Photograph courtesy Swarovski
MILAN - FURNITURE FAIR
Fuori Salone - Swarovski. At, Swarovski, the exhibition is always glamorous, maybe, it's because of the "subject matter", that is, crystals, that sparkle like stars in the sky? This year, Nadja Swarovski has invited the designers to break with tradition and return to their original point of departure - invention and creation. Here is the "best" in show. Or to put it another way, this was the most written about piece of the Milan furniture fair. Designed by Naoto Fukasawa for Swarovski Crystal Palace collection and called Cosmos 1 & 2, these two lights are reminiscent of the after-image when you hold a strong light in your hand and draw large circles in the air. "It is as if the light comes from the stick of wizards." says Naoto. Was his inspiration, perhaps, Harry Potter?

http://www.swarovski.com

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Fuori Salone - Gaia & Gino. Beautiful, talented, Turkish entrepreneur Gaye Cevikel poses besides British design stars, Jasper Morrison and Tom Dixon at the party, for the Gaia & Gino collection in the Sportmax boutique. This year's superstar designer was Andree Putman with her Lucky tabletop collection. Also presented this year, for the first time, Gino the Dog collection, a series of dog accessories designed by eight selected students from the California College of the Arts, under the direction of Yves Behar. Please note, that Gino is the name of Gaye's beautiful golden retriever dog. Jasper Morrison proudly announced "I have been coming to the Milan Furniture Fair for twenty-six years." Whereas, Tom Dixon has always wanted to get into the Guinness Book of Records. This year's Milan design week, provided the perfect platform to realize his closeted ambition. At, Milan Malpensa Airport, Dixon designed and installed a 45 metre sofa which was sponsored by Bombay Sapphire. And, guess what color it was? Yes, Sapphire Blue. The current record, of a 35 metres sofa, is held by Natuzzi. Let's hope, Tom will fulfill his long time dream.

www.gaiaandgino.com www.jaspermorrison.com www.tomdixon.net www.bombaysapphire.com www.cca.edu www.andreeputman.com www.natuzzi.com www.malpensairport.com

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Fuori Salone – Gaia & Gino. Handsome octogenarian, Andree Putman stands between Murray Moss and his partner Franklin Getchel. It is quite an honor when Mr. Moss comes to view a collection. But then, Mme Putman is quite the star of contemporary designers. She was in town to present her Lucky tabletop collection for Gaia and Gino shown in the Sportmax boutique. “We all need luck. Luck is useful for small and great things alike.” she says. Inspired by the patterns of old Turkish figurative arts Putman has cleverly converted the famous “clover” shape into beautiful porcelains. “Lucky” will bring luck to the users, as is believed in the four leaves' auspice. Will we see them at Moss store in SoHo, New York? For those of you who have not been there, Moss, looks more like a museum , with everything locked behind glass or raised onto platforms. It’s cold. It’s white. It’s cool. The music is tense. The store offers one of the world's most sophisticated selections of furniture and objects and it’s clients range from highly informed design professionals, to celebrities, students, and tourists with maps. It’s a great store.

www.gaiaiandgino.com www.mossonline.com www.andreeputman.com

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Fuori Salone - Gaia & Gino. Please indulge me in another dog accessory. Here is beautiful Maggie, she was a guest at the Gaia & Gino party and kindly, for the small fee of a dog biscuit, agreed to pose for me. She was literally Cornered, because that is the name of the dog house, designed by Richie Tanaka, one of the students from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The new line Gino the Dog consists of eight elected student projects, directed by Yves Behar, each with a unique set of ideas that appeals to both canine and human intelligence. Thank you Maggie.
www.gaiaandgino.com www.cca.edu

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Fuori Salone - Cassina. After the Cassina presentation, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo says an affectionate farewell to Sheikh Ossama Khoreibi, Director of Properties Developments at Mubadala in the United Arab Emirates while his son Matteo looks out. Besides being head of Fiat, Confindustria, Ferrari and Maserati, the Marquis Cordero di Montezemolo also has a stake in Charme Investments, which is managed by his son Matteo. Charme owns, Cassina, Poltrona Frau, Gebruder Thonet Vienna, Cappellini and Guffram, all worldwide leaders in the high end of design manufacturing. Sheik Khoreibi was in Italy to see about future investments. His company, The Mubadala Development Company is a wholly owned investment vehicle of the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and it is chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Mubadala also has a five per cent investment in Ferrari. They must be so happy that yesterday, Ferrari won, for the first time this year, the Formula One, San Marino Gran Prix. The marquis was chauffeur driven in a Maserati!
http://www.cassina.it/ http://www.fiat.com/ http://www.confindustria.it/ http://www.ferrariworld.com/ http://www.poltronafrau.it/ http://www.thonet.com/ http://www.cappellini.it/ http://www.maserati.com/

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Fuori Salone - Ingo Maurer. Poetic, innovative, veteran light designer, Ingo Maurer hardly needs any introduction. His lights always amuse me. His exhibition at the Spazio Krizia, entitled Delirium Yum Yum!! and subtitled Expect the Unexpected was another stupendous show. How does he do it year after year? "Nothing is more boring than following the same track, the same shiny traces of design. Design expressions in which you cannot perceive a personality anymore, is sterile and superficial. I consider myself lucky and blessed: I have been working at my own risk for forty years and I am still independent." Maurer states. His newest lamp, shown above, is called Atom Boy, it is assembled with the famous and amazing Japanese dolls called Astro Boy, twelve inch highgrade figures, and the text says it all "One Can't be Tall without the Small"..........

www.ingo-maurer.com www.krizia.net www.astro-boy.net

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Fuori Salone - Design Academy Einhoven. Post Mortem is title of the annual graduate exhibition of students of the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven, it was held, this year, in the beautiful 15th-century convent which houses La Facolta' Teologica dell'Italia Settentrionale. The show was very incisive and it was the most talked about and discussed show this year. Graduates addressed the phenomenon of obsequies. While they are students at the Academy they are often confronted, for the first time by the death of a fellow student or a loved one, like a grandparent, a friend, a pet. This compels them to contemplate death and bereavement. The exhibition illustrates these wide-ranging thoughts. Above is the European Garden, designed for a Japanese client, by Job Smeets. Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel form the design duo, Studio Job. They also exhibited their furniture at Dilmos, the pieces called Perished were decorated with inlays of animal and human skeletons. Today they are the up and coming stars of a new generation of European designers, they treat design as a medium of personal expression, as artists have traditionally done. Smeets, told Icon Magazine "Maybe sometimes we are designers and maybe sometimes we are architects. Sometimes just man and wife, sometimes just artists." But to conclude on thcourageousus Post Mortem exhibition, I must say, that even though the subject was somber, thexhibitionon watrulyly beautiful not only for the contents but also for the choice of place. However it left me with a sense olonelinesses and emptiness inside. It made me think.

www.teologiamilano.it www.designacademy.nl www.dilmos.comwww.studiojob.nlwww.icon-magazine.co.uk

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Fuori Salone - Missoni Home. Missoni Home...Domani collection is a colorful exhibition, which projects the home into their new exploration of hotels. Rosita Missoni who is famous for her gracious entertaining and lifestyle is designing three Missoni hotels at the moment, one in Scotland and two in Dubai. The home and hospitality are her passion and her personal interpretation has become her trademark - decor and furniture that are colorful, sophisticated and easy to fit into existing settings. Missoni Home is founded on the free interaction between forms and colors, materials and motifs, esthetics and technology. The 2006 collection can be described as botanic, another of Rosita's interests are flowers, growing vegetables, picking mushrooms, wild chicory or anything edible. And, on the subject of color she concludes "We love colors. Although I also love black and white, I can't get by without colors. They are my life. They surround me at home and in my garden with all it's flowers, with my family. After all, I married a color specialist...and color can make entertaining a joy."

www.missonihome.com www.missoni.com

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Fuori Salone - Amici Comunita Cenacolo Suor Elvira. Photographed above, are the "cash register" and the menu, at the Spazio Rossana Orlandi where the Amici Comunita Cenacolo di Suor Elvira set up a snack bar, in the beautiful courtyard, for visitors, press and designers visiting the exhibition space. The friends of the Comunita Cenacolo di Suor Elvira are a non profit fundraising catering company founded by Cloti Gallizia, ten years ago, the proceeds go to finance Sister Elvira's fifty two centers around the world. For twenty five years, Sister Elvira has been taking care of the chemically dependent and recently she has also taken in the homeless, as well as, problem children. Cloti counts on 40 friends and volunteers to cook and help out with the food and she says "For us it's a rewarding way to spend time together. We meet new people, pass the time of day. It's sort of therapeutic." They have also catered for The Rotary Club, for cancer research at the Fondazione Prada and soon they will set up a snack bar in the gardens of Via Palestro for the Orticola flower show. Please, try and use them too for your next party, thank you very much.

Cloti Gallizia tel +39 335 6069876 www.comunitacenacolo.it www.rossanaorlandi.com www.rotary.org www.fondazioneprada.org www.orticola.org

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Fuori Salone - Spazio Rossana Orlandi. Trash cans??? Yes, aren't they beautiful??? The idea is so clever and the design is so sophisticated. Designed by Front Design for Materia and called Bin, from right to left - empty - half full - full, the bins changes shape depending on how much trash they hold. Front Design, are the four talented Swedish women mentioned below; Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, Anna Lindgren and Katja Savstrom they are inspired by common every day objects and are interested in the story an object tells about itself and how it relates to objects that have been produced before. P.S. Unlike Claesson, Kiovisto and Rune, they don't always dress in black!

www.rossanaorlandi.com www.frontdesign.se www.materia.se www.claesson-koivisto-rune.se

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Fuori Salone - Spazio Rossana Orlandi. A moment of relax. Known better as the "Design Brothers", because like the Blues Brothers, they always dress in black, Ola Rune and Eero Koivisto, two of the three, Swedish design team Claesson-Kiovisto-Rune, are being interviewed by Swedish TV for Staffan Begtsson's program "Basta Formen" or "The Best of Design". They are sitting on and surrounded by other Swedish products, designed by four talented women designers of Front Design. The pink lamps are called Lamp tree and the enlarged cushions, which can seat two, are called Big Pillows. Watch out...the Swedes are coming.

www.rossanaorlandi.com www.claesson-koivisto-rune.se www.frontdesign.se

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Fuori Salone - Driade. Handsome, successful and very talented architect, Matteo Thun's set of Isu chairs for Driade, are very graphic and elegant. He designed them whilst taking a well deserved break from work in his Capri house, Marina Piccola, overlooking the Faraglioni rocks. The series are based entirely on the use of aluminum using a square-sectioned metal-tube. They are extremely lightweight and suitable for indoor or outdoor use. And, may I add, very comfortable too.

www.driade.com www.matteothun.com

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Fuori Salone - Driade. I really liked the Ron Arad polished aluminum and satin stainless steel Screw stool for Driade. It combines playful forms which are central to Arad's work, as well as, advanced technology. He is Consistently inventive and challenging. I must say that for the past fifteen to twenty years since I have know him, his designs have always been fresh and innovative.

www.driade.com www.ronarad.com

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Fuori Salone - Poltrona Frau. At the Poltrona Frau Party Nigel Coates also made "an entrance". Coates is one of the few British architects who is equally well known as a designer. Also uniquely, he has consistently asserted that architecture and design should reflect the confusion and sensuality of the city at large. With regards to the humorous statement on his T-shirt, let me say, dear Nigel, "Wishful thinking..."!

www.poltronafrau.it www.nigelcoates.com

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Fuori Salone - Poltrona Frau. At the Poltrona Frau Party, international jet setter, Fiona Swarovski arrived carrying a rather large portfolio. Since the opening of her own design atelier, Fiona Winter Studio, it seems that she would now like to branch out in....can you guess what??? Furniture! In fact, the lovely lady had an appointment with Matteo Cordero di Montezemolo, Managing Director of Charme Investments, to show him her designs. They spent twenty minutes looking at her sketches...will we she her designs realized in one of the Charme owned furniture companies next year? We'll have to wait and see.

www.poltronafrau.it

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Fuori Salone - Bellora. Let's get out of the fair and let's move on from one design star to an Italian film star. Francesca Neri was the guest of honor, seen here with Giuseppe Bellora, at the opening of the third Bellora store in Milan. Bellora is known for it's superb home collection and they are, among the connoisseurs, also famous for their custom made linens for yachts. Very chic!

www.bellora.it

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Rho-Pero - Poltrona Frau lounge. Cassina's Ceo, Demetrio Appolloni looks on to a bit of playful fun from eclectic designer Piero Lissoni and design star, Philippe Starck. The friendly dispute goes back a few months ago when the pair had an argument in Paris. Lissoni sustains that Starck, now that he is famous, cannot use and dispose of the press, when the whim strikes him!

www.cassina.it www.poltronafrau.it www.philippe-starck.com

Photograph courtesy Cappellini
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Rho-Pero - Cappellini. This was the most talked about piece at the Cappellini stand. Francois Azambourg was not trained as a designer, nor as an architect, but as an engineer, yet his Mr. Bugatti chair for Cappellini is so playful and cartoon-esque. I guess his engineering training comes through in the innovative use of materials; crumpled tin injected with polyurethane, though mass-produced, each one, with its own pattern of dents, is slightly different.

www.cappellini.it

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Rho-Pero - Cappellini. Sexy, Fabio Novembre is the "darling" of the design press, he is very handsome and doesn't think twice about being photographed naked on a gold chair. Anything, for a bit of publicity for himself and for his products. For Cappellini, Fabio presents his RHP project - Revolutions Per Hour; a big sofa that can be made in a single-block or it can be divided into more segments, but wait for it, what make it distinctive are two design archetypes; on one end the classic cube and on the other the chaise-longue by Le Corbusier. But the fun part are the slipcovers. Seen above, is the black and white version, it is very'50's Valentino. The second option, is a grey wrinkled fuzzy fabric which gives the sofa an instant rugged rock effect. What's more, it is very versatile and comfortable.

www.cappellini.it www.novembre.it

photograph courtesy Cappellini
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Rho-Pero - Cappellini. WhenTV influences everyday life. Giulio Cappellini staged an in-house reality show or Real House as he likes to call it. In the center of the Cappellini exhibition space, a circular glass crystal box re-created a house, with mother, father and kids. It was decorated with the Cappellini collection of furniture. Just to mention a few famous pieces inside; Tom Dixon's Pylon Chair, Shiro Kuramata's Revolving Cabinet, Marc Newson's The wooden Icon chair and Jasper Morrison's Elise bed. Giulio, is photographed above surrounded by "his Big Brother family". He said, that the installation was "A multicultural container in which design can be touch, heard and lived." Around the glass "house" the new Cappellini collection was displayed.

http://www.cappellini.itwww.jaspermorrison.com www.shirokuramata.comwww.tomdixon.net www.marcnewson.net

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Rho-Pero - The Fair. The 45th International Furniture Fair moved this year from Milan to the newly built exhibition center, designed by architect, Massimiliano Fuksas, to the Milan hinterland at Rho-Pero. It was a nightmare to get to and from the new fair grounds because the infrastructures are not completed yet. Therefore, one heard stories of how they got crushed on the subway or how they got stuck in traffic jams on the autostrada. The fair grounds are quite overwhelming. The glass and steel structures house sixteen pavilions, in all, it's a complex of two million square feet. There were over one thousand five hundred exhibitors...so it made for a lot of walking and comfortable shoes.

www.cosmit.it www.fuksas.it

photograph courtesy Gaia & Gino

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Fuori Salone - Gaia & Gino. Going from a Girl's best friend to a Man's best friend , and you know how partial I am to dogs... here is Guzel a re-fillable glass water bowl designed by Timotheos Leahy, one of eight students from the California College of the Arts chosen and directed by innovative designer, Yves Behar to design the new line of dog products in the Gino the Dog collection for Gaia and Gino.

www.gaiaandgino.com www.cca.edu http://www.fuseproject.com

photograph courtesy Sawaya & Moroni
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Fuori Salone - Sawaya & Moroni. In it's second year Sawaya & Moroni's BaRock and Roll collection presents the Girl's Best Friend line designed by William Sawaya. These pieces are as excessive as to be baroque, yet at a closer look they are more adornments. The coffee table has a stainless steel structure and the legs are ringed prisms made of faceted acrylic to look like diamonds. The title is, yes.....you got it....inspired and a homage to, Marilyn Monroe's famous song and the pieces, a high table, a lamp and a coat hanger are designed in the hope that we can, in this day and age, relearn how to desire and dream.

www.sawayamoroni.comwww.marilynmonroe.com

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Fuori Salone - Sawaya & Moroni. Paolo Moroni and William Sawaya are such old and good friends. Their dinners are unforgettable, not only for the food, a mixture of Italian and Lebanese, but also for the mix of interesting people and stimulating conversation. How I miss these evenings now that I don't live in Milan anymore. Standing behind the 2006 Maua Huni gigantic candleholders designed by Ingrid Gossner from the BaRock n' Roll Collection, Paolo, who runs the business and manufacturing and Wiliam who designs most of the furniture pose for me. The Candleholder was initially made by Sawaya& Moroni in 1992 as a limited edition in rough steel, today it is reproduced in five bright acrylic plastic colors and five sizes. It is their best seller, about 1700 pieces are sold per month. Bravissimi!

www.sawayamoroni.com

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Fuori Salone - Spazio Rossana Orlandi. Making their Milan debut, design duo Ines Kaag and Desiree Heiss of Bless are obsessed with electrical wires...or should I say, by changing the appearance of electrical wiring. As most of todays indispensable electronic products (such as computers, mobilephones, chargers, telephones, printers, stereos,TV's etc...) still have to be plugged in to provide the necessary electricity. The Bless Cable jewelry is designed to transform these undesired appendixes into desirable objects. From a large scale of different styles, reaching from crystal stones, pearls and bangle busters over wooden cubes and lace braids to fur and sand toppings, the client can bring his or hers own cable and order from the provided styles, the one that fits his or hers environment. Very stylish!

www.bless-service.de www.rossanaorlandi.com

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Fuori Salone - Spazio Rossana Orlandi. Rossana Orlandi takes a break from her busy schedule and jots down little notes to herself. Her concept store is one of the most fascinating places in Milan. A mixture of old and new; fashion, design and furniture co-exist side by side, they have one common denominator, they are special, curious and sometimes slightly bizarre. She has an incredible eye and is a great talent scout. Here, she wears a coat that she designed herself and a "rope" necklace by Bless. She is sitting on Charles Kaisin's Newspaper Extendable Bench, a limited series of 50 pieces. Kaisin, is a graduate of The Royal College of Arts and a professor at the Saint Luc Institute in Brussels. The designer has an ecological approach to his designs and his concept is to reuse old newspapers in a very visual way that makes people aware and respectful of environmental issues.

www.rossanaorlandi.com www.charleskaisin.com www.bless-service.de www.rca.ac.uk

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Fuori Salone - Established & Sons. I first came across the new British furniture design manufacture, Established & Sons on a great TV program, which doesn't exist anymore, on CNN, it was called Design 360. And, as this seems to be a "Rule Britiannia" moment in time; The Anglomania exhibition, opens May 3th - September 4th at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Today, is Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth II's, 80th birthday and tomorrow her predecessor Queen Elisabeth I is portrayed by Helen Mirren in a two-part drama miniseries, on HBO called "Virgin Queen" in the U.S.A. Let's not get distracted and get back to design. Established & Sons was launched last year at the Milan Furniture Fair. They introduced a collection of products designed by Britain's best design talents, celebrating and encouraging the diverse talents the country has to offer. This year, in the expansive Pelota location, alongside ten new products and introducing two new designers, the premier collection (now in production), as well as, the company's Limited Edition designs were shown. Amanda Levete of Furture Systems's new Drift bench, shown above, is an impressive, exaggerated, elongated form, it has a fluid Language that is characteristic of the work of Future Systems's architects. They boast an impressive list of clients. Two versions are available of the bench, either the red high gloss reinforced plastic or a layered beech plywood Limited Edition of twelve.

http://www.establishedandsons.com http://www.future-systems.com/ http://www.metmuseum.org/

photograph courtesy Alcantara
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Fuori Salone - Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia. I was working all week on my photographic assignments and my first job was at the science museum of Milan at the exhibition Alcantara Style and Italian Car Design. The exhibition testifies the stimulating relationship between a unique material like Alcantara and the creativity of major Italian car designers. The show revisits five decades of Italian car design, illustrated by 15 concept cars created by the great masters of international car design: Bertone, Giugiaro and Pininfarina. It was a fascinating journey, where the evolution of culture, aesthetics and fashion merge with the most innovative car design of the past fifty years. Above, is the beautiful sports car Birdcage 75th designed by Pininfarina. The concept of the Birdcage 75th, is a homage to the spirit of the dream car era, it is based on the road racing chassis of the Maserati MC12. The sports car, seeks to create a functional and dynamic automotive sculpture and to capture the ultimate expression of speed, sensuality and elegance. The contrast struck between its organic fluidity and the severe tension of its mechanicals, creates a dynamism seldom realized.

www.alcantara.com www.pininfarina.it www.giugiarodesign.it http://www.bertone.it www.maserati.com

photograph by Manfredi Bellati

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Fuori Salone - Heavy Light. This impressive event called Heavy Light, organized by Interni magazine in occasion of Milan Design Week had ten luminous installations scattered all over the city. Interni, supported by some leading companies, such as, S.Pellegrino and designers, made use of the Gates of the city to create luminous installations that changed Milan into a city of light, both in the strict sense of the word and metaphorically. On stage, the historical gates of Milan, as an opening and an expansion symbol of the city towards its increasingly dynamic and propulsive suburbs. Shown above, under the gate of Porta Garibaldi, in Piazza XXV Aprile is Jacopo Foggini's Plastic Palace a "majestical" chandelier made of plastic gold links, it was sponsored by Motorola. This Chandelier made it debut during the recent Turin Winter Olympic Games as a stage set for Luciano Pavarotti when he sang his most famous aria Nessun Dorma......"e' allora vincerooooooooooo"!

www.jacopofoggini.it http://www.sanpellegrino.com www.motorola.com www.lucianopavarotti.com