Milan, namely the most expensive shopping street in the world – Montenapoleone – with its annual commercial rent of 20,000 euros per square metre (more than Upper 5th Avenue in New York, New Bond Street in London, or Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong) and with a 30% increase in two years. Wealth, opulent consumption, high fashion.

Milan, namely Corvetto – an outlying area full of social tension and heated protests, concerns about work and income, hardships linked to the difficult integration of the new generations and the fears of the elderly.

But can Milan really only be described like this, with these extreme summaries derived from the news reports of late November, with the focus on the dramatic economic and social divides, on the one hand the thousand lights of luxury and on the other the dark and painful night of those who struggle to make a living?

Of course not. Now that the dust has settled on the controversy over the “Corvetto revolt” or the “Corvetto powder keg” (the phrases most widely used in the media, after the death of the young Ramy Elgam while a scooter was being pursued by a police car), it’s worth trying to get a better understanding of the most obvious aspects and the deep roots of the economic and social developments affecting the metropolis (perhaps also speaking of “regression”) and the indications that can be drawn from a series of phenomena that call into question not only politics and the public administration but also civil society, economic forces and culture.

“Cities, like dreams, are built of desires and fears, even though the thread of their discourse is secret, their perspectives deceitful, and every single thing hides another” wrote Italo Calvino in 1972, more than half a century ago. In an imaginary dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, he put down on the page eleven series of “invisible cities” and reasoned about memory, desires, signs, exchanges, names, eyes, “subtle”, “continuous”, “hidden” urban spaces, and much more besides. It was a love poem for those places where, even then (but now more and more intensely) a composite humanity gathers and where it’s necessary to come to terms with a difficult, controversial and – why not? – contradictory modernity (after all, contradicting means “containing multitudes” according to Walt Whitman’s keen poetic intuition).

As is the case in all love stories, Calvin highlighted the expectations, illusions, disappointments, luminous happiness and sharp pains of betrayal and abandonment. And yet, as in any game of intelligence and will, he gave us a glimpse of the desire to understand and the need to intervene. At various levels. Reason. And feelings. Because, remembering Blaise Pascal, the heart has reasons that reason doesn’t know.

Try to understand, then. And investigate, research, explore. Calvino again: “You don’t relish the seven or seventy-seven wonders of a city, but the answer it gives to your question.”

So what are we asking of Milan today? To be in any case faithful (even in the heart of radical, impetuous transformations) to the ability to hold together personal resourcefulness and social values, productivity and inclusion, economic competitiveness and solidarity. To pay attention to money. And to have a sincerely compassionate view. Wealth and measure, elegance, precision. Success. And a good open, creative culture. A special blend of capitalism and reformism, market and general interests. Milan, in short, as a paradigm of how the European synthesis between democracy, market and welfare can be effectively manifested.

Precisely because of this special “social capital”, for long periods of history it’s been clear that “you become Milanese” even though you may have come from Parma or Palermo, Treviso or Bari, Florence or Naples, or from one of the many less dynamic Italian municipalities, to learn (precisely through business and work) to be producers and, above all, citizens. A secular religion (frequently found in Catholic circles too) of “doing, doing well and doing some good”. The “city that goes up” and that, in fact, includes.

Things have changed in recent times though. The economic and social divides have grown, as Il Giorno clearly laid out (24th November), showing “the two faces of Milan” with “the income abyss, five times higher in the city centre” compared with the outskirts such as Quarto Oggiaro, and with an increase in “poor workers” and temporary workers. And in Corriere della Sera (21st November), Giangiacomo Schiavi – a scrupulous analyst of community data, feelings and opinions – recounted the predicament for quality of life and happiness “without five thousand euros a month”. And three days later (24th November), he insisted: “In the Milan of appeal and events, there’s poverty made up of lives running at the minimum, of people who try to climb the social ladder but can’t manage it. These are stories that contradict the vision of an equal citizenship status: stories of invisible men and women overwhelmed by emergencies, detached from civil life and hiding in the shame of something over a plate of soup in the canteens of Ambrosian solidarity”.

And then La Repubblica (17th November): “A drop in new residents: the high cost of living weighs on the farewell to Milan”.  In 2024 in fact (data up to August), 50,000 people left the city, compared with 35,000 new arrivals. One cause is a surge in the cost of living that far outweighs the increase in salaries and average wages. And these trends are negatively dominated by the crippling boom in real estate values: “Rents up by 40% over the space of five years. Behind the new poverty lies the cost of housing”, writes Zita Dazzi in La Repubblica (24th November), using data taken from research by the Bicocca University for the Pellegrini Foundation.

A key point: thanks to the 2017 Renzi law on the 100,000 euro flat tax (raised to 200,000 euros by the Meloni government last August), about 1,600 super-rich chose to live in Italy (and especially in Milan) rather than in London or other large international cities, driving first of all the real estate market crazy. And Italy “has become a tax haven on a par with Switzerland” says Ferruccio de Bortoli (Corriere della Sera, 2nd December).

Social inequalities are increasing in a Milan crowded with wealthy city users and less and less by citizens with a life plan, a love for spaces, services and common values (including culture) and strict attention to the quality of life in general, from health to school, from security to neighbourhood relationships.

In short, Milan needs to re-read Alberto Savinio‘s intense pages, “listen to your heart, city”. And to defer less to the allure of the stage of fashion and consumption, instead dedicating more attention to the real economy, to salaries, to projects for young people, to solidarity. Rediscovering its Ambrosian soul, in fact.

So everything’s wrong and needs to be redone then? No, of course not.

Milan is a multiple, multifaceted city, strengthened by the many differences within it and by a culture of active citizenship that’s still solid (though now showing signs of cracks and woodworm). And so it must be recounted well in all its complexity, and administered with generous foresight.

Milan, as we know, is hypercritical of itself. Demanding. Marked by an ethic of work and common good that still has firm roots (Verri, Beccaria, Manzoni, Cattaneo) and emerges in current enterprises (the lesson of the great entrepreneurial families – Pirelli, Bocconi, Falck, Borletti – is still echoing and is being re-interpreted by the new generations of entrepreneurs of the real economy). It’s still acutely sensitive to excessive disparities and intolerable inefficiencies with social repercussions. A virtue. That shouldn’t be mortified.

That’s why the brief yet alarming texts on extreme phenomena are wrong, giving the idea that we’re dealing with a city out of control. And the fleeting judgements about success and the rapid accumulation of wealth are equally misleading. Milan has an extraordinary complexity that still needs to be carefully understood, revealed and accentuated.

In the metropolitan story, therefore, the initiatives designed by the Municipality for social housing can emerge, keeping in mind the rights and expectations of the 200,000 university students – the good future of Milan. The growth of Mind (Milan Innovation District) in the area where, almost ten years ago, the World Expo marked the recovery of the city to the point of it becoming a symbol – “the place to be”, according to the New York Times. La Scala, which opens the season with the “premiere” on 7th December, the feast day of Saint Ambrose, for spectators in 37 different parts of the city, from the Gallery to San Vittore and to the big screens set up on the outskirts of the city, because good culture is popular and for everyone. Assolombarda (association of Lombardy businesses), which inaugurates an in-house nursery school open to the neighbourhood, as an incentive for all its registered companies to do the same. And the Museum of Science and Technology that sets up a new Playlab for children, so they can learn while playing.

The Milanese newspaper reports of good economic and social practices offer several examples, together with investigations into everything that’s wrong.

In short, Milan is a multi-faceted city. That you have to know how to interpret. And – why not? – strictly continue to love.

“Milan needs more integration and a stop to gloom and doom” says Archbishop Mario Delpini: “Outside the sparkling centre there are districts with economic problems, but they’re not ghettos. There’s a need for dialogue and hospitality there” (La Repubblica, 29th November). And Donatella Sciuto, rector of the Polytechnic – a university of international importance and prestige (La Repubblica, 30th November), invites us to “mend the city”, “to make proximity heard, to make the various pieces of Milan communicate with each other”, recalling that she inaugurated student halls of residence last year, precisely in Corvetto. Where “the voices of reality that build bridges” work: the Community of Sant’Egidio, the sisters of Via Martinengo, a series of cooperatives and social centres. To “work together on inclusion”, Sciuto adds. Without exacerbating the conflicts.

If this is the context, of social problems and wounds but also of commitment and generous thoughts, it’s worth looking beyond the news articles. And, for example, continuing to read Calvin, right up to the last pages of “The Infinite Cities”: “The hell of living people isn’t something in the future; if there is one, it’s already here. It’s the hell we live in every day, which we form by staying together. There are two ways not to suffer from it. The first comes easy to many: accept hell and become part of it, to the point where you don’t see it any more. The second is risky and requires continuous attention and learning: look for and recognise who and what, in the middle of hell, isn’t hell, and make it last, and give them space”.

The evolution of the HR manager

Businesses, and therefore people. In fact, first the people and then the businesses. Because no business can exist – healthily and for long – without the attentive involvement of the people who work there (at various levels and with different responsibilities).

Working with people, however, isn’t easy. For this reason, the job of the HR manager is not only one of the most complex within a production organisation, it’s also one of those that’s continuously changing.

These are the central ideas that Franco Civelli and Daniele Manara work around in their “The new paradigms of the HR manager. Evolution of a profession in the changing world of work”. The book tries to answer a question: what do HR managers do today, and what will they be doing tomorrow? Because the authors believe that, unlike in the past, the HR department now has the chance to acquire a leading position in corporate hierarchies. A prospect that derives precisely from what was mentioned at the beginning: the importance of people within companies. That’s why HR responsibility will become more and more relevant for organisations, because it’s this responsibility that will be entrusted with the task of promoting the continuous development of people. It’s a change in the very culture of production, moving from numbers and tables to something different.

After analysing the history and reality of HR, the book aims to be a guide for those who choose human resource management as their profession, and can offer some suggestions to entrepreneurs on how to promote motivation, involvement and participation in the company. To be read, and above all to be used.

The new paradigms of the HR manager. Evolution of a profession in the changing world of work

Franco Civelli, Daniele Manara

PostEditori, 2024

The three finalists in each section of the fourth edition of the Campiello Junior were announced at the Pirelli Headquarters on Thursday, 5 December 2024. This prestigious literary prize, established through a partnership between the Fondazione Il Campiello, the Pirelli Foundation, and Pirelli, celebrates Italian fiction and poetry written for children aged 7-10 and young readers aged 11-14.

The selection of the finalist works was entrusted to the Award Jury, chaired by Pino Boero, a distinguished former professor of Children’s Literature and Pedagogy of Reading. The members were Chiara Lagani, actress and playwright; Michela Possamai, lecturer at IUSVE University in Venice and former member of the Campiello Giovani Technical Committee; Emma Beseghi, former professor of Children’s Literature at the University of Bologna; and Lea Martina Forti Grazzini, an author and screenwriter for Rai radio and TV programmes.

From nearly one hundred books submitted, the finalists for the 7-10 year category are: Vivian Lamarque, Storia con mare, cielo e paura (Adriano Salani Editore); Ilaria Mattioni, La figlia del gigante (Feltrinelli Editore) and Guia Risari, I giorni di Alban (Giunti Editore).

The following were selected for the 11–14-year category: Il ciambellano e il lupo by Simona Baldelli, published by Emons Libri e Audiolibri, Nella tua pelle by Chiara Carminati, Bompiani, and Una casa fuori dal tempo by Beatrice Masini, published by Mondadori.

The 240 young members of the Popular Jury will now plunge into these books and cast their votes to help determine this year’s winners. The names will be announced in Vicenza in April 2025.

Stay up to date on all Campiello Junior events by continuing to follow us on www.fondazionepirelli.org and on our social media channels.

Fifty years after its last victory, Pirelli made a remarkable comeback in 1980 when the German champion Walter Röhrl won the 48th Monte Carlo Rally in his Fiat 131 Abarth. His victory was not only a milestone for the Turin-based car manufacturer, which hadn’t topped the podium since 1928, but also a triumph for Pirelli, whose tyres were fitted not only to Röhrl’s 131 but also to four other cars that came high in the rankings.

Thus began a decade filled with successes, both technologically and in sport. “More than a triumph”, declared Fatti e Notizie, in an article celebrating a series of wins at Monte Carlo—a title that in hindsight sounds prophetic. The spotlight, when it comes to tyre innovation, once again shone on the Pirelli P7 in its various different versions.

Victory upon victory. And they continued to come, as a quartet of cars—this time Lancia—all fitted with Pirelli tyres, snatched the first four places in the Tour de Corse and then also in the rally in Greece. Sporting victories with an exceptional scorecard: in 1980 Pirelli celebrated its 50th victory since the world championship started in 1972. A record that speaks volumes about the advanced technology behind these competitions. In 1983, this remarkable synergy between car and tyres reached new heights as Walter Röhrl drove his Pirelli-fitted Lancia 037 to victory at Monte Carlo. The triumph was made even more significant by the fact that another two Lancia 037s, also fitted with “Long P” tyres, securing second and third place. In 1983 and 1984, the Lancia 037 claimed no fewer than ten victories.

In the 1980s, Pirelli’s relentless race forward with its tyres showed no sign of slowing. Alongside its many victories, the company continued to combine racing and research. This was made clear in 1987 by Mario Mezzanotte, the head of technical development for sports activities, who remarked, “Starting from this year’s Sanremo Rally, the new Pirelli P Zero has increasingly made its mark. This tyre is fast becoming a symbol of the technological transfer from competition to production that Pirelli has always championed.” Here, the P Zero took the iconic four-wheel-drive Lancia Delta S4 to victory.

The way to get there was always the same: from the engineering labs to the world’s most challenging rally routes, and then to production cars worldwide. In advertising, the buzzword was now “Pirally”—seven letters that captured a world of passion and technological expertise. This term, often used by Pirelli in the 1990s, reflected the company’s prominent role in rally racing. This was evident right from the outset, when Carlos Sainz won the 59th Monte Carlo Rally in 1991, driving a Toyota Celica 4WD on Pirelli tyres. During a visit to Bicocca, executives from the Japanese automaker praised Pirelli’s technical, organisational, and logistical abilities. This recognition also appeared in the form of a trophy awarded to Carlo Banchieri, product director of Pirelli Tyre Holding.

The most coveted prizes, however, continued to come from the competitions themselves. In 1993, Gianfranco Cunico, driving a Ford fitted with Pirelli tyres, claimed victory at the Sanremo Rally. The stars on this occasion were the Pirelli R76 tyres, which were tough enough to handle temperature swings from 30°C on wet roads to 140°C on dry.

Yet the greatest year of the decade in rallying was 1994, which brought in a whole slew of triumphs: from the Sanremo Rally to that of Monte Carlo, through to the Acropolis Rally and to Corsica. Leading the way was almost always Carlos Sainz, who amassed an extraordinary series of top spots.

Riding the wave of its rally successes, Pirelli introduced the P7000 at Monza. The tyre became known as “the tyre with ferocious control”. Initially engineered and made to stand up to the rigours of racing, it later found its way onto road vehicles. As was pointed out in an article in Fatti e Notizie in 1995, “With P7000, Pirelli’s sporting tradition is once again available to the motorist.”

In 1997, Pirelli celebrated its hundredth World Rally Championship victory, winning across “three very different terrains: asphalt, rain, and snow at the Monte Carlo, icy dirt tracks and snow in Sweden, and rugged terrain, savannah, and river crossings in the Safari Rally.”

These victories were achieved thanks to “the constant reliability, amazing versatility and consistent performance of Pirelli tyres, irrespective of the surface or racing conditions.”

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The close connection between Pirelli and rally competitions became evident right from the early 1960s.

First came the innovative “tyre with a jacket”—the “Battistrada Separato 3” (BS3)—which first made its mark in a rally race. The carcass and tread of this tyre were vulcanised separately, making the tread easily interchangeable. Such an advanced design, which remained in production for some years, effectively pioneered the concept of seasonal tyre changes, making it possible to transition seamlessly between summer and winter performance. In the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally, 28 competing crews relied on the BS3, with 23 successfully reaching the finish line. The pioneering BS3 also paved the way for Pirelli’s first true winter tyre, the MS35, which in television commercials of the time appeared prominently with Sandro Munari at the wheel of the Lancia Fulvia with which he won several races, including the Monte Carlo Rally in 1972.

It was the “Dragon” Munari who, in the 1970s, ushered in yet another legendary tyre, at least to the world of rallying: the P7. As Fatti e Notizie, Pirelli’s in-house publication, explained, Munari was unwavering in his praise for the ultra-low-profile P7, engineered by Pirelli technicians and fitted to the Lancia Stratos Alitalia. Together with the car’s unmatched reliability, the P7 became a decisive factor in rally competitions, especially on the roads of Monte Carlo, where it revealed its full potential.
The 1970s were indeed a golden era for Pirelli in rallying. With the P7, the company strengthened its reputation in the toughest and most challenging races throughout the decade, creating an ever-closer synergy between competitive racing and the pursuit of ever more sophisticated technology. During this period, rallies evolved into a thrilling “blend of the Mille Miglia and the 24 Hours of Le Mans—an intense test of technology, organisation, and unexpected challenges, demanding the utmost from both drivers and their machines”, as Pirelli’s reports declared at the time.

All of this was built on firm foundations: the most important races (beginning with the quintessential rally, that of Monte Carlo), the best-loved champions (none more so than Sandro Munari), the most successful cars (BMW, Fiat, Lancia), and, above all, the tyres. After all, victory in a rally relies 30% on the driver and another 30% on the car, but at least a further 30% on the tyres alone.

It was in the 1970s that some of Pirelli’s most historic tyres were also put to the test in rallying, and then refined or specifically adapted for the demands of racing. These included some of the best-known names: the P7, of course, but also the Supersport, the Cinturato CN 36 (also in the “C” variant for use with studs), the Cinturato MS 35, and the CN 54.

The results achieved in the races instantly inspired new research goals—and vice versa. Once again, it was a Pirelli publication that captured it best in an article on the MS35: “The computer provided the general setup. The fine-tuning came from practical road tests. And the ultimate verification came from rallying.” Victories abounded for cars fitted with “Long P” tyres, amassing over 20 wins in just the first half of the decade. Rallying became the ultimate testing ground, also for those whose hard work created every detail. I magnifici quindici della squadra rally (“The Magnificent Fifteen of the Rally Team”) was the title of an article in Fatti e Notizie devoted to those who worked in the 1970s at the Rally Centre, the heart of Pirelli’s racing tyre operations.

Technology, the will to win, and above all, a team passionate about their craft—at every level.

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The new millennium began with yet another triumph for Pirelli. The P Zero claimed victory at the 2000 Safari Rally by equipping all three podium finishers: two Subarus in first and second place, driven by Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen respectively, and a Seat in third with Didier Auriol at the wheel. Yet it was perhaps the following year, 2001, that truly showcased the high levels of performance of the Long P. Racing records point to Pirelli’s 18th World Rally Championship title, when “Richard Burns won the final round of the 2001 Rally in Great Britain in his Subaru fitted P Zero tyres, earning himself the Drivers’ World Title.”

Pirelli’s winning streak in rally racing continued through the early 2000s, with repeat triumphs in 2002 and 2003, securing yet another world title conquered by the P Zero. The 2000s also saw the introduction of another tyre, when the Pirelli KP joined the line-up, completing the P Zero range for gravel and providing an instant competitive edge. Once again, it was an article in Fatti e Notizie that reported that it was this new tyre that had taken a Subaru Impreza to victory in the 2004 Rally of New Zealand, with Peter Solberg at the wheel.

Throughout the first decades of the twenty-first century, Pirelli’s advances in technology and research led to victories across the world. In 2015, the Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz claimed the European Rally Championship title in a Ford Fiesta, relying on the full range of Pirelli tyres, from the Pirelli Scorpion K to the P Zero RK, through to the Pirelli Sottozero Ice. That same year, the Italian driver Paolo Andreucci, driving a Peugeot 208 T16 fitted with Pirelli tyres, took the Italian rally title.

In 2019, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) chose Pirelli as the exclusive tyre supplier for the 2021 to 2024 seasons of the World Rally Championship. This partnership means that all the 4×4 vehicles competing for the WRC title, the R5 cars in WRC2, and those taking part in the various regional and national championships around the globe are equipped with Pirelli tyres.

On 30 December 2020, a company press release pointed out that, in that year alone, there had been 85 victories, with Pirelli participating in rally events across 40 countries and securing 275 special stage wins. In just the previous five years, over 509,000 tyres had been supplied to the champions tackling the world’s toughest races. And, by the end of 2020, Pirelli had competed in over 580 rally events, claiming 181 victories and 25 titles.

Today, with its goals as the sole supplier for the 2021–2024 WRC season accomplished, Pirelli continues its support for all the rally competitions it is involved in worldwide. In addition, it has partnered with the FIA on the newly launched Rally Star programme, reinforcing the Italian company’s long-term commitment to nurturing talented young drivers across all levels of rallying.

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A study discussed at Ca’ Foscari highlights the competitive elements of female leadership

 Female leadership as an element of competitiveness and a different production culture. Elements that often impact business results, also and particularly in crisis situations or in the innovation that can be implemented.

“Female Leadership: how the presence of women affects business management in crisis situations and in the innovative activity of companies they manage or own” reasons around these concepts. The study, which resulted in a thesis, was developed by Aurora Dal Cin as part of the Second Cycle Degree in Economics and Business Management at Ca’ Foscari in Venice.

The general objective of the survey is to “analyse the impact of female figures on the corporate performance (…) of the companies they manage or own”.

The study begins with a clarification of the characteristics of female leadership in companies, continues with a series of in-depth analyses, such as the issue of the “glass ceiling” and the role of women in corporate research and development activities, and then with an empirical analysis of the behavioural strategies adopted in situations of crisis and innovation.

Dal Cin’s research reaches two conclusions that may seem obvious at first glance. On the one hand, it highlights the “numerous obstacles that women have to face in the world of work, including many stereotypes that consider them too sensitive to play the role of leader, which is still attributed to the male figure”. On the other hand, it identifies specific characteristics that “female” management entails which in turn influence business results.

Female Leadership: how the presence of women affects business management in crisis situations and in the innovative activity of companies they manage or own

Aurora Dal Cin

Thesis, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Management, Second Cycle Degree in Business Economics and Management, 2024

Based on the experience of an archaeologist and a management expert, a book that discusses culture and its expressions

Museum junk. If this was the model, or rather, the image that we had of museums and their contents until some time ago, today – fortunately – this same image has changed considerably. This is thanks to a cultural evolution that, by re-evaluating knowledge of the past as a tool we can use to live better in the present and think about the future with foresight, has also influenced museums (and archives) to make them into vehicles of knowledge available to all. Christian Greco and Paola Dubini (he is an Egyptologist and director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, she is a professor of management at Bocconi University in Milan) reflect on these themes in a compelling book just under 150 pages long that reads like a journey through the fascinating museology of today.

The assumption on which the two authors base their reflections may seem obvious at first glance. Today, managing a museum no longer means simply showcasing a collection of objects, but rather leveraging our cultural heritage to convey messages that go beyond the museum halls. In other words, the museum has become a place of research and a bridge between the past and the future. Many cultural institutions and even numerous businesses now know very well that it is around museums (and their archives) that they have built truly cultural initiatives, not just communication strategies.  Starting from the idea of the museum as a methodological archetype, the dialogue between Greco and Dubini leads to the political significance of using culture as a way to enhance the territory, generate opportunities for encounters between different cultures, promote collaborations between the public and private sectors, harness the power of art to activate new forms of diplomacy, and encourage the exchange between different disciplines to foster growth and attract talent.

These concepts are developed and explored in depth in a work enhanced by the experience of an enlightened museum director and a diligent expert in the management of numerous cultural institutions. The result is the emergence of a living instrument at the service of all, a tool that must be supported and cared for, valued and defended. The museum can have different forms or purposes but always retains its essence, that of being a unique tool for understanding the personal and professional journeys of individuals and the organisations they build. “La cultura è di tutti” is a must-read.

La cultura è di tutti

Christian Greco, Paola Dubini

Egea, 2024

The icon is the phrase attributed to Prince Myshkin, the protagonist of “The Idiot” by Fëdor Dostoevsky: “Beauty will save the world”. It was not a consolatory motto, but rather an invitation to seek, in the shadows of the miseries and pain of daily existence, those traces of grace and morality that allow us to raise our gaze towards a better condition of thought and life. The idea was taken up again, in more recent times, by Tzvetan Todorov in a book of the same title, linking the thoughts of Oscar Wilde, Rainer Maria Rilke and Marina Cvetaeva to those of the Russian writer.
Beauty, therefore, as the search for balance, quality, measure, as well as an aesthetic value (in full knowledge that already at the time of the Greek philosophers, aesthetics and ethics were common areas of reflection). Beauty as a way of escape from suffering.
These are the first thoughts that come to mind about the recent Humanitas project “La cura e la bellezza” (Care and Beauty), created with the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan for the San Pio X clinic. The walls of the health facility bear reproductions of the “Dama” by Pietro del Pollaiolo, with her elegant and composed gaze and the famous pearl necklace, followed by works by Hayez, Botticelli, Canaletto, Grechetto, Sassoferrato, Previtali, Sofonisba Anguissola, and other artists, all there to mark the times of the wait, to offer a moment of serenity in conditions of suffering, to provide a moment of rest for doctors and nurses, patients and their families, and for those who, for one reason or another, pass through the rooms of care, laboratories, clinics, and hospital wards. But also to accompany moments of happiness (at San Pio X there is a busy maternity ward: the new lives of baby girls and boys begin here).
“We are a home that provides care. And that wonderful house-museum, the Poldi Pezzoli, helps us evolve and become a true home for patients and staff,” says Gianfelice Rocca, president of Humanitas.
Paintings. And art objects from the Poldi Pezzoli collection, clocks, timepieces, porcelain (the project was curated by Daniele Lupo). With the underlying idea of highlighting gazes, landscapes, flashes of eyes and intertwined hands, light, and colours, to give substance and depth to life as it flows—life that surely deserves the chance for a moment of respite, a pause, a breath amidst suffering. To be specific, therapeutic beauty.
The initiative with Poldi Pezzoli is the third stage of a journey embarked upon years ago by Humanitas. With the Brera Museum for the IRCCS of Rozzano and then with Accademia Carrara for Humanitas Gavazzeni of Bergamo (a film on this initiative, directed by Nicola Martini for Social Content Factory, has just come first at the Made Film Festival of Bergamo for corporate cinema, along with “Includere per crescere” by Bnl/Bnp Paribas).
The choices that concern the relationship between beauty and health are important ones. And they certainly cannot be applied generally to all healthcare facilities, in a sector already burdened with difficulties, shortages, tensions, economic and functional limitations. But they are interesting choices worth considering nonetheless. Because the quality of the healthcare environment affects the mood and psychological climate of patients and family members, doctors and nurses and therefore improves the psychological inclination to give space to the hope of recovery (to give just one example, the paediatric wards of the Niguarda Hospital, in Milan, were furnished and decorated a few years ago, with cheerful and colourful drawings, by Pirelli; and several other companies have moved in similar directions in other hospital facilities).
Moreover, even in the business world, there is a growing awareness of the importance of a positive relationship between companies and stakeholders, the people in the communities affected by the company’s activities. A virtuous circle between “doing, doing well and doing good”. A relationship of social and civil values that goes beyond the strict role of the company as an actor that produces economic value.
Corporate culture, in fact, must be understood as a culture of sustainability and social responsibility. And the Life Sciences are experienced not merely as a sector of healthcare but as a broader domain related to health and quality of life. A dimension, moreover, in which the world of Italian businesses can share exemplary stories.
Care and beauty, then. As a personal and social choice. Reflecting on visual arts, following the Humanitas paradigm. But also on theatre and music. On poetry and literature (“Curarsi con i libri” was the title of an extraordinary volume by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, published about ten years ago by Sellerio: “Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno”). On all aspects of the Italian “polytechnic culture” that continues to combine humanistic and scientific knowledge, beauty and technology, memory and innovation. With an idea of “integral humanism” that embraces the person in their complex wholeness and the social body with its bonds of solidarity and inclusion, along with the ability to value diversity. A healthy choice. But also a far-sighted idea of civilisation. A robust social capital.

Featuring the successful inventions and innovations in Italian patents, the exhibition L’Italia dei Brevetti: invenzioni e innovazioni di successo, opened on 18 November at the Palazzo Piacentini in Rome. Organised by the Ministry for Business and Made in Italy, the event celebrates the 140th anniversary of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office and marks the 550th anniversary of the first Patent Statute, promulgated by the Republic of Venice in 1494.

The opening ceremony was attended by Minister Adolfo Urso and Deputy Minister Valentino Valentini, together with the curators of the exhibition and representatives from over one hundred participating companies, institutions, and research centres.

Open to the public from 23 November 2024 to 2 March 2025, the exhibition showcases the transformative power of ideas on society in Italy and around the world, presenting over 100 industrial patents. The stories of these patents are arranged in seven thematic sections, based on the type and purpose of these innovative devices, highlighting how new technologies have improved production processes across various sectors of industry. The exhibition features original materials drawn from patent archives and modern patent management systems, alongside photographic and multimedia content, as well as physical products and prototypes.

Pirelli is represented by its Run Forward™ technology, for controlling the rolling resistance of moving tyres and for reducing vehicle energy consumption. This breakthrough method, which was patented by Pirelli Tyre SpA in 2021, is applied to the P Zero™ E tyre, which is on display in the exhibition along with pictures and samples of materials like lignin, silica derived from rice husk ash, bio-resins, natural rubber, and bio-based circular polymers. The P Zero™ E tyre is composed of over 55% materials of natural or recycled origin. These include natural rubber, textile reinforcements, bio-resins, lignin, and other natural chemicals, and recycled materials in the form of metal reinforcements, chemicals and—through a mass balance approach—synthetic rubber, silica and carbon black.

This is thus a story not just of technological progress but also of sustainability and know-how. All Made in Italy.