Chi Racconta la Storia: Venice Crowns Clooney as RAI Ousts Report's Ranucci

Italy Today

• RAI pulled Sigfrido Ranucci off the show that made him a target — and he’s fighting it in writing. Report’s longtime anchor, whose car was bombed last October, was formally replaced by RAI with Giulia Presutti and Daniele Piervincenzi starting in November; Ranucci’s lawyers have now contested the removal as illegitimate, and a chunk of the newsroom is threatening to walk out with him.

• Parliament’s summer nap is over, and the electoral law is the alarm clock. Both chambers resume September 9, with the Senate floor taking up Meloni’s electoral reform that day and a final vote scheduled for September 15 — the opening bell of what’s shaping up as the long run-up to 2027.

Brooklyn Dispatch

• Mark the calendar: Mulberry Street turns 100. The Feast of San Gennaro runs September 17–27 this year, marking its 100th anniversary since Neapolitan immigrants started it as a one-day observance in 1926 — a full century before “Little Italy” became more postcard than neighborhood, the feast just kept processing down the same four blocks anyway.

• A documentary is arriving to match the milestone. Armand Assante will narrate and appear on camera in “The Streets of Little Italy: 100 Years of San Gennaro,” director Paul Borghese’s feature chronicling the feast’s journey from immigrant block party to the country’s best-known Italian-American street festival, produced with Figli di San Gennaro, Inc. — the organization that has run the feast since the beginning.

Arts & Culture

• Venice opened tonight, and George Clooney just found out he’s officially old. The 83rd Mostra del Cinema kicked off with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, and Claire Foy, while the festival hands its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Clooney this evening, with a second going to Ellen Burstyn later in the run. Clooney’s reaction on hearing the news: “Probabilmente significa che sto invecchiando” — “it probably means I’m getting old”, which is the most Italian way possible to accept an honor: gratitude, immediately undercut by a joke at your own expense.

• Juventus is unbeaten under its new boss, and the substitutes are doing the scoring. Luciano Spalletti’s Juventus beat Parma 2–0 at the Allianz Stadium, with both goals coming from second-half substitutes Nico González and Teun Koopmeiners to open the Spalletti era at six points from two games — bench strength as a statement of intent.

Parola del Giorno

Parola: rientro (noun, m.) — the return; specifically, Italy’s collective exhale back into offices, schools, and parliamentary chambers after the long Ferragosto pause. From rientrare, “to re-enter,” built on entrare (to enter), from Latin intrare. This week: Parliament’s own rientro on September 9 kicks off the electoral law sprint. Usage: “Il rientro a scuola coincide, quest’anno, con il rientro del Parlamento — e nessuno dei due sembra contento di essere tornato.”

Takeaway