Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli Rescues Historic Newsstand in Tuscany

The proprietor of a historic newsstand in a Tuscan metropolis mentioned he was “delighted” the enterprise has been saved by one in all his outdated prospects — Patrizio Bertelli, the chair of the Italian trend home Prada.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 lastly retire after it was purchased by Bertelli, who was born within the metropolis and is the husband of the style designer Miuccia Prada.

“Bertelli was a buyer within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s,” mentioned Scartoni. “He used to purchase a load of newspapers and magazines. He was a particular buyer. Then he turned one of many richest individuals in Italy. I’m delighted he got here to the rescue.”

Scartoni is well-known in Arezzo for his encyclopaedic data of newspapers and uncommon magazines, whereas his newsstand, whose different prospects through the years have included the late movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini, turned a hub for debating the information matters of the day.

However, as with different newsstands throughout Italy, he has struggled to keep up the enterprise amid the decline in newspaper readership.

“No person reads any extra,” he mentioned. “I used to promote 200 copies a day of La Nazione [one of the oldest regional newspapers in Italy], and now it’s 65.”

Nonetheless, regardless of being eligible for retirement in 1996, Scartoni persevered with the enterprise with the assistance of his daughter, Cristiana.

“I’d nonetheless keep on, however my household doesn’t need it,” he mentioned. “They preserve saying, ‘Dad, please retire’. I come and promote a couple of newspapers, however the administration has turn into too tough. I’m virtually 100 so I ought to actually cease.”

Italy loses about 1,000 newsstands throughout the nation annually. Many small cities are actually with out a single one.

“All of the newsstands in Arezzo are on the market, however no one desires them,” mentioned Scartoni. “It’s a gruelling job as you must begin at 5 a.m. It’s simply not value it any extra, as you hardly earn something.”

He lamented the decline in newspaper readership, saying: “The barbarians arrived, and now synthetic intelligence is on the best way, which can produce monsters.”

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

The businessman has rescued different historic institutions within the metropolis that have been liable to closure, together with Buca di San Francesco, a restaurant open for the reason that Twenties, and the Nineteenth-century Caffè dei Costanti.

By Angela Giuffrida

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