Worldcrunch
Famed Italian director Franco Zeffirelli worked with Elizabeth Taylor, and was also a longtime friend. Here are his reflections on the death of the legendary American actress at the age of 79. Elizabeth Taylor (spleeny) People like Liz no longer exist. With her passing, the sun has set on that image of the unforgettable diva. […]
The Libyan leader’s lifelong grudge with Italy, and the Italian attempts to appease him, may help explain how Gaddafi sees the current conflict. (AbodeOfChaos) It all began with a scar, a sign left on the arm of a child who’d been playing with his cousins along a stretch of desert. That scar sealed the fate […]
The tiny Italian island of Lampedusa is on Europe’s front line after Western strikes against Libya begin. Gaddafi could set off a massive migrant influx from his coastline toward Lampedusa, or try to fire missiles at the island like he did in 1986. Remains of immigrant boat on Lampedusa (pv canale) LAMPEDUSA – More than […]
A La Stampa journalist sets off from the Tunisian coast with 112 immigrants, risking their lives to arrive on European shores. They all nearly died together in a 10-meter boat that kept breaking down. Here’s their story. Lampedusa (noborder) Over the past decade, the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa has become one of the main […]
Train company project delivers abandoned articles to needy recipients. (Toasty Ken) By Egle Santolini In Naples, they found a complete doctor’s bag, the type used for home visits, with a blood pressure gauge, a stethoscope and all the trimmings. In Verona, a complete set of clinical records that “took who knows how long to put […]
Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000198 EndHTML:0000010197 StartFragment:0000002583 EndFragment:0000010161 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/jef_israely/Dropbox/Articles/Italian%20Luggage%20Story.doc A new life for abandoned baggage “Gabbianella” volunteers distribute goods to the most needy In Naples, they found a complete doctor’s bag, the type used for home visits, with a blood pressure gauge, a stethoscope and all the rest. In Verona, along the same lines, a complete set of […]
To make sure the chic island getaway offers maximum R&R, Capri wants to limit the use of heavy machinery in summer months. August will be completely silent – except, of course, for all the tourists. Capri (shoobydooby) CAPRI – This island is already known for its breathtaking scenery and VIP parties. Now Capri is offering […]
The untold tragedy of mass emigration out of Europe’s poorest country of Moldova is that of the some 10,000 children left behind in orphanages by their migrant worker parents.
Chinese tourists offer European countries a major new source of revenue, but Italians are slow to catch on to the opportunity. Chinese tourists in Rome (Ed Yourdan) Chinese tourists have quietly surpassed their American and Japanese counterparts to become the biggest foreign traveler spenders in Italy. Last year, some one million Chinese came to visit, […]
Touring the peninsula in the 19th century, Pellegrino Artusi documented Italy’s best cuisine — from pastry in Trieste to pasta in Sicily – and invented a national treasure. An Italian trattoria (Comell Mare) Italy is marking the 150th anniversary of its unification from a set of separate kingdoms into a single nation. In the backdrop […]
Local culture officials and friends of the artist debate restoration of a giant mural painted just before Haring’s death. Detail (and postcard) of Tuttomondo in Pisa (zak mc) PISA – Keith Haring, who died in 1990, was an American ‘writer” of a different sort. The most important graffiti artist to emerge from New York’s 1980s […]
Analysis: the violent crackdown in Libya exposes decades of Rome playing ball with a dictator, the sort of economic-driven Western realpolitik that must end. (abodeofchaos) The bloodbath that is going on right now in our backyard is not an occasion for scoring political points on the home front. For starters, Italy’s relations with Muammar Gaddafi […]
Gaddafi and Berlusconi’s “Special Relationship” helped close wounds of colonial past and expand economic ties. Some Italian businessmen are no doubt rooting for the regime to survive. Berlusconi and Gaddafi in Rome in 2009 (Derek Visser) The world is watching Cyrenaica, the Libyan region where the city of Benghazi is located. For Italian business interests, […]
A giant marble middle finger by Italian art star Maurizio Cattelan is finding a home right in front of the Milan Stock Exchange. But some power brokers are not amused.
The island of Lampedusa has long been a point of entry into Europe for immigrants making the perilous sea crossing from North Africa. A new wave is now fleeing uncertainty in Tunisia.
As women take to the streets of Italy to defend their dignity in the face of a series of Silvio Berlusconi sex scandals, one Italian woman explains why she wants no part of it.
The Google Art Project, according to Florentine art curator Francesco Bonami, will never match wandering through a museum. A digital dissection of a Vermeer classic (flickr) One might be tempted to think that nobody will ever set foot in a museum again after Google unveiled its upcoming art project, which will make high-definition, digitized masterpieces […]
The Google Art Project, according to Florentine art curator Francesco Bonami, will never match wandering through a museum. A digital dissection of a Vermeer classic (flickr) One might be tempted to think that nobody will ever set foot in a museum again after Google unveiled its upcoming art project, which will make high-definition, digitized masterpieces […]
For the past decade, the tiny island of Lampedusa has seen ebbs and flows of desperate immigrants arriving. Already in the past week, political upheaval in Tunisia looks set to spark a new wave. Lampedusa harbor (noborder) LAMPEDUSA – After two days of perfect calm, a north wind is blowing again. The gusts are strong […]
Language tests begin after new Italian law requiring “proof of integration.” Immigrants in Rome (Gianni Dominici) MILAN – Italy has introduced a language test for all immigrants seeking a long-term residency permit, questioning the candidates on their knowledge of a few hundred every-day words. A group of 170 immigrants in Florence and another 10 in […]
Prosecutors and Silvio Berlusconi’s defense attorneys are building their cases in a tawdry prostitution scandal that may be the gravest threat ever to the Italian Prime Minister’s political survival Berlusconi last March in Brussels (courtesy of European People’s Party) MILAN – The prostitution scandal engulfing Silvio Berlusconi started with a phone call in May, and […]
Fourteen-year-old videotapes her aggressor after seeing TV plea by another victim to turn in abusers. MILAN – First he became the mother’s lover then he started to abuse her daughter, a nine-year-old child who endured his violent advances until she was 14-years-old. It’s an all too common story of pedophilia but for the fact that […]
Italy’s leader digs in amidst troubling silence from allies and the Catholic Church, as a sex scandal involving underage prostitutes may pose the gravest threat to his 15-year hold over Italian public life. Silvio Berlusconi (Elena Torre) The 74-year-old prime minister vehemently denies any wrongdoing after prosecutors allege that he had sex with a “significant” […]
The mayor of the Italian city of Bari, an ex-prosecutor, posts pictures of public employees allegedly slacking on the job. Emiliano’s Facebook page BARI – Michele Emiliano, a former magistrate and the mayor of Bari, has been using a new phrase on the stump lately: “I govern with Facebook.” It’s not just a reference to […]
Italian researchers use diamonds to build uber computer of the future (Roger Barker) TURIN – The most powerful computer ever built by man is already in the works. Its secret? Diamonds. This is not science fiction, but an experiment currently underway in Italy, which will produce the first quantum computers. Researcher Paolo Olivero, who is […]
Though France and Italy still leading winemakers, Chinese production to grow another 77% by 2014 BORDEAUX – This was unexpected: China is now one of the largest producers of wine in the world. The world’s most populous country, which only recently discovered wine, has pushed ahead to take seventh place in global rankings in 2010 […]
Tucked away in the Po Valley, Da Manuela is a restaurant worth returning to for its ambience and salami for antipasto. And dessert! ravioli is ready We are straddling the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy: with Alessandria on one side, Pavia on the other. Down the middle, acting as the glue and marking the […]
Italians joining modern living trends of LAT love, and DINK couplehood A couple in St. Peter’s Square (Rene Cunningham) Twenty years ago, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow scandalized the world with their decision to live in different apartments, despite being a couple with lots of children. As we all know, that story ended how it […]
The “Virtuous Cities’ movement aims to cut costs and waste. And change the world Recycling al’Italiano (Kevin Hutchinson) COLORNO – Spending half-a-day with Marco Boschini is “bello e istruttivo” (beautiful and instructive), to paraphrase Italian writer Giovannino Guareschi. But the beauty and acquired wisdom comes at a cost. Without uttering a word, Boschini will make […]
More politicians and businessmen shed their neckties. And now the backlash David Cameron and Gordon Brown show off the somber look MILAN – So it’s come to this. In these ever fluid times, the necktie has become the sartorial last stand for those who see a society unraveling in the disintegration of dress codes. It […]
Silvio Berlusconi barely survives a confidence vote, and riots erupt in a country plagued by politicians who listen only to themselves TURIN – A political system shut off from the country produced exactly what’s been predicted for months: shouts, insults, head counts, celebrations. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi barely survived a no-confidence vote. And […]
Cannoli and killers: a new book connects Cosa Nostra power with the seduction of Sicilian cuisine An Italian restaurant in Warsaw (Tulio Bertorini via flickr) Francesco La Licata ROME – At the table, any conflict can be smoothed out, peace made, war declared, business done, oaths sealed, alliances forged. At the table, in short, we […]
From St. Peter’s Square to Tuscan farms, Italians weigh the effects of the “growth” of plastic Christmas trees imported from China MILAN – The tree in St. Peter’s Square is a 30-meter tall fir from the Italian Alps. The Douglas fir adorning the White House was carried by a horse-drawn carriage and welcomed inside by […]
First developed by the Phoenicians, viticulture was eventually spread by the Romans into Gaul, where it was turned into the wine we know today.
As Wagner’s “Die Walkure” inaugurates the season at the world’s most famous opera house, politics and culture and people clash in Milan La Scala (via flickr) By Alberto Mattioli MILAN – This time, Daniel Barenboim picked up a microphone instead of a baton. The famous conductor, having come on stage to applause at the opening […]
After 2003 looting and years of disrepair, a onetime cultural gem in Baghdad gets restoration help from Florence and Venice. Iraqi National Library after it was attacked in 2003 (IFLA) LA STAMPA/Worldcrunch By Carla Reschia FLORENCE – Iraqi officials responsible for returning their ransacked National Library to its former glory are turning to a country […]
With Christians increasingly targets of violence, Italy’s Foreign Minister makes their safety a centerpiece of his Baghdad trip. Fate of Iraq’s best-known Christian, former Saddam aide Tariq Aziz, also on agenda. Baghdad – Pressed by Italy’s Foreign Minister, Iraq has announced that it will form a parliamentary commission to investigate the recent spate of killings […]