Italian World Channel - Newsstand

According to the Global Language Monitor’s annual survey, Milan is the world’s new top fashion city, thus overshadowing such fashionable cities as New York, Paris and London. The survey was compiled by nonprofit trend-tracking group Global Language Monitor, and is based on how many times the name of the city has popped up in the media, on the Internet and in the blogsphere. The result has crowned Milan for the first time as the most fashionable city in the whole world, while New York’s reign seems to be over for good.

Photo | Flickr

Rome’s Vatican Museums evening opening is tonight, with tickets available on the Vatican Museum site. The after hours opening lasts through the evening, with the Sistine Chapel open until 11pm.

It appears the event is a one-off, but if successful, we could see the Vatican open until late more frequently, especially during the summer months. Perhaps Rome residents and the rest of us, will avoid Vatican queues like these!

When it comes to summer events, the town of Rieti, near Rome, is second to none; The Reate Festival for instance, one of the most important festivals dedicated to opera and classic ballet here in Italy, takes place in this lovely town in the Lazio region from 16 to 25 August. So if you are in Rome during the summer and looking for an alternative programme, you can’t miss out on it. The chief attraction of the festival will be the famous Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Mariusz Kwiecien, Carmela Remigio and Alex Esposito (23 August), but if you are a jazz lover, don’t worry, the festival also features a superb jazz section with top musicians. The Ballets and operas will be staged at The Flavio Vespasiano Theatre, at the church of San Domenico and at Piazza Cesare Battisti.

Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli has been honoured with a star on the famous Walk of Fame in Hollywood. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce which every years choice the names of those who deserve to be elevated into legend has picked Mr Bocelli over other famous artists; Mr Bocelli whose career has been on the rise since his international debut in the 1990s (he has over the years sold more than 40 million records and got several Oscar and Grammy Awards nominations) is not the first Italian to be honoured with such a star, before him other big names such as Sophia Loren, Rodolfo Valentino, Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, Anna Magnani and movie director Bernardo Bertolucci got a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. By the way this year’s list includes Ringo Starr, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison, Russel Crowe, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and James Cameron.

US President Barack Obama is set to meet Pope Benedict XVI in what is set to be an interesting meeting on July 10th. Obama is currently under fire in the US for his pro-abortion stance, though any discussion with the Pope is likely to be far more wide ranging than that.

Obama will be in Italy for the G8 summit to be held in the earthquake-stricken town of Aquila in Abruzzo. He will have an afternoon audience with the Pope that goes against tradition, but it shows that the two leaders are keen to meet and follows the personal note from the Pontiff on Obama’s election victory.

It will be a controversial visit with American bishops anti-Obama for the said abortion stance, while the Vatican seems to have been more accommodating, expressing an open opportunity for the US president and Pope to meet. Curiously, in America itself, Obama received a majority of Catholic votes, particularly from the Hispanic community.

Source | ABC Local

After the tragedy at Viareggio, Tuscany, in which a train carrying LPG exploded, reports have the death toll at 16. A child and a baby are among the dead. The accident happened at Viareggio train station when the freight train jumped the tracks.

36 people are reported as seriously injured and more than 1,000 have been evacuated from nearby homes. Two buildings collapsed in the explosion and fears are that the death toll will rise on finding bodies among the rubble.

Work is continuing to ensure the safety of the other LPG tanks, in an operation in which the tanks will be emptied and their contents removed. The Viareggio station is closed and there will be severe delays on the Pisa-La Spezia line. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of the injured and dead.

For more information, follow the Corriere’s English service.

Source | Corriere

After peering into the wings at the Versace fashion show in Milan, we can now take a look at a batch of new backstage pics taken at Gucci! Enjoy!

Gucci P/E 2010 uomo: immagini dal backstage

I’ll be back in a jiffy with a new fashion report on the Versace men’s collection s/s 2010, but before doing so I just want to share with you a few pics taken backstage at the Versace fashion show! Take a look!

Versace backstage

Photo | Doug Ordway

Super model Iris Strubegger poses as a femme fatale for the new Valentino ad campaign for autumn 2009 (shot by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott). The beautiful model seems to embody perfectly the upper-class hauteur of the femme fatale and her rather dramatic glamour really speaks volumes!

Source | Designescene

Valentino campagna pubblicitaria autunno inverno 2009/10