The Italian government has given the go-ahead for an internet link to connect all the countrys public administration centres. It is estimated that about 15,000 offices will be involved at both the local level and oversea...
Since the January introduction in Italy of a law that forbids smoking in public places, Rome has developed a new pavement society. Smart restaurants have furnished the pavements outside their establishments with benches,...
On Sunday 13 February all private traffic, including motorcycles, will be banned from circulating within the "green zone" in Rome from 10.00 until 18.00. This is a large area of the city and extends well beyond the histo...
The European Union laid down guidelines on gas emissions and pollution in 1999 that came into effect in Italy on the 1 January 2005. The rules say that levels polvere sottile (fine dust) must not exceed 50 micrograms per...
Railway workers unions have confirmed a 24-hour train strike, starting at 21.00 on 10 February until the same time on Friday 11 February. The walkout is in defiance of a ruling by the government's minister for infrastruc...
Research conducted recently on assisted reproduction in Italy indicates that the number of couples seeking treatment has dropped since a new law came into effect on 10 March 2004. According to the survey, which covered t...
Selective memory can be very dangerous both for those who remember and those who are forgotten. Its effects are particularly insidious when the selector is a government. This week, Italy is indulging in just that.
Last...
With the news late on 1 February that Pope John Paul II had been admitted to the Policlinico Gemelli in Rome with breathing complications, the city once again woke up to the realisation that it is home to one of the worl...
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the area around Piazza di Spagna was known by the Romans as il ghetto degli inglesi because of its popularity amongst British and American artists, writers and poets resident...
Dangerous, noisy and dirty just three of the reasons people warn you never to even think about getting a motorino in Rome. Of course theyre right: one glance at the casualty wards on any evening gives hard evidence of t...
It could seem inappropriate to remember the reopening of the Italian opera theatres La Fenice in Venice and La Scala in Milan at the end of last year in the context of the catastrophic and profound effects of the earthqu...
l The French Academy is celebrating the completion of a restoration project with an exhibition by German artist Anselm Kiefer. Work on the 16th-century villa, including the refurbishment of the bar and cinema room, has b...
The number of licences requested by Chinese manufacturers to import their goods into Italy more than doubled in January, when quotas on imports from China into the European Union were dropped. The increase in demand for...
The Rome city council has given final planning permission for a new 225 million congress centre and hotel in EUR. Designed by the Roman architect Massimiliano Fuksas, the centre has been dubbed La Nuvola or The Cloud bec...
Sunday 30 January. A study on the Italian family conducted by the national research council has revealed that between 1990 and 2000 the number of young people staying at home and living with their families increased. Tho...
Pope John Paul II, who was taken to hospital late on Tuesday evening, is expected to stay in the Policlinico Gemelli for a few days to undergo observation and medical tests. An official Vatican spokesman said that there...
The minister of culture and fine art, Giuliano Urbani, has accepted a request from residents of the centre of Rome that the Campo de Fiori be made into legally-protected area, under a law introduced in 2002 especially fo...
The province of Rome saw the opening of 5,375 small business activities in 2004, according to figures released by the national federation of artisans. In the centre of the city the number of businesses opening and closin...
The president of the Turin Egyptian Museum Foundation, Alain Elkann, has announced renovations to the museum, the second most important Egyptian collection in the world after the national museum in Cairo.
Dante Ferretti...
The Italian council of ministers has approved the setting up of a system for sending "registered" e-mails, making it possible for an e-mail to be recognised as a legal document. The measure will make Italy one of the fir...
A new law is set to blur the distinction between soft and hard drugs in Italy, with steeper fines and prison terms for dealers in particular. Maximum limits and maximum penalties - small quantity waivers for personal use...
Sunday 23 January. A report released by a team of legal, medical, religious and scientific experts on a plaster Madonna in a garden in Civitavecchia, north of Rome, which cried tears of blood ten years ago, concludes tha...
British Airways, the flagship British carrier, is to lay off all the staff at its bookings call centre in Rome. The company has decided to reduce costs and encourage on-line booking, even though passengers travelling wit...
Seventy-five years, which is normally long enough to give works of art respectability, have passed since Mahagonny first came out in its present form. It is a real opera, in that there are arias, duets, ensembles and cho...
Pattaya, Gulf of Thailand. 27 Jan.
Pattaya, one of the worlds havens for sex and licence has now all but demolished its once lurid reputation as a mecca for foreign boy-obsessed paedophiles.
Two hours by bus to the sou...
Cartoniadi, a municipal competition, will take place in Rome from 1 - 27 February. Promoted by AMA, the citys department responsible for the collection of refuse, and Comieco, the national consortium for the recycling of...
An Italian high court has declared that sections of the highway code, introduced in July 2003, are illegal. The court has ruled that points can be deducted from a licence only if the driver of the vehicle committing the...
Romes main post office, in Piazza S.Silvestro, opened at the end of December after a two-year closure for restoration and the installation of new postal facilities. It is a showcase not only of beautiful restoration but...
The first pelican to be seen in Rome for over a hundred years was found in mid-January on the Tiber a few kilometres from the historic centre by a doctor out canoeing. Is it a permanent visitor, brought to Rome by global...
By the end of January everyone in Italy who has a contract with any of the Italian telephone companies for a fixed-line or mobile telephone will have received a questionnaire for completion. This is for the preparation o...
1x 3-Day Pass FOR SALE to experience the thrill of F1® in Qatar, and watch Maroon 5 & Myriam Fares perform live at one of the region’s premier racing tracks, Lusail International....
Chef for catering to all your culinary needs in your home. Specialist in French, British, Indian, Thai and Mexican as well as, of course, Italian food. Three courses from Euro 20...