One of the latest contributions by the Governor of the Bank of Italy provides useful elements to better understand our current situation

Uncertainty, a need for development and obstacles to be overcome, the issue of raw materials and energy, the necessity to not forget the interplay between economy and society. The times we are, unfortunately, experiencing are rife with what pundits call “challenges”, which everyone – according to their role and function – must in some way first understand and then successfully tackle. This is why reading “Transizione energetica, finanza e clima: sfide e opportunità” (“Energy transition, finance and climate: challenges and opportunities”) proves beneficial – this is the talk that Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy, has delivered on 14 March 2022, at the 13^th Bank of Italy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) Conference, also attended by Financial Delegates and Attachés working abroad.

The essence of Visco’s words is clear from the very beginning of his contribution: “Today’s meeting falls on a tragic date: the serious events of these past weeks have cast a shadow of deep uncertainty on a world’s economy that already, in this past 15 years, has been disrupted first by the global financial crisis and then by the pandemic. The context that arose at the end of the cold war now seems to be called into question. The international economic and financial integration framework and the complex multilateral arrangement that, despite the many difficulties, had succeeded in keeping dialogue and cooperation alive, have now become uncertain. Fissures had already started appearing in recent years; today, the peace of our continent is at risk, a crucial element in the balance established in last century’s second post-war period. It is a deep and serious breach that will lead to a different balance, though one that remains difficult to identify as yet.” A crucial period that the Governor outlines by addressing some key issues. First of all, the necessity to tackle the transition by identifying more efficient energy sources, and then the duty – directly linked to the energy transition – to establish some clear measures regarding climate change. But there’s more. Visco, indeed, further touches on the meaning and the role of a united Europe, not only in geopolitical terms but also – and above all, in some respects – in regard to energy and climate change policies.  Subsequently, the Governor of the Bank of Italy also discusses the financial aspects that all this, inevitably, will determine.

Cohesion and cooperation seem to be, in Ignazio Visco’s reasoning, the true “code words” required to face – not only with full cognisance but also with effectiveness and rationality – a difficult, complex and risky juncture. Reading the contribution by the Governor of the Bank of Italy truly provides readers with knowledge that is crucial in order to take a step in the right direction.

Transizione energetica, finanza e clima: sfide e opportunità (“Energy transition, finance and climate: challenges and opportunities”)

Ignazio Visco

XIII Conferenza MAECI – Banca d’Italia con i Delegati e gli Addetti finanziari accreditati all’estero (13^th Bank of Italy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) Conference, also attended by Financial Delegates and Attachés working abroad), Bank of Italy, Salone dei Partecipanti hall, 14 March 2022

A book summarises theory and practice of digitalisation as applied to heritage

The future revisits the past, making it more accessible and comprehensible – not in the form of fanciful words and images, but as part of a tangible operation aimed at making new sources of knowledge available to all. Along those lines, one of the most important and intriguing examples is the confluence of digital techniques, archiving and cultural and corporate heritage.

Margherita Tufarelli (University of Florence) scrutinises this process, offering a broad perspective on cultural archiving in her recently published Design, Heritage e cultura digitale. Scenari per il progetto nell’archivio diffuso (Design, heritage and digital culture. Scenarios for extensive archiving projects).

Tufarelli tries to bring together, in a single line of thought, the opportunities offered by the most innovative, cutting-edge digitalisation techniques, the many cultural archives existing in Italy and all that the concept of heritage encompasses. With a solid and long-standing experience in researching and working in these areas, the author of this work, published by the Firenze University Press, tackles such a complex theme by subdividing it into four sections – “from inheritance to heritage, from objects to processes”, “design for/of cultural heritage”, “digital memory”, “from place of conservation to project tool” – characterised throughout by an effort to blend theory and her considerable experience in both design and cultural archiving.

Tufarelli writes: “The impact of digital technologies seems to have created a metaverse in which real and digital combine into a kind of new materiality with unique physical characteristics, all to be explored, which bring life to new testing grounds distinguished by availability, pervasiveness and accessibility. The new material that progressively takes shape appears as the product of continuous interactions between new media and new tools, which engender complex, underlying cultural operations, affecting the production dynamics of cultural content, as well as its transmission.”

Thus, the book provides a kind of overview of the opportunities arising from the careful blending of digital techniques and cultural archiving – a model that could also effectively be applied to corporate archives and museums.

Design, Heritage e cultura digitale. Scenari per il progetto nell’archivio diffuso (Design, heritage and digital culture. Scenarios for extensive archiving projects)

Margherita Tufarelli

Firenze University Press, 2022

Where does the future lie for young Italian people? Abroad, answer three young people out of ten, determined to leave Italy in order to find better work and life conditions. And what motivates them is the search for a fulfilling career, real financial independence and, in the case of young women, a real chance to overcome the gender gap, which in Italy still has a great impact on income and career opportunities.

This is data included in the 2021 Report by the Visentini Foundation/LUISS, presented a few days ago in Rome (IlSole24Ore, 10 March), proof that the “brain drain” migration is increasing year after year. According to data from the Migrantes Foundation’s Italians in the world Report, in 2019, just before the pandemic, over 50,000 young people (aged 15-34 years) left the country, while the total for the 2009-2018 period amounted to 250,000, as stated by the 2019 Annual Report on the economy of immigration by the Leone Moressa Foundation; and to 300,000, indicates the Italian association Unione europea delle cooperative (using 2019 ISTAT data that includes students, as well as workers, located abroad) with a 33% rise over the past five years. An astonishing loss of human and social capital, if we consider that, in general, the individuals who leave are also the most entrepreneurial, ambitious and determined ones, driven by a strong attitude for innovation and a taste for discovery.

The cost of this loss? It’s rather plain to see – for instance, figures by the Altagamma Foundation reveal that “the Made in Italy industry is head-hunting 346,000 talents” (IlSole24Ore, 9 March). Indeed, the manufacturing industry related to the high-quality fashion, design, furnishing, shipyard, automotive and food sectors is struggling to find the adequately skilled and technically trained staff it requires (with vacant roles amounting to 40% and 50% respectively). And, in broader terms, 40% of available positions in the industry and services sectors continue to remain vacant (Unioncamere-ANPAL Excelsior Survey, IlSole24Ore, 22 February, as previously mentioned in our blog post from 8 March). Hence, considering the above-mentioned growing “brain drain” migration, the future can only get worse.

Nevertheless, let’s have a better look at the data provided by the Visentini Foundation, in order to try and understand the underlying causes for this migratory trend. This survey was carried out in spring 2021 and included over 3,000 high school girls and boys from all over Italy, with the aim of identifying their aspirations and concerns. In first place, we find “a satisfying career”, followed by “financial independence”, “family well-being”, “difficulties in climbing the ladder”, “environmental decline”, and “physical and mental health”. To fulfil their goals, 29% of these young people are willing to go abroad and 80% feel “hopeful” about the future, though much less so if their future means remaining in Italy – a considerable prod to those in power to invest more in education – and not just in formal education but in lifelong learning opportunities, too, which are key to personal development, professional success and well-being.

Following the EU Next Generation Recovery Plan’s indications, the PNRR (Italian recovery and resilience plan), aims to precisely address these needs, though the whole issue remains an open challenge and, for the younger generation, an insubstantial list of good intentions. Over the past two years, the pandemic has slowed down life and economy and now, in the middle of the recovery, the damage caused by the Russian invasion and the war in Ukraine are exacerbating the overall difficulties experienced by young people, undermining confidence and trust.

Yet, what does the data say, more in general, about the Italian migration to other European and international countries? The last edition of the 2021 Migrantes Report can help us better understand this phenomenon, as, to begin with, it shows how “over the past year, the AIRE (Italians resident abroad) population has increased by 3% – a figure that becomes 6.9% in 2019, 13.6% over the past five years, and 82% since 2006, the first year the Italians in the World Report was published. The gender difference has now almost disappeared, with women making up 48.1% of the Italian population abroad – “This is a phenomenon,” says the Migrantes Report, “that includes an increasing number of women, but also of families. In fact, nowadays, many women leave to pursue personal and professional fulfilment, and the same happens with a lot of households – married and unmarried – with children. According to data by the Ministry of the Interior’s Central Office of Statistics, updated at the beginning of 2020, out of almost 5.5 million of Italian people residing abroad, 3,223,486 are families.”

To better understand what’s happening in terms of Italian mobility, the Migrantes Report mentions a series of figures: +76.8% minors; about +179% Italian citizens aged 19 to 40 years registered with AIRE; +158.1% children born abroad from AIRE citizens; +128.6% foreign citizenships acquired; and +42.7% expatriations officially registered: “This is a population that, overall, is getting younger as it grows; yet, while in the US population is increasing through people acquiring American citizenship, especially in the south, Europe is actually experiencing a new migratory season characterised by the recent surge in the number of expatriations and children born from citizens residing abroad.”

As of 1 January 2021, the AIRE community comprises 5,652,080 units, amounting to 9.5% of the over 59.2 million Italian citizens residing in Italy. Out of these, 45.5% are aged 18 to 49 years (over 2.5 million), 15% are minors (about 848,000, of which 6.8% are younger than 10 years old) and 20.3% are over 65 years old (over 1.1 million, of which 10.7% – about 600,000 – are over 75 years old); 53.0% have been residing abroad for less than 15 years and 47.0% for more than 15 years.

Sicily is the region with the largest community of residents abroad (over 798,000), followed by Lombardy (561,000), Campania (almost 531,000), Lazio (almost 489,000), Veneto (479,000) and Calabria (430,000). The largest AIRE communities can be found in Argentina (884,187 – 15.6% of the total), Germany and Switzerland, followed by Brazil, France, the UK and the US.

The Migrantes Report states: “For a little over ten years, Italy has been experiencing a new migratory season, but the consequences of this trend have fully become obvious only in the past five years, with Italy going down a dangerous, slippery, one-way path characterised by a decrease in population, where the number of people returning to Italy does not match the number of those leaving the country. Moreover, the latter comprising mostly young people in the prime of their life and professional creativity, we need to focus our attention and activities on this portion of the population.”

And thus, we circle back to good politics – employment, training and education, income, life quality are all goals to be achieved, so as not to obliterate future opportunities and lose an entire generation.

(photo Getty Images)

Pirelli entered the automobile market in 1901 with the Ercole – “Hercules”. The name of this first Pirelli car tyre, which was patented that year, evokes the strength of the legendary Greek hero who managed to strangle two serpents even as a baby, and later performed the famous Twelve Labours. It was no easy task perfecting this new tyre and successfully launching it on the market. There were countless challenges to overcome as the new cars that were coming onto the roads in those early years of the twentieth century accelerated increasingly fast, reaching higher speeds and carrying ever greater loads. Tyre technology had yet to be invented, and the most critical hurdle was to keep the tyre firmly on the rim while driving. Pirelli engineers and technicians thus came up with the idea of two large rigid “heels” that would be wedged into the rim channel. The heels fitted precisely, enclosing the inner tube and forcing it to maintain its circular shape. A coupling system than was more efficient than that of the company’s competitors showed how Pirelli was focused on technology and innovation. Already in 1902, and then again in 1903, Pirelli published a complete instruction manual, which explained in a clear, detailed manner how to mount and remove the new tyres. Changing tyres was a fairly complicated operation in those days, and it required time and patience, but this was amply rewarded by the freedom and shorter travelling times enjoyed by the first adventurous motorists.

The Piero Pirelli Institute opened in Milan in 1958 as the company’s vocational training centre. It was dedicated to the memory of Piero Pirelli, who passed away in 1956. The building was designed by the architect Roberto Menghi, who worked with the company again a few years later, when he created a product that was to have a modern, practical design: the polyethylene container for liquids that was exhibited at MoMA in New York in 1961. As we read in an article published in Fatti e Notizie, the training centre is in an area of 6,800 square metres on Viale Fulvio Testi and consists of three buildings: one with the classrooms for theoretical lessons, the physics laboratory, the canteen, a library, and offices; a second one with the workshop for practical lessons; and a third for services. The Institute, to which also Pirelli magazine devoted an article, started up its activities in October 1958 with 50 students. About two thirds were selected from the children of employees, while a third were external candidates, and the aim was to “train workers to be ready to deal with the increasing mechanisation of industry and to provide those entering the workforce with modern, technically advanced professional training.” The theoretical lessons included mathematics, mechanics, physics, rubber and plastics technologies, electrical engineering, and economics. In 1969, the President of the Republic awarded the Institute the Gold Medal for Merit in Education and Culture. That year it became part of the educational system of Lombardy Region, offering professional training courses for the staff of other companies in Lombardy that did not have their own training facilities. These companies included Autobianchi, Marelli, Philips, and Same. In the 1970s, initial job-training courses for new recruits were flanked by intense refresher, qualification and specialisation activities for all employees in the Group, both in Italy and abroad. The aim was to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies, processes and organisation. Training was then extended to mid-level executives and managers, when the company began to make use of the first management models from the English-speaking world. In the 1990s, the high level of training know-how that had been achieved made it possible to increase the percentage of external students on the courses. Training activities continue to be of great importance for the Pirelli Group and they are now provided both digitally and in new premises in the Bicocca headquarters in an area entirely devoted to services for employees: the Cinturato Building. Designed by Onsitestudio who, for some architectural elements that recall the tread of Pirelli tyres, took inspiration from the advertising materials now in the Historical Archive, the building has been constructed to high standards of sustainability, using innovative materials, and it is home to training, welfare and company catering facilities.

A book, recently published in Italy, reflects on the complex relationships between enterprise, stakeholders and growth opportunities
 

Caught between trying to make a profit (and stay financially sound) and stakeholders’ demands, companies are now constantly striving to find their own productive and organisational assets that will allow them to grow, develop, and deal with competitors and external changes. Not an easy feat, and a daily challenge to both organisations and the manufacturing culture itself, with its vision of entrepreneurial tasks and goals in tow.

Sarah Kaplan’s book, recently translated into Italian as L’ impresa a 360 gradi. Dai compromessi con gli stakeholder alla trasformazione organizzativa (The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation), revolves around this tangle of issues. It looks at the reality experienced by companies that are expected to meet a growing and pressing number of requests from different stakeholders. Said stakeholders include consumers who demand products that are both socially responsible yet financially sustainable for their pockets, employees entreating for jobs that will make them feel worthwhile, investors who need to assess environmental, social and governance criteria, and, additionally, so-called “clicktivists”, who can cause a storm on social media as soon as a company makes a wrong move.

Those who manage and organise enterprises – this is one of the key ideas in the book – have learned from all this that companies need to act according to social and financial criteria, although pressure from different stakeholders means that a compromise must be found somewhere, in order to generate financial outcomes that will keep shareholders happy.

The question that Kaplan is trying to answer is a very clear one: how can companies meet all these demands while remaining faithful to their environmental or equal opportunities policies? It’s a complex answer, outlined over about 240 very readable pages and revolving around the limitations of a model based on shared value that, according to the author, only gives the illusion of benefitting everyone. Instead of this shared value approach, Kaplan offers a way to explore the different paths that companies could take to tackle real conflicts, and how these could become an inspiration for innovation and, at times, even increase their wealth, by demonstrating how a shared value mindset can actually hinder progress and how conflict – if well managed – could be the source of “organisational resilience and transformation.”

As it happens with any book that is clearly written and presents well-defined concepts, readers are not expected to agree with all it suggests – yet another good feature of Kaplan’s work, which sparks questions and debate or, in other words, generates conflicts that might be positive for enterprises and the manufacturing culture.

L’impresa a 360 gradi. Dai compromessi con gli stakeholder alla trasformazione organizzativa (The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation)

Sarah Kaplan

Egea, 2020

The fourth report on this theme, curated by Michele Tiraboschi, confirms how complex – and how vital – this topic is

A better understanding about welfare in Italy in order to employ it more effectively, for workers and enterprises, requires above all transparency and accurate content.

These are the features of the research studies included in WELFARE for PEOPLE, the fourth report on occupational and corporate welfare in Italy, curated by Michele Tiraboschi: a sort of guide to a fascinating and important topic that is often taken too lightly. This is why the curators, from the very start, highlight their “ambition to provide a useful contribution to the orderly development of corporate/occupational welfare.” In fact, one of the issues to be tackled is precisely the “disorderly” attitude generated by the enthusiasm on a topic and activities that, on closer inspection, are not really new, though they have just found new prospects for expansion and application.

The research studies comprised in the collection coordinated by Tiraboschi have thus been dictated by the “effort to develop a line of reasoning sufficiently detailed yet also supple in structure and simple in terms of communication.”

Underlying it all is a welfare “map” of Italy, which starts with an analysis of what, we are told, is happening “in the wide universe of (national, territorial and corporate) collective bargaining according to a methodological perspective concerning industrial relationships that allows to systematise a multitude of welfare fragments, which, when considered singularly, only offer a partial and even distorted view of this phenomenon.” This undertaking was made possible thanks to the Italian “fareContrattazione” database, created by the ADAPT research centre and including all main relevant collective bargaining contracts, illustrating the industrial relationship systems featuring the most comparative representative nature, as well as over 2,800 corporate and territorial contracts.

Figures and analyses aside, there are at least three sections worth considering for a better understanding of welfare in Italy, derived from investigations conducted by the Tiraboschi research group. First of all, the one about the ongoing “great transformation” that sees welfare as part of industrial relations; then the one on the relationships between welfare and the pandemic; and finally the links between welfare and territory (and this new edition includes some representative cases). All paying great attention to what we have already hinted at: the need to reliably measure what is happening.

This work by Michele Tiraboschi and “his” researchers has the great merit to provide an updated map of what is happening, as well as being comprehensible to all – an essential quality for institutions and enterprises wishing to do better, with a better understanding.

WELFARE for PEOPLE. Quarto rapporto su IL WELFARE OCCUPAZIONALE E AZIENDALE IN ITALIA. Il welfare occupazionale e aziendale in Italia (WELFARE for PEOPLE. Fourth report on OCCUPATIONAL AND CORPORATE WELFARE IN ITALY. Occupational and corporate welfare in Italy.)

Michele Tiraboschi (curated by)

Adapt/Intesa Sanpaolo, 2021

Versailles, a sumptuous palace, the testament of a world – that of French royal absolutism – swept away by the new ideas of the Enlightenment and by the Revolution of 1789. Yet, also the symbol of a great historical failure, after the arduous negotiations that took place at the end of World War I, with the winners (France and Great Britain) blinded by greed, America indifferent to a fair world balance, a weak Italy, and Germany crushed by a great defeat, condemned to pay for the excessive war damage it caused and punished by equally excessive sanctions that only led to crisis, resentment and later a frenzied desire for revenge culminating in nazism (the young yet already authoritative John Maynard Keynes was well aware of this, so much so that he controversially left the British delegation and illustrated his reasons in the clear-headed and even prophetical The economic consequences of the Peace, a book that, years later, was thankfully held in high esteem by the authors of the Marshall Plan, which financed the reconstruction and recovery of the defeated countries and as such became crucial in leaving behind the disasters wreaked by World War II).

Back to the present time: to the last few days, when the heads of state and government that compose the European Council gathered amongst Versailles’s fine stuccos, gilded mirrors and precious tapestries to take some joint decisions concerning the serious issues caused by the war in Ukraine: extended sanctions against Russia, renewed support to Ukraine and its inhabitants displaced by the invasion, a commitment to drastically decrease the energy dependency on Russian gas and oil.

Commitments agreed only in principle, as accompanied by inadequate operational decisions that will, anyhow, take time, assert the most critical observers. A significant and positive step forward for a more cohesive and active EU as it builds its own autonomy and security, stated on the other hand Prime Minister Mario Draghi, a sensible actor in all main developments where Europe acts as the assertive architect of new global scenarios. Also positive, all in all, the judgement by Giampiero Massolo, highly experienced Italian diplomat: “The Versailles Declaration has confirmed a significant trend: the States’ increased focus in establishing an overall and prevailing European, rather than national, interest, showing, in essence, a willingness to work together to mitigate the Union’s overall vulnerability, which will then also benefit each country singularly” (la Repubblica, 14 March). A decision that will have positive consequences, no doubt.

In the meantime the war, with its losses and its wounds, tragically continues and every day we have to face what Hegel rightly called “the burden of history”. Yet, at the same time, some long-term thinking about the future needs to be done, too – to acknowledge our weaknesses, the “strengths but also the limitations of open societies” (Angelo Panebianco well reminded us of such limitations on the Corriere della Sera, 13 March), and be aware of the economic and social costs of a Europe that wants to grow, acquire more international weight and as such feel more secure in the new scenarios that are arising in this multipolar, intensely conflicted world, in this new “cold war” loaded with the threat of “hot-headed” developments.

Here’s the key point: we need to take effective decisions in order to relaunch and strengthen the EU as a major player in the international rebalancing of powers and work to promote its strategic autonomy. In other words, we need to build a European security policy founded on three major principles: foreign policy and defence (a much more incisive one than the current CFSP agreements), energy and the supply of strategic raw (“rare earth”) materials, and scientific and technological research – with all political and economic implications that might ensue.

“Only a politically cohesive EU will be able to successively tackle global challenges”, said Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs (Il Sole24Ore, 26 February). And, even more clearly: “History is steering the EU towards a turning point: after a period of solidarity, united against Covid, now it’s the time to become autonomous, especially in terms of energy and defence” (La Stampa, 7 March).

Its strategic placing is plain to see: a Europe that’s both Atlantic and Mediterranean, close to the US (also owing to shared liberal democracy ideals and market economy values, which must be safeguarded, promoted and relaunched through a veritable “battle of ideas”) but also open to a dialogue with China and Russia, and showing sensitivity to cultures and interests from other parts of the world, from Africa to South America. A multipolar world, indeed. A world capable to take joint decisions or, at the very least, feel pretty much the same about themes such as the environment, life quality, freedom, the future. A world full of exchanges, trade, relationships.

Of course, global economic trends won’t disappear and many tensions will intensify. Yet, we’ll have to make an effort and continue to define a new global order, trying to make better sense of, and give some more power to, the WTO, as well as the UN. A network of strong and well-balanced trade relations can only create a positive environment for the mitigation of neo-imperialist, nationalist and sovereignist issues.

The EU’s strategic autonomy entails not only a joint energy policy, but also better choices related to industrial policies (which will have an impact on defence needs) and fiscal policies (a joint budget for investments in technology, weaponry, scientific research, cyber security and artificial intelligence), and as such swifter governance, with respect to making political and economic decisions in a crisis, also able to overcome the notion of unanimity requirement.

Let’s take a better look at the industry. The number of companies that are radically altering their value production chains, supply chains and supply networks is increasing (as mentioned in our blog post from 23 November). Our manufacturing industry is coming home: a clear change in direction when we think of choices that were popular only a few years ago (when production was relocated to countries that offered lower costs and better conditions, from the Far East to certain areas of Eastern Europe).

Backshoring – or reshoring – continues, factories are no longer located abroad and therefore supply chains are getting shorter. What we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed that long and extensive supply chains (molecules essential to the pharmaceutical industry being produced in India, for example) are extremely fragile and precarious. A lack of raw material, jams in the transport system and strains due to tensions of any kind, including wars and adventurism, can cut them off – as we’re learning from the Russian invasion of Ukraine – or they can be disrupted by crises provoked by cybercrime. Better, then, to try and keep manufacturing in a safe environment, and therefore bring production and supply chains back home, to more auspicious places where they can be adequately managed and kept in check.

Backshoring tactics that, of course, should not be adopted separately by each single European country, but should be employed to turn the whole of the EU into a common production hub and make it more competitive at an international level. The EU’s decision to invest intensively in the production of microchips is a positive sign, and other sectors should follow suit.

Of course, manufacturing will continue in the Far East, but with European companies paying heed to more local-for-local approaches and a production system suited to the internal markets of the areas in which investments are made, rather than old-fashioned strategies relying on large import and export volumes. This is not at all meant to sound protectionist – it’s merely a shift in competitive attitude, to give companies the chance to strengthen their production skills and their quality in the world’s markets, and in more autonomous and safe conditions.

Basically, European institutions and industry need to collaborate, in order to define a downright road map for this transition. This, too, is strategic autonomy, and therefore freedom and security.

(photo China Photos/Getty Images)

It all started in 1973. That was the year of the first World Rally Championship, when Pirelli rode to victory and took the title on a Fiat 124 Abarth driven by the German Achim Warmbold. This was the first in a whole string of successes, with the hundredth celebrated on 3 March 1997.  Before the official championship was launched, rallying had been going for several years, with Pirelli starring in some memorable feats, such as the victory of Sandro Munari and Mario Mannucci‘s Lancia Fulvia HF 1600 in the 41st Monte Carlo Rally on 28 January 1972. Starting in 1973, the first 14 seasons of the World Championship saw an official partnership with the Fiat group: five world titles with cars manufactured by the Turin-based brand between 1974 and 1978 and then with Lancia in 1983 and 1987, coming out on top in Canada, Sweden, Greece, New Zealand, and Argentina, on all types of terrain.  Then came the partnership with Toyota, and the first triumphs in Africa in 1984 – with the debut of the future champion Juha Kankkunen – and then the victories of the Spaniard Carlos Sainz who won two titles, in 1990 and 1992. Another era in which Pirelli featured large in the World Rally Championship began in 1994, when the Long P fitted the Subaru Impreza Gr.A of the 555 World Rally Team, driven by Sainz and Colin McRae. Victory no. 100 came in 1997, again with the 555 World Rally Team.

A series of successes that is far from over and that continues to this day, with Pirelli as the exclusive tyre supplier to the World Rally Championship.

The Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, a Renaissance country villa in the countryside north of Milan, built in the late fifteenth century by the Arcimboldi family, is opening its doors using digital technology. A new virtual tour is available on the Pirelli Foundation website, allowing everyone to explore the rooms of the villa – which is now the official reception centre of the Pirelli Group – and find out about its centuries-long history and see the various decorations that adorn it, both inside and out.

You will be able to have a close-up look at the terracotta friezes on its richly decorated façade and the sgraffito work in the rooms. You can then go up the large staircase commissioned from Piero Portaluppi and visit the first-floor reception room with its elegant sandstone fireplace. You can enter the private apartments of the ladies, and admire the finely frescoed scenes on the walls, and imagine the daily life of noblewomen at the time. You will see the intertwined knot decorations inspired by the genius Leonardo or go all the way up to the loggia on the top floor to take in the panoramic view.

With a remarkable array of historical documents and images in the Pirelli Historical Archive, made available here, you will be able to retrace the most important changes that have taken place in the building and in the Bicocca area over the centuries: from historical photographs showing the derelict villa in the late nineteenth century to documentation on the arrival of the first factories in this area in the early twentieth, the purchase of the villa by Pirelli and the first restoration works carried out on the building. Then there are pictures showing how the villa was turned into a historical museum of the company and later a kindergarten for the children of employees, through to the “Bicocca Project” and the restoration work of recent decades.

This authentic gem of fifteenth-century art and important testimony to the history of Pirelli has now opened its doors to all.