WHY COMPANIES NEED KIND LEADERS Taking our cue from the long-standing question “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?”, by the same token we could ask ourselves which animal holds exclusive rights to Easter: the rabbit or the hare? While we’ve no doubt that general opinion today would opt for the bunny rabbit, in … Read more
A romantic getaway from Brexit. Last week an article in The Times announced an agreement between Italy and the United Kingdom regarding a special “digital nomad visa” which will allow freelance UK citizens to work in the boot-shaped peninsula for a year. But it isn’t just the customs red tape that begs a parallel between … Read more
If the parts precede the whole, in Italy these three identical consonants in 2022 (which, incidentally, has treble twos) seem to suggest the name of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, this year being the centenary of his birth. But as the PPP trio dances before our eyes, the mind boggles with other possibilities… The first … Read more
What are the clearest examples that language offers on the relationship between form and function? The words that indicate parents: because daddy (or mummy for that matter), is a word that is born of a mini outburst of syllabic joy by the palate. So, what gender is “daddy”? There’s an open vowel ending that makes … Read more
The Venice Carnival ended quite recently and if designer Alessandro Mendini had been able to realise his Ponte dell’Accademia project (Biennale 1980), it would have been like a rococo whorl across the lagoon waters, or like a mask in a film by Fellini. Mendini reminds us of those scenographers who wrap things in fabric, following … Read more
An article published in Italian daily La Stampa in 2007 applied the image of the “knight’s move” to what was, at the time, the relationship between Minsk and Moscow; it left few doubts as to who the strategist was. Facebook had already been in existence for a few years (2004) yet was still timid vis-à-vis … Read more
Unlike the beautiful voice of Tosca who she sings these words in her famous aria, this week has brought us the ugly rumble of war. However we’ll stick to the subject we had originally intended to look at and grant ourselves poetic licence to remind you that the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is gearing up to … Read more
This cap has a name and surname, one that loves minute details, sleepless nights and drugs. Yet, today isn’t Sherlock Holmes Day. Let’s instead introduce Gilbert Keith Chesterton, just in case his name doesn’t ring a bell straight away: he was almost a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, like him, was born in … Read more
Porto Venere (which in Italian means “Port Venus”) is a pearl in the Ligurian Sea, bathed not only by the Goddess of Love after whom it is named, but also by the exhaustion of poet Lord Byron when he swam the stretch of sea separating it from the small coastal town of Lerici. Byron championed … Read more
Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. And the fact that today is the day-after isn’t a good reason to forget everything. To switch our sensibilities on and off as if they were devices, to change our moods according to what happens to be on offer there, is one of the limitations of this day and … Read more
