Italy Blog

Today, and I caught it, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held a press conference at which he neatly laid the blame for the election mess upon the shoulders of others. At the same time, Berlusconi attempted to put an end, once and for all, to all the vicious rumours flying about the election muddle in Rome.  Only the attempt seems to have led to further confusion. During said press conference, during which, incidentally, Italy’s defence minister manhandled a journalist who insisted on asking Mr B about the recent Bertolaso bribery case, Berlusconi gave his party’s official version of events surrounding the presentation of election documents in Rome by his candidate, Renata Polverini.

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Is Berlusconi to Run in the Rome Marathon?

The “supertomato” A team of researchers from Italy’s National Biomolecular Research Centre in Naples have created a “supertomato” to be called the “maxantia” which, they say, could help prevent prostrate and other cancers.

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Italy in anti-cancer discoveries

How would you like to have your very own a country retreat in a quiet medieval village in the heart of Italy?

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A House and all that Jazz For Sale in Umbria, Italy

I’ve been a bit too snowed under with work recently to write much about what’s going on in Italy.  Meanwhile though, little storms have been blowing up all over the place in the Living Museum. To kick off, we’ve got the allegations of corruption leveled at Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy’s civil defence organisation, still fizzling away, although Bertolaso seems to have evaded most of the flack. The Bertolaso affair, though, was merely the tip of an iceberg

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Little Storms in Italy

If you have not been to Venice, then you really should.  If you like the idea, but are put off by the expense, then how about seeing Venice by hiring your very own floating self-catering appartment? Although a floating self-catering appartment might sound an expensive way to see this magical Italian city, it’s not as expensive as you might think, especially if you travel as a group.  Plus you get to see Venice from the best place imaginable – the water

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Floating Self-Catering in Venice

Sunday 28th February is “Anti-Smog Day” in Northern Italy, with over 80 towns planning to block non-emergency traffic for the day. Many Italian cities have had anti-pollution days before but this is to be the first time that the effort has been coordinated on such a scale.

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Anti-smog day

In some areas of hilly and mountainous Italy, landslides are not uncommon.  Indeed yesterday in Maierato in the Calabrian province of Vibo Valentia the earth moved. Someone was there to catch the event on film and a video of this landslide made it onto YouTube, and I’ve added it for you to see.  I found it frightening.

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Landslide, Maierato, Calabria, Italy

If you did not know, Forza Italia was the Italian political party which proceeded what is now Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party.  Recently in Italy two convicted criminals have stated during court hearings that the Forza Italia party was the product of an agreement between Berlusconi and the mafia. Initial claims, by mafia turncoat Gaspare Spatuzza, that Forza Italia was closely liked to the mafia were dismissed on the grounds of the reliability of the person who made such accusations.  After all, would you believe a convicted criminal?  When the mafia boss for whom Spatuzza had supposedly worked would not corroborate Spatuzza’s words, the validity of his claims became distinctly questionable.

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Was Forza Italia Formed by the Mafia? Part 1

For a long time I thought we were lucky enough to have the new fangled, all singing and dancing, much vaunted digital television.  No silly little set top box for us, or so I thought. I was wrong.  Just after Christmas our digital television provider Fastweb stopped transmitting Italy’s state RAI television channels.  The transmission ceased in readiness for the completion of the transition from analogue to digital television in Italy, I learned

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When Digital Television is not Digital

After a break, the Guess Where in Italy?

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Guess Where in Italy? – Part 9