'realtionships' - tagged features

Do today’s bleak statistics on marriage mean the conventional approach to love, relationships, and wedlock are out-dated? Not if you’re the president of France! You’d be hard-pressed not to have heard that French President Nicolas Sarkozy married celebrity Carla Bruni last weekend in a small civil ceremony at the Elysee palace. The two met three months ago, and their whirlwind romance has captured attention right around the world. Ms Bruni was one of the highest paid fashion models in the 1990s. She then turned to pop music and released her debut album in 2002. She’s also the heiress to the fortune of an Italian tire company. And she’s famously made a habit of bedding the famous. But is coverage of the event was reaching saturation point? 

Are you lost in La Mancha? Parts of old, rural Spain are like ghost-towns. Some are falling off the map altogether. The mass migration to cities that took place after the Civil War in the 1930’s decimated the populations of many rural areas. Now some 21st century factors are making things worse still - Spain has one of the largest aging populations in Europe and one of the lowest birth rates. But to re-populate these areas you need romance! Enter former insurance salesman, Manuel Gozalo. He runs a bus service with a big difference. 

At Network Europe we like to get to the bottom of things and when we decided to shift our focus to European's relationships to mark the upcoming celebration of St Valentine, our first question was who exactly was Valentine - Why is he a saint.? And what on earth made him so amorous?   St. Valentine is actually San Valentino, the patron saint of the city of Terni, a city in the Italian region of Umbria, about 100 kilometres from one of Europe's self proclaimed "capitals of romance" - Rome.   Each year, the Terni locals organize not just a single day, (like the rest of the world) but also a whole month of celebrations: from exhibitions to concerts to poetry readings…all on the theme of love, of course. So, how did St. Valentine become the international symbol for amore? Radio Netherlands, Dany Mitzman had the enviable job of finding out.