Privatization and international investments – Fincantieri, Poste, Enav: Italy has launched a vast plan of privatization, and the news was reported last week in the foreign news agencies and press (May 16 to 18 in Bloomberg – Italian State Asset Sales Will Be ‘Vast,’ Finance Minister Says; Italy to Sell Stakes in Postal Service, Air Traffic Controller; and o Globo – Itália aprova plano de venda para correios e controle de tráfego aéreo).
Moreover, there are positive signs that the goal of making the capital of Italian funds available to the foreign press is in sight. One example is the shares being bought by the Brazilian finance bank BTG Pactual in the capital of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which the daily O Globo recalls is one of the world’s oldest banks (May 14 and 15 – BTG Pactual investe no Monte dei Paschi para o médio prazo, diz jornal; BTG Pactual compra fatia do banco mais antigo do mundo)
Made in Italy: food and design – Get lost in the world of fashion, imagining the owners of these magnificent creations. The Sunday magazine of The Hindu dedicated a long piece to the Gucci Museum of Florence, suggesting it as an alternative to the overdose of Bernini, Botticelli, and Caravaggio in the Tuscan city (May 17 – Designer dreams).
The allure of high end Italian design is also confirmed by the success of Maserati Ghibli in Arabia Saudita, where – according to Arab News – the carmaker’s sales are getting better and better (May 18 – Maserati Ghibli attracts new buyers in Saudi Arabia). But Made in Italy is not only design. Le Figaro dedicated an article to the 50th anniversary of Nutella and its success worldwide (May 17 – Nutella, cinquante ans en famille).
Culture: cinema and tourism – The foreign press also gave space to culture, the cinema in particular. Valor Economico wrote again about The Great Beauty (May 16 – Um belo e raro passeio por Roma*), and El Pais published an editorial by director David Treuba on the career of Toni Servillo (May 20 – Servillo). In addition, the Brazilian O Globo, wrote about Ermanno Olmi, the custodian of Italian cinema, based on the retrospective on his work held in Rio de Janeiro (May 20 – Ermanno Olmi, o ‘guardião’ do cinema italiano).
Tourism and history met in the itinerary created in Piave, in Fossalta, where Ernest Hemingway was hit by a mortar in 1918 and which today hosts an itinerary to understand how the horrors of the First World War influenced the famous Farewell to Arms (El Pais, May 20 – La herida italiana de Hemingway) Finally, the epic of motor sports has come alive through the Mille Miglia, as reported by the New York Times. (May 19 – Mille Miglia Celebrates Cars From Motorsports History*).
* marked articles viewable online upon payment or registration