Economy – With the banking sector busy with stress tests, Italy seems to be rising above the difficulties that have arisen as a result of the UK referendum on leaving the European Union. According to the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Handelsblatt, Enav, the first stock market listing following Brexit, proved successful, and they also underlined that it was an important test of investors’ current attitude towards Italy (July 21 – Italy air traffic control sale set to land €750m*, July 26 – Italy’s Enav Rises 12 Percent After First Post-Brexit IPO; July 26 – Starkes Börsendebüt der italienischen Flugsicherung). Reuters, on the other hand, reported that the e-commerce giant, Amazon, is working on a plan to invest some 500 million Euros on the Italian market (July 21 – Amazon set to increase bet on Italy’s digital turnaround plan: sources).
Italians abroad – This week, Italians have featured in two interviews. Les Echos spoke to Stefano Scarpetta director for Employment, Labor and Social Affairs with the OCSE (July 26 – Stefano Scarpetta : «Avec la robotisation, l’enjeu n’est pas la disparition du travail mais sa transformation»*), whilst El Mundo directed its attention towards Stefano Sannino, Italy’s new ambassador in Madrid (July 23 – El nuevo embajador italiano: “La relación más fuerte con España es mi marido”).
Food & Drink – The foreign press never seems to “lose its appetite” for stories about Italian food and drink, with some articles this week detailing the best places to eat pizza and other traditional dishes in cities like Barcelona (El País, July 22 – Cinc pizzes ben diferents a Barcelona), or New York (New York Times, July 26 – Pasquale Jones Brings a Little Novelty to Little Italy). However, the success being enjoyed by Eataly in the Big Apple is shown by the opening of its second shop there (New York Times, July 25 – Eataly Expands in Manhattan to World Trade Center*). Campari is also enjoying success in the US, with the brand’s Aperol doing particularly well as a brunch-time drink (Wall Street Journal, July 25 – Campari Targets ‘Cool’ Brunch Spots to Push Aperol Liqueur*).
Tourism – Yet more seasonal tourism news this week, with the New York Times publishing two articles one suggesting Parma as a worthy destination thanks to its well-deserved reputation for food that which might, after all, also whet one’s appetite for art, music and history (July 21 – 36 Hours in Parma, Italy*). The other focused on NaturArte, a project designed to attract yet more tourists, now underway in the village of Praiano, on the Amalfi Coast in Campania (July 20 – By the Sea Where the Sirens Called, an Italian Town Beckons Tourists With Art*).
Italy also featured quite heavily in the Spanish press this week, with three articles in El País alone. It recommended hotels around Lake Como that can boast the most evocative swimming pools (July 26 – Las piscinas de hotel más alucinantes). On the meantime, it described a journey through Norman Sicily (July 24 – El espíritu de la Sicilia normanda) and earlier still in the week, it ran a feature piece on the history of Venice’s Ghetto (July 21 – El poder del gueto de Venecia). El Mundo, on the other hand, concentrated its efforts on exploring Florence’s so-called left bank or in other words, the district known as Oltrarno (July 21 – Florencia al otro lado del Arno).
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