Spring Asparagus Frittata, Italian Recipe - Gianni's North Beach

If you try this, please, come back to give us a comment about. Thanks a lot.

Ferrari braced for unknown in season-opening race

By Paul Virgo - Ansa march,14

(ANSA) - Melbourne, March 14 - Ferrari say they are braced for the unexpected ahead of the season-opening Formula One grand prix in Australia.

Sunday's race may throw up surprises as the teams struggle to get to grips with a series of changes to the regulations, including the switch to turbocharged hybrid 1.6 litre V6 engines from 2.4 litre V8 ones.

The Italian glamour team, who are aiming to end the four-year dominance of world champion Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull outfit, performed well in Friday's practice sessions, but were keen not to read too much into this.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso clocked the fastest time in the first session and the third-fastest in the second, behind Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Alonso's teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who has returned to Ferrari this season after a four-year absence, notched the seventh-fastest time.

"Overall it was a positive day for us," said Alonso.

"Even though there were some fears about the complexity of applying the new rules to the car, it went well. "The team have done a super job and we didn't experience any problems".

"It's impossible to have a clear idea about our (level of) competitiveness, as the results of Friday's practices don't reveal too much," added the Spaniard, who won the 2005 and 2006 world titles with Renault.

"We have to wait until we're all competing in the same conditions to know more". Red Bull have struggled badly in pre-season testing, but they did better than expected Friday, with Vettel finishing fourth on the timesheets and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo sixth.

Alonso's caution was echoed by Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali.

"In my view today maybe you will see that some teams were a little bit hiding or having some issues for the day," Domenicali told a press conference.

"Tomorrow (in qualifying) the situation will be different again. "If there will also be different weather conditions, this will be another thing we never tested with this car so far, so the managing of the car in possibly wet conditions could be another exciting or challenging thing for all of us. "But so far, it's important that we were able to run with the programme we wanted even if we had some little issue to solve. "But that's part of the game, it's just the first free practice of a long season".

The team are out to end a long dry run, with their last constructor's championship win dating to 2008 and the last drivers' title going back to when Finn Raikkonen won in 2007 during his first stint with the team.

Ferrari have made many changes to their technical facilities and management team in order to get back to the top of the sport.

Domenicali is confident the results will soon be on display.

"We've done a great job in the last couple of years to restructure the team, restructure the facility, that was absolutely the imperative thing to do and I think that now we are in the way that we should be to do the best we can in these conditions," he said.

Furthermore, Raikkonen's return gives Ferrari an awesome driver line-up together with Alonso, who has been at Ferrari since 2010.

There is a danger, however, that having two big names in the same team could cause friction, with no lead driver taking precedence.

Italy v England - Official Short Highlights Worldwide 15th March 2014

It happens, see you next time.

EU sanctions worry Italian businesses in Russia

(AGI) Moscow, March 15 - The European Union's threatened sanctions against Moscow, in response to Russia's stance on Ukraine, would be "a serious mistake", said the President of Confindustria Russia, Ernesto Ferlenghi. According to Ferlenghi, if the sanctions were truly to be imposed it would "bring back the clocks 40 years" and only encourage Russia "to distance itself from the West", thereby strengthening trade with Asia, and China first and foremost. (AGI) 

Can a car be art? - Alfa Romeo 8C - Top Gear UK

Not Only Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

What did you think about this car? Leave a comment.

Things we learnt in plenary: Ukraine, data protection, Troika

News about crisis in Ukraina, directly by the European commission website. Article posted today: at the end of this post the link to visit directly EU Commission website page and watch the video.

The crisis in Ukraine and an update of EU data protection legislation were two of the main topics during the March plenary session in Strasbourg. MEPs also concluded the assessment of the Troika's work during the financial crisis and adopted tougher rules to fight money laundering. Meanwhile, the campaign for the European elections on 22-25 May is heating up as the political parties name their candidates.

The Russian invasion of Crimea is a breach of international law, the referendum to be held on March 16 illegal, and actions taken by the Kremlin “a threat to EU security”, MEPs said in a resolution approved on Thursday. They urge Russia to withdraw its military forces immediately.

The right to have private information erased as well stronger safeguards when transferring data to countries outside the EU are part of the data protection reform approved by MEPs on Wednesday. MEPS also warned that the free trade deal with the US will be endangered if NSA mass surveillance doesn't stop.

Two Troika reports were adopted in plenary on Thursday as members endorsed their assessment of how the adjustment programmes from the group of international lenders affected the economies and societies of the bailout countries.

MEPs rejected a proposal on the handling of nanomaterial food additives, seeking stronger consumer protection, and also opposed new marketing rules for seeds, saying they do not give EU countries enough flexibility to adapt the rules to their needs.

Tougher anti money laundering rules were approved on Tuesday to help combat tax evasion and better identify suspicious transactions. A public EU register will list company owners, while banks and financial institutions would have to report suspicious transactions.

A European Commission report on the progress of equality between women and men in the European Union in 2012 was rejected by MEPs on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, MEPs approved a ban on fluorinated gases in new air-conditioning units and fridges by 2022-2025. Overall, the use of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) greenhouse gases is to be reduced by 79% by 2030, as they have a greenhouse effect up to 23,000 times greater than CO2.

Mobile phone manufacturers are encouraged to introduce a universal charger for environmental and practical reasons, the EP agreed on Thursday

MEPs updated EU rules for vehicle testing, improving road safety and ensuring cross-border recognition of roadworthiness certificate.

People from all over the EU tell us why they think it important to vote in the European elections in a series of videos prepared for the final stage of the EP's communication campaign ahead of the European elections on 22-25 May. Several European political parties have already named their candidates for the European Commission presidency.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140313STO38908/html/Things-we-learnt-in-plenary-Ukraine-data-protection-Troika

Tennis: Flavia Pennetta through to Indian Wells semi-final

(AGI) Indian Wells (USA), March 14 - Italy's Flavia Pennetta beat America's Sloane Stephens in three sets in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells tournament on Thursday. "I tried to be aggressive and concentrate for the whole match," Pennetta explained. "I did very well in the first set. However there was too much wind in the third and the final points were dramatic. I'm still happy and I hope to play better tomorrow." .

Prada buys a slice of Pasticceria Marchesi, a Milanese pastry shop

Milanese fashion house Prada has finally got a bite of the cake business as it acquires an 80 per cent stake in 190-year-old patisserie Pasticceria Marchesi

 

I'd found a really intresting article oby Olivia Bergin, posted yesterday on the Telegraph UK website Fashion page. Reading the article, thinking about the event too, you could better understand the italian skill to transform turn anything into fashion.

 http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG10698609/Prada-buys-a-slice-of-Pasticceria-Marchesi-a-Milanese-pastry-shop.html

 

Leave a comment.

Are Bespoke Italian Suits Worth Your Time and Money?

Here an article posted on The Wall Street Journal website that could explain, at the some, how could be easy to find unItalian goods. Make attention when you're searching italian products to see the real production area. We are soo proud to produce such products that we write on where they are made (City and sometime the complete address).

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579431363835976416?KEYWORDS=italian+style&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304250204579431363835976416.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Ditalian%2Bstyle

Sicily man getting poverty aid actually owned 1.2 mln euros

Case may not be an isolated, other 80 beneficiaries being probed

(ANSA) - Palermo, March 14 - A man who received an 832 euros monthly subsidy from the region of Sicily saw his funding cut off when investigators found he earned 150,000 euros a year and possessed assets totalling 1.2 million euros, according to an state investigation.

The probe comes as part of a wider plan by Sicily regional Governor Rosario Crocetta to crack down on fraud.

Last year, 87 people saw their subsidies cut off because they didn't actually comply with the conditions for aid.

Some even received subsidies while serving time in jail for mafia-related crimes, investigators said.

They are now probing about 2,800 other subsidy recipients.

Berlin calls Renzi plan 'ambitious' before euro talks

Premier to meet Hollande Saturday, Merkel Monday

(By Paul Virgo) (see related story on Fitch's forecasts) (ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - The German government on Friday called Premier Matteo Renzi's economic-reform agenda "ambitious" ahead of a bilateral talks in which the Italian leader will seek to reassure his European partners that Rome is not going astray with its budget commitments.

Renzi, Italy's youngest premier at 39, announced an array of measures on Wednesday to revive the economy, which remains weak after emerging from its longest postwar recession last year, with unemployment at record levels of close to 13%.

He presented plans to cut income taxes by 10 billion euros, invest 1.74 billion euros in social housing programs, spend 3.5 billion euros on schools and repay 68 billion euros in outstanding bills, among other things.

The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) party, who unseated his PD colleague Enrico Letta to take the helm of government last month, will meet French President François Hollande on Saturday.

Then Renzi will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the main advocate of the austerity policies that Italy and other countries were forced to adopt during the eurozone debt crisis, in Berlin on Monday ahead of a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels next Thursday.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert did not say whether Berlin used the word ambitious in a positive light, or considered the plans overambitious. "I don't want to give away the content of what they'll reveal right afterward," Seibert said referring to Monday's meeting.

Renzi has said his plans will not cause Italy to breach the 3%-deficit-to-GDP threshold allowed by the EU. But the EU wants Italy to do more than just stay under the deficit limit, saying it also has to work towards respecting its commitments in the Fiscal compact, which says countries with debt-to-GDP ratios over over 60% must make progress on bringing it down.

Italy's massive public debt of over two trillion euros stands at around 133% of GDP and is a forecast to keep rising this year. Renzi may try to persuade other European leaders that Italy needs some financial leeway, while remaining under the 3% threshold.

The premier said Thursday that the EU must not just be a fiscal policeman that imposed "limitations" after the European Commission stressed that it would only be able to properly assess Renzi's measures when it has the "details of the legislation" and that Rome must abide by its budget commitments.

Village festivals the heart and soul of Italy

No matter how small, villages across Italy put on summer festivals. Some are religious, others celebrate special foods. Either way, it's an excuse for parades, feasting, dancing and fireworks.

It's intresting to see all this attention to our country how intresting travel destination for many persons. obviously our past history helps us a lot, because it has created those landscapes and the ones towns today are known throughout the world. You could find an intresting article about Cerreto, one of those place I was speaking before, posted on the LA Times website.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-festas-italian-village-summertime-festivals-20140316,0,318486.story#axzz2vxtAiCqJ

Please, leave a comment.

Beef leek stew with chickpeas

In italian it's "Spezzatino di manzo con porri e ceci"

Would you like to try an italian cuisine stew? Read this recipe. If you follow the original recipe is better. As usual, the advice would be: pay attention to products you use. Unfortunately, counterfeit products are hundreds all over the world.

http://italiannotes.com/beef-leek-stew/

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta's 's show wasn't 'cool' or 'artsy' at all.'

Demi Lovato slams Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, in art Lady Gaga, afther her show at SXSW thursday night where she invited performance artist Millie Brown to puke all over her mid-show.

Italianity sometime leave strange marks to persons. Read this  article posted on the MTV website.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1724200/demi-lovato-slams-lady-gaga-sxsw.jhtml

Italian excellence at the Gourmets' Club Exibition of Madrid

The Italian wine&food excellence has been the protagonist of the International Exhibition organized by the Gourmets' Club of Madrid. By last Monday to yesterday 80'000 visitors from over 20 countries worldwide had visited the event, where the “Bel Paese” has been present with an exhibition area prepared and managed by the Italian Chamber of Commercial and Industry for Spain. Nine different companies, among manufacturers and distributors of typical products and regional excellences, have proved the outstanding quality of Italian products.

"Italian Food" - "Spaghetti alla Carbonara" - Checchino dal 1887 - b...

Easy to prepare (few minutes) and perfect to eat, increasingly you're able to find necessary products (make attention, italian product if possible)

Let us know your impressions.

Rome, Lazio Region to join forces for Expo 2015 event

Two bodies to share 140-square-metre space at world's fair

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - The Italian capital city of Rome and the surrounding region of Lazio will join forces to present a project together at Milan Expo 2015. The pair will share an exhibition area of some 140 square meters and will also participate at the Italian pavilion. In addition, an Expo 2015 zone will be set up in Rome as well as a series of advertised events, exhibitions and ad hoc activities that will take place in the Lazio region. "At Expo 2015 we will be present as a single, large team made up of the region, of Rome the capital, of the province, of the local municipalities", said Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti said. The Expo event, running from May through October, is expected to draw more than 20 million visitors to see exhibits from more than 140 nations and entities that have formally agreed to participate.

The Expo theme "Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life" aims to emphasize food security, agriculture and international products as well technology to improve food production.

"Language Challenge" - Italian VS Swedish

That's a good Idea to learn languages....

I need to speak with the new italian Minister of Education, Mrs. Stefania Giannini.....

What did you think about?

Rolling Stones to play at Rome's Circus Maximus

June 22 gig part of European tour

 

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - The Rolling Stones will play at Rome's Circus Maximus, a huge venue that used to be a chariot-racing stadium in ancient Roman times, on June 22 as part of their upcoming European tour, organisers in the Italian capital, PostePay Rock, said Friday.
The greatest rock-and-roll band in the world are also set to play at the Pinkpop Festival at Landgraaf in the Netherlands on June 7 and at the TW Classic Festival in Werchter on June 28 so far this summer.

Germany calls Renzi economic plan 'ambitious'

Premier to meet Merkel in Berlin Monday

 

 

(ANSA) - Berlin, March 14 - The German government on Friday called Premier Matteo Renzi's economic-reform agenda "ambitious" and said it would be discussed at Monday's meeting in Berlin between him and Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But I don't want to give away the content of what they'll reveal right afterward," said spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Renzi, the leader of the eurozone's third-largest economy, won early praise from Merkel on the eve of winning confidence votes to become premier and replace Enrico Letta last month. Merkel, who heads Europe's biggest economy, called Renzi to congratulate him and to "wish him every success in his policy of reform," Seibert, said at the time. The phone call also came with the invitation to visit Berlin. This week Renzi unveiled a major package of tax cuts and investments to revive the weak Italian economy in its slowgoing recovery from its worst recession since World War II.

Cottarelli to meet Renzi over 32-bn-euro spending review

Pensions under 3,000 euros safe from cuts, says premier

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli met with government officials on Friday to discuss cuts in public spending worth 32 billion euros over the next three years.
The inter-ministerial committee and Cottarelli examined single chapters of expense "to draft a spending review providing results in the short term and over the next three years," the premier's office said in a statement.
Cottarelli is also scheduled to meet Renzi on Friday, one day after the premier said his office, and not the economy minister, would be in charge of handling the spending review.
The spending review chief told the Senate on Wednesday that the government could achieve three billion euros in cuts in 2014.
But Renzi said the official was being cautious and that the real figure for 2014 was closer to seven billion.
The premier also vowed Thursday that the spending review would not affect pensions of up to 3,000 euros a month after Cottarelli said Wednesday that trimming pensions which are a "very high expenditure" could free up billions of euros for other purposes, including job creation.
He suggested that only about 15% of pensions "above a certain threshold" would be affected through "a temporary contribution2.
Cottarelli, the former International Monetary Fund's head of fiscal affairs, last November began his job of finding inefficiency in Italian public administration to free up cash to finance cuts in labour taxes in order to stimulate economic growth.
The goal is aiming to find savings equal to 2% of Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2016.

Govt reinstates distinctions between hard and soft drugs

Marijuana offenders to receive lighter sentences

 

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - The cabinet on Friday approved a decree that reintroduces illicit drug classifications outlining penalties according to which type of narcotic is found in someone's possession. The measure follows a supreme Court of Cassation decision last month that threw out as "illegitimate" a 2005 law that equated the possession of soft drugs to heavy drugs and was blamed as a contributing factor to severe overcrowding in Italian prisons.

"The cabinet voted to bring back the classifications because a void had been left following the Cassation's ruling," said Minister Beatrice Lorenzin. Now the law distinguishes between hard and soft drugs, with lighter sentences for substances such

 

Italy's recovery 'modest' over next two years says Fitch

Growth driven by exports, domestic consumer market static

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - Italy's recovery over the next two years will be "modest", with 0.6% growth in 2014 and 1% growth in 2015, ratings agency Fitch said in its Global Economic Outlook released Friday. This year growth will be driven primarily by exports, while the domestic consumer market is expected to remain static, said the chapter devoted to Italy. Italy technically began to emerge from recession - its worst since World War II - in the second half of last year, a year which nevertheless ended with negative growth. 

Berlusconi plans to run in European elections, advisor says

'Violation to democracy' if convicted ex-premier stopped

(ANSA) - Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi is planning to run in European elections in May despite a ban from holding office after a binding conviction for tax fraud last year, his political advisor Giovanni Toti said Friday. "Berlusconi has led (the center-right) Forza Italia (FI) party in every election. I assert he will do that again this time," said Toti told Italian daily La Stampa. The ex-premier is ineligible to stand in elections after the the tax-fraud conviction, which he says is part of a two-decade-long campaign of persecution by left-wing elements in the judiciary who want to eliminate him from the political arena.

Berlusconi has said he was hopeful the tax-fraud verdict will be overturned and he will be able to top FI's lists of candidates in every Italian region at the European elections.

The billionaire is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights and seeking to have the tax-fraud case reopened in Brescia.

Earlier this year a Milan court refused to grant him permission to leave Italy for the congress of the European People's Party (EPP), of which his FI party is a member, since having his passport confiscated after the tax-fraud conviction.

The three-time premier, who faces several other legal tangles, was also denied a request to leave Italy for a meeting of the EPP in Brussels in December.

Toti said if Berlusconi is denied the opportunity to run in European elections in May, "it would be the umpteenth violation to democracy".

The Glamour of Italian Fashion trailer

Here the Original Trailer for "The

Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945 - 2014", at the V&A 5 April - 27

July 2014. The exhibition will be a comprehensive look at Italian

Fashion from the end of the Second World War to the present day

More news on the previous dedicated post.

Italian government clamps down on Ecomafia damage

The question is: why to my land?

what did you think about?

El Greco exhibit in Toledo marks 400th anniversary of death

Over 100 works from 29 countries

(ANSAmed) - MADRID - A vast exhibition in Toledo of El Greco's works on the 400th anniversary of the painter's death will open on Friday and run through June 14. Queen Sofia will be inaugurating the event. "El Griego de Toledo" will be hosted in six exhibition spaces across the city - the Santa Cruz Museum, the Toledo cathedral, the Santo Tomè church, the San Jose chapel and the ancient Santo Domingo convent - and includes over 100 of the artist's works from 29 cities across the globe. Curated by Fernando Marias and coordinated by Casilda Ybarra, the large-scale traveling show starts from Greco's activities prior to arriving in Spain and settling in Toledo after living in Candia, Venice and Rome, with a focus on his training as a master painter in Crete and his progressive appropriation of Italian-Western styles in the shadow of Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgio Giulio, Clovio, Michelangelo, and other Italian artists. The curator noted that the exhibition focused especially on El Greco's work as a portraitist and painter of holy and votive art. On the 4th centenary of the death of Domenicos Theotocopoulos, known to the world as El Greco, the biography "El Greco. Historia de un Pintor Extravagante" (published by Nerea) by Fernando Marias - one of the most highly respected experts on the subjects - disabuses readers of all the commonly held notions on of the Cretan painter.

He was neither Catholic nor a mystic, neither cross-eyed nor a naturalized Spaniard: Marias's biography is a meticulous review of a life of which little was known and works about which so very much has been said. ''We drag the issue into the collective imagination. El Greco has been passed off as a religious man who withdrew from worldly life. A hermetic painter of which little is known, forgotten for three centuries and rediscovered around 1900,'' said the scientific coordinator of the El Greco 2014 Foundation, created for the commemorative year and curator of the large exhibition open from tomorrow at the Santa Cruz Museum.

Rugby: Parisse back to lead Italy in England Finale

(ANSA) - Rome, March 13 - Captain Sergio Parisse will return to Italy's starting line-up for their final Six Nations match against England at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, coach Jacques Brunel announced Thursday. The Azzurri need a first-ever victory over former world champions England to get something out of what has been a disappointing campaign.

Brunel's men have lost all four of their matches so far and were thumped 46-7 by Ireland in Dublin last weekend. Parisse, one of the world's best number eights, was rested against the Irish as a precautionary measure because of a calf strain.

Parisse returns at the back of the scrum, with Robert Barbieri shifting across to openside flanker and Paul Derbyshire dropping to the bench.

His return is one of three changes Brunel has made to his team.

The other changes are in the front row.

Lorenzo Cittadini replaces the injured Martin Castrogiovanni at tighthead prop, while Matias Aguero takes over from Alberto De Marchi at loosehead. "Out great weakness in Dublin was linked to possession," Frenchman Brunel told a press conference.

"We gave an incredible performance in defence, with unprecedented statistics (for tackles). Now our problem is to regain balance in terms of winning the ball in the same way as we have for the last two years". England have a chance of winning the championship if they beat Italy on Saturday, as they have six points, the same as France and Ireland.

However, they will need to beat Italy by more than 50 points if Ireland win their match in Paris, as the Irish have a huge advantage in terms of points difference.

England, who have not changed the side that beat Wales 29-18 last time out, are the only Six Nations side Italy have never beaten.

But the Azzurri have pushed them close in Rome on several occasions, especially two years ago when they were unlucky to go down 19-15.

At the start of the tournament Brunel said he was targeting the England match and their other home game this year against Scotland, which they ended up losing 21-20 last month.

"We've shown that we have the chance to play on the same level in the last few matches against England," added Brunel.

"We'll see on Saturday whether we play like we have done over the last two years, or like we have done over the last two weeks.

"England are more physical than Ireland. You know you've played against them the day after. "They played with a superior level of intensity throughout this tournament.

"Our problem this week was to not lose faith in our way of playing and understand the reason for the Ireland defeat. "We've analysed the mistakes and we have faith in our potential". Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Tito Tebaldi; 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Joshua Furno, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Matias Aguero.

Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Alberto De Marchi, 19 George Fabio Biagi, 20 Paul Derbyshire, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Andrea Masi.

Authorities to Seize a Roman Statue in Queens That They Say Was Stolen

Here an intresting article by Tom Mashberg posted on the NYT website last February 27.

Federal investigators on Friday plan to seize an ancient Roman sculpture from a Queens warehouse on behalf of Italian officials who say there is evidence the marble statue of a reclining, half-clad woman valued at $4 million was looted from Italy decades ago.

United States officials said that they began tracking the life-size, 1,700-pound statue last year after they were alerted that it had been exhibited for sale at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan by Phoenix Ancient Art.

In a complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn, the authorities said the sculpture had served as the lid on an 1,800-year-old sarcophagus of a Roman noblewoman, and was probably looted in the 1970s or early 1980s. Officials said they did not know when the statue entered the United States or where precisely it came from in Italy.

But they said they believe it to be one of the antiquities obtained illegally by Gianfranco Becchina, a longtime Italian art dealer who was convicted in 2011 of trafficking in thousands of plundered Roman artifacts.

Photographs of the statue were among thousands of pictures of looted antiquities found in Mr. Becchina’s Swiss gallery in 2002, the officials said.

Henry J. Bergman, a lawyer for Phoenix, said the gallery did not own the statue and had “only exhibited it on behalf of a client,” whom he declined to identify “on grounds of confidentiality.” Mr. Bergman said Phoenix had not played a role in shipping, importing or storing the item.

The complaint was filed by the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York based on an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.

“The forfeiture of this sarcophagus lid brings us one step closer to returning this stolen treasure to its rightful owner: the Italian people,” said James T. Hayes Jr., the special agent in charge of homeland security investigations in New York.

This month, investigators learned that the statue was at a storage facility in Long Island City, Queens, and arranged to take photos of it, officials said.

The Italian cultural police then matched those photos to others that had been seized from Mr. Becchina’s Swiss gallery.

Mr. Becchina, an Italian citizen who operated from Basel, was prosecuted in Italy after investigators examined archaeological artifacts, commercial documents and photographs of thousands of illegally excavated items that had been sold by him and his associates as far back and the late 1970s.

Some of the records found that the sculpture, which represents the mythological figure Ariadne, was bought by Mr. Becchina in Italy and then shipped to his gallery in Switzerland in 1981. The item was exhibited for three months in late 1982 and early 1983 at a Swiss museum.

Federal officials said they were not sure where the item was between 1983 and 2013.

“We’re still investigating, and can’t confirm who currently owns or has an interest in the property,” said Karin Orenstein, the assistant United States attorney handling the case.

Here the link to see the original page:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/arts/design/authorities-to-seize-a-roman-statue-in-queens-that-they-say-was-stolen.html?ref=design

Undersecretary calls on pension funds to invest in Italy

(AGI) Rome, March 13 - Cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio called on pension funds to invest in Italy on Rai3's Agora TV talk show on Thursday. "I would like to launch an appeal: trade unions' or other trade associations' pension funds often invest in German or other government bonds. I call on you to put your trust in Italy and to place your investments, your workers' investments, in the coffers of the Italian State", he said.

"The government will use the pension funds to stimulate companies to increase their tax credit to hire researchers, simplify recruitment processes and de-tax labour costs", Delrio explained.

'Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice’ opens at the National Gallery

'Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice’ opens at the National Gallery, London WC2 (020 7747 2885), on March 19

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/veronese-magnificence-in-renaissance-venice

If you are in London between March 19 and June 15, you could visit National Gallery and see some work by the XVI century italian painter.

Here an excerpt of interview with Nicholas Penny (director of the National Gallery) posted by Alastair Sooke on the Telegraph website last march 12:

“Veronese is not an unknown artist,” Penny says. “He is very well represented in the National Gallery [which boasts 10 paintings by him in its permanent collection] – so much so that you could say you begin to take him for granted. It seems to me that there is an opportunity to see him with fresh eyes. Every generation needs to understand really great artists in a new way.”

What does Penny hope that visitors to the exhibition will discover about Veronese? “He is a very dramatic painter,” Penny replies. “That has been underestimated. He is also a very beautiful painter, even when he is also being dramatic. His impact on the subsequent history of art was huge, because he has always been a favourite painter of painters. He had imitators throughout the 17th century culminating in Sebastiano Ricci. Tiepolo’s style is a deliberately modified version of Veronese. Then he was a favourite painter of Delacroix and indeed of Renoir.”

What did they admire about Veronese? “They always talked about his palette, his colour schemes, about what used to be called in English the 'carnations’: his beautiful painting of pearly flesh and blushing cheeks. He is a fantastic painter of the translucency of especially female flesh.”

Veronese is also known for working on a very large scale. His famous painting The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), for instance, is nearly 42 feet across. Now in the Accademia in Venice, it started life as a monumental Last Supper. When the Inquisition took exception to the inclusion within the painting of German-looking soldiers and “buffoons”, Veronese was forced to alter it. Cannily, he changed nothing but the title, so that it referred to a less contentious biblical event.

The Feast in the House of Levi will not be travelling to London. Nor will other colossal compositions by Veronese such as The Marriage Feast at Cana (1562-63), which is the largest painting in the Louvre, and which Penny “didn’t even dream of asking [for], because we wouldn’t be able to fit it in a plane, on a truck, through the door and on the wall – it’s gigantic”. But there will be several important and enormous loans, including The Martyrdom of Saint George (c.1565), which is more than 14 feet tall, from the church of San Giorgio in Braida, Verona.

As a result, Penny took the exceptional decision to stage the exhibition not in the Sainsbury Wing, where temporary loan shows are usually put on, but in the main galleries. “We are mounting it there because the paintings need the light, space and gallery height. The last exhibition we did that involved the upstairs galleries was Velázquez in 2006. I don’t think we are going to do this more than once every 15 years or so.”

To see the full article you could visit this website:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10667675/National-Gallery-Director-We-are-still-in-a-heyday-of-a-great-exhibitions.html

The traditional 'Battle of the Oranges' rages in Ivrea arrive in Kong Kong

Congratulations to South China Morning Post to have found one of performances most characteristics in Europe. Cheers to the italian folklore.

http://www.scmp.com/video?movideo_m=744824

Pope Francis marks first year as church head - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Congratulations to Aljazeera.

Pope Francis marks first year as church head - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Fiat estimates sales of 5 mln vehicles in 2016, CEO says

Marchionne trading profit in Q1 will be higher than 2013 period

(ANSA) - Turin, March 13 - Carmaker Fiat estimates its new combined brand could sell 5 million vehicles in 2016, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said Thursday. Trading profit in the first quarter of the year should be higher than in the same period one year earlier, Marchionne added following a shareholders meeting of Swiss-based SGB, a multinational services and inspection corporation.

"Losses in Europe in 2014 will be lower than those of last year, notwithstanding the investments that were carried out," Marchionne said, according to Bloomberg news.