Italy Blog

Italian magazine Internazionale contains a section entitled ‘How others See Italy’, or words to that effect.  It was in this section that I came across Alexander Stille’s pertinent and relevant article ‘Married to the Italian Mob’ . It was on the way back on the train from Genoa yesterday that I read our friend Cristina’s copy of the magazine Internazionale which contains articles from major media sources from around the world that have been translated into Italian. As you may have been able to gather from the title of Stille’s article, it was about organised crime, namely, Italy’s age old mafia problem, which, Professor Stille intimates, may well worsen.

Originally posted here: 
Italy’s Mafia Could become an Explosive Problem

There are some mighty big bugs in Italy.  Some of the wasps I’ve seen are huge, and scary.  Luckily, for those of you who are like me: not the world’s greatest bug fans, these miniature giants of the Italian bug world are not often to be spotted. But they are there, and, boy, are some of them big beasties.  The beast you are about to see, which was apparently some 3 inches (7cm) in length, and thus not exactly tiny in bug terms, was found beetling around the Carso area of Italy . For the uninitiated, the Carso zone is also, and perhaps better, known as the kras , karst, or karst plateau .  In actual fact, it is this limestone plateau area that straddles the border between Italy and Slovenia which gave the world the term Karst topography .  End of geography lesson.

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Big Bugs Cast Shadows Over Italy

Beware when filling up your car at a service station in Italy and paying by credit card.  In Milan there has been a rash of credit card skimming operations targeting service stations, and it is likely that other areas of Italy may be affected too. Petrol, or gas stations, as Americans will know them, in Italy are often left unattended after a certain hour.  Motorists who need fuel can still use the pumps and are able to pay in cash or pay by credit card.  It is safer to pay in cash, as credit card skimming gangs have been targeting Milan’s service stations, and are continuing to do so.  These service stations make much easier targets than bank ATM machines which are generally in more secure locations.  Credit cards used to pay for fuel are cloned and then the cloned cards are used for all manner of purchases.

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Travel Warning – Driving in Italy and Paying for Fuel by Credit Card

It’s hot here.  Summer was a little late in coming this year, but it’s well and truly here now.  I’m keeping busy, which is good, but I’m finding less time to blog about Italy, which is not so good.  Here’s a little of what’s in the news in Italy at the moment.

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Italian News Fragments from July 2010

It’s easy to be negative about Italy, and the country is receiving quite a lot of bad press at the moment, what with potentially repressive laws designed to restrict press freedom, and the odd scandal or three.  All the furore leads to this question, possibly: Could Italy’s tarnished image be damaging the countries foreign direct investment prospects? The answer, according to the UNCTAD – the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development appears to be a big yes.  In fact, in the UNCTAD’s World Investment Prospects Survey for the period 2009 to 2011, Italy does not even figure in the top 15 countries in terms of ‘The 15 most attractive economies for the location of FDI’ – page 65 of the UNCTAD survey, if you are interested (link to the survey below). The top five countries of the world which are most attractive to foreign direct investment are: China, the USA, India, Brazil and the Asian Federation.  France sits at the bottom of the top 15, incidentally.

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Foreign Direct Investment – Italy Not in Top 15

Aldo Brancher is Italy’s latest minister, and an old friend and associate of one Silvio Berlusconi.  Supposedly, Brancher is the minister of ‘Decentralisation and Subsidiarity’, whatever that means.  Anyway, approximately two seconds after being appointed, Minister Brancher has become embroiled in scandal. In a not so sparkling start to his ministerial career, Brancher wasted no time at all in invoking Italy’s ‘Legitimate Impediment’ laws to extricate himself from a legal wrangle involving a charge of handling stolen goods in connection with dodgy dealings surrounding the Banca Antonveneta case. Investigations are taking place into whether the Antonveneta Bank’s share price was artificially manipulated by the release of false news .  The case involves quite serious allegations of doubtful business practices, the intention of which appeared to have been to keep the Antonveneta Bank out of foreign hands

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The Curious Case of Aldo Brancher

OK, I admit it, I don’t know a fat lot about football, but even I could tell Italy’s performance in its inaugural 2010 World Cup match against Paraguay was uninspiring, and uninspired. An ex-champion himself, Marcello Lippi , Italy’s coach, blamed his team’s less than sparkling performance on the rain soaked slippery terrain, but his excuse won’t hold much water with Italy’s hoards of football fans.  After all, the pitch was slippery for both teams.

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Italy Starts 2010 World Cup with Lackluster Performance

Things are starting to look abnormally ominous for press freedom in Italy .  Legislation introducing new wire-tapping, or rather, anti-wire-tapping stroke press gagging rules, took a step closer to being written into Italy’s law books yesterday after the bill proposing the changes passed though Italy’s Senate. Italy Wants to Gag its Press Senators who are members of the Italian Values opposition party caused a stir yesterday when they occupied government seats in Italy’s Senate in protest at the attempt to push the bill through.  The unruly senators where duly kicked out of Italy’s senate until voting on the wire-tapping bill was to commence. Former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi stated that the proposed legislation will cause breathing problems for democracy in Italy

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Is Italy a Normal Country?

The Fiat themed bar, the Fiat Open Lounge celebrated the arrival of the summer yesterday evening.  At the summer season opening do in this upmarket Milan equivalent of a pub, was the gorgeous Spanish actress and model Laura Barriales , as well as Andrea Fumagalli , otherwise known as Andy, who is an ex-member of a popular Italian band called Bluvertigo . Barriales did her thing and looked beautiful, which is not something this glamorous young lady has any trouble doing whatsoever.  She smiled ever so sweetly when I turned my camera upon her.

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The Fiat Open Lounge in Milan Sees in the Summer

Designer Paolo Feroleto, who writes for BlogfromItaly.com, created a limited edition set of cards to celebrate Italy’s four World Cup victories. He still has some of these cards left, so if you are quick, you can grab yourself a set of this World Cup memorabilia.  Prices are ridiculously reasonable, and Paolo will post the cards all over the world. As you will know, the 2010 World Cup is just around the corner, and perhaps Paolo will be adding another card to this selection.  I’m sure Italian football fans will have their fingers crossed, and, in the Italian way, will be touching their nether regions furiously (!).

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World Cup Memorabilia – Italy Four World Victories