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ROME (Reuters) – Anita Ekberg, who famously waded in Rome’s Trevi Fountain with Marcello Mastroianni in the 1960 classic film “La Dolce Vita”, would probably say “It’s about time, darling!”

The fountain, arguably the world’s most recognizable, is about to get the most thorough face-lift since it was completed in 1762 and the restoration was presented on Monday by a man who also uses the word darling a lot: fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld is artistic director of Fendi, the Italian luxury fashion house which is picking up the tab for 2.2 million euro ($2.9 million) restoration.

“I think its a great idea and a great project. This fountain is a symbol of the Rome like the Colosseum and St Peter’s and I am happy that we can all help,” said Lagerfeld, wearing a black, high-neck jacket, black lace gloves and black sunglasses.

The 20-month restoration will clean the fountain, which covers the entire facade of Rome’s Palazzo Poli with its allegorical statues of Tritons guiding the shell chariot of the god Oceanus illustrating the theme of the taming of the waters.

The restoration will remove calcium deposits, clean the statues, check the strength of steel supporting them, apply new waterproofing to the large basin, fix leaks, install new pumps and electric works and add new barriers to keep pigeons away.

But tourists need not worry. Only one third of the monument will be covered by scaffolding at any time.

The last restoration was about 25 years ago but officials said new techniques developed since then would make it the most thorough cleaning in the fountain’s 251-year history.

“There is no tourist in the world who does not dream of standing before the Trevi Fountain at least once in their life,” said Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno.

Tourists will still be able to toss coins in the basin – a tradition said to ensure that they will return to the Eternal City.

Not surprisingly, the soundtrack from the 1954 American romantic comedy “Three Coins in the Fountain” was played in the background at the presentation in Rome’s city hall.

“Throwing a coin into the fountain is a rite and a right,” said Umberto Broccoli, superintendent for Rome’s cultural heritage.

A MILLION EUROS IN SMALL CHANGE

About a million euros ($1.35 million) worth of coins are thrown into the basin by tourists each year. All the money goes to a charity that helps the city’s needy.

Rome-based Fendi, known for its extravagant furs and chic baguette clutches worn by movie star Sarah Jessica Parker and pop singer Rihanna, is the latest luxury goods company helping Italy keep up its cultural heritage sites.

Luxury shoemaker and leather goods company Tod’s is sponsoring a major restoration of the Colosseum.

In tough economic times, Mayor Alemanno said, the city appreciated all the help it could get to keep up the capital’s vast cultural heritage. He called the Fendi family the “new patrons” of the arts, likening them to the Medici family of Renaissance Tuscany.

“This is not to shirk our duties over to the private sector but the state needs a new patronage to help Italian culture,” he said.

In exchange, Fendi will get only a small sign about the size of a coffee table book telling tourists that it was the sole sponsor. The sign will stay up for four years after the project is completed.

“It seemed right to thank this city, which since 1925 offered inspiration, creativity, aesthetic fervor and culture, a home where our brand has prospered and grown from a Roman fashion house into a global fashion label,” said Pietro Beccari, president and CEO of Fendi.

Lagerfeld said he would make a book of photographs of Rome fountains called “Glory of Water”. Fendi will also be sponsoring the restoration of another four fountains in the city as part of its “Fendi for Fountains” initiative.

The Trevi Fountain is where the late director Federico Fellini set one of the most famous scenes of modern cinema in La Dolce Vita.

Blonde siren Anita Ekberg wades into the fountain after midnight and beckons to Mastroianni, who strides in after her.

That black and white scene etched Mastroianni’s boyish, handsome face, Ekberg’s statuesque body – and the fountain – in the minds of millions.

Fellini and Mastroianni are both dead. Ekberg is still alive and is 81.

As a popular destination on many travelers’ bucket lists, Alaska offers nature, culture and luxury, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. The year 2013, in fact, will be an especially good year to visit America’s 49th state, thanks to added cruise values and extra memorable Northern Lights viewing. And there’s more.

Here are some unique ideas to help maximize your next Alaska adventure.

Look Up, Catch Your Breath

NASA says the Solar Max is due in 2013, providing the best views of the aurora borealis in the past 50 years. Fairbanks, which sits under a unique ring-shaped region of the North Pole, will offer some of the best and most frequent sights. And many hotels will make sure you don’t miss them: They’ll place special wake-up calls to your room as soon as the Northern Lights appear.

See bears, Skip whales

OK, whale watching is a must-do on any Alaskan adventure. But drop anchor on Kodiak Island and venture inland for a special chance to view some of the 3,000 brown bears that call this island home. The Kodiak Brown Bear Center recently opened and allows small groups to venture into unspoiled territory that had been off-limits for almost two decades. Visits require minimum three-night stays (in modern cabins).

Go for the Air Tour, Skip the Land Tour

A floatplane ride or helicopter tour is an essential part to any Alaska vacation. Both can be done as day trips so they fall within a cruise line itinerary. Some helicopter tours include mountain top landings and outdoor activities such as hiking and dog-mushing, the popular Alaska sport using dog sleds. Special to 2013 might be an aerial trek to the peak of Mt. McKinley, North America’s tallest mountains, since this year marks the 100th anniversary of its very first summit; Rust’s Flying Service is introducing a “Pilot for a Day” program, where adventurers are led on six-hour, customizable tours by an experienced Alaska bush pilot. And if you’re an avid skier, seek out a heli-ski operator, which will chopper you direct to classic slalom venues such as Alyeska Resort (45 minutes south of Anchorage) and Tsaina Lodge (near Valdez), which just reopened after a six-year revamp and can get 900 inches of snow a year.

Ride the Sea Cycles, Skip the Kayak

This adventure opportunity is new in 2013: Ketchikan-based and family-owned Alaska Sea Cycle Tours allows tourists to hop on a vessel that looks like a cross between and bike and a boat. It glides like a kayak but is powered by pedals, and it offers a unique way to explore the wildlife, history and culture of Ward Cove and Totem Bight State Park.

Embrace the Canopy, Get Off the Water

For those folks seeking the ultimate Alaska adventure, Alaska Canopy Adventures offers an eco-adventure tour including ziplining through a rainforest, channel-crossing on a speed boat and off-roading on a 4×4 all-terrain vehicle. Available out of Juneau and Ketchikan, these half-day tours feature the largest canopy courses in Alaska and offer an extraordinary sightseeing experience for thrill-seekers.

Ride the Highway, Pass on the Passage

Many cruise itineraries will take you down the iconic Inside Passage. But 2013 might be the year to ride the Alaska Marine Highway, celebrating 50 years of service. This 3,500-mile route connects Bellingham, Washington to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and is a veritable lifeline to some 30 communities, many of which are not connected by roads. The views are stunning, and with a unique promotion this year — visitors can win travel through a monthly Golden Ticket giveaway — they can also be free.

Take a Seat at the Chef’s Table, Skip the Jerky

Alaskan cuisine at its best just got easier to savor. The popular Alaska Fish House in Ketchikan launched its Chef’s Table for 2013. The nightly four-course menu will change with each catch of the day. If wild salmon, halibut, black cod and Dungeness crab make your mouth water, pull up a seat.

Stay on a Luxury Cruise Liner, Skip the Igloo

Fulfill the fantasy of floating past majestic icebergs, orcas and humpback whales while having the luxurious amenities aboard an Alaskan cruise. Major cruise lines such as Celebrity and Princess are adding more ships and departures to Alaska in 2013 and, with more cabins to fill, we’re expecting extra deals, especially for May and September travel.

While you’re sitting in coach, trying to save your knees from being crushed and fighting over the arm rest, passengers in Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class between New York and London will be deciding which piece of art to buy from renowned British street artist Ben Eine.

The paintings, billed as “street art” and priced from $4,000 – $24,000, are available to view in person in the airline’s clubhouses in New York’s JFK, Newark airport and London Heathrow. Passengers can then purchase Eine’s works at 35,000 feet via the airline’s in-flight entertainment system. Special videos on the making of the artworks will be featured on the in-flight entertainment system.

Ten works are available for purchase.

To create the Gallery in the Air, the airline said, Eine called upon his own experiences on Virgin Atlantic, his perspective on New York and London, and research on the airline’s founder, Sir Richard Branson.

“My philosophy through all my work, be it on canvas or on the street, is about pushing boundaries and not going with the flow because everyone else is doing something a certain way,” said Eine. “I respect Virgin Atlantic’s brave and challenging attitude and the way they go against the grain, so I jumped at the chance to be part of the first ever Gallery in the Air. We have created a completely original way of appreciating and buying art – a new frontier for the industry.”

The Gallery in the Air is the latest luxury added for Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class passengers. Last year, the airline employed a ” whispering coach” to instruct the crew, “coaching on the tone, volume and sentiment cabin crew should use whilst talking to Upper Class passengers,” the airline said.

Upper Class passengers also get to have a drink with Branson in the form of an ice cube. “Little Richard” ice cubes were created using the exact measurements of Branson’s head.

PARIS (Reuters) – Jean Paul Gaultier chose swirling translucent veils, the sound of sitars, and the insouciance of Gypsy culture for his haute couture show on Tuesday, while Valentino opted for an ethereal yet decorative look that evoked the bloom of the Renaissance.

The Spring 2013 collections presented on Wednesday by the two design houses, one French and one Italian, found inspiration from different epochs and parts of the globe, pointing to the diversity seen during Paris Fashion Week, the creme de la creme of the global fashion industry.

Gaultier, often labeled the bad boy of French fashion, turned eastward to India for inspiration, transporting his audience to Rajasthan, with sinewy models sporting oversized earrings and billowy veils in periwinkle, tangerine and pink.

Valentino – under new owners the Qatari royal family and with the designing duo of Maria Grazie Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli at the helm – presented a more sober but no less theatrical vision. Gowns that a 15th century queen would have been proud of featured patterns that brought to mind iron grillwork in a formal garden.

This range of options for women willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a made-to-order haute couture outfit help prop up the global women’s luxury apparel market, estimated at 27 billion euros ($35 billion) and growing, according to consultancy Bain & Company.

Only a small number of houses such as Christian Dior, Chanel and Giorgio Armani are allowed to exhibit haute couture in Paris, where manufacturing is carefully regulated and work must be sewn by hand in order to be considered haute couture.

At Gaultier, majority owned by Spanish family luxury group Puig, some expected an elephant as the grand finale, but instead a delightful Mother Goose moment saw an elaborately decorated bride flipping up her voluminous skirt to reveal four little children who scampered down the runway to applause.

Backstage, Gaultier said it was not the first time he had been influenced by India, but this time he evoked the Gypsies, a migratory people whose centuries-old ancestral home is India.

“It’s glimmering, it’s incredible the colors that you see, it’s superb,” he told reporters, speaking of Rajasthan. “I tried to recreate a bit of that, but more the Gypsy side, rather than the Maharaja side. It’s more like couture Gypsies.”

The audience – which included French film star Catherine Deneuve and actress Rossy de Palma, a muse of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar – began furiously snapping photos at the appearance of a black form-fitting gown with an exposed brassiere whose diaphanous hot pink veil added a jolt of color.

Bold stripes, tight pleating and even fringe figured prominently in the collection, where a dose of colorful patchwork offered a fresh, devil-may-care attitude.

Gaultier said the patchwork was hard to recreate, but offered a fashion tip to anyone with scissors.

“In the time of economic crisis, those who are game, take your old clothes, cut them up and make patchwork! It’s a new outfit!”

BORROWED FROM BOTTICELLI

The liner notes for Valentino’s collection described it as “sublime art” and indeed, many of the looks could have been stolen from a Botticelli painting.

With founder Valentino Garavani, who retired in 2008, in the front row, guests admired the parade of ivory, black and carnal red dresses, where heavy embroidery reminiscent of armor nevertheless imparted a light, evanescent feel.

“We think that beauty lies in the armor, in the proportion,” Piccioli told Reuters. “That comes from the Renaissance, the proportion of Italian master paintings.”

Silk piping wove its way across a translucent black cape covering a diaphanous white gown, the cape’s swirls and geometric patterns evoking the ornamental gates to a garden.

High necklines and tight long sleeves evoked the gowns one sees adorning the marble tombs of many a deceased Renaissance-era queen, but Chiuri and Piccioli’s work never felt old.

The decorative swirling pattern on some dresses evoked tapestries, while the sharp horizontal bodices of others recalled the Elizabethan-era.

Despite the many references to centuries gone by, the collection felt fresh and elegant. Backstage, a note to models summed up what the designers hoped to communicate: “You are all beautiful. Be Light. Be Delicate.”

In an October 15 report, Bain forecast the worldwide luxury industry would bring in estimated revenues of 212 billion euros ($281.56 billion) in 2012, of which women’s apparel would be a 27 billion euro slice.

(Reuters) – The New York Knicks are the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) most valuable team, worth over $1 billion, according to a Forbes poll released on Wednesday that showed the average team value rose 30 percent over the last year.

The average NBA team’s value is now $509 million, a rise Forbes said was driven by higher television revenue, new and renovated arenas and the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.

The Knicks reclaimed top spot in the annual poll from the Los Angeles Lakers with a value of $1.1 billion, a 41 percent jump from last year, due mainly to a $980 million renovation of Madison Square Garden that will be completed later this year.

The Lakers, who had the league’s highest payroll last season that triggered a $12.6 million luxury tax bill, were second with a value of $1 billion, up 11 percent from last year.

The Knicks and Lakers are the first NBA teams to be valued at $1 billion or above.

Rounding out the top five were the Chicago Bulls ($800 million), Boston Celtics ($730 million) and Dallas Mavericks ($685 million).

The value of the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat rose 37 percent to $625 million, putting them sixth among the league’s 30 teams.