The Italian Almanac
February 2005
Italian News - February 28 According to newly publicized research, gold dug up by Italian immigrants in the 1849 California gold rush found its way to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his "Spedizione dei Mille".
Italian Sport - February 28 An Italian farmer has set off in pursuit of an unprecedented third victory in one of the world’s toughest foot races through icy ravines and frozen tundra in Alaska.
Italian Fashion - February 28 Italy's top fashion houses are predicting an Arctic freeze next winter, given the amount of fur they sent down the catwalk during last week's ready-to-wear shows in Milan.
Italian News - February 26 La Scala opera house is in chaos, with strikes threatening to bring down the curtain amid backstage intrigues worthy of an Italian libretto.
Italian Movies - February 26 Melampo Cinematografica has reached an agreement with Focus Features for the foreign sales of "La Tigre e la Neve" (The Tiger and the Snow), the latest film by Roberto Benigni.
Italian News - February 24 The plans for a new exit for the Uffizi Museum in Florence were scrapped yesterday because excavations in the area had revealed the foundations of medieval houses.
Italian News - February 24 The organisers of Italy's most popular song festival are hoping to liven up this year's opening night with the presence of "Iron" Mike Tyson. He is, however, not expected to sing.
Italian News - February 23 In the roller coaster ride of the Italian publishing industry, magazines targeted at women have been having a particularly rough time.
Italian News - February 23 The Italian Ministry of Culture says it will match half the $6 million price being asked for the villa in which Giuseppe Verdi composed four of his operas.
Italian Fashion - February 23 Armani - the brand - celebrates its 30th birthday while Armani - the man - prepares to celebrate his 71st.
Italian News - February 21 The president of the European commission will find waiting on his desk an irate letter protesting at the downgrading of Italian at commission press conferences.
Italian Sport - February 21 Flavia Pennetta beat unseeded Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain to win the final of the WTA Copa Colsanitas in Bogota.
Italian News - February 20 The Italian Foreign Ministry has called in Sweden's ambassador to complain about an advertisement on Swedish television that criticised Silvio Berlusconi.
Italian Art - February 20 A fingerprint and stylistic touches uncovered during restoration of a masterpiece raises the possibility that it may have been painted by Leonardo.
Italian News - February 18 Worried about the lure of the devil, a Vatican-linked university launched its latest course yesterday: a class on satanism and exorcism.
Italian Movies - February 18 "Ora e Per Sempre" (Now and Forever) isn't just a film about the history and the legend of the great Turin football team, which disappeared in May 1949.
Italian Sport - February 18 Pietro Piller Cottrer and Fulvio Valbusa scored a big upset Thursday in the 15-kilometer freestyle, the first 1-2 finish for Italy's men at the Nordic world championships.
Italian News - February 15 Scholars of Christian literature and theology at a conference in Turin on "Laughter and Comedy in Ancient Christianity" insist the Old and New Testaments are riddled with humor.
Italian News - February 15 Where previously archaeologists had only found huts dating to the 8th century B.C., Andrea Carandini unearthed traces of regal splendor.
Italian News - February 15 The gondoliers have been taking industrial action to force city authorities to regulate traffic better on the Grand Canal, the main thoroughfare of the city's waterway system.
Italian News - February 14 Italians attempting, for whatever reason, to do an MSN search on the word "..." are being referred to a whiter-than-white Vatican website.
Italian News - February 14 A philanthropist has stepped forward to fund excavations at the ancient city of Herculaneum, where scholars believe a Roman library lies buried.
Italian News - February 14 Austria agreed yesterday that the bodies of three Austrian soldiers found well-preserved at the foot of an Italian glacier last year, would remain in Italy.
Italian News - February 11 Turin is on schedule for the 2006 Olympics. A series of test events at Olympic venues in Turin and the surrounding Alps have gone smoothly.
Italian Movies - February 11 "Caterina in the Big City" by Paolo Virzi' is heading for the United States. RAI Trade has sold the rights to Empire Pictures.
Italian News / Television - February 11 Over the past few days millions of Italians have been watching scenes of ethnic cleansing, in the first film about the "foibe" massacre.
Italian News - February 10 Italy's population could shrink by a third by 2050; until now, only an influx of immigrants has kept the numbers stable.
Italian News - February 10 Frenzy over the number 53, which was drawn in Venice's lottery Wednesday evening, had driven countless Italians to spend large sums on the biweekly lotteries.
Italian News - February 9 Thousands of young people will pour onto the streets of Milan, Paris and Barcelona. They won't be protesting, they will be looking for love.
Italian News - February 9 The 2006 Winter Games, scheduled to begin a year from Thursday, will be remembered as the "Piazza Olympics," celebrating of the Italian way of life.
Italian News - February 9 Ambassador to Namibia Arnaldo Abeti yesterday officially handed over a grant of US$170,000 from the government of Italy to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Italian News - February 8 Researchers attending a recent meeting in Milan said drinking a few cups of coffee a day can even reduce the occurrence of some kinds of tumors.
Italian News - February 8 Alenia Aeronautica of Rome will decide by June whether to build a new Army cargo jet at a site near Charleston’s airport, assuming the company wins the military contract.
Italian Movies - February 8 Daniele Gaglianone has won the 34th edition of the Rotterdam Festival with the film "Nemmeno il destino". He was one of the winners of the 2005 Tiger Awards.
Italian News - February 6 Homosexuality was put forward as grounds for the appeal, drafted to obtain revocation of the expulsion order issued by the Turin police chief.
Italian News - February 6 A recent furor over Spanish bishops approving the use of condoms highlighted a quiet but intense debate within the Roman Catholic Church.
Italian News - February 5 When a clothes company tried presenting a group of well-dressed women in a Last Supper style pose, their poster campaign was banned in Milan.
Italian News / Movies - February 5 The Silver Ribbons award ceremony in Rome was a somewhat tense affair, with gaffes and problems that at times overshadowed the prize winners themselves.
Italian News - February 3 The Gemelli is a 1,800-bed teaching hospital in the Rome suburb of Pineta Sacchetti, where the Pope underwent emergency surgery after the assassination attempt.
Italian Wine - February 3 Barbera is one of Piedmont's most widely planted grapes, and indeed, one of Italy's most widely planted red wine grapes.
Italian News - February 2 The veins of Italy’s parliamentarians contain traces of pesticides, including DDT, which has been banned for the last 20 years.
Italian News / Movies - February 2 The festival for amateur and semi professional filmmakers from the 25 countries of the European Community is back for its seventh edition.
Italian Art - February 2 A $1 million exhibition of modern art staged at the Galleria Accademia in Florence has left curators wishing they had gone for a more classical celebration of the masterpiece.
Italian News - February 1 A new Italian space probe may be able to predict earthquakes, giving people time to take preventive measures.
Italian News - February 1 A study by the government has found that by 2000 more than a quarter of Italians, most of them men, were living with their parents until they were over 30.