Investments & internationalization – It is not just the best of Italian industry that is attracting foreign investments. It seems that Inter, one of the country’s sporting icons, is looking like an interesting prospect to Suning, the major Chinese retailing group that is also active in the consumer electronics sector. The story, all about the group buying a majority share in the team and the promise of additional funds to buy new players as well – has attracted the attention of most of the world’s top newspapers:Time (June 6 – Italy’s Iconic Soccer Club Inter Milan Has Just Been Bought by a Chinese Retailer), the New York Times (June 3 – Chinese Company Suning Buys Majority Stake in Inter Milan*), two French papers such as Les Echos (June 6 – Foot: l’Inter Milan passe sous pavillon chinois) and Libération (June 6 – Inter et AC Milan: vers un football italien en ombres chinoises). The story also appeared in the German press: Handelsblatt (June 6 – Italien: Chinesen kaufen Mehrheit bei Inter Mailand)and Sueddeutsche Zeitung (June 6 – Mailands Fußball wird chinesisc) as well as in Spain’s El País (June 6 – El Inter pasa a manos chinas and Expansión (June 6 – La china Suning se hace con un 68,5% del Inter de Milán.).
Other foreign funds regard Grandi Stazioni, thanks to the successful bid of 900 million made by the group comprising Italy’s Borletti and France’s Antin Infrastructure Partners (Reuters, June 8 – Italo-French group to buy Grandi Stazioni Retail for $1 bln) and Riso Scotti, that is set to benefit from Spain’s Ebro Foods decision to increase its share in the company (Expansión, June 1 – Ebro Foods eleva su participación en la italiana Riso Scotti al 40%). The foreign press has also been reporting on how Italian businesses are strengthening their involvement in businesses abroad. Prime examples are Enel, which, has just inaugurated a new solar plant in Chile (Bloomberg, May 30 – Italy’s Enel Starts 160-Megawatt Solar Plant in Chile) and Barilla, featured in Les Echos, that is currently considering expanding into Asia (May 30 – Barilla, le géant des pâtes italiennes à l’heure des choix*). The same French paper also reported on Nerio Alessandri and the growth of his company, Technogym which has recently gone public on the Milan Stock Exchange (May 27 – L’« Ingegnere » du fitness).
Culture – Italian literature, theatre, opera and art have also featured in the international press this week. Wall Street Journal was exploring the secrets of Naples as revealed in books by Maurizio de Giovanni (May 27 – The Mysteries of Naples*). It was Collodi, however, that featured in a piece in The Guardian, in which it explained the role played by the town in the collective mind of Italy and in particular, its culture (June 7 – ‘Imprinted in the soul of every Italian’: Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio).
The Washington Post published several Italy oriented articles: it reported on the passing of Giorgio Albertazzi (May 28 – Italian theater actor, director Giorgio Albertazzi dies) and then it switched its attention to the comeback after 11 years of a much-loved Italian conductor, opera and Milan, Riccardo Muti (June 5- Muti returns to La Scala stage for 1st time in 11 years). It also described how the spirit of a very Italian festival was alive and well in the Mississippi Delta (May 27 – Spoleto Festival USA begins 40th season in South Carolina).
The New York Times, on the other hand, chose to run with a story about a recent Italian-American agreement that has nothing to do with business but rather with art and technology, involving the Uffizi in Florence and Indiana University (May 27 – Uffizi, With Indiana University, Will Digitize Ancient Sculptures*). El Mundo published an article about seventy-two unknown paintings by 17th century Italian artists currently being exhibited in Madrid’s Royal Palace (June 8 – Hallazgos italianos en las Colecciones Reales) whilst in France le Matin, reported on how contemporary art has brought Italy and Morocco together (June 6 – L’Italie et le Maroc dans un projet commun d’art contemporain).
Tourism – The opening of the installation created by artist Christo on Lake Iseo, expected to attract some half-a-million visitors, caught the eye of several foreign papers: The Washington Post (June 7 – Artist Christo walks on water with “Floating Piers”), the Guardian (June 8 – Walk on water: Christo floats 3km path across Italy’s Lake Iseo) and Les Echos (June 9 – Christo emballe en Italie).
However, it was another Lombardy town, Piuro in Valtellina, and the re-opening of the Palazzo Vertemate Franchi for the summer season that had interested the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (June 2 – Eine Messe für die Stadt Piuro).
The New York Times had written about Punta Ala (May 26 – In This Part of Tuscany, No Souvenirs Necessary*) and it also featured a photographic piece on an old farm in the hills of Montalcino (May 27 – Bringing Out the Beauty of a Once-Derelict Mill in Italy*). It was the corners of Rome tourists don’t know about, however, that featured in an article in Libération (June 3 – Babas à Rome).
Food – It was the food of Apulia, “one of the most interesting regions of Italy” that featured in a review, in Germany’s Sueddetsche Zeitung, on Angelo Sabatelli’s restaurant, the Masseria Spina (June 3 – Angelo Sabatelli). The Financial Times provided its readers with a few typically Roman recipes (June 3 – Recipe: Gnocchi Romana, baked artichoke*) whilst the New York Times learnt where to eat traditional Italian family-style food (June 4 – Restaurants Where the Italian Family Tradition Endures*).In the end Libération had chosen to feature Giovanni Passerini’s new Paris restaurant (May 27 – Passerini, la renaissance italienne).
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