file soluzioni inglese

Capitolo 1

Text A

1 The first great violin maker was Andrea Amati, who lived in Cremona in the sixteenth century.

2 The way Amati developed the violin led to western music being re-routed around violin-based ensembles.

3 Amati’s tradition was carried on by the next three generations of his family.

4 The Amati family was overshadowed by the brilliance of two geniuses who succeeded them - Stradivari and Guarneri.

5 As Cremona went into economic decline in the eighteenth century, so did the violin trade.

6 The violin trade declined, but the instruments made by the great maestri increased in value.

7 An even more affluent market for priceless violins was created in the 1900s by a more prosperous Western World and the rising Asian Rim.

8 Soaring prices meant violins needed to be authenticated before being put on the market.

9 The considerable research into violin history gave excellent results, including the discovery of Stradivari’s will.

10 Vermillion’s National Music Museum provided an ideal venue for a show-and-tell conference, given its stringed instrument collection and guest experts.

11 Mention was made of Cremona’s advantages, like wealth, location and logistics.

12 It was also remembered that the violin-makers found ready clients in the Church, municipality and privates with disposable income.

13 Singled out for particular merit was Amati, praised in particular for re-using templates.

14 The final note, was, however, that the generation following Stradivari and Bergonzi did not possess the same greatness.

Text B

15 The violin makers who followed on from Guarneri and Stradivari were little more than carpenters.

16 Not even the school opened in 1938 revived the tradition, because by the mid-century only one out of its six students went on to make violins.

17 Twenty years later an interest in Baroque music coming from Northern Europe increased the demand for classical Cremonese violins.

18 By the 2010s the number of violin makers in Cremona had jumped to over 100.

19 Most of the students are foreign, many coming from oriental countries.

20 Difficulties for craftsmen include the cost and treatment of the materials.

21 Such a level of craftsmanship is time-consuming: the cello-maker quoted can manage to produce about four instruments a year.

22 Violin makers can make almost twice the number that cello-makers do.

23 Cremonese craftsmen hope that by emphasizing quality, tradition and craftsmanship they can win through.

24 They are competing with foreigners who make much cheaper, lower-quality instruments.

Text C

25 The Covid-19 pandemic, which first broke out in Lombardy, was particularly savage in the Cremona area.

26 It is still affecting the economy of the area and in particular, violin-making.

27 The pandemic’s effects on violin-making show the damage it is inflicting on culture and the arts.

28 Stradivari’s workshop may no longer exist, but his name and presence are everywhere in the city.

29 The prestige of Cremona violin-making is so high that it is on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list.

30 The stringed instruments are made in Cremona by assembling over 70 pieces of wood by hand.

31 Italy exports about £5.4m worth of string instruments every year.

32 Cremona’s contribution to these exports is 80%, which means over £5m annually.

33 The Cremonese luthiers were already facing the problem of a saturated market before Covid.

34 Another problem is that they are also competing against cheaper instruments using semi-industrial material.

35 Foreign luthiers often go back home, where they set up rival shops.

36 With so many musicians being laid off, they are also losing customers.

37 Not only concerts but also trade fairs are being cancelled.

38 Some luthiers have made no sales for over six months.

39 Some luthiers are still awaiting the money promised by the government.

40 According to one of the cello-makers, there is no hope of the market expanding.

Text A, B, C

41 Cremona is famous as the seat of the greatest school of violin-makers in the world.

42 Before Amati no violins had ever been made worthy of note.

43 The golden period of Cremonese violin-making lasted as long as 200 years.

44 Though the golden period came to an end, the stringed instruments it had produced were still very highly prized.

45 Collectables increase in value when they take on the function of cultural icons.

46 A movable asset increases in value precisely because it can be easily transported.

47 Given the wealth in both the Western world and the Asian Rim, the great violins started to change hands for astronomical sums.

48 With so much money changing hands, authenticity became essential.

49 The success of all the trade’s research was celebrated not in Cremona, but Vermillion, Dakota.

50 The panellists wondered why Cremona had become the home of top-class violins.

51 They also asked themselves what made the Amatis what they were.

52 They confirmed that those who followed Bergonzi were not in the same class.

53 The instruments made in the 1800s were produced by carpenters, who were certainly not skilled craftsmen.

54 By the 1950s, Cremona’s violin industry had come to an end.

55 Not even the school inaugurated back in 1938 had managed to encourage more students.

56 The growing interest in Baroque music began to make violins more and more popular.

57 By 2008, Cremona had attracted over 100 craftsmen, who were making the city the centre of stringed instruments one again.

58 There were fewer Italians than foreigners in the school by then.

59 Instrument-making is by no means an easy profession.

60 It’s easy to believe that many craftsmen have thought of giving up.

61 Maintaining quality means making only a few instruments every year.

62 Covid-19 first broke out in Italy in Lombardy, not far from Cremona.

63 In its first phase, it was the people who caught the virus and died.

64 In its second phase its effects on the economy are coming to the light.

65 And this means that Cremona’s great industrial engine, violin making, is being threatened.

66 The violin industry in Cremona was begun 500 years ago.

67 The name of its greatest violin maker is written everywhere in the city.

68 The Cremonese luthiers have a unique way of assembling their instruments by hand.

69 Most of the luthiers are graduates from the International School of Violin Making in Cremona.

70 Many luthiers do not earn enough money to live on.

71 Many workshops risk closing down.

Capitolo 2

Text A

The British got their idea of a holiday on visiting Lake Como.

• Their stopovers in Como were part of the customary eighteenth century Grand Tour.
• What attracted these northern visitors about Lake Como was that it offered relaxation.
• Lake Como did not attempt to refine their sense of art.
• Nor did the Lake encourage intellectual one-upmanship.
• The past 150 years or so have made few changes to the area.
• The typical scene from the Hotel Serbelloni terrace still invites you to do nothing.
• Retreating to the Lake has gone on since the times of the Roman empire.
• Pliny even writes of fishing from his bedroom window.
• The Lake has always been popular because it is so accessible.
• The road surrounding the lake is very narrow, and full of traffic.
• One advantage of Bellagio is that it still has the peace and quiet no longer present elsewhere around the Lake.
• Como has long been called the ‘drawing-room’ of Italy.
• It is where the rich and powerful went to avoid the heat and humidity of Milan’s summers.
• There are two particularly spectacular villas left from their times.
• One is Villa Melzi, built by a friend of Napoleon.
• The other is Villa Serbelloni, now owned by the Rockefeller Foundation.
• Bellagio itself is a tourist town, built in answer to the demand generated by the hotel.
• The town itself has very much the atmosphere of the 1920s.
• As it is small, it is easy to walk round.

Text B

21 The most important event for Venice’s economy is the yearly Carnival.

22 A long event, lasting a week, it normally brings in about three billion euros.

23 In 2020, the authorities were forced to cancel it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

24 The cancellation marked for Venice the beginning of a major economic crisis.

25 Statistics give tourism in Italy accounting for 13% of the GDP.

26 Tourism in Italy is responsible for job creation and spurring development.

27 But tourism is called ‘Italy’s oil’, at least by politicians.

28 However, Italy cannot be compared economically to a Gulf kingdom.

29 While petrol states rely on one source of income, Italy has a diversified economy.

30 Italy has, in fact, the second largest manufacturing industry in Europe.

31 It also has a healthy exportation of wine, food and luxury goods.

32 ‘Italy’s oil’ is better compared to the Texan rather than Saudi-Arabian dynamic.

33 Italy’s tourist industry has an important role in keeping the economy afloat.

34 The tourist industry has indeed a trickle-down effect on the broader economy in Italy.

35 With its 2019 2.8% growth the tourist industry compensated for the 2.4% shrinkage in other industries.

36 The tourist industry has become more important since the 2011 European financial crisis.

37 Many losing their jobs during/after the 2011 crisis found employment in the tourist industry.

38 Homeowners were able to set up bed-and-breakfast businesses or similar.

39 But the city suffering most from the lockdown effect was Venice with its economy depending on mass tourism.

40 Other cities also suffering greatly are Rome and Florence.

41 Already by the 1950s, Italy had become a major attraction for tourists.

42 There was a surge of tourism during the 1990s, due to the Internet and low-cost flights.

43 The rising numbers of tourists made heritage-rich cities develop their centres as consumer objects.

44 Given the stagnation of the economy, mass tourism appeared in an attractive light.

45 In certain areas of Italy, the problem is that there is no source of income outside tourism.

46 What has been formed is what is called a monoculture.

47 There is more foreign than national tourism in Italy today.

48 Tourism works well in a country when it is not the primary activity.

49 In Florence the authorities are being asked to promote industry and craftsmanship rather than mass tourism.

50 In Rome suggestions are being made to repopulate parts of the historic centre with working-class families.

Text A, B

51 The British idea of a holiday was born in places like Lake Como.

52 The British aristocrats found art and intellectual stimulus elsewhere on their tours.

53 What they loved about Lake Como was that it invited them to do nothing.

54 And still today the lake is as attractive as it was in their days.

55 Pliny the Younger was particularly enthusiastic about the closeness of the water.

56 Lake Como’s popularity is also due to its closeness to Milan.

57 Bellagio’s fortune lies in the fact that it is on the way to nowhere.

58 As a holiday centre, Bellagio has all the usual attractions associated with the Lake of Como.

59 The town, for example, is neither too big nor too small and is easy to walk round.

60 It was born in the 1820s, in answer to the needs of those staying at the first hotel.

61 Two luxury hotels were created about half a century later, but only one still exists.

62 The two famous villas have splendid gardens, both of which are open to the public.

63 The atmosphere of Bellagio is that of the 1920s, a decade that it evidently still cultivates.

64 According to the article, perhaps the best way to explore Como’s lakeside is by lying back in a paddle-steamer.

65 Venice carnival traditionally begins with a human angel being launched from St Mark’s.

66 Carnival 2020 only lasted three days after its opening ceremony.

67 Venice has been in an economic crisis since the 2020 cancellation of the ceremony.

68 Since tourism plays a substantial role in the Italian economy, it is often called Italy’s oil.

69 But it is misleading to compare Italy to the Gulf economies because its economy does not depend on a single product.

70 Though the Italian economy is troubled, it is diversified.

71 In terms of its economy, Italy is more like Texas than Saudi Arabia.

72 Tourism is not only a major money-maker in Italy, but its trickle-down effect has stimulated a wider economy.

73 With an economy stagnating for decades, many have turned to the tourist trade for jobs.

74 Wherever a location survives on mass tourism, the economy is now suffering from a massive crisis.

75 Italy has been a major international tourism centre for over fifty years.

76 The 1990s revolution in air traffic encouraged heritage-rich cities to invest in tourism.

77 In the 1990s historic centres were consequently redeveloped as consumer objects.

78 The main problem is that in some parts of Italy, tourism has indeed become the only source of income.

79 Cities too dependent on tourism will have to rethink their future.

80 The tourism crisis is big enough to endanger Italy’s economy.

Capitolo 3

Text A

When Giovanni Ferrero died, the company was inherited by his nephew Michele.

• Michele Ferrero led the company for almost 60 years.
• One of his first acts was a letter of dedication to the wellbeing of the company and staff.
• It took Ferrero little more than half a century to transform the company into a multinational. One constant in his life was his paternalism.
• Another constant was that he never stopped working, at times 24/24, 7/7.
• He was also very secretive, and avoided playing a public role.
• The original hazelnut paste had been invented by his father.
• With Michele both the recipe and the name were changed to create Nutella, the ultimate comfort food.
• His staff were always supported by excellent welfare services, including transport.
• Ferrero remained deeply attached to his religious upbringing with the Somaschi Fathers.
• He remained very much tied to his origins in the Langhe.
• Though loving his home territory, he moved his residence to Monaco for fear of being kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
• After the RB had been defeated, he still stayed in Monaco, advantaged by its lighter fiscal system.

Text B

1. The Ferrero company was established during the war.

2. Given that cocoa was unobtainable, Pietro substituted hazel-nuts.

3. Past gianduja became so popular that the pastry shop was turned into a factory.

4. His son Michele expanded abroad and developed new products to suit local tastes.

5. Tic-tac mints obtained a niche market in the States.

6. Michele’s secretive character could also be seen in his membership of the ‘salotto buono.

7. Michele’s sons were facing the problem of expansion in order to remain competitive.

8. By 2007 the company was thinking of acquiring Cadburys.

9. But Ferrero could not have maintained its level of secrecy with a cross-border takeover.

10. Yet, there was even a rumour of an idea of joining consortium to forestall the French buying Parmalat.

11. But Pietro died at the age of 54, while on a cycling holiday in South Africa.

Text C

1. When Michele Ferrero died many wondered if the family would sell the company.

2. But when Ferrero bought Nestle’s US brands, it became the third largest seller of confectionary in the world.

3. Ferrero made this very expensive move in order to strengthen/bolster its position in the US.

4. Before this purchase, Ferrero had kept its distance from acquisitions and mergers.

5. But Ferrero saw it was facing a consolidating market and therefore feared competition.

6. Michele Ferrero was typical of his generation in his insistence on keeping tight control over his company.

7. He had refused, for example, to follow his sons’ advice and take part in the bidding for Cadbury.

8. The new generation is developing different strategies from those of the post-war entrepreneurs.

9. Michele Ferrero was a mythical figure dedicated to his company, wife and the Virgin Mary.

10. It was Michele Sr who made the family paste into a spread and gave it its name.

11. It was Michele Jr who decided to develop the company via expansion.

12. According to analysts, it is more challenging to be a multi-brand conglomerate.

13. Though Ferrero still runs its flagship factory in Alba, the holding company is based in Luxemburg.

14. Ferrero’s efficiency can also be seen in the manufacture of its pralines, which are light and easily transportable.

15. Ferrero has taken over from Nestlé a great variety of brands.

16. Appropriately, Ferrero now owns the rights to the Willy Wonka Candy Factory, located in Illinois.

Text A, B, C

1. Michele Ferrero Sr wrote his letter of assurance to the staff on taking over the company.

2. The Catholic Church exerted a greater influence over him than free market economics.

3. It took him a little over 50 years to become the richest man in Italy.

4. Of all the products he came up with, his most successful was always Nutella.

5. Michele only gave one newspaper interview in his life and rarely appeared in public.

6. He was very attentive to the needs of his staff, who never went on strike.

7. He had lived in the principality of Monaco since the times of the Red Brigades.

8. He stayed in Monaco after the RB period, because he paid less income tax there.