Nicole Martinelliposted June 30 16:00 Hundreds of soccer fans in Milan are going wild. A sea of blue shirts, the color of Italy’s national team, breaks into a cheer as another fantastic goal is served by the Azzurri. Fireworks go off, cheers of ‘Go Italy’ drown out the commentary, back slaps all around. Lately, just [...]
zoomata staffposted June 28 17:35 p.m. After finally honoring a 1947 agreement, Italians took down an ancient obelisk in Rome last fall but have not managed to send it back home to Ethiopia. In a bureaucratic nightmare proportional to the 82-foot high, 150-ton monument, officials have left the Axum obelisk sitting in three sections in [...]
zoomata staffposted June 24 17:40 p.m.An Italian court ruled that a social worker who showed his pierced privates to a rest home resident was not guilty of obscene conduct. A prosecutor in Trento, northern Italy, moved to drop charges against the male rest home employee because the incident did not take place in public and [...]
by zoomata staffposted June 21 17:13 p.m. Some sins are too much to bear, even for a Sicilian Mafia don. Bernardo Provenzano, who has been on the run from police for over 40 years, reportedly confessed his violent misdeeds to a sympathetic priest. What made the Italian known as the Boss of Bosses ask forgiveness? [...]
updated June 15 17:30 p.m. zoomata staff Mummies galore, bomb shelters, Roman cisterns, waterways and haunted freezer chambers are some of what’s underfoot in Italy.Exploring the underbelly of Bel Paese cities brings out the Indiana Jones in even the most jaded visitor, but information on how to start “excavating” isn’t easy to come by.Here’s what [...]
First Person: Real Life In Italy Each month we introduce you to someone who has made the dream of picking up and moving to the Bel Paese a reality. In their own words they share the good parts, the bad parts and the just plain absurd moments of day-to-day life in Italy. Looking to move [...]
June 11 17:17 p.m. As a foreigner who can’t vote in tomorrow’s EU elections, I was feeling a bit left out.A text message on my cell phone, however, from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi himself, just reminded me to go to the polls. Number crunchers estimate that by 2005, the number of cell phones will out [...]
June 10 11:57 a.m. by Nicole Martinelli Italians and politics: never a dull moment, right? Wrong. When Silvio Berlusconi broke the record for the longest-serving Italian government since World War II on May 5, it seemed to break the spell of revolving-door coalitions that had made for nearly 60 years of tumult. EU elections on [...]
updated June 7 14:42 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli Some 10,000 Romans paid respects to beloved actor Nino Manfredi over the weekend. Manfredi, 83, died Friday following a stroke. A chorus of Romans shouted “Nino, Nino!” following funeral services in the Artists’ church of San Maria del Popolo this morning. He is survived by wife Erminia [...]
updated June 10 17:40 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli Imagine the Coliseum sporting a McDonald’s billboard. Or maybe the Tower of Pisa draped in an ad for dirty denim. Michelangelo’s David perhaps hawking Calvin Klein underwear. It’s not as far off as it sounds. Rome’s Pantheon will get a fix up thanks to advertising sold on [...]
