Turin is home to Italy’s biggest book fair but periodicals are also plentiful. Devotees head to the Luxemburg book shop behind Piazza Castello, where they can peruse a selection of foreign papers and magazines standing on herringbone hardwood floors. Founded in 1872, when it was a supplier of reading material to the House of Savoy, today’s trio of owners Luigi Raiola, Tonino Pittarelli and Luigi Colucci (pictured, left to right), also have a section devoted to architecture, photography and design.
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This satisfying little brick-cum-encyclopedia has been published by the Istituto Geografico De Agostini every year since 1904. From the population of your comune, province or region to the GDP of China’s Hainan island, this annual has it covered. Each volume has over 1,000 super-thin yet beautifully printed pages with tables, maps and narratives. Something no self-respecting lawyer, doctor or informed professional would ever dream of doing without, the Calendario De Agostini is surprisingly addictive.

This tangible Wikipedia in the palm of your hand does come with access to the Institute’s data online – but that just spoils the fun.
deagostini.it

Twentieth-century Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia brought to life the deadly dance between organised crime, society and state in Italy; now six of his works have been re-released in pleasingly noir-ish sunbaked jackets. Sciascia wrote immersive fiction (and fact such as in The Moro Affair) but in each you feel he’s leaning as close to the truth as political elites and criminal underbellies will allow.
grantabooks.com

In a foreboding greystone on Trieste’s Via Montecchi, Dusan Udovic (left) speaks proudly about his newspaper Primorski dnevnik. He edits one of only three non-Italian-language daily newspapers published in Italy – the other two are Dolomiten and Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung – and the only daily to be published in Slovenian outside of Slovenia.

“If an Italian were to read Slovenian they would realise that there is little difference between us and an Italian paper in Trieste – we simply treat a set of facts journalistically,” says Udovic, who says that his paper serves a huge cultural function. It was started by Yugoslav Partisans in 1945 and has served this stretch of Italy and its Slovenian community ever since. Seven thousand copies are printed on site and – a rarity in Italy – delivered door-to-door to subscribers.

Despite cuts in subsidies from Rome and a fall in readers, Udovic is confident about the future: “I think we will soon see an Italian edition of Primorski too.”
primorski.it

Danish audio-visual firm Bang & Olufsen is rolling out its new BeoSound Essence system, promising to make bringing music to your lounge as instinctive as flicking on the lights. Mounted on the wall, this aluminium disc (pictured) is designed to remotely access your music library with a swipe and click, wirelessly coordinating devices from an MP3 player to wi-fi radio.
bang-olufsen.com