Ed Stocker
Sanremo Music Festival is blander than ever. Italians deserve more spice
One Italian newspaper calls it Italy’s Super Bowl. A more accurate description for Sanremo Music Festival might be a cross between Eurovision and New York’s Met Gala – albeit a more insular version. Regardless,…
‘Good deeds should be done in silence’: Meet the anti-graffiti artist working in secret to clean the walls of Brescia
Working in the dead of night, Ghost Pitùr is on a one-man mission to rid his Lombardian city of graffiti.
Meet the artisans of Como, reviving craft in an age of mass production
Craft is alive and well in Lombardy and so is a simple lesson: Making things in cities still matters.
‘Figure skating is art’: Italy’s Valentina Marchei on the Olympic spirit and taking life lessons from the ice
The figure skater discusses the demands of a long career on the ice and the ‘compromise with yourself’ that comes with switching from singles to pairs skating.
‘We can do something that nobody else in fashion can do’: Gildo Zegna on the true price of luxury
The menswear label’s executive chairman believes that the relationship with key customers is more important than ever. And the Winter Olympics are a perfect opportunity to extend its hospitality reach.
‘My office manager has dressed up as a Roman centurion.’ Marco Balich on organising the perfect Milano Cortina Olympic opening ceremony
The Winter Olympics opening ceremony is reliant on thousands of volunteers and watched by two billion people worldwide. Monocle meets the man tasked with creating the ultimate high-stakes global party.
Spain’s migration gamble: How open-border policies are helping its economy to flourish
Spain is bucking a global anti-immigration trend by granting legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants. We explore why the embattled left-wing minority government is banking on this move with migration minister Elma Saiz.
The art of a career pivot: Three fashion professionals who strategically reinvented themselves
Success in one genre need not prevent the pursuit of other opportunities. We meet three masters who have moved on to pastures new.
Beyond the Giga-Projects, a new generation of Saudi Arabian architects is getting introspective
As Saudi Arabia builds at breakneck speed, young architects returning from abroad are slowing down to ask what kind of places people want to live in, with a focus on landscape, life and memory.
Spain 2026 forecast: You may not agree with Pedro Sánchez but his country continues to take a refreshing stance
One of the things that I get to do as Monocle’s Europe editor at large is compile a mental compendium of how nations on the vieux continent are performing against one another – the…
