The Italian Almanac

Italian News / Music - July 31

British  superstar  Elton John  will take  the 
stage just outside the Colosseum in September. 
The  free concert will take  place on the  Via 
dei Fori Imperiali.

Italian News - July 30

An  Italian beach etiquette guide   which 
advises  against topless bathing and  the 
consumption of beer on beach has provoked 
a backlash from German holiday makers.

Italian News - July 30

An estimated ten million cars will pack 
Italy's motorways this weekend as  some 
16 million Italians begin their  August 
vacation.

Italian News - July 30

The villa Napoleon's favorite younger sister 
had built here to serve as her love nest has 
been  fully restored and open to the  public 
for an exhibition.

Italian News - July 29

Riccione is  playing host to hundreds of  siblings 
who are gathering here for the 2005 European Twins 
Festival. Twins from a range of nationalities  and 
ages are taking part.

Italian News - July 29

A 2,000-year-old highway,  a mausoleum  and 
an aqueduct have emerged from the dust just 
outside the Italian capital, making experts 
consider redrawing maps of ancient Rome.

Italian News - July 27

Italian high school students from  Tuscany
have  invented  a vibrating  "alarm clock" 
for deaf sleepers that is taking them  all 
the way to Oslo.

Italian News - July 27

Spain's first gay married couple will  spend 
the first night of their honeymoon in Venice 
free,  the association of  Venice  hoteliers 
announced.

Italian History - July 27

Roman soldiers who disappeared after a  famous 
defeat  founded a city  in eastern China.  The 
phantom legion was part of the defeated forces 
of Marcus Licinius Crassus.

Italian News - July 26

Help will soon be at hand for thirsty trees, 
dried  out grass and parched plants left  to 
wilt and  die in  the  baking August heat as 
Italians head off on holiday.

Italian News - July 26

If you have travelled through Rome's main 
train  station  recently,  you  may  have 
noticed a well-lit, modern store  selling 
nothing but...water.

Italian News - July 24

The 'love ice-cream'  contains a  spicy 
mixture  of  African  herbs which  have 
traditionally been used to boost sexual 
prowess.

Italian Sport - July 24

Tania Cagnotto, 20-year-old daughter 
of top '70s diver  Giorgio Cagnotto, 
took bronze behind two Chinese  aces 
in the 3-meters springboard.

Italian News - July 23

Nobel prize winner Dario Fo has nearly 
completed a play on the role of  women 
in the early Christian Church,  asking 
why they were airbrushed out.

Italian News - July 23

A priest has refused to give an Italian
woman  a Christian funeral.  "She lived 
with  her  lover,  so she was a  public 
sinner," Father Mazzotta said.

Italian News - July 22

Italian  police  caught up with  two 
gangs  of  teenage  'crackers' - the 
nastier version of Internet hackers. 
One cracker leader was 13.

Italian Art - July 22

The winged horses of Tarquinia, one of the 
world's most famous ancient sculptures and 
the most significant from the Etruscan era, 
have returned home after being restored.

Italian News - July 22

Italy  has  won  an  international 
competition to build the launchpad 
and  ground  equipment  for a  new 
generation European rocket.

Italian News - July 21

A revolutionary new Italian road surface 
that can eat up pollution is hitting the 
high road for tests in the Alpine region 
of Alto Adige.

Italian News - July 21

"Eureka! The Genius of the Ancients". A 
major new show in Naples highlights the 
extraordinary  science  and  technology 
created by ancient Greek masters.

Italian News / Art - July 19

Hadrian's Villa, among the most ambitious 
of  palaces built by Roman emperors,  has 
opened  for evening  guided tours led  by 
archaeologists.

Italian News / Medicine - July 19

Italy has made a key advance in knee 
transplant  surgery.  An entire knee 
has  been transplanted using  living 
cartilage and tendons.

Italian News / Art - July 18

The show hinges  on the juxtaposition  of 
aquatints by 18th Century British artists 
and contemporary images of the landscapes 
they portrayed.

Italian News - July 18

A  study found  that wine  as an aperitif 
is gaining constant ground, with a marked 
preference for sparkling wine and  whites 
with a strong personality.

Italian News - July 18

Staff at the Ciak Si Mangia eatery are  trained 
to take orders in  Italian Sign Language.  This 
means deaf people can go there without the need 
for a signing hearer to go along to translate.

Italian News - July 17

The  life-sized cows which will  take 
part in Italy's first  CowParade have 
begun to arrive in Florence and local 
artists will soon be at work.

Italian News - July 17

'A Tavola Con Gli Etruschi Di Marzabotto' 
(Dining With The Etruscans Of Marzabotto) 
examines  the food  resources  and dining 
habits of this ancient civilization.

Italian News - July 16

Unions and  police in the southern  city 
of Bari  have  united  to set up a  help 
line to make sure the elderly don't fall 
for 'spiritual' con artists.

Italian News / Movies - July 16

The  world's first and foremost  children's 
cinema  festival  kicks off  in Giffoni  on 
Saturday evening, and the main theme of the 
Film Festival is emotion. 

Italian News - July 15

Pope Benedict  believes the  Harry Potter 
books  subtly  seduce  young readers  and 
"distort Christianity in the soul" before 
it can develop properly.

Italian News - July 15

Deep divisions have emerged in  Tuscany 
over  whether the top should be  lopped 
off a mountain where Michelangelo found 
the world's finest white marble. 

Italian News / Fashion - July 15

Italian  fashion  icon  Valentino 
on  Thursday  received   France's 
most prestigious award,  becoming 
a member of the Legion d'Honneur.

Italian News - July 13

Tourists flocked to the banks of the Tiber on 
Tuesday to watch Tom Cruise blast up and down 
the river in a  speed boat as  Rome became  a 
backdrop for Mission Impossible III. 

Italian News - July 13

Legend has it that St Lucius,  still on the 
calendar but not an  'official' saint,  was 
a 14th-century Italian shepherd-boy stabbed 
to death by a jealous cheesemaker.

Italian News - July 12

Sardinian forests have received the world's 
first-ever  certification for  eco-friendly 
production of cork, which is made from  the 
bark of local trees.

Italian Art - July 12

A stone bee, sculpted on a central Roman 
fountain by Italian baroque maestro Gian 
Lorenzo Bernini, is the latest victim of 
the city's statue vandals. 

Italian News - July 11

Most Italians  think  nude sunbathing  is 
perfectly natural and don't mind crossing 
paths with  bottomless beach-goers,  even 
when those bottoms are unsightly.

Italian News - July 11

If Jacques Chirac and  Silvio Berlusconi 
didn't have enough political setbacks to 
make them unpopular,  they can  now  add 
their disdain for the food in Finland.

Italian Music - July 10

America's  overpowering jazz's  legacy seems to 
be freezing current practice and, unexpectedly, 
it  was  the Italian musicians,  mostly unknown 
outside their country, who stole the show.

Italian News - July 9

In the popular  imagination they  are 
rich, drive fast cars, date beautiful 
women and are  hero-worshipped  every 
weekend.

Italian Sport - July 9

Olympic champion  Justin Gatlin ran  his 
fastest  100-meter  time  of the season, 
winning the race at the Rome Golden Gala 
meet in 9.96 seconds.

Italian News - July 8

A bid to make an international standard 
for Parmesan cheese failed after  Italy 
and the European Union insisted it must 
come from the area around Parma.

Italian News - July 8

The Vatican singled out divorced members who 
remarry and politicians who support abortion 
in criticizing the faithful who continue  to 
receive Holy Communion while in mortal sin.

Italian News - July 7

A talking wine label could soon tell consumers 
in Italy everything they want to know  about a 
particular bottle, from its production history 
to the kind of food it should accompany.

Italian News - July 6

The  Chinese threat has to be turned  into a 
development opportunity for Italy’s business 
system. To make this happen,  the first step 
is the education of managers.

Italian Science - July 6

Encouraged by an initial trial, Italy 
wants to launch a  larger-scale human 
test of its AIDS vaccine in Africa in 
the hope of having it ready by 2011.

Italian News - July 5

Seven  months  of courtship via mobile  phone 
convinced Geraldine, 35, from the Philippines 
but living  in a  Palermo convent,  that  her 
future was with Maurizio.

Italian News - July 5

Italian film director Alberto Lattuada has 
died at the age  of 90.  Lattuada's  films 
explored racism, unemployment and  strikes 
following World War II.

Italian News - July 3

The Defense Ministry  gave clearance  Friday 
for  the  last  Italians  serving under  the 
military draft to be discharged, marking the 
end of a 200-year-old practice.

Italian News - July 3

A new board game based on life at Milan's 
San Vittore  prison  will  help  Italians 
find out what happens after you pull  the 
'jail' card. 

Italian News - July 1

Many of Italy's biggest pop stars  have 
shaken off their skepticism about Live8 
and agreed to perform on the Rome stage 
on Saturday.

Italian News - July 1

To see the Uffizi in Florence  or 
Leonardo’s "Last Supper" in Milan 
this  summer you need to book  at 
least a month in advance.