Renzi compares Italy to Michelangelo's David

(ANSA) - Perugia, July 28 - Italy is a bit like Michelangelo's David, Premier Matteo Renzi said Thursday. "When they asked Michelangelo how he made David, he answered I just took all the extra marble away," Renzi told employees at a Rocchetta mineral water bottling plant during a visit earlier in the day. "Obviously that was a provocation but if you think about it, Italy is a little like that: it's so beautiful that all you have to do is remove the extra stuff weighing it down - such as red tape, the time frame of parts of the justice system and of public works". David, a 5.17-metre marble statue of a standing male nude, is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture which Michelangelo created between 1501 and 1504.