Culture – Culture takes centre stage in the foreign press’s coverage of Italy. In painting, The Financial Times travels to Rivoli and reports on the opening to the public of Villa Cerutti, enriched by its eponymous art collection (April 26 – Villa Cerutti: secrets of a wealthy recluse*), while Libération reviews the show in Paris dedicated to Carlo Levi, “a poetic and political exhibition” on the Italian painter and writer, recalling “the history of the opponents of the fascist regime” (April 26 – CARLO LEVI, HUILES LUMIÈRES*). Opponents of the dictatorship are also covered by El País with a portrait of Altiero Spinelli, “fighter for European democracy” and author of the Ventotene Manifesto, “required reading” even today (April 28 – Cómo se hizosabio el federalista Spinelli). The Guardian, on the other hand, tells the story of a different exile, the Jewish one, taking readers on a visit to the installation that Edmund de Waal has created as a testament to Venice’s Ghetto Nuovo, at Ateneo Veneto (April 24 –A library of exile: Edmund de Waal on Venice’s Jewish Ghetto). The British daily then reviews the exhibition that Maxxi in Rome has dedicated to Paolo Di Paolo, the photographer who chronicled Italy’s economic boom (April 29 – Paolo Di Paolo’s Italy in the 1950s and 60s – in pictures). Lastly, in cinema, Libération writes about Menocchio, Alberto Fasulo’s aesthetizing film in competition at the latest Locarno film festival (April 16 – «MENOCCHIO», PORTRAIT SANS FLAMME*).
The genius of Leonardo – In tourism, international newspapers cover the events and exhibitions dedicatedto Leonardo da Vinci on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death (Handelsblatt, May 1 – Der Mann, der alleswissen wollte). Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung pay a visit to the Tuscan town of Vinci, “following in the great genius’s footsteps” (April 30 – Auf den Spuren des Universalgenies; May 1 – Die Verzweiflung der Universalisten). The Washington Post explains how reproductions of some of Leonardo’s inventions can be touched – and played with – in Florence (April 30 – In Florence, Italy, da Vinci’s inventions are there for the touching), while The Guardian, L’Orient Le Jour, and Der Standard recount how two museum researchers in Vinci are trying to map Leonardo’s DNA (April 29 – Italians try to crack Leonardo da Vinci DNA code with lock of hair; unemèche de cheveux de Léonard de Vinci exposée pour la 1ère fois; Haarsträhneentdeckt: Forscherwollen Leonardo da Vincis DNA-Code knacken).
Style – In lifestyle and fashion, Die Zeit interviews Maria Grazia Chiuri, the fashion designer at the head of the House of Dior (April 19 – La Diorissima), while Bloomberg relates how the English-speaking world’s tradition of elite club houses has come to Milan (April 18 – Milan’s Elite Soon to Have Clubhouses All Their Own).
Tourism, wine and food – Financial Times proposes a driving tour of Puglia and Basilicata,taking in “cuisine, Greek heritage and palazzos restored as hotels” (April 26 – La dolce vita on a road trip in Puglia and Basilicata*). In wine & food news, Financial Times reports on the “success” of Pasta Grannies, the English-language YouTube channel where real “Italian ‘nonnas’” teach cookery (April 26 – Pasta Grannies: the Italian ‘nonnas’ who’ve become a YouTube sensation*). The New York Times, on the other hand, makes the case for Marsala wine, exhorting readers to “cook with it, drink it – just don’t disregard” it (April 23 – The Case for Marsala*).
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