Economy – This week, foreign press reports featuring Italy focused on the economy and other financial news, and the automotive sector in particular following the acquisition by the Italian investment fund, Investindustrial of the iconic British manufacturer of sports cars – the Morgan Motor Company. (On March 5 in Reuters – Italy’s Investindustrial buys majority stake in UK’s Morgan Motor Company; The Guardian – Italian investment firm to buy Morgan Motor Company). Cars were also the subject of a piece by Bloomberg about the most powerful and speedy hypercar ever produced in Italy, namely Pinnfarina’s Battista (March 4 – First Drive: The $2.2 Million Pininfarina Battista Electric Hypercar). Italian banking services provider, Nexi, also got written up thanks to recent moves that mean it looks set to have one of the three biggest European IPOs in 2019; (On March 1 in Financial Times – Payments group Nexi boosts profits ahead of IPO*; Reuters – Italy’s Nexi approves 600-700 mln euro cash call as part of IPO).
Culture – Cultural news came from Die Zeit with an article that paid tribute to Renaissance art prompted by exhibitions dedicated to Mantegna, Bellini and Tiziano now open in Berlin and Frankfurt (March 1 – Die Besten in der Malerei*). Then The Guardian wrote about the ‘Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival’ exhibition that is part of the Milan Triennale (March 4 – From space boots to life as a goat, Milan Triennale takes on apocalypse) and the Wall Street Journal wrote about its encounter with the stylist Brunello Cucinelli who spoke about beauty and the cultural aspects of handcrafted objects (March 5 – Brunello Cucinelli Shares a Few of His Favorite Things*). Also Le Monde wrote about the latest TV adaptation of Umberto Eco’s “In the Name of the Rose” (March 5 – « Le Nom de la rose » arrive sur le bouquet Orange*).
Tourism, Food & Wine Les Echos was at the ’“ultrachic” Hotel Cipriani, describing it as “Venice’s last secret” (February 28 – Le Cipriani, dernier secret de Venise*) whilst the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was enjoying the traditional carnival atmosphere and events in Ivrea, in Piedmont (March 3 – Italiens Orangeschlacht) and Der Standard was in Grado, in Friuli exploring its “sea and nature” (March 7 – Unsere tägliche Reise: Zum Frühlingserwachen nach Grado). The New York Times was tasting wines produced in the Valtellina, an alpine district of Lombardy (February 28 – The Hills Have Valtellina) and then the focus of another article in the same paper was further east with a piece that featured chef patron, Massimo Bottura’s choice of the 5 best places to eat in the Dolomites (March 6 – Five Places to Eat in the Dolomites). It also provided readers with the best recipe for a very Italian soup made of chicken broth with an egg, cheese and herbs (March 6 – Make Stracciatella!). Meanwhile, El Mundo set out to explain that in fact a real “carbonara” does not, as so many Spaniards mistakenly believe, have cream in the recipe! (March 2 – Así se prepara la carbonara tradicional (y olvídate de la nata) ).
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