Italy likes to bike. The rise of cycle tourism: + 41% in 5 years

The choice of routes and holidays on two-wheel pedals is becoming more and more common. The point at BikeSummit 2019: “Growth is good, but infrastructure and security are needed”. There is an Italy pedaling and going further and further. It crosses the land without polluting and helps to enrich the country, both economically and environmentally. This is the Italy of two wheels, where more and more travelers travel by bicycle: in 2018, the number of cyclotourists encountered between accommodation and private residences amounted to 77.6 million, or 8.4% of the whole movement of tourists. A real boom This is a real boom: it is estimated that at least 6 million people have spent a holiday cycling and cyclists have increased by 41% between 2013 and today. At a time when we are looking for strategies to curb climate change and systems for reducing emissions and pollutants also linked to transport, increasing the number of bicycles is a real remedy in environmental terms. And also in economic terms: cyclists generate a value of 7.6 billion euros per year. A figure that brings the current value of so-called GDP of the bike to almost 12 billion euros: that’s the internal product, or the volume generated by those who travel by pedal, from the production of bicycles to cycles vacation. All this was proudly told in Rome during BikeSummit2019 in the report produced by Isnart-Unioncamere and Legambiente and with the participation of Legambici. The summit emphasized Italian cycling, recalling that it “could make an extraordinary contribution to tourism given the landscape and the territorial context of the country” and underlining that it “is still too underdeveloped”. HOW WE USE THE BIKE According to the report, about 1.85 million tourists each year in Italy bicycle travel a full itinerary, “while those who use it to – to have in tow or rent on site – are about 4, 18 million people” recalls the study. Added to this is the fact that more than 700,000 urban cyclists use bicycles every day on their commute and bring the total to about 6.73 million people. Also, because of an insufficient bicycle network for the moment, despite the growth, in Italy, we are not yet at the level of other European countries. We have about 440 bikes per thousand inhabitants, while in the Netherlands or Germany this ratio is almost 1 to 1. BIKE ECONOMY Pedaling Italy also contributes to economic growth: 1.3 billion euros per year come from the bicycle manufacturing sector, for more than 1.7 million pieces sold, with a growth of exports of 15.2% (2017 data). The funds are then increased to implement the Italian system of cycle paths: “The current government has indeed confirmed the construction and financing of the cycle lanes system with an allocation of 361.78 million euros for the birth of the national tourist cycle routes system, imagined as a widespread infrastructure that promotes soft mobility and sustainable tourism “, explain the speakers of the summit. Participants remember, however, that in order to ensure the proper functioning of the bicycle, it is necessary to strengthen road safety: “There is an urgent need to reform the Highway Code, which provides for the definition of a high-cycle road for secondary roads. These mixed traffic roads, more used by cyclists than motor vehicles, require lowering their speed limits and increasing their safety for cycle tourism “. “A path is defined and it’s a bike lane. It is now necessary to provide our country with a cycling observatory able to produce a data stream that is a valid support for policy decisions and practical and productive solutions in order to continue to operate”.  

Italians are the healthiest people in the world (according to Bloomberg)

For a long life and health, Italy is the place to live In the Bloomberg ranking, Italy happens to be the first country out of 163. Among the indicators, the quality and the life span. Not only counts wealth, but also counts the Mediterranean diet. Surprisingly, the peninsula, despite the crisis and the shaky economy, won the title of healthiest country in the world, jumping up the Global Health Bloomberg Index, first in the ranking of 163 countries with a score of 93.11 per cent. All countries in the index are ranked according to different variables: life expectancy, causes of death, health risks such as high blood pressure, smoking, availability of clean water and malnutrition. Life expectancy A child born in Italy can expect to live at least 80 years of age, compared with 52 in Sierra Leone, in the last place. Bloomberg also takes into account the quality of life. Italy, with 93 points, also exceeds other nations known for their longevity: those of Northern Europe (Iceland, the second at 91.21 points, Sweden at 88.92), those of Eastern Europe 89.15 Japan, Singapore 90.23). Spain is sixth with 89.19 points. Economic crisis Italy has been copingwith weak economic growth for decades, nearly 40% of young people are unemployed and is crushed by one of the highest public debt in the world. Yet, Italians are better than Americans, Canadians and British, most affected by high blood pressure, cholesterol, and mental disorders. Strengths: Physicians and Nutrition Among the strengths, the high number of doctors and especially the diet, rich in vegetables with extra virgin olive oil. Italy would even have “an excess of doctors,” says Tom Kenyon, medical director and head of the global organization Project Hope. “Not surprisingly, one of the most durable and followed television series is called “A Doctor in the Family”. But even that will be a criterion? According to Bloomberg Italy would indeed have a surplus of doctors. The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 2016 analyzed the total number of people in the world who are concerned with assistance and medical care. In Italy, there are 3.9 doctors per 1000 inhabitants. Italy, which ranks fifth in this special ranking, behind Greece (6.29 doctors per 1000 inhabitants), Austria (4.9), Germany (4.05) and Switzerland (4.04). A surprising number, however, are the everyday controversies about the objective lack of staff in Italian hospitals. The situation was created due to a lack of renewal of the generations of medical staff after the entry of the closed number in the Faculty of Medicine in 1999. Physicians are more numerous in Germany, despite that, in the ranking of Bloomberg this country, which enjoys an excellent economy, is only at the 16th place. Iceland and Switzerland on the podium To share the podium with Italy are Iceland and Switzerland, followed by Singapore and Australia. The United States is in 34th place, due to the overweight and obesity epidemic in North America, with a score of 73.05 out of 100. Far from our 93.11 out of 100.

Tourism: Italy continues to woo huge crowds

Euromonitor ranking of the most visited cities by international guests Hong Kong, the most visited, Rome 14th,  London is second Asia continues to dominate, but the British capital returns second, to the detriment of the city-state. Italy out of the top ten, but with encouraging signs of growth. But it is a partial picture and a bit ‘misleading, because the boom in tourism in the Far East, although real, is largely the product of a geographical proximity, huge population and economic growth that allows for the first time a new Asian middle class to travel for tourism and business. The semi-state Chinese city, now associated with the People’s Republic, it is also often visited like a transit destination, in order to fly to other destinations in Asia or Australia. A more truthful regard on the list indicates that London moved up to second place in the world and remains the first in Europe, in fact maintaining the status of number one tourist destination in the world and Italy, without having any single city in the ” top 10 “, has four among the top 100 – the “usual jewels”, Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence – collectively overcoming several other nations of the earth. If the “big four” were considered as a single entity, and in a way they are because the average tourist visits them in order, one after another, then this “Italian tour” would be the second most visited destination in the world, with nearly 25 million visitors per year, behind only Hong Kongs, if not the absolute number one, since the Chinese city is just one more step rather than a point of arrival. Tourism, the most visited cities in the world, Hong Kong won, Rome first among Italian cities The crown should therefore be in Hong Kong for the sixth consecutive year, with 27 million 700 thousand visitors, 8 percent more than last year, the prolonged effect of the boom in China and in general throughout the Far East: a region full of relatively contiguous megacities, a piece of the world in which live – about 3,.5 billion people, half of humanity. So it is not surprising that Hong Kong continues to be the most visited place  of the globe, not least because, stresses the analysis of Euromonitor, statistics indicate that many of these visitors come to Hong Kong, maybe from Beijing or Shanghai to spend a week- end and then fly to Australia, America or Europe. They follow in the order, to complete the “top 5”, Singapore (17 million visitors), Bangkok (16 million) and Paris (14 million and 900 thousand), but each with a decline in attendance over last year; and New York is in eighth place (12 million) but visits are up. Of all the 100 cities, Asian ones represent a third of the total, and six of the top ten. China and the United States dominate the rankings with seven city each. Italian cities do remarkably well Rome is the fourteenth, with 8 million 700 thousand visitors, followed by Milan (24th with 6 million), Venice (30th with over 5 million) and Florence (40th with more than 4,000,000), all four experiencing growth compared to 2013. says Wouter Geerts, travel analyst at Euromonitor: “Italy has no city among the top ten most visited of the planet, but if taken together its four city in the ranking make it one of the most popular destinations in the world.” Agrees Angelo Rossini, Italian analyst at Euromonitor: “Our country has a strong potential for further growth in the coming years, thanks to art, shopping, catering and lifestyle, the four factors that are now the engines of world tourism. Improve direct flights, facilitate the granting of visas, and increase promotion in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, and you could certainly bring more benefits to Italy. ” Yet another reason making real estate investing in Italy all the more attractive.  

Italian Succession Law

Italian  Succession Law   Succession law in Italy is provided for by the Civil Code. It disciplines two main types of succession: 1) inter vivos and 2) mortis causa. The first disciplines the acquisition of rights or property between living persons (natural and artificial) the second the acquisition of rights or property by inheritance under the laws of descent[i] and distribution[ii]. It is of interest of this article to TREAT about the second type of succession the mortis causa, the after death succession.   Italian Succession law, or inheritance law, provides for: testate succession, in the presence of a valid Will or Testament and legal succession, established by law, that occurs in the absence of a will or a valid will. The two types of successions are regulated by principles that interrelate and interfere with each other, trying to determine legal certainty and, at the same time, disciplining as many outcomes as the living cases of inheritance.   Testate succession. The testate succession is based on the valid will, or testament: “the legal expression of an individual’s wishes about the disposition of his or her property after death; esp., a document by which a person directs his or her estate to be distributed upon death”[iii]. For the Italian law the testament is a revocable act that allows the testable to dispose of all it’s assets or of part of them upon death (art 587 c.c.). The Italian law requires the person disposing of it’s estate to have the capacity to make a will (testable), explicitly excluding the persons that have not reached the legal age, the sound mind or have made a testament with a diminished capacity, even if temporary or transitory. The testament must be written, it can be handwritten (testamento olografo) or written with the form of notary public act – art. 601-608 c.c.-. The will disposing of rights and properties in the handwritten form must by law entirely be written by hand, dated and signed by the testable in a way that it clearly allows to attribute it to the person disposing of his estate. The date of the handwritten testament must indicate the day, the month and the year. The testament expressed in front of the Italian notary public is considered to be public and requires the presence of two witnesses. The testable declares his will before the notary public, that provides with the writing and, successively, reading of the testament to the testable and the witnesses. The testament must indicate the place, the date and the hour of delivery to and the signature of the testable, the notary and the witnesses.   Legal succession. The Italian legal succession is based on two main principles: one operating on the guarantee that, in absence of a valid will, the estates of a decedent will be devolved to lineal heirs, collateral heirs and, if missing, the State, with the purpose to guaranteeing certainty to the entitlement of rights and property; and on the other side, another operates to guarantee that lineal heirs, collateral heirs receive a legal portion (legittima) of the estate of the decedent. Therefore, the Italian law gives relevance to the will of a decedent and then, if missing, to the legal succession (or intestacy), BUT the legal succession has the power to interfere with and modify the testamentary succession if the legal portion (legittima) for forced heirs[iv] is not respected by the distribution operated through the will. [i]     Descent law [ii]    Distribution law [iii]  Black’s law dictionary, St. Paul, USA, West Publishing, 2011: – Will – 2) “the legal expression of an individual’s wishes about the disposition of his or her property after death; esp., a document by which a person directs his or her estate to be distributed upon death”. [iv]   Black’s law dictionary, St. Paul, USA, West Publishing, 2011: – Forced heir – “A person whom the testator or donor cannot disinherit because the law reserves a part of the estate for that person”.