WorldcrunchStay updated with comprehensive news on Italy from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Italian politics, economic developments, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Rome, Milan, Venice, the Italian film industry, modern cuisine, and events like the Venice Biennale.
Italy has long been the European Union’s border-of-choice for would-be migrants, arriving from North Africa to the shores of Sicily. But while the Italian government was hoping for much needed help from the European Union to face the immigration flow, the border dispute between Belarus and Poland has exploded, and diverted attention east and north.
Since winning this year’s Eurovision contest, Italy’s rock band Måneskin has been taking its message of breaking down stereotypes around the world, while its native country’s politicians are stuck in last century’s prejudices.
In Italy, Epicurus’s “Letter on Happiness” is being sold at pharmacies to help people face down the stress and anxiety of COVID times.
Italy’s new “Super Green Pass” is great, but where’s “Super Mario”? Such a sweeping measure, which requires workers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, risks encroaching on the fundamental right to work. It’s necessary right now, but also needs Prime Minister Mario Draghi to explain why.
MILAN — There were a few moments of silence when I told my girlfriend what I’d done. I’d kept the information from her for a few days, fearing her reaction and forced to explain: I had chucked a few hundred dollars at shares of the so-called “meme stock” extraordinaire GameStop on the New York Stock […]
ROME — The 70-something barista who served me an iced tea last July was proud of his historic cafe next to one of the city’s best-known theaters. It was soon after the end of Italy’s first lockdown, and the theater was still closed due to the pandemic. At the end of our short conversation, the […]
A young detainee’s suicide is drawing attention to the otherwise invisible plight of people locked up in decrepit, pre-deportation facilities known as CPRs.
Giorgia Meloni, rising star of Italy’s far-right, was a member of neofascist organizations in her youth. She insists that she’s changed her way, and that fascism is not an Italian peculiarity. Not all agree.
As tempting as it may be to just turn away, we lose a piece of our humanity every time we do.
A unique project in the Italian capital brings together experienced carpenters to share their skills and knowledge with asylum seekers and the unemployed.
Grandpa, pass the unmarked 20s….
Bansky would be proud …
Italy is once again murmuring about how Pope Francis was in therapy while serving as a priest in Argentina. It’s just another sign of Italians’ tendency to live in denial about hard questions around mental health.
Across the globe, mafia syndicates, white-collar criminals, hackers and scammers are finding novel ways to profit from the ongoing health crisis.
ROME — A deep dive into Italian anti-vaxxer social media groups leaves me stunned. For them, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/Biontech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the others are very dangerous, lethal poisons. They keep track of all the alleged casualties of the vaccine roll-out — even if they are just a repetition of the same articles, drawn […]
Thousands of tons of trash are sent from Italy to Bulgaria illegally each year. Between poor controls and political complicity, wealth-hungry entrepreneurs — and the mafia — and local oligarchs earn millions as Eastern Europe turns into a rubbish dump.
Underpaid and overexposed to what in some cases can be truly disturbing content, moderators are the invisible, human grease that keep the social media machine running. It’s grueling but essential work that happens behind the scenes.
Locals can’t tell whether it’s a second or third wave … or just a continuation of the first wave when Northern Italy was the West’s first epicenter of the coronavirus.
Italy’s new Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the highly respected former head of the European Central Bank, is tasked with fixing festering systemic failures.
Italy, as everyone knows, is the place for pasta. And so it goes without saying that visitors to the country often head home with a package or two in their duffels or suitcases. The woman in this story was no exception, in that regard. And yet, there was something about her that must have puzzled […]
ROME — The story began grimly, with an all too familiar ring: another Italian grandmother had tested positive for COVID-19. At the age of 98, Nonna Maria was at particularly high risk in one of countries hit hardest by the pandemic — and though she had only developed light symptoms, doctors told her to remain […]
Social media platforms like Facebook have turned new attention to the Italian region’s long tradition of Catholic-themed mysteries and miracles.
Soup cans don’t grow on trees. Of course some of the ingredients inside them do, as well as in the ground and on plants and vines. But by the time all those natural products reach your stomach, too often they’ve undergone processing, been transported hundreds (or thousands) of miles and generally bear little resemblance to […]
It’s time for dinner — what will you prepare? The factors in your decision may include any or all of the following: your appetite, your beliefs, budget, schedule, location … or maybe just your mood. What you might not realize is that the very choices you end up making tonight will also influence what will […]
Even in our sprawling, globalized world, it’s possible to produce nutritious, wholesome food without negatively impacting the planet or undermining its myriad cultures and farming traditions that rely on local resources: land, water, seeds and the many benefits of biodiversity. While this may seem idealistic as we’re told that a handful of multinational companies are […]
Over the past decade, as Italy has become one of Europe’s prime destinations for immigrants, stereotypes spread about those arriving from foreign lands. It’s a story that has come full circle.
Technology itself is neither plague nor panacea for our sustainable, inclusive food future. It is always humans who choose which innovations to pursue, and how to use them. The revolution of digital technology presents this challenge in new and old ways, and our choices must be guided by clear morals that view food production and […]
The COVID-19 economic crisis has pushed the top Italian club to ask for tax payments to be deferred. It needs to pay coach Antonio Conte’s salary of 1 million euros … per month!
La Stampa Editor-in-Chief Massimo Giannini spent a week in ICU with severe effects of COVID-19. Still in quarantine, he’s back following the news — and less than impressed.
Most Tunisian men in the Sicilian port town of Mazara del Vallo work in the fishing industry. But while they’re out at sea, their wives stay home, where the rules of tradition leave little room for integration.
Valuable pieces of art have a special appeal to people in organized crime, both as trophies — conveying power and prestige — and as a means to launder ill-gained earnings.
Simply condemning the recent racist violence in Italy falls short in confronting a colonial past and an ‘unconscious’ racism that permeates European countries like Italy.
Our Italian columnist has a chuckle at those wagging their social media fingers at the new movie that pokes fun at quarantine life.
A recent speech by former ECB chief Mario Draghi hit close to home in his native country.
TURIN — Two months from election day, we can leave no doubt: Donald Trump is taking the Republican Party for a ride toward the Apocalypse. The Republic convention was a frantic exercise in stoking of fear, violence and social unrest in the U.S. — a country already burning, scared, angry and almost never so divided. […]
MILAN — I recently spent a weekend at the Lago d’Iseo, a picturesque area of Lombardy at the foot of the Alps east of Milan, the city where I live. The air was hot and still, resting damp and heavy like a warm towel placed over your face. Dark clouds loomed all day across the […]
On the Italian island’s Emerald Coast, the summer lifestyles of the rich and famous ignored the threat of a new coronavirus breakout. Now hundreds are testing positive, including Billionaire nightclub owner Flavio Briatore.
COURMAYEUR — When the alarm sounded last year, it was because the ice on the Mont Blanc, on the border between Italy and France, was moving too quickly. Its front had broken away from the rest of the ice lobe, separated by a huge crack, and descended three meters per day. Experts feared that 250 […]
Grief and catastrophe in and around the Italian city that became a symbol of the swiftness of the pandemic’s death and destruction.
Even as the total number of cases of COVID-19 decreased In Italy, an outbreak flared up in the southern province of Caserta among migrant agricultural laborers. Writing in the Italian daily La Stampa, Mattia Feltri recounts how, once again, the pandemic is bringing long-simmering tensions, economic inequity and social injustice to the surface. Almost all […]