Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli Rescues Ancient Newsstand in Tuscany

The landlord of a ancient newsstand in a Tuscan town stated he used to be “delighted” the industry has been stored via considered one of his used consumers — Patrizio Bertelli, the chair of the Italian type space Prada.

Piero Scartoni, 91, who has been getting up at 5 a.m. to run the newsstand in Piazza San Jacopo within the centre of Arezzo since 1953, can in spite of everything abdicate upcoming it used to be purchased via Bertelli, who used to be born within the town and is the husband of the rage clothier Miuccia Prada.

“Bertelli was a customer in the 1960s and 70s,” stated Scartoni. “He used to buy a load of newspapers and magazines. He was a special customer. Then he became one of the richest people in Italy. I’m delighted he came to the rescue.”

Scartoni is widely recognized in Arezzo for his encyclopaedic wisdom of newspapers and uncommon magazines, hour his newsstand, whose alternative consumers over time have incorporated the overdue movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini, changed into a hub for debating the inside track subjects of the era.

However, as with alternative newsstands throughout Italy, he has struggled to guard the industry amid the decrease in newspaper readership.

“Nobody reads any more,” he stated. “I used to sell 200 copies a day of La Nazione [one of the oldest regional newspapers in Italy], and now it’s 65.”

Nonetheless, in spite of being eligible for escape in 1996, Scartoni endured with the industry with the backup of his daughter, Cristiana.

“I would still carry on, but my family doesn’t want it,” he stated. “They keep saying, ‘Dad, please retire’. I come and sell a few newspapers, but the administration has become too difficult. I’m almost 100 so I should really stop.”

Italy loses about 1,000 newsstands around the nation every generation. Many little cities are actually and not using a unmarried one.

“All the newsstands in Arezzo are for sale, but nobody wants them,” stated Scartoni. “It’s a gruelling job as you have to start at 5 a.m. It’s just not worth it any more, as you hardly earn anything.”

He lamented the decrease in newspaper readership, announcing: “The barbarians arrived, and now artificial intelligence is on the way, which will produce monsters.”

Bertelli paid €100,000 (£87,000) for the newsstand, consistent with Corriere della Sera.

The businessman has rescued alternative historic institutions within the town that had been vulnerable to closure, together with Buca di San Francesco, a cafe obvious for the reason that Nineteen Twenties, and the Nineteenth-century Caffè dei Costanti.

By means of Angela Giuffrida

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