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Italy has dropped out of the spotlight a little following the protracted political soap opera surrounding Silvio Berlusconi. But it remains perhaps the euro zone’s most dangerous flashpoint.Prime Minister Enrico Letta now has some time to push through economic reforms, cut taxes and spending in an effort to galvanize activity. But already the politics look difficult.
And, at last, it was Italy's turn. After France, Gremany and Spain, even the Italian authorities eventually voiced their concerns over the US National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance programs.
Secretary of State John Kerry promised on Wednesday that U.S. authorities would look into whether their intelligence services may have illegally intercepted Italian telecoms data, an Italian government source said.
Italian cinema legend Sophia Loren has won a 39-year tax battle with the courts in her home country.The dispute was over the taxes the actress should have paid in 1974.The row between the 79-year-old and the courts over her tax issues became so heated over the years she even served a brief spell in jail.
Moderates in Silvio Berlusconi's center-right movement pulled out of a leadership meeting on Friday, risking a split that could threaten the stability of Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition.
Italy has introduced more flexible sanctions against racism and regional discrimination after ultras threatened to deliberately provoke bans in protest at recent clampdowns. Inter Milan's Ultras, the Curva Nord, last week started a campaign inciting all supporters to break rules simultaneously with the intention of having an entire weekend where all the matches would be played behind closed doors.
To shouts of “assassin” and “murderer,” the hearse bearing the corpse of Erich Priebke, the former Nazi who died under house arrest in Rome last Friday, wound on Tuesday through the streets toward a church in a tiny hilltop town 20 miles south of Rome. Police officers in riot gear had to hold back enraged citizens who kicked and punched the vehicle as it passed.
A group of Miss Italy contestants turned up at the finals to the pageant with the words "neither nude nor mute" scrawled on their T-shirts in a protest against a female Italian politician who condemned the event as outdated and sexist.
Italian food culture is probably very different from what you're used to at home. And, since Italians have been perfecting it for over 1,000 years, try going with the wine and olive oil flow instead of fighting against the current when you're in Italy.
Midtown became a sea of red, white and green Monday as the 69th annual Columbus Day Parade made its way up Fifth Avenue.The world's largest celebration of Italian-American pride stretched from 47th Street up to 72nd Street.