting with the film Desde alla’ (original title) and its Venezuelan director – Lorenzo Vigas’ ‘From Afar’s Golden Lion at Venice*. The same film was featured by both Reuters and El Mundo on 12 September, the former with a piece entitled – ‘Desde Alla’ chosen best film at 72nd Venice Film Festival and the latter with – La venezolana ‘Desde allá’ gana el León de Oro por sorpresa.
The Economy also found its way into the foreign press, with Reuters pointing out, on 15 September, that Bank lending in Italy shows signs of recovery although on the previous day, Brazil’s Valor Economico had chosen to concentrate on Enel’s investment plans – Enel mantém plano de investir € 3 bilhões até 2019 no Brasil* and it was the relaunching of Geox shoes that had interested Le Monde on 11 September in its article – L’italien Geox se tire d’un mauvais pas*.
Tourism & lifestyle – subjects that never fail to appear somewhere , cropped up this week in the New York Times on 13 September in an article about a brand new train service with papal connections – Vatican Launches Train Service to Castel Gandolfo Gardens* (in the grounds of the Pope’s summer residence) and just two days earlier, the same paper also had a suggestion for aspiring cooks – When in Rome, Learn to Cook Italian*. Le Monde, on the other hand, published an article, on 14 September, on the style of Riccardo Tisci, the man who has headed up Givenchy for the last ten years – L’obsession urbaine de Riccardo Tisci*.
* marked articles viewable online upon payment or registration