Focus, Italy’s most widely read monthly is celebrating its eighteenth anniversary with a big event to be held at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan, as part of the big exhibition 2050. Il Pianeta ha bisogno di te (2050. The planet needs you), organised in partnership with London’s Science Museum.

Published by Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori and edited by Sandro Boeri, Focus is Italy’s biggest-selling monthly. It is aimed at a qualified target of people who are curious and interested in discovering the world. Over the years Focus has established itself as an authentic unbounded guide to knowledge. The breadth of the subjects it covers (medicine, geology, archaeology, biology, astrophysics, mathematical and physicals sciences, nature and technology) clear, accurate and rigorous exposition and a use of spectacular and high-impact images are among its distinguishing features.

“Thanks to its unique formula, that combines scientific rigour with simple language,” underline Giacomo Moletto, managing director of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori, “the magazine’s success has made it a leader in Italian publishing with more than 6 million readers and a circulation of almost 500,000 copies. The Focus brand has become so well known that it has recently been successfully “exported” also to television on the national channel Italia Uno in prime time: further proof of the title’s popularity,” concluded Moletto.

There has also been an excellent response from advertisers: in the period January-December 2010, in terms of pages sold for the monthly, Mondadori Pubblicità recorded an increase of 22% compared with 2009.

This evening’s event will be truly spectacular, thanks to the “transformation” of the Rotonda into a sort of special issue of Focus, with the façade of the church acting as an interactive cover for the magazine.

Guests will be entertained by amazing sets and exciting projections that play with the infrastructure, both inside and outside, of the building, but, above all, they will be able to share a really special moment when greetings will be delivered from space from the astronaut Paolo Nespoli. The special guest star of the event will be DustBot, Italy’s “Wall-E” which has been designed to interact with people.