But not any more. These days, Italy’s affluent are more likely to be selling their second home on the lakes than buying one. “There are homes which have been in families for years and years, coming on to the market,” said Gemma Bruce of Casa & Country, a property search agency based in London and…
WATCHING makers of Italian furniture at work is a welcome reprieve from these disembodied digital times. They caress wood as if it were a living being and treat it with essences from the far corners of the world. Carefully, they cut leather for a couch. But Italy‘s furniture industry could do with some polishing. The…
But all politics being local, it ran mostly on a pledge to stop construction of an incinerator. “It will be built over the mayor’s dead body,” Mr. Grillo said at one rally with his characteristic mix of bombast and belligerence. The incinerator began operating late last month. In ordinary circumstances, broken campaign promises might be…
Jered Gruber Each spring, the ex-pro cyclist João Correia heads to Italy’s Chianti region to lead small groups of amateur riders on weeklong bike trips that feature arduous climbs, technical descents and plenty of time to sample the area’s main attractions: food and wine. Post-ride, Correia arranges lunch at a local bar and dinner at…
Every year, the inmates at Prison Volterra in Tuscany put on plays. They are directed by Armando Punzo, who established the “Compagnia della Fortezza” in 1988. About a third of the 170 men imprisoned participate. Many are dangerous felons, in prison for life. Most of them come from criminal gangs. Prison theater is about redemption.…
The same day, Italy’s new prime minister, Enrico Letta, announced that his three-week-old government would suspend a much-reviled property tax on first homes in an effort to bring some oxygen to the country’s economy, which is in its longest recession since the 1970s. The juxtaposition between the testimony of the Moroccan, Karima el-Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby…
New passenger car registrations in the 27-nation European Union rose 1.7 percent in April from a year earlier, the first increase since September 2011, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported from Brussels. But the association pegged that improvement mainly to the fact that European countries had two more car-shopping days, on average, this April than…
TOGETHER, France and Germany are the founding fathers of the European Union and the euro zone’s two biggest economies. But in the past few years, their economic divergence has driven them apart politically. GDP figures for the first quarter showed that France is back in recession—its third—whereas Germany has narrowly avoided one (see article). France…
Federico CiameiSteps leading to the Piazza del Duomo in Spoleto, Italy. In our Summer Travel issue, which hit newsstands on Sunday, Elaine Sciolino talks to Carla Fendi, who aims to revive the faded glories of the once majestic Spoleto Festival in Italy. Here’s where to stay, eat and sleep in this Umbrian hill town. View…
BRUSSELS — Europeans have never been wild about the European Union. With the region sapped by the euro crisis, confidence in the institution and the benefits it was supposed to provide is flagging faster and further than ever before, according to an influential opinion survey released Monday. The results of an annual survey by the…