Milan

(Newser) - Two of the dance world's biggest names took their leave this weekend as Alessandra Ferri and Kyra Nichols sashayed into retirement in touchingly similar fashion—onstage with their young children in a hail of cheers and flowers. Nichols, 48, bowed out after 33 years with New York City Ballet; Ferri,...

(Newser) - Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre died in Milan yesterday of a brain hemorrhage, at age 62. Ferre became the top designer for Parisian fashion powerhouse Christian Dior, an honor almost exclusively reserved for French designers, in 1989. He left Dior in 1996 to build his own lines, which became some of...

(Newser) - Polish artist Pawel Althamer has placed a 70-foot long nude balloon in a plaza in Milan. It is a self-portrait of the artist.  In Italy such a sculpture is "nothing new."   A passing American commented that it "wouldn't fly" in the U.S.