Sicily-inspired Aromi is targeting an end of June or early July opening date for its new site in St Michael’s Street.

The cafe will be giving away 1,000 free slices of pizza as part of the opening to those who sign up for its newsletter.

Boss Ofelia Di Re said a specific date could not be given right now, but confirmed it would be opening in the summer.

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A spokesman previously said: “We’ve been pretty quiet about this since teasing it as there’s been a lot happening behind the scenes, but we’re thrilled to officially announce that we’re opening in Oxford.

“Work is underway to transform this beautiful shop that was once a pharmacy into an Aromi pizzeria and we can’t wait to take you on the journey with us and make Oxford our second home.”

Aromi opened in 2013 by four family members and has two other cafes in Cambridge.

It has a bakery, gelateria and pizzeria, serving sourdough pizza, golden focaccia, moreish arancini, fresh cannoli and Sicilian coffee.

Aromi said in a statement that staff aim to share the real taste of Sicily “mixing authentic family recipes and time-honoured techniques, with fresh energy, bold flavours and exciting new ideas”.

RETN has launched a new backbone route across Romania linking the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, adding a new physical connectivity option in Eastern Europe.

The end-to-end path connects Drobeta, Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău as a continuous backbone route. It provides an alternative to existing regional IP transit corridors and extends RETN’s optical network in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new link ties Romania and Moldova into RETN’s existing Balkans corridor, which connects Budapest, Timișoara and Sofia. This creates a new geographical path across the region and adds route diversity to its international backbone.

It also opens an alternative routing option to Ukraine through Moldova and to the Balkans through Bulgaria. The network is aimed at telecom operators, internet service providers, enterprises and international customers moving traffic across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

Regional demand

The launch comes as Romania’s broadband market continues to expand. Data from Romania’s National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications shows the country had 6.9 million fixed broadband connections by mid-2025.

Of those connections, 37% were capable of gigabit speeds, according to the regulator. Average fixed broadband traffic per person has also been rising, pointing to stronger demand for bandwidth.

Internet use in Romania reached about 94% of the population by late 2025, according to market figures cited by RETN. Bucharest and Iași have become increasingly important centres for business, education and technology, adding pressure on communications infrastructure.

Physical route diversity is becoming a growing concern for carriers and network operators in the region, particularly as they seek alternatives to established corridors. New routes can help manage outages, distribute traffic loads and build more resilience into cross-border networks.

The project forms part of a broader push to strengthen RETN’s footprint in Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates a Eurasian network spanning Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with onward links to China and Southeast Asia.

That broader network gives RETN a role in carrying international traffic between European and Asian markets. Adding a route through Romania and Moldova increases the number of path options available within that system.

Company view

RETN positioned the expansion as a response to changing traffic patterns and rising infrastructure demand in Romania and neighbouring markets.

“This project is an important step in strengthening connectivity resilience in Romania,” said Olena Lutsenko, Business Development Director at RETN.

“Bucharest and Iași are rapidly developing hubs for business, education and technology, and demand for resilient, high-capacity infrastructure is rising fast. By delivering a direct route from Timișoara to Bucharest and onward to Chișinău, we are enabling faster, more scalable access to the region from the Balkans, Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe in general – for operators, ISPs, enterprises and international customers,” Lutsenko said.

The route gives RETN another way to connect traffic flows between the Balkans and markets further east. In practice, operators seeking alternatives to existing paths can route traffic through Romania and Moldova instead of relying solely on more established corridors.

Romania has emerged as an important network market in the region because of strong fibre adoption and rising internet use. Moldova and Ukraine also sit on strategically important transit paths for regional and international traffic, making cross-border network design more significant for carriers serving the area.

The expansion underlines the continued build-out of communications infrastructure across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as operators add redundancy and support growing data volumes. It also reflects the importance of Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău on the wider map of regional connectivity.

Experience Oxfordshire’s boss said Puy du Fou will “drive job creation, stimulate economic growth” and increase visitor spend” to Cherwell and the county.

Some 25 million visitors come to Oxfordshire annually, generating roughly £2.4bn in economic impact and supporting 40,000 jobs.

In the Cherwell district, where Puy du Fou is planned for close to Bicester, tourism spending is fast approaching £500 million.

Puy du Fou in France (Image: Puy du Fou)

“This sector is therefore crucial to ongoing economic development, prosperity and employment,” said Experience Oxfordshire chief executive Hayley Beer-Gamage.

“Puy du Fou will further strengthen this position across both the district and the wider county.”

Ms Beer-Gamage said Puy du Fou should also fill in a gap in the market for Oxfordshire, which so far it has been lacking on.

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The proposed development includes conference facilities for up to 500 delegates which would be a “significant opportunity” for Oxfordshire.

She said capacity for such a thing is “currently lacking” within the county and so having one would enable Oxfordshire to “attract more national and international business events, generating additional spend for accommodation and hospitality providers, and wider visitor economy businesses”.

Hayley Beer-Gammage of Experience Oxfordshire

Experience Oxfordshire’s boss added: “Oxfordshire is already home to globally recognised attractions such as Blenheim Palace, the University of Oxford, and Bicester Village.

“The addition of Puy du Fou would further strengthen the county’s position on the international tourism map, offering a compelling and diverse range of experiences.

“Furthermore, Puy du Fou’s commitment to job creation and local infrastructure investment reinforces the long-term value of this proposal.

“With an estimated £600 million investment and the creation of up to 8,000 jobs, this development represents a unique and significant opportunity.

“Experience Oxfordshire fully supports this application and strongly encourages the Council to approve it as a high-quality and transformative asset for the Cherwell area.”

It comes as VisitBritain recently said Puy du Fou’s operator “offers a truly distinctive visitor experience through its historic theme park concept” and said it “can see the potential for this project to generate significant interest and excitement among domestic and international visitors alike.”

The park would be open between April and October and would have four period villages and 13 live shows, eventually attracting an estimated 1.47 million visitors a year.

There will also be three hotels, each themed to different periods in British history, and a ‘state-of-the-art’ conference centre, which will be open on demand all year round.

The decision now lies with Cherwell council, and if approved, the new park will open in phases beginning in 2029.