INTIMATE DIALOGUES WITH ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. Marco Delogu is an acclaimed Italian photographer, publisher, and cultural director whose work focuses on portraits of groups sharing common languages and experiences. He served a successful four year term as the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London from 2015 to 2019, noted for his innovative approach as the first photographer leading such an institute. Since 2022 Delogu is President of the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, an instrumental body of the city of Rome that manages an integrated system of cultural spaces and events, capable of reaching a large and attentive audience.

"Antonello was in my mind, so I photographed four Antonello paintings, starting with L'Annunciata di Palermo."

"If you want to get into these two pictures, you have to enter and then to get away from these eyes."

"I want to finish my work with Antonello da Messina and then I just want to go on and be open."

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE VOYAGE. Simone Fattal is a Lebanese-American artist. Born in 1942 in Damascus, she was educated in Beirut and Paris, studying philosophy at the École des Lettres and the Sorbonne, as well as archaeology at the École du Louvre. Simone Fattal and Etel Adnan (1925–2021) were life partners for 49 years, artists who shared a profound creative, political, and personal connection. Their multidisciplinary work spans painting, sculpture, poetry, and publishing.

"We have to ask the women prisoners to write the poems. Which they did, and I transcribed them on the surfaces of the lava."

"My inspiration doesn't come from artists. When I'm working, poetic verses come to my mind."

"I'm not displaced, but a traveler."

COMMITTED TO DIALOGUE. Riccardo Di Segni is the Chief Rabbi of Rome and director of the Italian Rabbinical School since 2001. He is a retired medical doctor specializing in radiology, and as Vice President of the National Committee for Bioethics (Comitanto Nazionale per la Bioetica) in Italy combines his rabbinical duties with his background in medicine. Di Segni is an author whose work focuses on religious, historical, and cultural aspects of Jewish life.

"Despite everything, Judaism endures."

"It is the world that is changing, not just Israel."

"My mother always told me, 'It's difficult to be Jewish.' It is a very demanding religion that regulates every moment of existence."

THE GOLDEN FLEECE OF ZEGNA. Ermenegildo "Gildo" Zegna is Chairman and CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, founded in 1910 as a textile company by his grandfather and namesake in Trivero, Italy. Under his leadership, the Group has strengthened its position in high-end menswear and has grown into one of the leading global companies in the luxury sector. In 2011, Zegna was awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2021, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

"Our vertically integrated "sheep-to-shop" model is unique in luxury. Next year, over 60% of our products will be made in-house."

"Personalization is increasingly important: people want something unique and delivered fast."

"We are not a conglomerate, but a strong group of luxury brands led by a team that protects our authenticity and unique approach."

José Tolentino de Mendonça is a theologian, university professor, and one of the most original voices in modern Portuguese. Born in the island of Madeira in 1965, today he is Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, an administrative unit of the Roman Curia. He is Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology and a Bishop since 2018. From 2018 to 2022 he was Librarian of the Holy Roman Church. He was made a Cardinal in October 2019.

"The common thread running through my story is the importance of attention to culture, dialogue, and the power of knowledge and science."

"This is a time when the desire for peace, the stubborn search for a path of peace, should be the primary concern of contemporary culture and society."

"My vision as a man of the church, as a believer, as a Christian, is ultimately a poetic vision and ends up being my way of inhabiting reality."

MPERIAL PLAY. Giuliano da Empoli was born in 1973. He is an Italian and Swiss writer and political scientist living in France. He was a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. His debut novel The Wizard of the Kremlin became an international bestseller and was translated into 35 languages. A 2025 film version stars Jude Law as Vladimir Putin. His latest book The Hour of the Predator is currently France's best-selling non-fiction title.

"These characters could originate from a Machiavelli book or a Roman history book."

"The predator's political miracle is bypassing rules and laws, transgressing and wiping out the system as we know it to impact the problem that nobody could solve."

"I'm a very strong pro-European and I want a European Federation. I want Europe to be politically united."

A JOURNEY THROUGH JOURNALISM. Mishal Husain is a celebrated British journalist who joined Bloomberg from the BBC, where she presented its leading news programme Today on BBC Radio 4 for over a decade. Before joining Today in 2013, she was an anchor on the international news channel BBC World News. In 2024 she was awarded the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism by the British Journalism Review. Mishal has written a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller family memoir, Broken Threads: A Family From Empire to Independence, and The Skills: How to Win at Work.

"The Elon Musk interview is amongst the most difficult that I've done."

"I've realised that we are now, perhaps increasingly, again in an age of division."

"I hope that in one way or another we still have people who are going to search for the forgotten, overlooked stories."

MODERN ARCHITECT. Sean Griffiths is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster and former Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University. His current architecture and design practice Modern Architect was founded in 2014 and has worked largely on residential, commercial and public art projects. Previously Sean Griffiths was a founding director of the internationally renowned art/architecture practice FAT, where he won many design awards. FAT represented the UK at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014.

"I was really thinking I would pursue a career as an artist"

"The idea that you make architecture as a sort of branding jewel that you place in a city is not something that I particularly love"

"We use language to help us navigate the world, and architecture also creates patterns that help us navigate the world"

PHOTOGRAPHER MONK. Nicholas Vreeland, also known as Rato Khensur Thubten Lhundup, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk and the former abbot of Rato Dratsang, an important 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery reestablished in India. The first and only Westerner the Dalai Lama has appointed Abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, he is a photographer who learned his craft as an assistant to Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.

"Once you are a monk, you may receive a teaching from a holy being, a lama or master, on techniques by which you can cultivate concern for others and diminish self-cherishing."

"The real person whom I have to remain vigilant over is myself."

"The emphasis should be on being a good person."

EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY. Ruthie Rogers CBE is an American and British chef who owns and runs the Michelin starred Italian restaurant The River Café in Hammersmith, London. She is the widow of the Italian-born British architect Richard Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside, who together with Renzo Piano created the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

"I always want somebody to come to the River Cafe and leave happier than they arrived."

"A lot of immigrants talk about the food of their grandmothers, because very often the mothers adapt and the grandmothers retain the cooking of their country of birth."

"I'm really proud of this beautiful book when I hand it to somebody. The fact that it's called Squeeze Me is sexy and fabulous."