Culture – Italy’s cultural news was of particular interest to the foreign press this week. For the Wall Street Journal it was an article about painting and the artist Lorenzo Lotto who has only recently been “rediscovered”, centuries after his death (July 6 – A Modern Portraitist, Ahead of His Time*). On the other hand, it was literature that featured in Liberation in a piece about ‘Un po’ per amore, un po’ per rabbia’ by Pino Cacucci – a collection of writings about rebels and heroes, injustices and “fights”(July 6 – PINO CACUCCI, L’ITALIEN QUI «PENSE AVEC LES PIEDS»*), whilst another article in the same paper was dedicated to ‘Il coraggio di dire no’, another collection of writings, this time conversations and interviews with Mario Rigoni Stern (July 11 – MARIO RIGONI STERN, NEIGES DE SANG put together by Giuseppe Mendicino. Meantime, El Pais reviewed ‘L’integrazione’ by Luciano Bianciardi and talked about how the author is “disillusioned” by the “cultural activism” in post-war Italy (July 9 – Dulce sátira). Der Standard, on the other hand, took a look at Paolo Rumiz’ new book, ‘Il risveglio del fiume segreto’, that sets out to explore an unknown part of Italy along the banks of the River Po (July 11 – Paolo Rumiz: Auf dem Po durch ein unbekanntes Italien), whereas El Pais wrote about Pippo Delbono’s latest production, presented at the Festival di Ribadavia(July 11 – Pippo Delbono: “Es hora de acabar con el teatro burgués”) whilst the same Spanish paper wrote about Italy’s National School for Cinema considered to be one of the most influential in the world, and its new campus, recently opened in Valencia (July 8 – La Scuola Nazionale di Cinema abre en València su única sede fuera de Italia).
Finance – Financial news this week focused on Generali, and how the insurance company is now focused on future growth – (on July 5 and 6 July Bloomberg – Generali OKs Sale Valuing German Life Unit at $1.2 Billion; Reuters – Italy’s Generali almost at the end of planned asset sales: CEO ; New York Times – Italy’s Generali Almost at the End of Planned Asset Sales-CEO). A second piece from Reuters looked at Cerved, another company strategizing for future growth and with important deals in the pipeline(July 5 – Italy’s Cerved CEO says working on important M&A deals).
Tourism, Food & Wine – Tourism featured in The Guardian with a photo-gallery of the “impressive” coral forests recently discovered off the coast of Sicily’s Aeolian Islands (July 9 – Stunning coral forests discovered around Sicily’s deep sea volcanoes – in pictures), whilst the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung explained that Sicily is once again a region that appeals to foreign visitors (July 5 – Zweitwohnsitz am Vulkan). Der Standard extolled the virtues of Lecce and all its magnificent baroque architecture (July 10 – Lecce: Wo der Barock rockt), whilst Expansion took in the Amalfi Coast, and how one of the area’s most exclusive summer events, the Ravello Festival, really makes it “pop” (July 6 – La Costa Amalfitana brilla con el Festival de Ravello).
Tourism combo featured in several papers, with the Wall Street Journal in search of the freshest seafood in Abruzzo July 10 – Where to Feast on Italy’s Freshest Seafood? These Historic Piers) whilst the Financial Times was in San Fruttuoso in Liguria to explain what “real” Pesto alla Genovese is all about (July 10 – Liguria: a lesson at the birthplace of pesto). Morevoer, Der Standard provided readers with a vegan version of “pappardelle ai finferli”(mushrooms) (July 10 – Pappardelle ai finferli: Eierschwammerlpasta auf die vegane Art).
Wine also featured – in an article in Expansion that was in Verona, this year’s host of the “Great Capital Wine” event, taking a particular interest in the dry, red wine, Amarone (July 7 – Verona, Amarone y las Grandes Ciudades del Vino).
Finally, Les Echos dedicated an article to Italianway, an Italian company that, with its selection of quality, luxury apartments is setting out to provide the hospitality giant “Airbnb” with some real competition (July 11 – Italianway, le concurrent de luxe d’Airbnb).
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