Danielle Mitzman

My experiences of cultural differences between Italian and British attitudes to health!

First broadcast on From Our Own Correspondent, BBC Radio 4, 3rd December 2011

A word which didn’t even exist until recently, “wellness” has become big business in recent years. Ever since the likes of Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow made yoga and healthy lifestyles aspirational, Europe has opened its sports club doors to a wave of new health and fitness disciplines and programmes.

With Summer just around the corner, Italians have been preparing for what they call “the swimsuit test” at the country’s top fitness and sports expo, Rimini Wellness. 14 expo halls with 42 stages, 4 inflatable pools and more than 1,500 hours of lessons, offered visitors the chance to try out the latest fitness industry novelties and trends.

Normally only interested in trade fairs with fine foods to be sampled, I agreed it was time burn off some of those calories, and went to Rimini to discover the newest ways to sweat, stretch and tone.

(First broadcast on European Business Week, Deutsche Welle Radio, 4th June, 2011)

British novelist, Somerset Maugham, once said, “death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.” Clearly, he’d never been to a funeral fair in Italy…

First broadcast on The State We’re In, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 25th July 2010