Standing up to the virus with culture, design, and cuisine – A country forced to change its lifestyle, but that still continues to impress the rest of the world: this is the image of Italy that may be gleaned from the reports in the foreign press not reserved for the coronavirus emergency. In culture, a number of publications cover the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death: The New York Times and Die Welt, awaiting the exhibition’s reopening, pay a visit to the show that the Scuderie del Quirinale has dedicated to the artist’s “short, but beautiful life” (March 6 – Rome Celebrates the Short, but Beautiful, Life of Raphael; Das Genie, die Kunst und der Infektionstod*), while Die Zeit interviews the director of the Dresden Museum where one of Raphael’s paintings, the Sistine Madonna, is kept (March 11 – Anmut und Würde).
In its Style Magazine, The New York Times shines a spotlight on cultural tourism, paying a visit to Capraia’s Forte San Giorgio, a sixteenth-century Genoese fortress available for short-term rental, becoming “a monument in which you can stay overnight” (March 7 – On the Cliffs of Italy, a Fortress for Rent). El País, on the other hand, covers “the oldest view of Venice,” by the pilgrim Niccolò da Poggibonsi, dating to the fourteenth century and discovered in a Florentine library (March 4 – Hallada la vista más antigua de Venecia en el diario de un peregrino).
There are also some reports dedicated to design. El Mundo’s supplement Yo Dona visits Palazzo Burlamacchi in Lucca, the eleventh-century palazzo chosen by South African Stef Alberg Bothma designer as his residence (March 7 – La nueva vida de un espectacular Palazzo en la Toscana). Le Monde, on the other hand, covers Milan, “the starchitects’ playground,” reporting on the city’s “radical transformations” (March 5 – Milan, terrain de jeu des architectes stars). And in the Lombard metropolis, the skyscrapers of Porta Nuova recently welcomed the new electric Fiat 500, “an icon that capitalizes on all its popularity to inspire change,” according to the Moroccan daily Le Matin (March 10 – Première voiture entièrement électrique du Groupe FCA).
Cuisine also makes the news: Financial Times offers recommendations for eating in Cosenza, “From freshly made pasta with lobster to the best hazelnut gelato” (March 6 – My addresses: chef-patron Francesco Mazzei on Cosenza, Calabria*), while Italy takes centre stage in some of the “best noodle recipes” collected by Bloomberg (March 5 – A 2,000-Year-Old Menu Staple Is Peaking in 2020*).
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