Category Archives: Italy

Rightwing governor of Lazio region withdraws backing for pride parade

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Decision is linked to row over government plans to criminalise people who seek surrogacy abroad

The rightwing governor of Italy’s Lazio region has come under fire after withdrawing the administration’s support for Rome’s pride parade, saying its name could not be associated with events “aimed at promoting illegal conduct”.

Lazio, the region surrounding Rome which has been under rightwing rule since March, had planned to sponsor the LGBTQ+ event on Saturday but backed out after organisers said the support was a sign that the region had distanced itself from plans by the national government to criminalise people who seek surrogacy abroad.

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Italy’s top court orders city to pay €50,000 to couple over nightlife noise

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Mayors across country fear wave of cases after ruling that Brescia council failed to safeguard residents

Mayors across Italy are fearing a deluge of legal complaints after the country’s top court ruled that noisy nightlife could be harmful to people’s health.

In the first ruling of its kind in Italy, the supreme court of cassation ordered Brescia city council to pay €50,000 (£43,000) in compensation to a couple for failing to safeguard them against noise, reported Il Messaggero.

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Virgin Mary apparitions ‘not always real’, says Pope Francis

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Pontiff appears to reference a woman who drew pilgrims to a statue near Rome she claimed shed tears of blood

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary are “not always real”, Pope Francis has said, in what appears to be an indirect reference to a woman who drew thousands of pilgrims to a town near Rome to pray before a statue that she claimed shed tears of blood.

“Don’t look there,” the pontiff said during an interview with Rai 1 on Sunday when asked about apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

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Sardinian town invokes Arnold Schwarzenegger link to give population a US boost

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Ten Americans will pay €1 a month to live in Ollolai, birthplace of former Mr Universe Franco Columbu

Ten American professionals are moving to a small town in the middle of Sardinia known for being the birthplace of a former Mr Universe who was a close friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, paying a token rent of €1 (86p) a month.

The project, called Work from Ollolai and launched by the local council in collaboration with the Sa Mata association, is aimed at boosting the population in the town, located in the mountainous Barbagia region of the Italian island.

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The right Covid response? How countries outside UK are also under scrutiny

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From Sweden to the US, the handling of the pandemic has been questioned. In some cases criminal proceedings are under way

Britain’s public Covid-19 inquiry, led by the retired judge Heather Hallett, is far from the first independent commission in the world to begin examining a country’s experience confronting the pandemic.

Their formats, mandates – and their progress – vary widely according to systems and traditions, but their task is essentially the same: to assess preparedness, make a record of decision-making, review government responses and learn lessons for the future.

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Italian and Israeli agents among four dead after boat capsizes in Lake Maggiore

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Tourist boat was reportedly carrying more than 20 people when it was struck by a whirlwind on Sunday

Two agents from the Italian intelligence services and a retired member of the Israeli security forces were among the victims when a tourist boat capsized and sank in a sudden, violent storm in a northern Italian lake, it has emerged.

Claudio Alonzi, 62, and Tiziana Barnobi, 53, who worked for Italian intelligence, were officially named among the dead on Monday.

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Italy: four bodies found after tourist boat capsized in storm

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Boat reportedly carrying more than 20 people was overturned in ‘whirlwind’ on Lake Maggiore on Sunday

Italian firefighters say they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized and sank in a sudden, violent storm.

The boat was reportedly carrying more than 20 people, including a group of foreign tourists celebrating a birthday, plus two crew members, when a whirlwind overturned the vessel on Sunday.

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Venice police investigate source of bright green liquid in Grand Canal

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Speculation climate protesters could be responsible for phosphorescent patch that appeared by Rialto Bridge

Police in Venice are investigating the source of phosphorescent green liquid that appeared on Sunday in the city’s Grand Canal, amid speculation it was caused by climate protesters.

Gondoliers could be seen punting through the phosphorescent waters while tourists took photographs of the green patch, from the Rialto Bridge up and along part of the canal.

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The man who lives in Maradona’s head: opening a window on the new Naples

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Ciro Maiello, whose home is adorned with a painting of the player, says Napoli’s first Serie A win since Diego’s days heralds a new dawn for the city

At 10.37pm on 4 May the man who lives in Diego Maradona’s head threw open the window of his flat in the Spanish Quarter district in Naples for the first time in months, erupting in a cathartic scream as the city celebrated another moment in its rebirth.

Ciro Maiello, a 50-year-old pork butcher, moved to the apartment block featuring a giant mural of the Argentinian in 2006 and lived there through a period he called the “dark days [when] dozens of people were killed in these streets.” The mural was painted more than a decade earlier, in honour of the player who gave the city’s football team the most successful period in its history, including its first Serie A title win, and whose veneration by Neapolitans is comparable only to the adoration of its patron saint, Gennaro.

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Ex-chief at Genoa bridge firm says he knew about risk of collapse

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Gianni Mion said issue with Morandi Bridge was raised in 2010, eight years before tragedy in which 43 died

Relatives of the 43 people killed in Genoa’s Morandi Bridge disaster expressed their dismay after a former executive at the motorways company responsible for the viaduct admitted to knowing it was at risk of collapse years before the incident and did nothing about it.

Gianni Mion made the confession while being questioned as a witness in the trial of 59 people over the 2018 tragedy at the court of Genoa. He told the court he had been aware of the danger associated with the bridge since 2010, when the issue was discussed during a meeting of officials at Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI), the company that manages Italy’s toll motorways, and SPEA, its maintenance unit.

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Italian governor steps up his battle against bears in Trentino region

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Maurizio Fugatti is awaiting a court decision on his latest request to kill a bear accused of fatally attacking a man

For several weeks, Italians have been following with bated breath the escalation of Maurizio Fugatti’s battle against the bears that populate the mountains of the northern Trentino region of which he is governor.

Captures, imprisonments, deportations and death sentences have followed one another to the chagrin of national public opinion and government inertia. In Trentino, there have been demonstrations for and against the bears.

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Italy: over 36,000 people displaced by floods as Giorgia Meloni departs G7 summit early

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Prime minister to visit worst-hit areas as red weather alert extended in Emilia Romagna region

More than 36,000 people have now been forced from their homes by deadly floods in northeast Italy, regional officials have said, as rising waters swallowed more houses and fresh landslides isolated hamlets.

Violent downpours earlier this week killed 14 people, transforming streets in the cities and towns of the Emilia Romagna region into rivers.

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Italy: Silvio Berlusconi released from Milan hospital after six weeks

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Billionaire former prime minister, 86, had been suffering from a lung infection linked to leukaemia

Silvio Berlusconi has been discharged from hospital in Milan, declaring “the nightmare” is over, more than six weeks after the former Italian prime minister was admitted with leukaemia and a lung infection.

“Today, after 45 long days, I finally returned home,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said in a statement after leaving the San Raffaele Hospital on Friday.

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Italy’s disasters suggest the climate crisis is at the gates of Europe

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This week’s floods are latest weather disaster to hit country, as policymakers finally begin to respond to crescendo

This week, parts of northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region received half their average annual rainfall in just 36 hours. Rivers burst their banks and thousands of acres of farmland lie submerged. By Thursday evening, an estimated 20,000 people had been left homeless and 13 were confirmed dead.

It is just the latest weather disaster to hit the country. Six months ago, 12 people died on the southern island of Ischia in a landslide triggered by torrential rain. Eleven more were killed last September by flash floods in the central region of Marche.

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Bruce Springsteen criticised for not cancelling Italy gig after deadly floods

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Fans describe decision to go ahead as ‘outrageous’ and call on US star to reschedule Emilia-Romagna event

Bruce Springsteen has been criticised in Italy for going ahead with a concert in Ferrara on Thursday evening after the northern Emilia-Romagna region was hit by deadly floods.

Fans of “The Boss” urged him on social media to reconsider out of respect for the dead and homeless after torrential rains caused landslides and made rivers break their banks.

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Death toll mounts in Italy’s worst flooding for 100 years

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Older and disabled people trapped in homes as rescuers battle harsh conditions in Emilia-Romagna region

Older and disabled people were trapped in their homes as rescuers worked under pounding rain throughout the night to save people in the most catastrophic flooding to affect Italy in 100 years.

The floods in the northern Emilia-Romagna region have claimed 13 lives as of Thursday evening. An estimated 20,000 have been left homeless in a disaster that caused 23 rivers to burst their banks and 280 landslides, engulfing 41 cities and towns.

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Devastating floods in Italy claim lives and leave thousands homeless

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Twenty-one rivers burst their banks after heavy storms across country cause landslides and submerge villages

Nine people have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes after heavy storms wreaked havoc in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, causing severe flooding and landslides.

People sought refuge on the rooftops of their homes after 21 rivers broke their banks, submerging entire towns.

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Zelenskiy and pope discuss peace in Ukraine as Russia retreats in Bakhmut

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Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy

Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.

The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

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Prada fashion boss rescues historic newsstand in Tuscany

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Piero Scartoni, 91, who has been running stand in Arezzo since 1953, can now retire after former customer Patrizio Bertelli steps in

The owner of a historic newsstand in a Tuscan city said he was “delighted” the business has been saved by one of his old customers – Patrizio Bertelli, the chair of the Italian fashion house Prada.

Piero Scartoni, 91, who has been getting up at 5am to run the newsstand in Piazza San Jacopo in the centre of Arezzo since 1953, can finally retire after it was bought by Bertelli, who was born in the city and is the husband of the fashion designer Miuccia Prada.

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Italians condemn ‘insult’ of Austrian-Chinese ‘European mozzarella’

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Brothers of Italy councillor in Veneto reports package featuring gondola and Tower of Pisa for ‘counterfeiting’

Sliced mozzarella cheese produced in Austria by a Chinese company and wrapped in packaging featuring images of a gondola and the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been branded the umpteenth “insult to Italian food excellence”.

Tommaso Razzolini, a councillor in the Veneto region for Brothers of Italy, the party leading Italy’s rightwing ruling coalition government, said he reported the existence of the offending mozzarella to the ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty after coming across a photo of it online.

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