Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Trouble at the Bank
As Europe's floundering economy limped
from bad to dire in 2012 in a crisis considered
to be the worst since the 1930s Great Depres-
sion, Tuscany found itself sucked in. The re-
gion had stood up well to initial troubles in
2007, but as Italy entered its third year of re-
cession, resistance was wavering: Italy's eco-
nomy shrunk by 2.3% in 2012; and national
unemployment hit 12% in April 2013, with
youth unemployment hovering around 40%.
The Tuscan crunch came with the Monte
dei Paschi di Siena bank scandal. In January
2013 the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena -
Italy's third-largest lender and the world's
longest-operating bank, in business in a gor-
geous
palazzo
(palace) in Siena since 1472 -
revealed losses of €730 million on a trio of de-
rivative deals, made between 2007 and 2009
and hidden from regulators. While former
high-ranking officials at the pedigree bank
grappled with corruption, fraud and bribery al-
legations, the government came to the rescue
with a €4.1 billion bail-out. Tuscan taxpayers,
still reeling from the new home property tax
and other tough austerity measures introduced
by short-lived prime minister Mario Monti in
2011 and 2012, were far from impressed with such government 'spending'.
Future restructuring at the bank, essential for survival, will see 400 of its 1900 country-
wide branches close and 4600 redundancies made by 2015. But the fallout of the scandal
reaches far beyond job cuts. For decades 'il Monte' (as Tuscans know the bank) sustained
Siena's vibrant cultural life. Through the foundation, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Si-
ena, it funded part of the city's university, hospital, football team, Palio horse race and so
on - effectively providing around 10% of Siena's local government budget. For Siena
Best in Print
The Stones of Florence
(Mary McCarthy;
1956) Timeless portrait of Florence
.
The Birth of Venus
(Sarah Dunant, 2003)
The daughter of a wealthy merchant falls
in love with a fresco painter in 15th-cen-
tury Florence.
The Decameron
(Giovanni Boccaccio,
1353) A bawdy masterpiece.
A Tabernacle for the Sun
(Linda Proud,
1997) Book One of the Botticelli Trilogy.
Best in Film
Life is Beautiful
(Robert Benigni, 1998)
Bittersweet comedy-drama set during the
Holocaust.
A Room with a View
(James Ivory, 1985)
Exquisitely rendered screen version of EM
Forster's 1908 novel.
Tea with Mussolini
(Franco Zeffirelli,
1999) Semi-autobiographical film, opening
in Florence in 1935.
The English Patient
(Anthony Minghella,
1996) Arezzo's Cappella Bacci is the
Tuscan star of this romantic drama.
