Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 8, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetWhile you might not think such a mundane topic as flushing water-closets in Italy merits a how to post, you would be wrong, for the simple act of going to the toilet in Italy is not always as straightforward as it may seem, or should be. There are several ways in which water-closets in Italy m...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 7, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetLike much of Europe today, the US auto industry was regarded as a basket case just two short years ago.  Detroit was about to join the list of smokestack cities.  Germany’s Daimler wanted out of its Chrysler operation.  The US Government had little choice but to bail the industry out to th...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 7, 2012, 4:51 am
TweetIn an interview he gave to Italian newspaper, Il Corriere Della Sera, Reuters reports that the US Ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, intimated that if Mario Monti is allowed to reform Italy’s labor market, it is highly likely American companies will invest in Italy. The key word is very much...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 6, 2012, 9:44 am
TweetItaly’s technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti stirred up a huge fuss in Italy last week when he stated on television that having a job for life was a bit boring.  Italians hurled insults towards Monti via Facebook and Twitter.  Italy’s political parties were unhappy with Monti’s quip to...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 5, 2012, 8:27 am
TweetYesterday I spent an interesting afternoon at the Affordable Art fair in Milan where I met English artist Paul Critchley, his lovely wife Helen, and a few other people I’ve bumped into while checking out the art scene elsewhere in Milan. I even met former Blue Vertigo singer turned artist An...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 3, 2012, 6:22 pm
TweetItaly is Ferrari, Ferrari is Italy.  Ferrari make cars little boys dream of, and bigger boys, and a few girls buy. This legendary Italian car maker has probably inspired many businessmen, and a few women, to strive for success. Once you have got a gleaming new, probably red, Ferrari sitting ...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 1, 2012, 11:00 pm
TweetFor this edition of my regular trips into the world of Italian design, I interviewed Laura Fiaschi, a partner of design firm GumDesign which is based in Viareggio, Italy. Paolo: Laura, can you tell me a little about your studio? Laura: GumDesign was founded in 1999 by myself, Laura Fiaschi an...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 1, 2012, 5:21 am
TweetI think I have finally worked out the method used by Italy’s political parties to choose government ministers.  It is not exactly a scientific system, but it appears to have been widely employed, by both Italy’s left and right, until Monti was brought in. Monti’s selection method was a ...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Feb 1, 2012, 5:07 am
TweetYesterday in Italy two scandals involving dodgy Italian politicians erupted.  Scandals regarding politicians in Italy are remarkably commonplace.  You may well remember a certain Silvio Berlusconi around whom new scandals surfaced virtually daily. It makes no difference which way Italy’s p...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 31, 2012, 6:50 am
TweetMatthew ‘Matty’ Brown, despite his taste for loopy hats, happens to be very good at creating videos.  His, by his own admission, somewhat rushed video of the beautiful and virtually unknown Basilicata area of south Italy which he entered as part of a digital diary contest won the grand pri...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 30, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetLast year, I showed off a very well done video of my city in Italy – Milan.  Here is another. It seems that another DSLR armed amateur filmmaker, or video maker, has been out and about shooting Milan and the results of Francesco Paciocco‘s efforts do capture much of the character of what...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 29, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetWhile it is too early to speculate as to just what post-Mario Monti Italy will be like, some are already worried by what might happen once Mario Monti places the Boot back in the hands of democratically elected politicians. Monti’s attempt to transform Italy from a dysfunctional nation with ...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 29, 2012, 4:59 pm
TweetThere’s something of an anti tax evasion blitz going on in Italy at present.  First over the Christmas vacation, tax cops descended upon the up market Dolomite ski resort of Cortina and, curiously, boosted the income of most of the businesses in the area – the same happened in Milan. Next...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 27, 2012, 11:04 am
TweetAfter the earth moved briefly in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, another, slightly stronger earthquake happened today, Friday at 3:53pm – 5.4 on the Richter scale.  Wednesday’s earthquake was around 5.0 on the Richter scale. Wednesday’s quake, which I felt, did not feel as not as strong as t...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 25, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetDid you know that Benevento down in Italy’s south was once the annual general meeting location for all the witches in the whole wide world?  Probably not, although this was once the case, or so the legend goes.  There must have been a few Harriet Potters at these annual witches meetups too,...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 25, 2012, 3:57 am
TweetThere was a very brief earthquake in Milan, Italy today at around 09:06 am.  I know, I felt it.  I was outside on our balcony when the plants started shuddering, the balcony itself shuddered too and I heard tiny pieces of debris fall off the walls and roof of our apartment building. I am ple...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 24, 2012, 10:30 pm
TweetIn this edition of my Italian Design Classics series, I am going to take a fast-track look at an undisputed icon of Italian design: the Fiat 500. Here’s the 500 story, from its conception to the re-launched contemporary version of this Fiat classic which is on roads now. Originally designed...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 24, 2012, 6:14 am
TweetActually, it isn’t, but that is the stereotype which affects Italy’s southern island.  Some would blame the Godfather movies for engraving this image on Sicily. It is true that organized crime is a problem in Sicily, but that does not make all Sicilians criminals.  The problem for Sicili...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 23, 2012, 6:19 am
TweetItaly’s Prime Minister Mario Monti is in full liberalization swing.  I know that Monti does not like the term “liberalization” applied to what he and his government are trying to do – maybe “normalization” is a more appropriate term, in that what Monti is attempting to do is to ste...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 23, 2012, 3:48 am
TweetBodach of About Abruzzo would like to tell you something about an English artist resident in Italy.  Over to you Bodach. I’ll understand completely if your immediate reaction is something like: Who is Paul Critchley and why is he going to Milan?, plus, maybe, “Why should I care?”. So l...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 19, 2012, 6:24 pm
TweetOverall, the economic situation in Europe is not particularly positive at the moment.  Italy, like the rest of Europe seems to be suffering.  Indeed, before Mario Monti came along, Italy risked going under. What Monti seems to have done so far is to have restored a certain amount of confiden...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 18, 2012, 3:15 am
TweetA list of Costa Concordia passengers and crew who remain missing from Italian newspaper Il Messeggero today. It is to be hoped the people on the list are safe and sound, but seeing as the disaster occurred at the weekend, hopes they will be found alive are fading. The official Costa Concordia...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 16, 2012, 10:00 pm
... budget than many of its peers why is it being cast as a pariah? Rather than focus on the dire straits of the Euro and the so-called basket case Club Med economies, Merkel and Sarkozy could consider a different paradigm based on locking Italy in with them, taking a deliberate supply side polic...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 16, 2012, 8:36 am
TweetLast week, on Friday 13th, in Italy’s parliament, 309 of Italy’s MPs voted to save colleague Nicola Cosentino from arrest.  Cosentino is suspected of collusion with organized crime, which in Italy means mafia.  Cosentino denies any wrongdoing. Not only was the vote, in my judgement, unco...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 14, 2012, 6:16 am
TweetThe colossal €450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground last night near the island of Giglio, which is off the coast of Tuscany in Italy. Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper reported at least 3 dead – two French passengers and a Peruvian crew member – lost their lives.  67 peopl...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Jan 12, 2012, 3:00 am
TweetMany who are lucky enough to have visited delightful Venice may well have come across examples of hand blown glass ornaments produced on the island of Murano.  Owing to the way Murano glass items are made, each one is likely to be a unique work of art. That Murano glass objects are colorful w...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Nov 2, 2011, 10:00 am
TweetItalian business association Confcommercio recently carried out some research into just how much Italy’s politicians cost Italians.  The answer is that Italy’s politicians cost around €152 per capita or €352 per family unit. According to Confcommercio, there are 154,000 national and l...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Nov 2, 2011, 7:00 am
TweetBack on the 30th October, while I was flicking through the pages of Italian newspaper Il Corriere Della Sera, I came across a nude businessman, or rather a full page advert showing a businessman wearing no clothes.  Upon being confronted by such a sight in the early morning, I nearly spilt my ...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 31, 2011, 3:58 am
TweetItaly’s Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi claimed that radical changes to Italy’s employment legislation to make it easier to sack employees in Italy could spark acts of terrorism.  While the minister does not fear for his own safety, he is reported to be worried about those who work with h...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 30, 2011, 5:08 pm
TweetHave you ever heard of Braies Lake in Italy’s north east?  Probably not, I hadn’t until, by chance, I ended up watching Italian television series Un Passo Dal Cielo – A Step from Heaven – which was shot around Braies Lake and in the Alta Val Pusteria in Italy’s Alto Adige area. I fou...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 29, 2011, 8:13 am
TweetYou may have heard that the popular tourist destination of the Cinque Terre, Liguria in Italy has been extensively damaged as a result of recent flooding. The Cinque Terre villages of Monterosso and Vernazza were particularly badly hit. Here are a couple of videos which show the extent of the...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 26, 2011, 4:23 am
TweetTime for another look into the shapely world of Italian Design.  This time round, I’m going to take a  look at the YoungDesigner Italian design initiative, which, as you probably guessed from the name is all about promoting Italian designers – but only those who are 35 and under. YoungD...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 24, 2011, 3:59 am
TweetThe crisis grinds on.  It sounds as if it’s been quite a tough and possibly party free weekend for Italy’s flamboyant Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.  Europe’s headmaster and headmistress, Sarkozy and Merkel summoned Berlusconi to their office and quizzed him over what he was going to...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 21, 2011, 12:17 pm
TweetI’ve really know idea who came up with the idea of using a sexy young lady to advertise men’s underwear, but the result certainly catches one’s eye.  It caught mine. I have not, however, rushed out to buy a new pair of boxers simply because at first, I did not realise it was aimed at me...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 21, 2011, 11:35 am
TweetTime for a Guess Where in Italy photograph to get you thinking over this coming weekend.  This is the sixteenth in this series of images of corners of Italy for Italy Chronicles inquisitive readers to pore over. I suspect some readers will get the answer quite quickly.  Passing Italians shou...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 19, 2011, 4:27 am
TweetTuscany based Italian food maker and distributor Borgo de Medici, I recently learned, has won a contract to distribute its Italian food products in Australia.  As a result, this Italian company has found that most of its business is now generated from outside Italy. In times as tough as these...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 18, 2011, 4:02 am
TweetWe’ve got friends from England staying at the moment and yesterday we had slices of ham by the Italian company Rovagnati, a brand which is virtually a household name in Italy, yet our friends had never heard of it.  The quality of Rovagnati’s cooked ham is very high. It’s possible, I su...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 17, 2011, 2:10 pm
TweetAs you may well have heard, Rome was transformed into a battlefield last weekend.  Millions of Euros of damage were caused to buildings, businesses and vehicles in Italy’s capital by rioters.  The hunt for the mysterious Black Block perpetrators of the violence and destruction is now on. T...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 13, 2011, 5:38 am
TweetThis time it does look as if Italy’s perma-tanned controversial premier Silvio Berlusconi is on his way out, possibly! For the last two years, just about, Berlusconi’s fall has been predicted and expected.  So far, Berlusconi’s political demise has not happened.  Recently though, thing...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 11, 2011, 7:45 pm
TweetOh this blogging life! That’s twice I’ve had a chat with BBC radio this week. First I had a chat with Roberto Perrone, an award wining Sicilian-born broadcaster and columnist who does the Mondo Italiano programme on BBC Three Counties radio. Then I was interviewed by Tony Livesy and Chri...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 10, 2011, 12:33 pm
TweetWhilst perusing the convenient and handy (plug, plug) Blog View section of this blog all about Italy, I noticed to my abject horror that there were far too many images of Italy’s current prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.  Italy Chronicles appeared to be suffering from a form of Berlusconi in...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 10, 2011, 10:18 am
TweetFor those with an interest in Italian politics (you masochists, you), gaining some idea of what is going on is no easy task at the best of times.  Making matters more complex are the names of certain buildings which crop up with remarkable regularity in Italy’s newspapers and on the televisi...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 8, 2011, 9:40 am
TweetAlthough one would expect the biggest Apple museum in the world to be situated in some suitably impressive high-tech fruit-shaped architect-designed structure in the core of Silicon Valley, it isn’t.  According to Italian news website Linkiesta, the biggest Apple museum in the world is in Qu...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 6, 2011, 5:49 pm
TweetThe terms of the proposed new wiretapping law which threatened to make the lives of Italy’s bloggers a nightmare have been modified, thus removing the potential gag. Yes, Italian bloggers have been let off the hook and can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Now, only those who run officia...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 4, 2011, 7:01 pm
TweetWikipedia Italy is carrying a rather ominous warning message.  Basically, the Italian version of the encyclopedia website appears to be on the verge of shutting up shop. Note too, that Wikipedia Italy’s Italian language content is currently unavailable. There’s more and its insidious, mi...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 4, 2011, 6:32 pm
TweetAfter being initially sentenced to 25 years for the murder of Meredith Kercher, American Amanda Knox was found not guilty on Monday of the crime of which she, ex-boy friend Raffaelle Sollecito and Rudy Guede had been accused. Guede, who many suspect was the one who actually killed Karcher, e...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 3, 2011, 8:52 am
TweetItaly’s official statistics office ISAT releases figures on employment and unemployment levels regularly and on the 30th September, an update on Italy’s employment situation was made public.  The figures reveal that there are anomalies concerning unemployment levels in Italy’s south. So...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Oct 3, 2011, 3:26 am
TweetThe combination of Italy’s flagging economy combined with the inactivity of the Berlusconi government in recent years had set alarm bells ringing for Italy’s Confindustria employers’ federation. For employers’ federation boss Emma Marcegaglia, who has been shouting long and hard for g...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Sep 29, 2011, 1:01 pm
TweetLast week, Italian member of parliament Marco Milanese evaded arrest because his colleagues in Italy’s parliament voted against a request by magistrates to have him handcuffed and taken away. Despite being indicted in relation to mafia related offences, this week, Italy’s Agriculture Min...
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Alex Roe posted an article on Blog From Italy - Sep 27, 2011, 1:23 pm
TweetYou may have read recently that tiny weeny little particles called neutrinos are suspected of travelling faster than light.  One of the laboratories which is of the opinion that this could be the case sits in Italy in the Gran Sasso area of the Italian region of Abruzzo. Should it be confirme...
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