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CNN. For the past eight months, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been engulfed in a sex scandal that has him accused of paying for sex with a minor. He is presently on trial in Milan for allegedly paying for sex with 17-year-old Moroccan belly dancer Karima El Mahroug, known as "Ruby the heart stealer." (Read the article)
THE NEW YORK TIMES. For more than 400 years, the Accademia della Crusca has kept an eye on the transformation of the Italian language to ensure its survival. But in these austerity-driven times, the Florentine institution is itself at risk. With its staff of six and some two-dozen researchers, the institute, which published the first Italian dictionary in 1612, risks closure under the Italian government’s emergency austerity proposal, which would shut down state-financed organizations with fewer than 70 employees. (Read the article)
TIME. Yes, Italy has its economic problems, but its government has not been fiscally irresponsible, with a much more conservative record than most other countries in the developed world. In other words, Italy has been gripped by Europe's debt crisis even though it really doesn't deserve to be. That scary fact tells us a lot about where Europe's debt crisis may be headed. (Read the article)
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. The San Francisco restaurant Delfina helped kick-start a more interesting wave of Italian food prepared by chefs who had a passion for regional fare; until that time, most Italian restaurants followed the same path. This was way before A16, SPQR, Perbacco, Oenotri in Napa, La Ciccia, Cotogna and other places opened by chefs who follow a more focused regional bent. (Read the article)
EXAMINER.COM. “The Choice,” directed by Riccardo Costa, is a dramatic play tinged with caustic humor that centers around eight strangers who gather to participate in just that. When unforseen circumstances befall humanity, the competition becomes more intense than any of them could have ever imagined. Playing at the Theater for the New City. (Read the article)
BAM. Red Desert tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitta), a young married woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Vitti - Antonioni's lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L'avventura, L'eclisse and La notte - gives a magnificent, startling performance. Richard Harris also stars as the restless young man who finds himself drawn to her. (Read the article)
CORRIERE DELLA SERA. The copper eurocents are one of Italy’s many contradictions. No one uses them. When you get some in your change, they just weigh down your pockets, unless you pop them into the church collection box. Yet Italy is swamped with – useless – eurocents. Since 2002, the Italian mint has struck 6.7 billion coins in the three smallest denominations. There are 2.6 billion one-cent coins, 2.2 billion worth two cents and 1.9 billion five-cent coins. (Read the article)
NEW ZEALAND STUFF. For more than 50 years after WW II ended, the people of the small Italian town of Tavarnelle, near Florence, believed they were liberated from the Nazi occupation by black American soldiers. They were wrong, the soldiers who fought their way into the town in the summer of 1944, taking nearly 50 casualties, were New Zealand soldiers from the 28th Maori Battalion. (Read the article)
ANSA. Police have arrested one of Italy's top mafia fugitives in southern Spain after his girlfriend published photographs on Facebook unwittingly revealing his whereabouts. (Read the article)
HOUSTON PRESS. There exists a long tradition of monks and nuns growing grapes and making wines. This is the story of a handsome Italian winemaker visits a nunnery outside Rome to consult on "natural" grape growing and ends up staying on to make the wine. (Read the article)