The Italian Almanac
June 2005
Italian News - June 30 City employees in Rome are taking seminars to give them a better understanding of gays and the gay community. Participants are workers from the office for relations with the public.
Italian Sport - June 30 The AC Milan Junior Camps take place from July 11-16 and July 18-23 and give kids aged five to 15 the opportunity to show off their football skills.
Italian News - June 29 Police in Rome have a new weapon in their quest to tame reckless drivers: a device to fine people who ignore the double lines that prohibit overtaking.
Italian Sport - June 29 Former Chelsea and Italy striker Gianfranco Zola has quit the game, a week before his 39th birthday.
Italian News - June 28 Billed as a scent makeover for Genoa's narrow medieval streets, called "caruggi", the local trash company has decided to spruce up the city for summer visitors.
Italian News - June 28 Firth has been made a Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, a title originally created to recognise those who helped rebuild post-war Italy.
Italian Fashion - June 28 Dumping last summer's sequined shirts, pink pants and pretty floral patterns, designers pumped next year's spring-summer collections full of testosterone.
Italian News - June 27 Italy is suffering a heatwave, with many cities warning frail people to stay at home and low river levels putting crops at risk.
Italian News - June 25 The Pope won't be coming to Scotland's Live8 gig, after sending Bob Geldof a photograph in reply to his invitation.
Italian News - June 25 An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of a group of CIA agents who kidnapped a radical Egyptian imam from the streets of Milan.
Italian News - June 24 Horses drawing Rome's traditional carriages will be required to wear a pair of "nappies" from next week in a bid to keep the city's streets clean.
Italian Art / History - June 24 Recent research conducted by Italian art historian Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz suggests that Raphael Sanzio may have followed his heart.
Italian News - June 24 Rome is celebrating the restoration of one of its former glories: the gardens created by Ferdinand de Medici in the 16th century, with a miniature Mount Parnassus.
Italian News - June 23 Sophia Loren, a film legend at the age of 70, returned for the first time i n 22 years to the town of Pozzuoli where she grew up.
Italian News - June 23 Politicians of all colors in the southern region of Apulia have demanded that Rome revoke a decree authorizing the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Brindisi.
Italian News - June 23 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi officially inaugurated the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy, on June 21.
Italian News - June 22 Italian men are nowhere near as macho and domineering as some old stereotypes might suggest, according to a new study at the University of Missouri.
Italian Music - June 22 Popular Italian singer Vasco Rossi pulled out of Rome's Live8 concert, saying it clashed with a gig he was due to play in Ancona.
Italian Art - June 22 A world-class archaeological exhibition opened this week in Calabria. Its subject is Magna Graecia, the name given to southern Italy colonized by the ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago.
Italian News - June 21 Event organizer Fiera di Genova has confirmed that the Technofolies trade show will be staged Oct. 27-29 at Palasport (Dome) in Genoa.
Italian Science - June 21 Contrary to popular myths of gloom and imminent doom resulting from an eruption similar to the one that buried Pompeii, Vesuvius isn't going to spontaneously blow.
Italian News - June 20 Francesco Totti, captain of the AS Roma soccer team, married television showgirl Ilary Blasi on Sunday in a ceremony that drew hundreds of fans to a downtown church.
Italian Art - June 20 In 1505, Leonardo da Vinci began a vast work, The Battle of Anghiari, on a wall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence: a whirl of horses and soldiers in battle.
Italian News - June 17 A widowed Italian pensioner offered his services as a grandfather, was “adopted” by an Italian family and declared he had “found his new home”.
Italian News - June 17 Researchers in Italy say a common stomach infection that causes ulcers may also be linked to an irregular heart rhythm.
Italian News - June 16 Italians worried about their image are taking out insurance against going bald. The policy is open to anyone aged between 15 and 70, of either sex.
Italian News / Music - June 16 Carlo Maria Giulini, the 20th century giant of conducting who considered himself a reverential servant of the great composers, has died at age 91.
Italian Movies - June 16 Unseen footage from Federico Fellini's last film will be shown at the Procida Festival this weekend. Two hours of material has been boiled down into a half-hour film.
Italian News - June 15 Researchers suspect the corpse of a 5,000 year-old mummy frozen in the Italian Alps might have been contaminated by bacteria since its discovery in 1991.
Italian News - June 15 A Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft will feature at Paris Le Bourget Air Show with partner Alenia, in combination with the airmanship of Italian Air Force pilots.
Italian News - June 14 Blood tests will be mandatory in Italy's top two soccer divisions next season in an effort to detect illegal transfusions and the performance-enhancing hormone EPO.
Italian News - June 14 The group, led by Alessandro Profumo, becomes the fourth-biggest bank in the eurozone. Until now, none of its banks has figured in Europe's top 20.
Italian News / Movies - June 14 Fernando Ghia, a prominent Italian film producer known for his tenacity in bringing the award-winning drama "The Mission" to the screen, has died at 69.
Italian News - June 13 A bar of soap believed to be made from fat pumped from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has gone on display in Basel, Switzerland.
Italian News - June 13 One-third of all Italian of both sexes indicated pasta as the main pleasure in life, nearly half of them would never go without it.
Italian News - June 11 Italians in St. Petersburg will be able to celebrate Catholic masses in the language of Dante every Sunday this summer in St. Catherine's Church at Nevsky Prospekt.
Italian Art - June 11 Women have organised the Venice Biennale for the first time in the event's 110-year history, putting a feminine spin on one of the world's foremost contemporary art shows.
Italian News - June 11 The age at which a substantial proportion of Italian youngsters make their first contact with drugs is getting lower. Now children may discover hashish at age 13-15.
Italian News - June 10 Two experimental satellites are being developed for the Galileo System Test Bed - Version 2, which will make up the first phase of the 'in orbit validation' of the system.
Italian News - June 10 Diego Maradona returned to Naples, his first visit to the Italian city since leaving under a cloud of controversy 14 years ago.
Italian News - June 10 An Italian prosecutor asked a military judge to sentence 10 former members of the Nazi SS to life in prison for their alleged role in a 1944 massacre in northern Italy.
Italian News - June 9 Italian footwear makers are demanding quotas on Chinese imports or at least levy import duties on the millions of shoes flooding the continent.
Italian Art - June 9 The city that sits dripping in Renaissance decadence like some old dowager in ancestral jewels plays host to the world’s most flamboyant contemporary arts fair.
Italian Science - June 9 If you have ever had trouble putting a name to a face or blanked out during a job interview, you've been a victim of memory lapse from lack of context.
Italian News - June 8 The Italian government has introduced new measures aimed at defeating persistent hooligan violence in the nation's football stadiums.
Italian News - June 8 A Sicilian court condemned road authorities Monday for suspending the driving license of a man after finding out he was gay.
Italian News - June 8 Italian military giant Finmeccanica could be weeks away from grabbing a greater slice of Britain's defence market via the acquisition of up to 30% of group Thales.
Italian Language - June 6 Modern Italian has lost some 40% of words commonly used in Medieval times, according to a study by national research council CNR.
Italian Culture - June 6 Age, memory and nostalgia are the central themes of "Queen Loana", Umberto Eco's fifth novel, just published in English translation.
Italian Music - June 5 Mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli is lighting up the stage of the Royal Opera House these days. The occasion is the first production on that stage of "Il Turco in Italia".
Italian News - June 4 In one corner the Pope, in the other a pair of stunning Italian actresses. At stake is the highly contentious issue of restrictions on fertility treatment.
Italian Sport - June 4 Italy's Alessandro Tadini, who missed 10 of 15 cuts this year, shot a 7-under-par 62 Friday for a two-shot lead over David Lynn at the Wales Open.
Italian News - June 3 An Italian couple has been ordered to have sex only in the daytime after the man's wails of ecstasy provoked complaints from neighbors.
Italian News - June 3 Italy is interested in attracting Saudi students to its universities. Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom Armando Sanguini said.
Italian Fashion - June 3 The three big hitters of Italian fashion - Armani, Versace and Valentino - showed collections created for the televised event held in Rome's Piazza Navona.
Italian News - June 2 An Italian judge has found a teenage boy guilty of vandalism and disturbing the peace, but instead of jail time, he ordered the 220-pound "bully" to slim down.
Italian News - June 2 Former Italian world champion Mario Cipollini has been questioned by police in Florence as part of an investigation concerning six-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.