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You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first
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broadcast on the 3rd of March, 2026 on Monaco Radio.
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Iran's barrages against its neighbours continue. Lebanon braces yet again to serve as a proxy battlefield. And does all of the above make Ukraine's task even more difficult? I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. Hello, and welcome to the Monocle Daily, coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests Latika Burke and Nick Gowing will discuss today's big stories and we'll check in with our correspondent in Dubai for the latest from the Gulf. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller. I'm joined today by Latika Burke, writer at large for the Australian news publication the Nightly, and by Nick Gowing, distinguished fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. Hello. Not to you both, because Latika is not quite here yet, but hello.
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A
Hello, Andrew.
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C
Hello to you, Nick. Nick, before we crack on with the show, I do want to ask, because it is interesting, you have recently returned to the site of a story you once covered. That is Sri Lanka. What was it like going back?
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I didn't cover it in person, but when I was a presenter at the BBC for over 25 years, we covered Sri Lanka and what was happening in the north. A civil war. Terrible, terrible, terrible. And I went back to Sri Lanka and I was able to get to the north, to Jaffna, to Trincomalee, to Batikoloa, to see the kind of damage that was done by a war. And in those days, we couldn't cover a war where terrible things were happening, really terrible things like in Bosnia and the Balkans, because we didn't have mobile phones. Therefore, much of it happened secretly and in private and confidentially. We were able to see a lot of places where dreadful things happen. Now people have forgotten about it. They've moved on. It was sobering.
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C
Well, we will have more from both you and Latika very shortly. But very first of all, we're going to Dubai from where we are joined by Monocles Gulf correspondent in Zamam, Rashid in Zamam. How have things been today where you are?
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Well, Andrew, it was pretty quiet during the day today, both in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Can't say the same for the rest of the Gulf. We saw attacks from Iran, on Saudi Arabia, in Bahrain, once again, over in Qatar as well. But here in the uae, it was relatively quiet until the last Hour or so, we've heard very, very loud bangs across Dubai. Some my friends, family and colleagues in Abu Dhabi also reporting the same. And then the roar of fighter jets flying past, which I can just hear once again now in the background from my balcony here in Dubai. It's most probably Iranian fire into the uae, which has been intercepted by the military defense systems, which have been working overtime here in the UAE over the last four days. There was a pretty unprecedented briefing, press briefing held by the Ministry of Foreign affairs today with representatives from the Defence Ministry, from the Tourism Ministry, that was held in Abu Dhabi, and I guess, unprecedented briefing for unprecedented times. This is something that the UAE has never seen before, and I think it's causing a lot of concern for its residents, for the government here as well, and also the many tourists that, you know that come to this country.
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C
I just want to bring you in, Nick, Insi, talking there about the UAE's response so far. Does it strike you that if this goes on much longer, the kind of bombardment that the UAE and other countries in the vicinity are under, that they will be able to keep entirely out of this and just leave it up to the Americans and the Israelis?
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It will go on much longer and they won't be able to stay out of it because the Iranians want to draw them in. The Iranians, even though they're under pressure on armaments, and of course, they were supplying an enormous amount to the Russian military as well for the Ukraine war, the Iranians are determined to bring others in and blame everybody for what is happening and including the UAE in Zamam.
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C
I will come back to you. There have been reports today about Qatar taking direct action above and beyond the reported shooting down of two Iranian fighter jets yesterday. What do we actually know for sure about that?
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Yeah, about the Qatari fighter jets which encroached Qatari territory yesterday. So, look, the Qatar had a signal that Iranian fighter jets were approaching Qatari territory and as a result launched their own fighter jets into the air. There was what I'm being told, combat in the air.
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There was.
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There was firing between the jets and as a result, the Qatari. The Qatari military managed to shoot down those jets in Qatar. And I think that was probably the biggest kind of combat escalation that we've seen in this war, particularly between Iraq and the Gulf. And I think that's something that really annoyed and frustrated the Qataris, so much so that today we may have potentially seen Qatar conducting strikes on central Iran, something that hasn't been directly confirmed. But speaking to the authorities in the UAE today. And also speaking to the UAE President's diplomatic advisor, Dr. Anwar Gargash, someone who I know you've spoken to previously, Andrew, he said as well that retaliation strikes from the Gulf, it definitely remains on the table and he wouldn't be surprised, and the UAE wouldn't be surprised if a Gulf nation was to target Iran directly. And potentially that's something we have seen today. But look, there has been a specific target from Iran over the last 24 to 36 hours. They have specifically been targeting the Gulf's energy resources. We know over in Saudi Arabia there was an attack on Saudi Aramco here in Abu Dhabi in the uae. They targeted an oil facility here as well. And of course up in Fujairah, which is one of the Northern Emirates, a huge oil facility there was also targeted today in huge smoke, huge fire in a very dangerous place for attacks like that. So clearly Iran are trying to pinpoint their military efforts towards some energy resources as well, which could have huge economic impact on the wider Gulf.
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Inderam, just before we let you go, because I think it is a question that may be bemusing a lot of listeners. What have local authorities said about, all things considered, the resumption of flights from UAE airports given that some of these airports are not clearly in harm's way but have actually been directly attacked in the last 72 hours?
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Yeah, it came as a bit of a surprise to us, Andrew, you know, given that Abu Dhabi airport and Dubai Airport had been under attack, albeit via debris falling from intercepted missiles and drones, but causing damage nonetheless at the airports in Abu Dhabi. One person was killed, seven people injured as a result. And so when the UAE decided to open up the airspace very, you know, slightly incrementally, it did come as a bit of a shock. But speaking to Dr. Anwar Gargach last night when, when they did open up, I got the sense that there has been conversations and dialogue had between the us, Israel and maybe even Iran to allow that to happen. Now what I can tell you is that this evening a UAE royal jet with senior government officials has landed in Tel Aviv for ongoing conversations. But that idea of actually the airspace opening up came as a huge sigh of relief for many, not only because people could actually get out, get home, repatriation flights, cargo could move around as well as a result. And now There is around 48 flights between Dubai and Abu Dhabi's airports going per hour. But it also just gives a signal that maybe things are easing or you'd think so until attacks again. This evening. So, yeah, it was a bit bemusing, but I do believe, and from conversations that I've had today with the Ministry of Foreign affairs here in the UAE that may be, that it has been an open dialogue. There's obviously been intense risk assessments, but clearly they've got confidence that Iran wouldn't attack the airports or flight paths, perhaps, and as a result have managed to let some of those flights out of the country.
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In Zaman Rashid, Monocles Gulf correspondent in Dubai. Thank you for joining us.
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Let's just make one point. That flight time from Iran to Qatar and to Dubai is barely a minute. That means there's very little advance warning of what is happening, particularly if they fly low. And that's why that interchange and shooting down of those two planes, which was so important and why it's a very big risk.
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Well, we will bring in now Nick and Latika. Welcome, Latika.
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Andrew, hello. And my sincere apologies, I was not running on Latika time. I had a very urgent SOS from friends living in Saudi saying, we've just evacuated our daughter. She's travelling via Heathrow to Australia. Could you please go and help her transfer terminals? Because obviously unaccompanied miners can't do that themselves. So that is the reason for my several minutes late. My sincere apologies, but I think it does illustrate the human effects of what's happening here.
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We'll let it go this once to Lebanon now, the people of which are very much not for the first time fleeing or sheltering from a war which isn't really all that much to do with them. A response from Hezbollah to Israel. Strikes against its patrons in Iran was always inevitable, as was an Israeli response to Hezbollah's response. In the last few hours, it has been reported that Israeli troops have returned to southern Lebanon following Israeli airstrikes on alleged Hezbollah targets in Beir and elsewhere, which had been going on before the launch of operations in Iran and which have killed dozens. Lebanon's own government, meanwhile, has said that Hezbollah's actions did not reflect the will of most Lebanese. Latika, this is possibly. It's possibly a bit bold from Hezbollah, all things considered. Or it may be, I guess, their own death or glory moment. Are they completely lost without Iranian support?
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From all the assessments I've read, it does not look like they can sustain anything much against Israel. And I think really the question for the region now is what kind of Israel emerges from this? Not so much what kind of Iran and hyproxies emerge, but are we going to see Israel Become a mega power in the Middle east, dominating its region in a way it's never done before. And I think this is the result of what you get with a leader. We spent a lot of time focusing on Trump and all his bizarre and crazy comments, but actually standing behind Trump is Netanyahu. And this is a guy who is in do or die mode. And this is the result of, I think, this new approach to politics. I mean, this plan ever since October 7th is just a masterclass in Netanyahu's dominance. This is a guy that cannot be shaken or moved, and he is rewriting the Middle east in his name.
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The question being, Nick, is this actually going to work? This would not be if Israel mounts bigger operations in southern Lebanon. This would not be the first time Israel has gone into Lebanon and found things perhaps not as straightforward and simple as they might have hoped.
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Lebanon and South Lebanon are unfinished business. When the war ended literally over a year ago, there was still a lot of work that the Israelis wanted to do. I still remember amazing video of thousands of missiles being buried in big tunnels underneath parts of southern Lebanon. They want to finish off this business and they are acting strategically to make sure this threat does not return. Remember how that all began? It began with all those pages exploding, those radios exploding, killing people, disabling people. This is the speed and the intent and the meticulous preparation that the Israelis have been involved in. And let me add further, the Israelis have been very active in Tehran. They have a lot of agents, they have a lot of people working for them. And I think we will find probably that there were agents inside the Presidency when the President, when the Supreme Leader was killed.
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Yeah, I mean, but I think really, interestingly, this is, yes, it's an execution of incredible hard power. And the intelligence efforts we have seen for years now have been stunning from Assad, you cannot deny that. But really, does this materialise in any meaningful, long term, durable political change in the region?
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They're determined to diminish every single adversary they can.
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But there is a meaningful change, well, potentially meaningful change, Latika, in that. And I'm not sure how enthused Lebanon's own government would be by this characterisation. But Lebanon's newish government and Israel are at least broadly on the same side where Hezbollah are concerned, in that Lebanon's own government has said many times, you have to disarm, you have to give it up. The Lebanese state will have the monopoly on armed force in this country, which obviously, where Hezbollah is concerned, has always been easier said than done. But might this actually be the moment?
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It might. I really do think it might. I think if any anything can happen in these next few weeks, I do think.
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And just finally on this one, Nick, Hezbollah do not appear an organization with a great many other options other than perhaps much as Iran is doing, just lashing out wildly in order to cause as much disruption as possible and see if that somehow works to their advantage. If that is the case, if that is how they perceive things, how bad could this actually get?
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I don't think that's the way the Israelis see it. I come back to that phrase I used. It is unfinished business. What is notable is that the Israelis have not withdrawn people from the north of the country from Galilee. They have left people in places like Kiret Shmona. In other words, they have moved the IDF into southern Lebanon but believe they can secure the north of the country. That is different to what happened in the war a year ago.
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Well, to the state of what British prime ministers are fond of calling, if with varying degrees of confidence, the special relationship that is the one with the United States. US President Donald Trump has harumphed that said special relationship is, quote, obviously not what it was after UK Prime Minister Sakir Starmer expressed uncertainty vis a vis the legality and wisdom of whatever the US Believes it is presently doing in Iran, though the UK has nevertheless gone further along with this than many European countries, allowing American planes to undertake what everyone is agreeing to call defensive operations to fly from British bases. Here is some of President Trump a short while ago seething, if not downright fulminating.
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By the way, I'm not happy with the UK either. That island that you read about, the lease, okay, you made it for whatever reason, he made a lease of the island, somebody came and took it away from him. And it's taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land. There would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. So we are very surprised this is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with,
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to which Keir Starmer might retort Latika, that it's not Franklin Roosevelt he's dealing with. Franklin Roosevelt would certainly not have, as Donald Trump literally did shortly after that, go on to do, complain about the number of windmills festooning the United Kingdom. Do we, though, once again here see the British prime minister trying to perform an absolutely impossible balancing act?
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I think this is serious for Keir Starmer for two reasons. If he was going to oppose what the United States did in Iran and there's certainly plenty of grounds, very valid ones. I wouldn't have used international law. I would have used. We weren't told about it. We don't know what the plan is and we don't agree with. If they don't agree with it, regime change, the public probably would have accepted that. However, I do think Trump and the United States are justified in, in being miffed that they weren't allowed use of these bases. Diego Garcia is a joint base. And so I think the United States would have expected that even if the UK did not participate or give it its blessing, those bases are available to it. I think one of the problems Keir Starmer has now, his leadership is weaker than it's ever been before. But his big strength was his relationship with Donald Trump. It was personal, and he's done very, very well with it until now. Now that that's gone from him, it does feel like the last ace. If he ever had any in his deck, it's now been taken off the table. And so I do think it leaves him weakened. But mostly I think it really exposes the problem with, with Keir Starmer's premiership is that he is a North London human rights lawyer. And we live in a country that essentially rejected a lot of these ideas ten years ago when it said, I don't agree with political domestic decisions being outsourced to international laws in jurisdictions far away to me, or, you know, maybe as close as Brussels. But the point I'm making is that when people want decisive political calls, they don't expect their leaders to outsource it to or under the fig leaf of international law. And there I think Keestama's critics are very valid.
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Nick, we were talking earlier about whether or not the UAE and other Gulf countries could keep out of this if it goes on for weeks and or months. The same question about the UK and the rest of Europe, if this does drag on and on and on and on, does this look like a conflict which may exert some sort of centrifugal force?
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It will do and it won't. Could do. It will do because this is going to go on for a long time. I remember sitting here two or three years ago warning that Ukraine would go on for a long, long time. And notwithstanding what Latika has said, there are precedents for this in the British Parliament. War has to be approved by Parliament in a way that Trump did not get from Congress. He has a binary view. You're either with me or you're against me. And he decided to go ahead with the operation in the Middle east against Iran without congressional approval. There are precedents for this in the British government now in the British Parliament, I should say 2003, the. The problem that Tony Blair got into. But there was another issue when, about 10 years ago, when a vast chemical weapons activity took place just outside the capital of Syria, Damascus, when the British government under David Cameron wanted to take action and they went to Parliament and Parliament rejected it. So there is a precedent for it. And particularly with the difficult problems that K.E. starmer has internally within the Labour Party, it is not a risk he wanted to take. There is also an argument as, do we want to get involved with this? Do we want to get dragged in? Is our capacity needed? I have to say there's another thing which came up in the press briefing or the briefing with Mertz in the White House a few minutes ago when he actually said, I'm withdrawing, imposing tariffs on the. The Spanish government because they have refused to give me access to the US fleet in the US Naval base at Rota. So it's broader than just Britain.
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Latika, though, you're right in what you were saying about how Starmer is probably weakened and he was already unpopular. But if he's thinking in those terms, is there a possible domestic political advantage to him in being seen to come out against this? Because.
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Are you talking about a Love actually moment, Andrew?
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I'm trying to avoid that moment description
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because I'm seeing the dance in my
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head, because that is one of the half dozen or so worst movies ever made.
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But that's a big call.
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But. But we'll get back to that whole other topic. Per YouGov polling in the last few days, 49% of British people oppose or strongly oppose the war in Iran. 28% strong support or strongly support 23%. Don't know.
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Oh, yeah, it's even higher in the United States. I think I saw a Washington post poll saying 52% oppose this. This is not necessarily a question about where the public. What this is a question about is what happens next. And we have seen these attacks coming closer and closer. In fact, I think this could end up being the test of NATO a lot of us have been talking about might happen because we've had drones go into the base in Cyprus, an RAF
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base, which is British overseas territory.
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Exactly. And now we have these movements from some NATO members moving some of their military assets into the region. I think if Iran continues this. And as he was saying before, the tiny amounts of room for miscalculation to occur Here we're looking at a very dangerous scenario because there I think you do have an issue. Where are the allies? What do they support and what do they want to be drawn into and what are they forced into? And in that scenario, yes, that is something started by the Trump and Netanyahu governments that everybody else has been dragged into. But once we're there, there's no other choice, is there?
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Well, to Ukraine now, which, lest we forget, what with one thing and another, recently embarked upon the fifth year of its resistance to Russia's 72 hour lightning conquest of the country dependent as Ukraine is on American and European kit, money, sympathy and attention. A bench clearing all in consuming the Middle east would appear unhelpful even if Iran finds itself less able to flog shahed drones to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has acknowledged that this week' developments may prove especially sub optimal in terms of air defense as such apparatus as Patriot missiles become required elsewhere. Latika, you are recently back from Ukraine as far as we can tell so far. Does this look less helpful for Ukraine or Russia?
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I think there are two sides to this coin. On the positive, we once again see one of the axis compatriots or collaborators taken out by allies and Russia and China are crickets. They exchange telephone calls.
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Yeah. Russia's defence pact with Iran's not doing the Iranians a lot of good.
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No. So I think that's very helpful for everyone to see. I think the spectacle of these shaheds going into civilian targets across the UAE and the Gulf should frighten the life out of the global south. A lot of these countries have pretended that the war in Ukraine has nothing to do with them. Well, guess where these shaheds have been battle tested. Guess how this technology has been getting better and better and better over the last three to four years. It's on and in the skies of Ukraine. And this is the reality that Ukrainians have been dealing with for four years. So the global south may want to take a fresh look at the war in Ukraine and understand that the longer that war goes on, people, particularly Russia and Iran and China are able to develop and perfect their weaponry that is now being turned upon them. The bad side. Well, I do think there is a serious question now about what air defences are available to Ukraine. One of the big efforts has been to try, as this war in Ukraine rolls on, is to try and change the way that allies have been funding Ukraine. So instead of these ridiculous ad hoc here's a bit here, here's a ration there. Oh, be grateful. Get on bended knees. Thank us for in the streets of Kyiv, what NATO particularly has been trying to lead is an allied contribution to Pearl, which is a scheme set up by NATO that allows them to buy American made weapons to give to Ukraine. Well, if those American made weapons are being diverted to the Middle east, that's a serious and significant setback for Ukraine, which desperately needs one thing in particular from the United States, and that's those Patriot systems. In the long run, though, and I mean, just being there on the ground, the Ukrainians continue to stun and impress with the ability that they are developing their homegrown weaponry. They're just not there yet.
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Nick, is there potential opportunity here, though, for President Zelenskyy? He has come out as broadly supportive of the United States actions in Iran and yet finds that President Trump is still apparently unable to mention him without the drive by insult today describing him as P.T. barnum.
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Andrew, let me answer that in this way. I'm troubled by what I see coming from America. Remember, Trump got elected saying no new wars. Oh.
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And that he would stop the one raging in 24 hours. Don't forget that.
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He says he's solved eight wars. He's gone up from seven to eight recently. But the reason I say that is he said no new wars. And we've been wrestling with this for the last few years, four years, including under the Biden presidency. He was able to launch a war with two battle carrier groups in the Middle east within a few hours. He was able to prepare vast amounts of equipment, the kind of thing which could have worked so well in Ukraine, supporting the Ukrainian operations. The US Used to have a principle of being able to fight two regional wars in parallel. It dropped that about 10 years ago. Now it still has the equipment. As the president said, we have the biggest and best military in the world. So I am asking myself, why is he not prepared to commit? Because there is still the threat from Russia against Ukraine, which is equally violent and equally sinister to what the threat was said to be in Iran. And by the way, one of the things that Trump said was he thought there was a possibility of a nuclear attack within one month. And that's why he moved. So the Americans can move fast if they want to. Yeah, he didn't in Ukraine.
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If we believe that pretext.
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Yes, I'm merely quoting you.
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I understand. Just clarifying in case any of our listeners were under any misapprehension.
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Yeah. For those questioning the United States, for those of us, Nick, old enough to remember the Estimates of launch times of Iraqi missiles that did have a certain resonance. I just want to close. 45 minutes, I believe, was the estimate in 2003. But I do want to close by asking you each just for some final thoughts on where we are. Nick, first of all, you reminded us that a few years ago, and you were quite right, you said that. That hostilities in Ukraine were likelier to be a years rather than months or weeks thing. Do you see the same thing here? I mean, do you admit the possibility that President Trump may just get bored with this on Thursday lunchtime?
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Yes. You're talking about the Middle East.
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Yes.
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Yes. I think he's still a real estate broker, and when he signed on the dotted line for a bit of estate, he'll move on. And I think he'll find that it's easier to drop bonds, easier to kill people than to create a new society. And I think it's deeply, deeply forbidding.
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Latika, what do you think? Do you think he had a vague idea that by now there might be ecstatic crowds holding up pictures of Donald Trump and chanting his name in the squares of Tehran?
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It's so clear every minute that goes on the lack of plan that they had. And I did a very interesting interview with John Bolton, former national security adviser to Trump, who's fallen out with him, but is one of the hugest hawks on Iran. You know, they call him a neocon. The MAGA types. They hate this kind of stuff.
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What Trump has done, he's now the voice of reason.
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Well.
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Well, interestingly, what Trump has done is everything he would do. But when I interviewed him on Sunday night, I said, who is your preferred option takeover? He said, that's not our plan. That's not our job. Lindsey Graham has also said the same thing. Republican senator, a very big kind of Trump whisperer, you could say. The lack of thought from the Americans about what comes next I think is staggering. It does justify the reticence from its allies. But here we are in this situation, and it's a whole new world we're
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going to have to deal with, and it's deeply scary.
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B
Well, I try not to indulge in those sentiments, because where would that lead us?
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What about how it's going to be managed in terms of stability?
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B
Look, I think. I think the American people will certainly need to hold their government to account for starting this war. There's no doubt about that. But in the end, I do think this is really an Israeli move. And we all have to understand and look at it through that prism first and primarily, I mean, Marco Rubio has even said as much on the record. The Israelis were going to move and we moved in preemptively to support them because we thought we'd suffer a lot of casualties. It is just staggering and it reinforces all the doubts that people have expressed about American foreign interventions, particularly in the Middle east over the last years.
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C
Latika Burke and Nick Gowing, thank you both for joining us. Finally, on today's show, and with an audible grinding of gears, Monocle Radio recently broadcast two weeks of shows from Milan. During the recent Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, we spoke to many Milanese. So many indeed that even across 10 hour long shows, we didn't have time for all of them. One such was Giovanni Morale, director of Milan's Galleri. When he joined us at our pop up studio on the 47th floor of the Allianz Tower, Italy's tallest building, I began by asking him to introduce the gallery.
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The Galleria d' Italia is a company museum owned by the first Italian bank called Interra San Paolo. It's located in the center in downtown Milan, in Piazza della Scala, near the prestigious Theater of Opera Theater. And so it's a great occasion to see a bank museum. So it's old museum was a bank, now is a piece, not money, but a piece of art. So it's a great occasion to see something special, real, very near to Duomo
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C
and the exhibits themselves in the museum. What is your area of specialty?
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F
Okay, the museum have a part of a company collection such as Italian contemporary art, international art. Above all, a big collection of 19th century painter, Italian painter. But we also, we have a temporary exhibition such as now we have a Napoleonic exhibition, very big, with a huge horse, very beautiful. And we have also a small but very interesting photographer exhibition about the Olympic games of Cortina 1956. So it's a good way to leave the Olympic atmosphere, seeing how it was in the past. So it's a great occasion for the
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C
public on that thought, because it does remind us that this is not the first time the Winter Olympics have been held in this vicinity. Does that exhibit give you or give the viewer an idea not just of a different Olympic Games, but a different Italy? Do you get a sense of really how things have changed for Milan between then and now?
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No, I think it's a great opportunity. Also this is a big honor to have the five Olympic Games here. And also I think that is an important international perspective of this town. That is, okay, industrial. We have very, a lot of museum, a lot of theater, we have a big opera. But we need also international public. They come to see this beauty country and a town different of Venice, of Rome. So it's a different way to see Italy and we have a good food, also good museums.
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C
But have you noticed during this Games that you are getting people who've come here for the Olympics coming to the museums as well? Are you noticing a different kind of crowd these last couple of weeks?
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F
Yes, there is a lot of foreign people that come for the first time. So it's very impressive because was all the basic of a bank. So you can see the structure of a very elegant bank. Also it's a very comfortable to very very cologated through the Olympic games. So it's a good opportunity for many people. So we have a lot of visitors.
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C
Now just going back to what you were saying, I was struck by it. You talked about how Milan is a different kind of Italian city from maybe those ones which people think of first when they first come to Italy. Everybody wants to go and see Rome and Florence and Venice and. And not unreasonably, they're all marvellous. But what strikes you as different and distinctive about Milan? How would you sum up the city's character?
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F
Of course, of course the fashion because it's very. We are the capital of fashion world fashion. But also it's very. Also the cathedral. Of course our cathedral is very famous but we have also the culture I think is very important. So also the opera, the music and the taste of these different Italian countries is like more our Italian London system we see. So it's important to visit, to see another Italy. We are near to the lake of Como so I think that is a good seat to see a new and very interesting, interesting view of Italy. Above all we have also the last summer of Last supper of Leonardo da Vinci. So it's interesting things.
- [34:51]
C
Yeah, we have looked into that and have so far failed to get tickets. But to bring it back to your museum and for the benefit of people listening to this who are not in Milan now but may be coming to Milan in coming weeks and months, what do you have coming up at your place that you're excited about?
- [35:09]
F
I think that it's in all seasons it's very interesting to come to Milan and to also to promenade, to walk in this town in the downtown and see the beautiful palace buildings museum. Also the shop is not only to buy things but also to see the wonderful boutiques that we have here. So it's a thing that you can try to see the music, the atmosphere and the taste of this town. This is the thing, I think that I love Milan also, of course, to see our beautiful cathedral.
- [35:44]
C
And for the museum itself. What does the rest of 2026 hold?
- [35:49]
F
There is a lot of things. We have a lot of projects. Our company museum also the other museum. So there is a lot of exhibitions Now. I think that there are more than 15 big exhibition in Milan. So I think that it's a great competitor to the biggest town in Italy. It's the town that have the biggest exhibition. So we are very competitive also in the music and the theater. So it's a very cultural capital of Italy.
- [36:19]
C
That was Giovanni Morale, director of Milan's Galleri d', Italia, speaking to me in Milan during Monocle's run of Olympic adjacent programs. You can find all 10 episodes of of Monocle in Milan on our website. That's all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Latika Burke and Nick Gowing. Also to Insaman Rashid in Dubai. Today's show was produced by Tom Webb and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Changu. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening, Sam.