Culture – Positive reporting on Italy during the Easter holidays focuses on culture above all. While Le Nouvel Observateur recounts the celebrations of Dantedì, the day that, from Ravenna to the Vatican, “Italy dedicates to its sommo poeta” (March 25 – De Ravenne au Vatican, l’Italie célèbre Dante, son “poète suprême”), The New York Times recommends, among the three art exhibitions “to see right now,” the show that a Manhattan gallery is devoting to the ceramics of Milanese sculptor Fausto Melotti, “known for abstract, lightweight constructions of metal filaments” (The New York Times, March 31 – 3 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now*). The American daily also marks the death of Gianluigi Colalucci, chief restorer of the Vatican Museums who, with his work on the Sistine Chapel, showed the world Michelangelo’s true colours” (April 5 – Gianluigi Colalucci, Who Showed Michelangelo’s True Colors, Dies at 91*).
In Financial Times, it is again art that takes centre stage, with modern and contemporary collections housed in the “dazzling new Palazzo Luce” in Lecce, an “eighteenth-century jewel” right behind the Cathedral in Puglia’s Baroque capital” (April 2 – Artistic licence: the dazzling new Palazzo Luce). Cinema is also covered, with Manhattan’s Film Forum reopening with a screening of Federico Fellini’s La Strada, the “newly restored masterpiece” that “won the first competitive Oscar for best foreign film” (The New York Times, March 31 – Film Forum Is Reopening With a Classic: Fellini’s ‘La Strada’*). La Presse, on the other hand, deals with documentaries, as the daily recounts, in a review of the film made in collaboration between Italy and Tunisia, the story of the Genoese fort of the city of Tabarka (April 2 – Tabarka: le fort génois objet d’un documentaire tuniso-italien).
Tourism – Culture also takes centre stage in the articles dedicated to Italy’s places of tourism. Reuters reports on the Civita di Bagnoregio’s candidacy as a UNESCO world heritage site (April 6- Italy’s ‘Dying Town’ seeks UNESCO heritage nod), while Die Welt devotes an article to the history of the Venice Ghetto (March 29 – Wie das Ghetto in Venedig zu seinem Namen kam). Lastly, Financial Times devotes coverage to luxury tourism: the British daily, in an article on architectural trends, discusses “residential projects … in areas of outstanding beauty,”, citing as an example a villa on Lake Como on sale for more than € 5 million (March 26 – No pane, no gain: properties with the most spectacular windows*).
Lifestyle – Reports on Italian style abound. The New York Times Style Magazine visits the Roman home of Norbert Stumpfl, executive design director of Brioni, “where Ancient Rome meets minimalism” (April 2 – When Ancient Rome Meets Minimalism*), while Financial Times includes the urban houseplant shop Wild Milano among its “cult shops” (April 6 – Cult Shop: the plant matchmakers of Milan*). And while The Wall Street Journal reports the story of a couple of American Fiat 500 collectors, explaining that “it is impossible to be in a bad mood when driving” such a car (April 3 – These Fiat 500s Will Make You Smile*), Der Standard does not renounce cultural coverage, offering the recipe for chocolate cake with salt (April 6 – Rezept für saftigen Schokokuchen mit Walnüssen und Meersalz).
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