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Irish Times
15-06-2025
- Irish Times
A Wicklow woman in Venice: ‘It really feeds the soul to have all that beauty around you'
Languages were always a strength for Orla McLaughlin at school, where she studied French and German. 'I always wanted another language,' she says, so she settled on Italian and politics as it combined Italian with her interest in current affairs. An Erasmus placement brought the Greystones woman to Venice and, having completed her degree in Italian and Politics at UCD, she returned to Italy for a postgraduate diploma in European studies in the University of Padua. During her UCD days, she had spent time in Italy working with children on summer camps: 'the best way to learn a language', she says. Having completed her studies in Padua in the 1990s, she returned to Venice with other plans as well as picking up a further degree in Fundraising and Non-profit Management from the University of Bologna. READ MORE 'I worked in film production and with theatre companies and as a translator, so I was having a great time in my 20s. It was the first time I was away from home and exciting to be somewhere new.' In 2001 she started work as a programme assistant to professors in the Venice International University (VIU) and now manages its academic projects providing learning and teaching opportunities for students and scholars from VIU's associated universities all around the world. 'It was founded in 1995, so as it grew, so did I,' she says. We are fortunate in having a nice house and garden, but it is harder to find such places now She works a 40-hour week, 'and where I work is on an island [San Servolo, formerly a monastery], so I am crossing the water every day as my office is on a lagoon and you have that wonderful view back to the city', she says. Her job at the university, which is now associated with 20 universities globally, brings her into contact with people from all over the world, 'so it's a real mix, with wonderful interdisciplinary and intercultural opportunities', she says. 'Working in an international educational environment is very rewarding. I meet many interesting people and travel regularly too.' She is married to Sebastiano, a Venetian she met through friends and whom she credits for her decision to stay in Venice. The couple have three children, Conall (17), Clodagh (14) and Oisín (11), who are bilingual. 'My husband has a small family business founded by his parents and his uncle making glass chandeliers in Murano. We have now set up a small business selling chandeliers or lighting directly to customers. He designs and assembles, and we sell them on '. 'I felt very connected to the city early on. It has intangible qualities and a lot of people feel really at home here, feel really drawn in, that it is their city. 'It's a city on water, it's a pedestrian city, it's very engaging as you meet people from all walks of life all the time – it could be your neighbour, your butcher, the bar owner. I made a lot of local Venetian friends early on.' One of the benefits of living in Venice 'is the extraordinary quality of light and it really feeds the soul to have all that beauty around you. It's like living in a town – there are 50,000 residents – but a very international town with enormous cultural institutions, built heritage, galleries and temporary exhibitions like the Biennale.' Despite all that, she notes that the cost of living is not as high as Ireland. [ Venice to limit tourist groups to 25 people to 'protect peace of residents' Opens in new window ] The challenges of living in Venice? 'Rising sea levels, flooding and overtourism are real and impactful. 'Floods are not so much a problem since the setting up of mobile dams three years ago at the inlets to the lagoon, so there have been no bad floods since 2019. 'Overtourism means that the centre of the city gets very crowded and the whole Airbnb issue means that it is difficult to find accommodation for students. We are fortunate in having a nice house and garden, but it is harder to find such places now.' Social life means 'you don't need to have plans; you can go to your local wine bar and sit down for drinks and a chat – especially on Fridays – from around 6.30pm-7.30pm, before dinner. The kids who finish school at 4.30pm can play football in the square, and watching them and having a drink as the sun goes down before going home for dinner is one of the things I love to do. 'At home we like to entertain quite a lot and enjoy having barbecues. We also have a boat – for free time, not for transport – for a day out for a picnic on part of the lagoon. In summer there is the beach, and in winter skiing is only two hours away.' She laments the lack of green spaces in the city, but they have a second home in the mountains, bought during Covid in 2021, 'and we go there for long weekends during the year, skiing in winter and for walks and hikes during the summer'. She misses friends and family in Ireland and returns once or twice a year, 'though it was easier when the children were younger. You inevitably miss out on some milestones and sharing some of your own too.' As to the publicity surrounding Jeff Bezos's planned marriage in the city later this month (estimated to cost more than $600 million), she describes it as the commodification of Venice, with others denouncing it as a great big nuisance. 'The tone of the mayor and his delight in handing the city over to him [Bezos] left me disheartened. It's not the first time that somebody famous has had a big wedding in the city. George and Amal Clooney did in 2014. That was received very well. 'There is also a total lack of housing policy or amenities for residents, so the frustration of people living here is the real lack of vision of politicians as to what the future of the city will be.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meloni is still proving her Leftie critics wrong
Giorgia Meloni's opponents and their many friends in the media are cock-a-hoop that the Left has managed to win elections in a couple of large Italian cities. They are treating the victories of the Left in Genoa and Ravenna earlier this month, when elections took place for control of 126 councils, including a handful of major cities, as the beginning of the end for Italy's first female prime minister. It helped the headline writers that the victor in Genoa was a glamorous ex Olympic hammer thrower who had delivered a mighty blow to Meloni. But it is all surely nonsense. If it were true that Meloni's days were numbered, the Right-wing party she founded, Brothers of Italy, would not be consistently leading national opinion polls by a country mile. Nor would Brothers of Italy be more popular now than in September 2022, when it received more votes than any other party at the general election to lead a Right-wing coalition to a resounding victory. Such impressive popular support halfway through the life of a parliament is virtually unprecedented in a European democracy. It is especially so in a country like Italy, which has had 68 governments since the fall of fascism in 1945. But to read the press headlines readers would be forgiven if they thought the end was truly nigh for Meloni. Elly Schlein, leader of the main opposition – the Democratic Party – reacted as if on the verge of power. 'If I were Giorgia Meloni I'd be beginning to worry, [this] is the symptom that something in her rapport with the country is broken,' she said. 'What is now clear is that the centre-Right crows about the polls but we win elections.' At least Schlein had the decency to refer to Meloni as 'centre-Right', unlike most of the global media. True, they have given up calling her 'the heir to Mussolini' because she was once in Italy's long-defunct post-fascist party. But they still call her 'far-Right' despite the fact that she has not done anything far-Right – unless you count her attempts to stop mass illegal migration across the Mediterranean. And even Sir Keir Starmer, who has had talks with her on the issue twice in the past year, has said she has made 'remarkable progress'. He wants to copy her scheme to off-shore asylum seekers from safe countries (thus technically not refugees) to Albania for swift processing of their asylum requests and deportation. Is he now 'far-Right' too? On the world stage, meanwhile, Meloni continues in the role of key player whose astute down to earth realism, infectious charm and youthful good looks often produce surprising results. What makes it even more laughable that the Left should regard victory in Genoa and Ravenna as the writing on the wall for Meloni is that traditionally these two port cities have been citadels of Italian communism. Genoa has always been among the most devoutly Left-wing cities in Italy. And Italy, it should be remembered, is the country that not only invented fascism but had the largest communist party in Europe outside the Soviet Bloc until the end of the Cold War. Schlein's party is its heir. In Ravenna, the Left won as it always has done since the fall of fascism in 1945. Worse for Schlein is that the Democratic Party did not win Genoa and Ravenna on its own but only in coalition with the anti-establishment populist party, Five Star, with which it enjoys a love-hate relationship. These two parties are normally sworn enemies but have nevertheless, on occasion, allied at local level and once at national level to form a coalition government that lasted a year and a half. Even if they were to strike a deal to fight the next general election in 2027 together they would get nowhere near enough votes to win: the Democratic Party is currently polling 22 per cent, and Five Star 12 per cent. Meloni's coalition government, by contrast, is way ahead with Brothers of Italy polling 30 per cent, and its partners Forza Italia and the League both on 9 per cent. Schlein's only hope would be to ally as well with what is called the campo largo (large field) – not just with Five Star but with the other much smaller Left-wing parties of shades of pink and red. This is what her party did in Genoa. But its real problem is Schlein's lack of charisma and winning policies. Her party seems to be, as journalist Aldo Cazzullo, no friend of the Right, wrote in the Corriere della Sera 'a little 5 per cent party of the extreme Left' with no concrete ideas. 'If there were a general election now, the Right would win convincingly,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
29-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Meloni is still proving her Leftie critics wrong
Giorgia Meloni's opponents and their many friends in the media are cock-a-hoop that the Left has managed to win elections in a couple of large Italian cities. They are treating the victories of the Left in Genoa and Ravenna earlier this month, when elections took place for control of 126 councils, including a handful of major cities, as the beginning of the end for Italy's first female prime minister. It helped the headline writers that the victor in Genoa was a glamorous ex Olympic hammer thrower who had delivered a mighty blow to Meloni. But it is all surely nonsense. If it were true that Meloni's days were numbered, the Right-wing party she founded, Brothers of Italy, would not be consistently leading national opinion polls by a country mile. Nor would Brothers of Italy be more popular now than in September 2022, when it received more votes than any other party at the general election to lead a Right-wing coalition to a resounding victory. Such impressive popular support halfway through the life of a parliament is virtually unprecedented in a European democracy. It is especially so in a country like Italy, which has had 68 governments since the fall of fascism in 1945. But to read the press headlines readers would be forgiven if they thought the end was truly nigh for Meloni. Elly Schlein, leader of the main opposition – the Democratic Party – reacted as if on the verge of power. 'If I were Giorgia Meloni I'd be beginning to worry, [this] is the symptom that something in her rapport with the country is broken,' she said. 'What is now clear is that the centre-Right crows about the polls but we win elections.' At least Schlein had the decency to refer to Meloni as 'centre-Right', unlike most of the global media. True, they have given up calling her 'the heir to Mussolini' because she was once in Italy's long-defunct post-fascist party. But they still call her 'far-Right' despite the fact that she has not done anything far-Right – unless you count her attempts to stop mass illegal migration across the Mediterranean. And even Sir Keir Starmer, who has had talks with her on the issue twice in the past year, has said she has made 'remarkable progress '. He wants to copy her scheme to off-shore asylum seekers from safe countries (thus technically not refugees) to Albania for swift processing of their asylum requests and deportation. Is he now 'far-Right' too? On the world stage, meanwhile, Meloni continues in the role of key player whose astute down to earth realism, infectious charm and youthful good looks often produce surprising results. What makes it even more laughable that the Left should regard victory in Genoa and Ravenna as the writing on the wall for Meloni is that traditionally these two port cities have been citadels of Italian communism. Genoa has always been among the most devoutly Left-wing cities in Italy. And Italy, it should be remembered, is the country that not only invented fascism but had the largest communist party in Europe outside the Soviet Bloc until the end of the Cold War. Schlein's party is its heir. In Ravenna, the Left won as it always has done since the fall of fascism in 1945. Worse for Schlein is that the Democratic Party did not win Genoa and Ravenna on its own but only in coalition with the anti-establishment populist party, Five Star, with which it enjoys a love-hate relationship. These two parties are normally sworn enemies but have nevertheless, on occasion, allied at local level and once at national level to form a coalition government that lasted a year and a half. Even if they were to strike a deal to fight the next general election in 2027 together they would get nowhere near enough votes to win: the Democratic Party is currently polling 22 per cent, and Five Star 12 per cent. Meloni's coalition government, by contrast, is way ahead with Brothers of Italy polling 30 per cent, and its partners Forza Italia and the League both on 9 per cent. Schlein's only hope would be to ally as well with what is called the campo largo (large field) – not just with Five Star but with the other much smaller Left-wing parties of shades of pink and red. This is what her party did in Genoa. But its real problem is Schlein's lack of charisma and winning policies. Her party seems to be, as journalist Aldo Cazzullo, no friend of the Right, wrote in the Corriere della Sera 'a little 5 per cent party of the extreme Left' with no concrete ideas. 'If there were a general election now, the Right would win convincingly,' he said.
Sky News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Stanley Tucci on Italian politics - through the prism of food
Stanley Tucci says he doesn't understand why there has been a sudden rise in the "very far right". The 64-year-old actor, author and food connoisseur leads a new show aptly named Tucci In Italy, where he looks at the world-renowned cuisine and how its ingredients tell much more than just what is served on the plate. Speaking to Sky News, he says painting the full picture of the Italian landscape was the driving force behind the show and that he made a conscious decision to include stories from all backgrounds. "I asked that we include a story about a gay couple and their children, whether it was adopted or surrogate or however, because I thought it was a really interesting story. "I am confused as to the direction that so much of the world is heading now to the very far right and sort of vilifying the other, meaning people who aren't like us, but I don't quite know what that means because we are all so different. "There is no us, right? We're all different, so I don't know what the problem is there." Tucci adds that he wants to "look at what's happening in Italy politically and how it's affecting people but, of course, all through the prism of food". "Those people are sitting there having a traditional Sunday lunch with the grandparents, with the grandkid, and they're a family and yet the government says they're not a family. "I think that's really interesting because Italy puts so much emphasis on family and for all practical purposes, Italy has a negative birth rate so why wouldn't you want to welcome more children into your society who are Italian?" In 2016, Italy passed a law that now recognises civil unions for same-sex couples in the country. It grants couples many of the same rights and financial protections as married heterosexual couples, however, it doesn't give LGBT+ couples the right to joint adoption or in vitro fertilisation. In 2023, the Italian government extended its initial ban on surrogacy to include arrangements made by its citizens abroad. Its legislation subjects any intended parent who breaks the law to jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£846,000). The law doesn't include those children who were already registered before it came into effect. The buzzword on social media over the last few weeks has been "conclave" following the death of Pope Francis and of course, the Oscar-winning film of the same name. Our interview took place just before the real conclave took place, which resulted in Pope Leo XIV becoming the first American-born leader of the Catholic Church. Starring in the film alongside Ralph Fiennes, Tucci became inadvertently connected to the news agenda when life began to imitate art. "It's fascinating. I mean, look, I don't know anything about it, really, other than I made a movie about it. That's all I know. But it is, the timing of it is unfortunate, but it's also oddly coincidental." Tucci In Italy looks at traditional Italian cuisine but also explores the impact history, changing political landscapes, migration and culture can have on a dinner plate. He visits the northern area of Trentino-Alto Adige, which borders Austria, to look at how Mussolini's intense policies regarding German identity shaped the area and people today. "It's an incredibly beautiful region, but also it's the way those two cultures have figured out a way to get along without violence, without blame, without hating each other, without divisiveness. "I think it's really wonderful. It's a testament to... How easy it can be for us to get along." Tucci In Italy premieres 21 May at 8pm on National Geographic and all episodes stream from 19 May on Disney+.
