E-Commerce Lags In Italy

Italians are still wary of buying goods and services on the internet and significantly lag behind France and Germany as well as Spain.

Torino Joins The New Stadium Fray

Torino is the latest club to join Juve, Roma, Inter, AC Milan, and Napoli in looking to build a new stadium.

In Napoli's case details have yet to be released.

This is great news not only for Torino (who by the way had an impressive run in Europa League just missing out on reaching the quarter-finals) and its Filadelfia project but Serie A.

Upgrading stadiums are crucial to maintaining and enhancing revenue streams and reestablishing Serie A's prestige. 

AC Mlian's New Stadium

With Juventus already in their new state of the art digs, and Roma and Inter Milan (and possibly Napoli) having announced their own plans for a new home, it was a matter of time before AC Milan would come in with its own plans.

"AC Milan have revealed the first designs for their proposed new €400m stadium to be constructed in the Portello area of the city. Designed in collaboration with Arup, the arena will be part of a larger regional development that intends to remain open seven days a week. The stadium will boast a total match-day capacity of 48,000 and includes a hotel, a variety of restaurants and integrated areas of public greenery.

The stadium plans have been drawn up by Fabio Novembre, the architect behind the club’s recently ‘Casa Milan’ headquarters and are partly inspired by Bayern Munich’s former Olympic Stadium, as well as Juventus Stadium in Turin."

I watched the Milan Derby in 1999 with a friend at the legendary San Siro. Looks like I may have to make a new trip to Milan.

Now if the club can just regain its legendary form. Indeed, these are trying times for the rossoneri in both domestic and European competition.

Pretty In Pink

And now for something a tad different...

The top pink headlines from La Gazzetta dello Sport dating back to its inception in 1896

La Gazzetta is an iconic sports paper on par, arguably, with Sports Illustrated in terms of its impact.

As the article shows, soccer wasn't the biggest sport in Italy in the early going. Professional cycling and motor racing were. In fact, they continue to have rabid support in a country with a staggering legacy in those sports. Of course, slowly Soccer slowly overtook those sports (a little like how pro football gradually displayed baseball in the United States by the 1960s) to eventually rule supreme.

Contrast this with another great sports country. In Germany amateur soccer was popular from the start despite not having a legitimate professional soccer league until 1963 with the Bundesliga.

Until that time Germany didn't have a professional sports landscape as was the case in Italy (and Spain in soccer). This changed in the 1980s with the rise of its tennis stars, and in the 1990s with pro race car drivers and cyclists enter the fray.

This is why, in part, when you look at the list of world champions in pro sports like motor racing, cycling and even skiing (not so much tennis), there are more Italians than Germans.

It also explains why Italy (along with Spain) is or was home to the the top leagues at various points in different sports over the years from soccer to basketball to volleyball.

Interesting that the best leagues were from two Mediterranean nations and not from Northern Europe. But that's for another discussion.

From Unique To Lost Classic Bikes: Pegoretti And Pogliaghi

Here's a link to an interview with Dario Pegoretti; a unique personality in the custom bike industry.

More here about Pegoretti.

And here. 

Several great pro champions including Indurain, Roche and Pantani have used Pegoretti as well as celebrities including the late Robin Williams.

***

(Now defunct) Pogliaghi Italcorse from 1971:

 

 

F-35A Fighter Jets Unveiled

"Lockheed Martin has rolled out the first F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft from the Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility at Cameri Air Base in northern Italy."

"...Lockheed Martin is proud of its relationship with Italy and values the highly-skilled Alenia Aermacchi workforce building this incredible jet...."

"...The F-35 is a fifth-generation multi-role fighter aircraft, and is designed to conduct a wide range of ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defence missions with stealth capability.
The three F-35 variants include a conventional take-off and landing aircraft for the US and allied air forces, a short takeoff and landing fighter for the US Marine Corps and the UK Royal Navy, as well as a carrier version for the US Navy...."

The Men Behind Timless Engineering Designs

Prior to offering his engineering skills to Maserati and Lamborghini, Giulio Alfieri built his reputation at Lambretta and Innocenti. In addition to building chassis and engines (including for Citroen) he also designed Maserati motorcyles.

After Alejandro De Tomaso bought Maserati in 1975, he summarily dismissed Alfieri who was influential in blocking the sale while the company was still owned by the Orsi family seven years prior.

Here are snippets of his creations:

Image credits: Top - From Mega Deluxe 1951 Lambretta; 2nd image a scooter that reached 200 km/hr. Third, Lamborghini Countach (25th anniversary edition); Fourth, Maserati (Birdcage 1961); Last, Alfieri working on engine.

Racing Cars And The Italian Economy

Here are some excerpts from a paper titled The Italian Sports Car Cluster (Harvard):

"...Another interesting phenomenon in Italy’s business environment is the prevalence of small-
medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly in manufacturing. Two-thirds of Italian manufacturing workers are in firms with fewer than 100 employees, versus 37% in the U.S. and 31% in Germany. Italy has more SMEs than any other country in Europe—more than 50% more than Germany, the next largest. The Economist argues that a globalize world puts a premium on size, so that Italy’s SME legacy will be forced to change...."

"...Northern Italy is among the richest regions in all of Europe, when measured by disposable income..."
 
"...Exports of goods, including automotive, are sent mostly to Europe (72%).

Italy’s natural resources exports account only for 0.5% of its
GDP and 2.4% of exports.

Italy has the most industrially-diversified exports in the ICCP sample, measured by the
lowest percentage of exports concentrated in the Top 50 Industries (42%).

Italy has significant strength at the cluster level in world markets (Tab
le 1): Seven Italian clusters are among the top 3 in the world, and 15 are in the top 5 (from
a sample of 42 clusters), giving Italy a 17% and 36% share. Similar strength exists with sub-clusters

Italy is among the richest countries in the world, with development indicators comparable to its
European peers and the OECD average.

How does Italy achieve such high levels of income with a relatively poor business environment?
-worsening business environment
-north dragging down by south
-clusters not affected by government policies..."

"...Modena, Italy, the home of the Italian sports car cluster, is known as the "international capital of sports cars." It is the birthplace of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and De Tomaso. The first
three of these (De Tomaso no longer manufactures cars) comprise the core of the cluster we will
be analyzing. All three companies have their headquarters within a 15-km radius of one another. This small geographic area produces a surprisingly large portion—nearly a third, overall—of the high end sports car units sold worldwide every year..."

"...As we can see from Exhibit 13, given Italy’s level of GDP per capita, it has an extremely high penetration of cars per thousand.
 
In fact, Italy has the second highest absolute car penetration behind Luxembourg."

*Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta (1964) image from Bold Ride.

Venturi's Physics And Random Car Photos

"The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of pipe. The Venturi effect is named after Giovanni Battista Venturi (1746–1822), an Italian physicist."

In F1 it helps to improve downforce.

Wind tunnels a key component/feature in the aerodynamic designs of Italian cars.

***  ***

Some random car photos:

Images: 1st The most expensive car in the world Ferrari 250 GTO (1964); 2nd Concept car extraordinaire DeTomaso Vallelunga (1966);  3rd: The exquisite Lancia Flaminia Zagato (1966); The audacious Lamborghini Diablo (1992). Last, Lamborghini LM002 (1985).

Sports Car Racing History

In-depth history lesson of the sports car industry at the Gutenberg project.

Hint: Italy features prominently.

Excerpts:

"...In the 1920s, the cars used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were still basically identical, with fenders and two seats, to carry a mechanic if necessary or permitted. Cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 were almost equally at home in Grands Prix and endurance events, but specialisation gradually started to differentiate the sports-racer from the Grand Prix car. The legendary Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto started the evolution of the true single-seater in the early 1930s; the Grand Prix racer and its miniature voiturette offspring rapidly evolved into high performance single seaters optimised for relatively short races, by dropping fenders and the second seat..."

"...In open-road endurance races across Europe such as the Mille Miglia, Tour de France and Targa Florio, which were often run on dusty roads, the need for fenders and a mechanic or navigator was still there. As mainly Italian cars and races defined the genre, the category was called Gran Turismo, as long distances had to be travelled, rather than running around on short circuits only..."

"...Italy found itself with both grassroots racing with a plethora of Fiat based specials (often termed "etceterinis") and small Alfa Romeos, and exotica such as Maserati and Ferrari – who also sold cars to domestic customers as well as racing on the world stage. Road races such as the Mille Miglia included everything from stock touring cars to World Championship contenders. The Mille Miglia was the largest sporting event in Italy until a fatal accident caused its demise in 1957. The Targa Florio, another tough road race, remained part of the world championship until the 1970s and remained as a local race for many years afterwards..."

The Maserati 250F Rsce Car Legacy

The above is the Maserati 250F. In its time between 1954 and 1960, it became the most decorated Grand Prix race car in history having earned 277 starts more than any other before or since.

Not least notable, the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio drove it to two F1 World Championship titles as well as British driver Stirling Moss together earning eight wins.

Incredibly, this legendary and much admired car is set to have been sold for between 1700 and 2000 euros.

Second pic from here.

The Global Reach Of Italian Auto Designers

Italy owns a wealth of brilliant industrial car designers among them Giovanni Michelotti, whose prolific designs extended beyond Italian borders.

Among them was the Triumph TR4 under the British banner and BMW 700 in Germany.

He was the first European to influence the Japanese car industry which was on the rise in the 1970s.

Ercole Spada also left an imprint on German automobiles through his work on BMW 5-series.

Volkswagen in particular was dependent on the creative minds of Marcello Gardini and Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Over the next few posts, I'll be expanding the roster of masters of automobile designers from Italy.

Journey Into A Fabric Factory

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

"A thick fog decends over the Piemonte countryside as I arrive in the Biellese Alps, the heart of Italy's famed textile-producing industry. I'm here to visit Vitale Barberis Canonico, the legendary producer of fabrics for Savile Row tailors with over 350 years of history...."

"...While the factory floors are filled with the most sophisticated fabric-making machinery, human nous and an expert eye are still indispensable.

Nowhere is this more so than in the checking of the cloth. Every metre of every fabric is run past a well-trained eye skilled at spotting a torn thread, a nub of unwanted yarn or a glitch in the pattern. If the flaw can be corrected it will be done by the equally skilled hands of those trained in the precision craft of re-weaving..."

Head Transplant Possible According To Italian Surgeon

"It sounds like the plot of a bad horror film, but doctors are gearing up to do the world’s first head transplant.

Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero wants to take the head from someone with an incurable illness and graft it on to a healthy body.

He claims the first operation could be done in just two years’ time."

How do you say Frankensteen in Italian?

The Innovative And Immortal Isotta-Fraschini TIPO 8A

Isotta-Fraschini TIPO 8A, designed by Giustino Cattaneo, was the first car with four-wheel brakes in 1910 as well as pioneers in overhead cams.



The bodywork, which is very unusual for Italian cars, was made Fleetwood Metal Body Company out of Pennsylvania according to Zumbrunn and Heseltine in the wonderful book 'Italian Auto Legends.'

Rudolph Valentino commissioned to have a TIPO 8A made with 7370 cc engine.

IF never really made it in the world of automobile finding remarkable success in marine and aeroplane engines.