While England makes its first foray into unfamiliar territory, it’s proved a boon for Italy’s cash-strapped municipalities
A nightly tourist tax may be unfamiliar territory in the UK, but countries in continental Europe have been cashing in on these kinds of levies for decades.
Tourists usually need to pay the tax on the day they check out of a hotel or holiday let, and are often surprised by an extra fee on top of their accommodation costs.
Continue reading...Kalie McCrystal was hoping to break record in Alps
Athlete was last seen on Tuesday afternoon
Canadian athlete Kalie McCrystal has gone missing during preparations for a record attempt in the Alps.
McCrystal, from Squamish in British Columbia, was on a “reconnaissance/training session” in the run-up to her attempt at ascending and descending the 14,692 ft (4,478m) Matterhorn on the Swiss-Italian border.
Continue reading...Lorena Isceri was thrown off a motorway bridge, allegedly by ex-boyfriend Federico Vella
A 45-year-old woman abducted and thrown off a motorway bridge near Florence has become the seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August.
Lorena Isceri was abducted on Thursday afternoon, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, Federico Vella, in the Rifredi area of Florence, before being forced into the boot of his car and driven towards a bridge on the A1 motorway.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
Continue reading...Futuro Nazionale party’s speedy poll rise poses questions whether PM will return to her roots before election
Giorgia Meloni’s government has become the longest-running in Italy since the second world war – a milestone the prime minister is determined not to let pass unnoticed.
In the port area of Bari, the capital of the southern Italian region of Puglia, where Meloni hosted the G7 in 2024 and where she spends her summer holiday, preparations are well under way for a festival-style showcase of her rightwing administration.
Continue reading...After judge allows partial access rights, Catherine Birmingham and Nathan Trevallion say the enforced separation ‘broke each of our hearts’
A couple have told of their heartache, trauma and stress after fighting for two years for their right to parent their children as they choose in the glare of the world’s attention.
The three children of a Melbourne woman, Catherine Birmingham, and her British partner, Nathan Trevallion, were removed from their “dilapidated” off-grid home in Italy last year.
Continue reading...Manhunt under way after Italian dies from her injuries in the town of Aarau in the early hours of Sunday
A manhunt is under way in Switzerland after a 22-year-old woman was killed and five people were injured, some seriously, in a shooting at a rave in the northern town of Aarau, local police have said.
In the attack in the early hours of Sunday at a techno party at a covered horse-racing track, an Italian woman died from her injuries at the scene, authorities said. All those caught up in the shooting were residents of Switzerland and in their 20s.
Continue reading...Police hunt two suspects after historic 200-carat piece is snatched from Austrian museum during opening hours
Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.
Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.
Continue reading...Albanian criminal has cut bars, descended sheets and even used human pyramid in escapes in Italy and Belgium
Police in Spain have arrested a dangerous Albanian criminal nicknamed the “escape wizard” who has managed to break out of four jails in Italy and Belgium by sawing through bars, clambering down knotted sheets and even using a human pyramid to breach prison walls.
The fugitive, who has not been officially named, was arrested after officers from the Policía Nacional force discovered he was living in the north-eastern Spanish city of Tarragona. He was the subject of a European arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities.
Continue reading...Alessandro Rapinese denies he is waging personal vendetta against cyclists amid a public backlash
The mayor of Como has set the wheels of controversy in motion for banning bikes in the walled historical centre of the lakeside city after being hit by one.
Alessandro Rapinese’s ban, which comes into force in September, targets about 30 streets and means cyclists, whether on e-bikes or push bikes, will have to dismount and walk through those areas.
Continue reading...Alpine communities hit out after influencer videos draw huge queues to Friedrich August refuge in Dolomites
Hundreds of people overwhelmed a mountain hut in the Italian Dolomites, not for the panoramic views but in search of a creamy pastry, reigniting the debate about social-media-driven tourism.
The visitors ventured en masse to the Friedrich August refuge – perched at 2,300 metres (7,500ft) above sea level, between Col Rodella and Passo Sella in Val di Fassa – some reportedly waking up at dawn or camping overnight, just to ensure they could buy a freshly baked krapfen, a traditional German pastry similar to a doughnut, before they ran out.
Continue reading...Theft of four works on national holiday described as wound to historical memory and cultural identity of city of Messina
Four of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen during a national holiday from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina.
Thieves gained access to the Regional Museum of Messina, or MuMe, on Saturday evening, possibly capitalising on attention being focused on La Vara, a huge religious festival that takes place in the city on 15 August, when Italy marks the Ferragosto national holiday.
Continue reading...Travellers caught up in migration row as Madrid introduces checks on visitors from Italy in retaliation for Rome’s move
Italy’s foreign minister has called Spain’s decision to impose retaliatory checks on travellers from Italy “incomprehensible and completely unacceptable” as people making their way between the two EU countries were left grappling with the effects of the escalating feud.
Spain started carrying out spot checks on visitors from Italy at midnight on Saturday. The tit-for-tat move came after Rome infuriated Madrid by launching checks on 1 August for travellers from Spain in response to the recent influx of about 72,000 people into Ceuta, a Spanish territory in north Africa.
Continue reading...Imports this year now account for 14% of the market amid claims vehicles are being dumped in the EU and UK
Chinese electric car sales have risen across Europe to a record high driven by strong demand and low tariffs in the UK and a surge in buyers in Italy.
Against a backdrop of claims that Chinese carmakers are “dumping” state-subsidised vehicles in the EU and UK to gain market share, the figures will give impetus to calls for quotas and higher tariffs to protect European manufacturers.
Continue reading...British and Germans themselves share stereotype but other nationalities are likelier to put out towels – or umbrellas
Germans are sunlounger hoggers, or so the longstanding stereotype goes. But not only is that cultural trope mostly confined to British – and, even more so, German – perceptions, surprising new data reveals that in fact Italian and French holidaymakers are the ones most likely to use their towel to stake their claim to a sunlounger.
A poll by YouGov of Europeans holidaymakers found that while many Germans (51%) and Britons (46%) associate Germans with the ritual of waking up at the crack of dawn to mark their spot, the perception barely exists elsewhere in Europe, with just 5-17% of those surveyed in other countries sharing the stereotype.
Continue reading...Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to Ceuta
Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.
The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Continue reading...Officials try to find homes for residents as talks to save social assistance hub collapse amid government crackdown
Rome authorities are scrambling to find homes for hundreds of people sleeping in tents in extreme heat after talks aimed at saving Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance collapsed amid a crackdown by Giorgia Meloni’s government on squatted buildings.
The approximately 400 evicted residents of Spin Time Labs, located in a 10-floor building in Rome’s Esquilino district occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, will not be allowed to move back in after its private owner refused Rome council’s offer to buy the property. The residents were forced out at the end of last month.
Continue reading...Spin Time provides homes, food banks and after-school clubs but the authorities have locked out residents
Hundreds of people have spent a week sleeping in tents in the Rome heat amid a standoff between Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government and local politicians over the future of Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance.
A minor fire last week forced the evacuation of the building, occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, and it has remained closed as the Meloni government attempts to crack down on such squatted properties.
Continue reading...Migration commissioner says scheme regularising undocumented people ‘not a good signal’ for Europe
The EU’s top official on migration has criticised Spain’s plan to regularise undocumented migrants as “not a good signal” for Europe, after an emergency meeting intended to draw a line under divisions on the Ceuta crisis.
Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, said that while the EU could not currently see a direct link between events in Ceuta and Spain’s regularisation plan, the policy was “definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe”.
Continue reading...Winner called waste management team after she realised stub showing she had hit the jackpot had been thrown away
A €1m lottery ticket has been recovered from the rubbish in Italy after the frantic winner called on refuse collectors to help her retrieve it, according to the waste management company.
The instant win ticket was “miraculously still in one piece” after garbage workers combed through mounds of rubbish on their truck, said Roberto Nicola Toscano, the administrator of the SANB company in Italy’s southern Puglia region.
Continue reading...At least five taken to hospital and about 300 evacuated in strongest quake to hit southern Italian region in 40 years
At least 26 people have been injured after a 4.7-magnitude earthquake rocked a region near Naples, in southern Italy.
The quake, which occurred at 7.46pm on Friday night, caused power outages, disrupted public transport and damaged a pier in Campi Flegrei, the site of Europe’s largest volcanic crater.
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