Tickets to visit ruins buried by Mount Vesuvius, seen by 4 million this summer, to be capped at 20,000 a day
Pompeii plans to limit visitor numbers to 20,000 a day and introduce personalised tickets from next week in an effort to cope with overtourism and protect the world heritage site, officials said.
This summer, a record 4 million people visited the remains of the ancient Roman city, buried under ash and rock after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
Continue reading...Large majorities in seven countries condemn 7 October attacks – but most common view is Israel’s response in Gaza is also unjustified
Full-scale war in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran is now likely, most western Europeans responding in a poll believe, with many criticising Israel’s conduct thus far and saying that if such a war did occur, the US and Europe should not provide it with military aid.
A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK found that strong majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 65% in France to 82% in Spain, felt the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were not justified.
Continue reading...Sibling of murder victim says it is ‘difficult to understand’ purpose of eight-part series co-produced by Knox
Meredith Kercher “will always be remembered for her own fight for life”, the sister of the murdered British student has said as filming began in Italy on a controversial TV series co-produced by Amanda Knox about the case.
Filming of the eight-episode series, Blue Moon, has coincided with the 17th anniversary of the murder, for which Knox was twice convicted before being definitively acquitted in 2015.
Continue reading...Manslaughter inquiry launched after 14-year-old went into anaphylactic shock after dining with her family at pizzeria
Prosecutors in Rome have opened a manslaughter investigation after a British girl with a peanut allergy died during a holiday with her family.
The 14-year-old had dined at a pizzeria in the Gianicolense district and went into anaphylactic shock about 15 minutes later after the family returned to their hotel.
Continue reading...Paintings include one depicting a scantily clad Phaedra, mythological queen of Athens, and her stepson Hippolytus
A tiny house featuring erotic frescoes is the latest discovery in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Experts say the exquisitely decorated abode, called the House of Phaedra after the mythological queen of Athens, sheds light on the changing architectural styles in the first century AD but is also further proof that the residents of Pompeii had an appetite for sensual art.
The vividly coloured wall paintings include one depicting a sexual encounter between a satyr and a nymph on a bed and one of a scantily clad Phaedra and her stepson Hippolytus, whom, according to Greek legend, she accused of rape after he spurned her advances. Another fresco features gods presumed to be Venus and Adonis.
Continue reading...Council of Europe monitor reports ‘many accounts of racial profiling’ but Giorgia Meloni says force ‘deserves respect’
The Council of Europe has come under fire from Italian leaders after the publication of a report accusing the country’s police force of racist and homophobic abuse.
In its latest snapshot of Italy, published on Monday, the ECRI, the council’s independent human rights monitoring body, said that during a visit to Italy its delegation learned about “many accounts of racial profiling by law enforcement officials that impacts especially the Roma community and people of African descent”.
Continue reading...Former teacher was detained in Budapest for alleged attack on neo-Nazis before being released in June
Hungary has called on the EU to strip parliamentary immunity from the Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, who was detained for 16 months in Budapest after an alleged attack on neo-Nazis.
The case of Salis, 39, a teacher from Monza, near Milan, sparked diplomatic protests and anger in Italy after she was brought last January to court in Hungary in chains, her hands cuffed and feet locked together.
Continue reading...Move by Italian PM overturns ruling by a Rome court that could have blocked deal to curb migrant arrivals
Italy’s far-right government has passed a new law to overcome a court ruling that risks blocking the country’s multimillion-dollar deal with Albania aimed at curbing migrant arrivals.
On Friday, a court in Rome ruled to transfer back to Italy the last 12 asylum seekers being held in the new Italian migration hub in Albania. The ruling has cast doubt on the feasibility and legality of plans by the EU to explore ways to establish migrant processing and detention centres outside the bloc as part of a new hardline approach to migration.
Continue reading...Judges’ decision on 12 men held in Italian migration hub in Albania also casts doubt on EU’s hardline plans
The last 12 asylum seekers being held in a new Italian migration hub in Albania must be transferred to Italy, a court has ruled, in a heavy blow to a controversial deal between the far-right Rome government and Tirana aimed at curbing migrant arrivals.
The decision casts further doubt on the feasibility and legality of plans by the EU, discussed on Thursday, to explore ways of establishing migrant processing and detention centres outside the bloc as part of a new hardline approach to migration.
Continue reading...Italians who go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy will face jail terms and fines of up to €1m
Italy’s parliament has made it illegal for couples to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy – a pet project of the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s party that activists say is meant to target same-sex partners.
Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has pursued a highly conservative social agenda, looking to promote what she sees as traditional family values, making it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.
Continue reading...European Commission president cites Italy-Albania deal as possible model for reducing irregular arrivals to Europe
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for an exploration of “return hubs” outside the EU in a letter to the bloc’s national leaders on irregular migration, citing a deal between Italy and Albania as a possible model.
EU leaders are to meet on Thursday and Friday for a summit on migration as the commission has said it will propose new measures.
Continue reading...Gomorrah author and Meloni critic’s non-inclusion in Italy’s lineup angers writers amid claims of censorship
The Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano will appear at the Frankfurt book fair this week despite being snubbed by the organisers of the official Italian delegation, setting the scene for a clash between the country’s far-right government and its most prominent writers.
Saviano, one of Italy’s bestselling living writers and an ardent critic of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was absent from the initial lineup of 100 authors representing Italy, this year’s guest of honour, when it was announced in May.
Continue reading...Italian PM demands security guarantees for her country’s Unifil troops after series of attacks by Israel
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said she will visit Lebanon on Friday as she demanded security guarantees from Israel for her country’s troops there just days after UN peacekeeper bases came under attack.
Italy’s government has been a strong supporter of Israel in the year since Hamas’s 7 October attacks but has sharply criticised attacks on the UN mission, known as Unifil, and Israeli calls for the peacekeepers to withdraw.
Continue reading...Men from countries deemed safe are transferred to Albania to have asylum claims processed
The first people to be intercepted at sea by the Italian navy under a controversial migration deal with Albania are on their way to the Balkan nation to have their asylum claims processed.
As part of the pact signed off by Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a navy ship set off on Monday and is due to arrive at the port of Schëngjin on Wednesday morning. The interior ministry confirmed on Monday night that 16 men – – 10 Bangladeshis and six Egyptians – who it said had arrived from Libya and were rescued on Sunday in international waters by the Italian coastguard were on board.
Continue reading...Italian PM Giorgia Meloni among those admiring Berlinguer as new film and exhibitions celebrate his role as a unifier
Enrico Berlinguer was a giant of the Italian left in the 1970s and 80s, coming close to leading the Communist party into government through a “historic compromise” with the country’s Christian Democrats, and championing “Eurocommunism”, a liberal, anti-Stalinist version of Marxism that briefly swept the continent.
But his death 40 years ago, and the collapse of Europe’s communist parties in the late 1980s, eclipsed Berlinguer’s legacy, and Italy has since moved across the political spectrum, electing the far-right Giorgia Meloni as prime minister in 2022.
Continue reading...Fears agreement will set dangerous EU precedent with up to 3,000 men a month held during asylum processing
Italy has formally opened two centres in Albania where it plans to hold men who are intercepted in international waters while trying to cross from Africa to Europe.
The Italian ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, said the centres were ready to accommodate people while their asylum applications were processed, but could not say when the first ones would arrive. “As of today, the two centres are ready and operational,” Bucci told journalists at the port of Shëngjin on Albania’s Adriatic coast where the people picked up will land.
Continue reading...A look at the origins and appeal off the song MEPs used to serenade the Hungarian PM in Strasbourg
“This is not Eurovision,” said the speaker of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, as she tried to silence leftwing MEPs greeting the visiting Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, with a rowdy rendition of the classic anti-fascist anthem Bella Ciao.
The bang-your-fists-on-the-table motif at the heart of this earworm of a ditty – whose title means “Goodbye, beautiful” – may indeed sound like something cooed through dry fog by a spandex-clad blond at the European song contest. But the story it tells reaches far deeper into the continent’s history than the annual kitsch music extravaganza, telling an age-old tale of the left’s determined struggle against political oppression.
Continue reading...Bent Søndergaard’s children say they want to carry out ‘his final wishes’ and send back antiquities he bought in 1960s
Their father bought the antiquities, a haul of dirt-encrusted Etruscan objects handed to him from the boot of a car, while on holiday in Italy in the 1960s. For decades they remained in the loft of the family home in Denmark, exasperating his wife and perplexing his children.
Now, inspired by a growing movement of people choosing to return antiquities apparently looted or illegally excavated from their countries of origin, his children are trying to give the items back to Italy.
Continue reading...Director tells press conference he has ‘more films to make’ after long-planned Frank Sinatra biopic and adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s A Life of Jesus both get delayed
Martin Scorsese has denied he is planning to retire, telling a press conference in Italy that he has “more films to make” after reports surfaced in September that two long-planned projects had been postponed.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese, 81, was speaking before an award ceremony in Turin and countered rumours he was no longer making films. “I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all … I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.”
Continue reading...Police forces in France, Italy and Spain join cold-case initiative after launch last year of Operation Identify Me
Police have expanded a cold-case campaign aimed at identifying dozens of women who were murdered or who died in suspicious circumstances across Europe, taking in three new countries and more than doubling the number of cases.
The international policing organisation Interpol said on Tuesday that forces from France, Italy and Spain had joined those in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, which last year launched Operation Identify Me to help name 22 female victims.
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