Telecom split – Telecom Italia and its decision to separate its fixed-line network received the attention of the foreign press this week. Spanish papers were interested (Expansion, May 30 – Telecom Italia convertirá su red de telefonía fija en una nueva compañía) in the role of Telefonica in the spin-off as well as other major papers internazionali (May 30 and 31 in O Globo – Telecom Italia dá primeiro passo para cisão de rede; Financial Times – Telecom Italia agrees to separate fixed-line network*; Wall Street Journal – Telecom Italia to Split Off Network Unit*). WSJ also ran an article on the role of di Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in the operation, going over all the recent transactions in which this public company has been involved (Wall Street Journal, May 30 – A Different Kind of Italian Job).
Cars and luxury goods: Italy in the world – The internationalization of Italian groups continues to attract the attention of international papers. They wrote about the traditional luxury sector and Loro Piana, which has confirmed its leadership in the high quality textile sector gamma (Le Figaro, 27 maggio – Loro Piana, le groupe de luxe italien qui défie la cris) while there were also several articles on the progress of the Fiat-Chrysler merger. Bloomberg Businessweek reported on the financial structure of the operation (May 29 – Fiat Said to Ready $10 Billion in Financing for Chrysler), while the Financial Times clarifies the Agnelli family’s intention to remain the group’s majority shareholder (May 30 – Agnelli family aims to remain Fiat’s largest shareholder*). Finally, cars and luxury are combines in Ferrari which, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, is ready to reduce production to increase its models’ exclusivity (May 30 Ferrari Cuts Sports Car Production to Enhance Exclusivity).
Culture, cuisine and tourism. The opening of the 55th Venice Biennale was the subject of a number of articles in the foreign press. The papers that reported on the exposition’s “Palazzo Enciclopedico” included El Mundo (photo gallery on May 29 – Arranca la 55 Bienal de Venecia, un ‘Palacio Enciclopédico’), the Mexican El Universal (May 29 – 88 pabellones y 47 muestras de arte) and China Daily, which underlined that in this edition, China is presenting the largest collateral collection of the event (Ma 31 – No longer unseen voices at Venice Biennale).
El Pais was also in Venice to discuss the restoration of the Rialto Bridge (May 27 – Cirugía para el puente de Rialto), while in its travel supplement, the Spanish paper went to Corleone to visit some of the lesser known corners of Sicily (May 30 – Paseo por Corleone). The German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung published to Baroque architecture (May 27 .Südosten von Sizilien – Barocke Städtepracht). Finally, the Brazilian paper O Globo interviewed two Italian chefs in a piece about Italian cuisine italiani (O Globo, May 25 – Donato Di Giuseppe e Paolo Lavezzini: mangia che ti fa bene) and China Daily discussed how Italian wines are becoming popular in the Chinese market (May 31 – Italian vintners eye local markets).
* marked articles viewable online upon payment or registration