Economy – International expansion by Italian groups has attracted the interest of the foreign media. Les Echos reports on the Milan-Paris link launched by Trenitalia, explaining that “for the first time a foreign operator will compete with SNCF in high-speed rail” (December 9 – Trenitalia lancera ses TGV Paris-Milan le 18 décembre*) and emphasizing that, in Italy, opening the market to competition “has allowed fares to be reduced and service quality to be improved” (December 14 – TGV : en Italie, la concurrence a amélioré le service et fait baisser les prix*).
Meanwhile, Reuters focuses on Lancia’s plan that “includes expansion through Europe” with 3 new electrified models by the end of 2028 and a premium positioning (December 13 – Lancia to mimic Mercedes in pursuit of a future inside Stellantis); the agency also reports Edison’s spending of € 3 billion to allow the company to “double its renewable energy capacity” by 2030 (December 15 –Edison to spend 3 bln euros to drive renewable growth to 2030). The African market is also covered, with the Italian engineering firm MICLA opening for business in Tunisia and recruiting engineers (La Presse, December 13 – Investissement La société italienne “MICLA” débutera prochainement ses activités en Tunisie avec une dizaine d’ingenieurs).
Luxury takes centre stage in The New York Times, with a new Bulgari watch (December 10 – Bulgari Glitzes Up MB&F’s Women’s Watch) and with the possibility offered by Loro Piana to trace “some of the world’s most luxurious cashmere” from its origins to the shops (December 12 – Do You Know Where Your Sweater Came From?).
Culture – In cinema, abundant coverage is devoted to celebrating the life of Lina Wertmüller, the “first woman nominated for a best director Oscar” (The New York Times, December 9 – Lina Wertmüller, Italian Director of Provocative Films, Dies at 93*; El País, December 9 – Muere la cineasta italiana Lina Wertmüller, primera directora candidata al Oscar) creator of “provocative” films, thanks to a “potent mix of sex and politics” (Bloomberg, December 9 – Wertmueller, 1st Woman Nominated for Directing Oscar, Dies*; The Guardian, December 9 – Lina Wertmüller obituary), a “cult figure on the New York film scene” (Reuters, December 9 – Italy’s Wertmuller, first woman to get Oscar director nomination, dies at 93), who was honoured by Hollywood with the Academy Honorary Award for her career (The Guardian, December 9 – Lina Wertmüller: a thrilling live-wire who displayed a colossal black-comic daring).
El País publishes an interview with Nanni Moretti (December 12 – Nanni Moretti: “¿Rodar una serie? Las plataformas son invasivas y se entrometen en todo”) on the occasion of the presentation in Spain of Three Floors; the daily also devotes coverage to one of Spain’s “most prestigious festivals”: the Italian Cinema Exhibition in Barcelona (December 10 – Mostra de Cinema Italià: de los festivales más prestigiosos, a Barcelona).
Other reports cover the show that the Uffizi is dedicating to Renaissance Maps (The Guardian, December 13 – Maps of Renaissance Tuscany on show for first time in 20 years), and to the exhibition organized by Scuderie del Quirinale to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death (Le Monde, December 14 – A Rome, les mille facettes de « L’Enfer » de Dante Alighieri*). In archaeology, there is the discovery in Liguria of the burial of a new-born from the Mesolithic, considered “Europe’s oldest tomb of this kind” (El País, December 15 – Descubierta en Italia la tumba de un recién nacido más antigua de Europa).
And while Les Echos dedicates a report to the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano, asking whether this institution, which “keeps jealous vigil over the restoration of the world’s third-largest church,” might not represent a model for Notre-Dame as well (December 10 – La cathédrale de Milan, un modèle pour Notre-Dame ?), Die Zeit commemorates the life of the late Riccardo Ehrmann, the Italian journalist who “played a central role” on the day the Berlin Wall fell (December 16 – Italienischer Berlin-Korrespondent Riccardo Ehrman gestorben)
Cuisine – The usual culinary reports in foreign news outlets focus this week on cultivating olives in the “extremely fertile” soil of the slopes of Mount Etna” (The New York Times, December 13 – Cultivating Olives on the Slopes of Mount Etna*); on the opening of the restaurant Rebellato in Casablanca (Le Matin, December 15 – Le restaurant Rebellato Paris ouvre ses portes à Casablanca); and on the recipes for the Apulian pastries with vanilla cream, called “sospiri” (“sighs”) (Der Standard, December 14 – Tette delle monache: Nonnenbrüste mit Vanillecrème).
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