Alex Roe

Tweet Italy is being invaded and the glorious character of Italian buildings which attracts millions of tourist annually is being eroded away. Milan , where I live, has a huge variety of buildings in many different architectural styles – everything from Liberty to hi-tech.  Old buildings are often to be found next to examples of ultra-modern cutting edge building design, as you will see from the photographs I took today.  The building which existed prior to the building of the eyesore was... Read Full Story

Tweet Following on from what has proved to be a very popular article on the Memphis design movement I would like take a to look at how it has influenced modern design in specific areas – in this edition, Memphis inspired clocks . During the short life of the movement, Memphis members experimented with bright colors, shapes and materials.  This approach to design was in many ways a protest against the dark colors and sleek minimalist design of the 1970s.  While the designs of the Memphis group... Read Full Story

Tweet After mulling over the subject, today Italy’s Mario Monti led government said no to Rome making a bid to host the 2020 Olympics . Had Italy’s Prime Minister still been Silvio Berlusconi, the story may well have been different. Monti’s main reason for rejecting the proposed bid was simply that Italy cannot afford the expense. A wise decision and he will know full well that projected costs would be likely to spiral out of control. Italy cannot afford to throw cash away even if fears over... Read Full Story

Tweet It’s Valentine’s day today.  Love is in the air which makes this the perfect moment to reveal a new series of short stories by someone who is head over heels in love – with Tuscany and Italy . Coming soon to ItalyChronicles.com is a series of short stories by a gentleman called Simon Law who is totally smitten with his mountainous corner of Tuscany in Italy and with all things Italian. Simon, who has a house in Tuscany, has amassed numerous tales from his mountain in Tuscany.  What he... Read Full Story

Tweet This post is dedicated to the art exhibitions organized by Milan’s Zamenhof Art Gallery either at the Zamenhof Gallery itself or at related art galleries. The most recent Zamenhof exhibitions will appear first. Milan’s Zamenhof Gallery specializes in contemporary Italian art and plays host to the work of artists from all over Italy and to work by international artists too. At the Zamenhof, visitors will find paintings, photography, sculpture and some installations. Having visited the... Read Full Story

Tweet In November, Italy, according to Time, was run by the Man Behind the Most Dangerous Economy in the world – Silvio Berlusconi .  Today, in Time’s opinion, Italy is run by a man who may be able to save Europe – Mario Monti . How quickly Italy has changed.  Not so long ago, November 21st 2011, to be exact, the image of a smirking face of leader of the most dangerous economy in the world, Silvio Berlusconi was on the cover of Time Magazine. Four months later, almost to the day, Time readers... Read Full Story

Tweet While 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 may be encouraged to do their things, but no two loos, to use the English term for the john ever seem to be the same. Here is a list of the various types of flushes in use in Italy.  One sincerely... Read Full Story

Tweet Like 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 the tune of billions. As part of the industry rescue and restructure Italy’s Fiat took control of Chrysler, which reported a loss of $652 million in 2010.  Recently, Chrysler reported a profit of $183... Read Full Story

Tweet In 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 “if”. Thorne also observed that if Italy’s employment laws change, this would make Italy a much more attractive investment prospect for other countries, not only the United States. Greater... Read Full Story

Tweet Italy’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 too. Italy’s politicians are horribly well paid and receive extremely generous pensions after serving their country for a very short period of time – so Monti scared them! To all intents and purposes, the... Read Full Story