The Italian Almanac

Italian News - May 31

Italian researchers are creating what they 
say  is the  world's  first skin bank  for 
firefighters,  steelworkers and others  at 
high risk of being burned in accidents.     

Italian News - May 31

Iran has just started olive research  projects, 
saying that Iranian experts would need the help 
of  experienced researchers from countries like 
Italy, Greece and Spain.   

Italian News - May 30

All women dream of an apricot,  but many have 
to settle for an aubergine.  In between there 
are oranges, which may not be perfect but are 
still a good result.     

Italian News - May 30

The discovery  of two  World War II  bombs in 
southern Italy  has forced  more than  10,000 
people to evacuate their homes, snarled train 
travel and shut down a vital highway.   

Italian News - May 29

Underwater  kissing contests,  aerobic 
dances  inspired  by Bollywood  movies 
and buttocks-toning treadmills to make 
Jennifer Lopez envious.     

Italian News - May 29

Tourists will soon be offered a chance 
to  see  Pompeii,  one of Italy’s most 
prized archeological  sites,  from the 
vantage point of a hot-air balloon.   

Italian News - May 29

The  large,  jolly,  chaotic family  of 
post-war Italy has long since vanished, 
killed  off  by  tiny  city  flats  and 
women's careers.     

Italian News - May 27

Italian environmental group  Legambiente's 
beach guide,  which uses 128 parameters to 
comb 243 coastal spots in a yearly quality 
test, again gave Southern Italy top marks.     

Italian News - May 26

Those tastes may not be for everyone's 
palate, but the specialties of ancient 
Pompeii are being revived for a  month 
at the site of the ruins.   

Italian News - May 26

European Union regulators ordered a 9 percent 
reduction in air pollution allowed by permits 
that Italy  is  giving industry,  seeking  to 
ensure companies buy some allowances.     

Italian News - May 25

Romeo  Caraccio  was  left  furious after 
the former president of the United States 
and his  party failed  to show up without 
bothering to cancel their reservation.   

Italian News - May 25

Italian journalist  Oriana Fallaci,  who has 
made waves by denouncing Islam in her books, 
is  to face  trial for purportedly insulting 
the Muslim faith in her latest work.    

Italian Sport - May 25

AC Milan, the Italian titans who have been 
crowned  European champions  six times and 
lifted 17 domestic league titles, have not 
always been a dominant force in Europe. 

Italian News - May 24

A 17th-century book seized by the Nazis was 
returned to Rome's Jewish community, one of 
thousands  Jewish volumes taken by  looting 
German forces during World War II.    

Italian News - May 24

No more  than 60 films will be shown  at 
the  2005  Venice  Film  Festival, which 
will be presided over by Dante Ferretti, 
art director and production designer.

Italian News - May 23

More than  a thousand  previously unknown 
letters, said to have been written by the 
legendary tenor Enrico Caruso,  are to be 
made available to the public.    

Italian News - May 23

Once regarded as a pricey playground for the 
rich,  Italy emerged as the least  expensive 
destination  for a typical  "holiday hamper" 
of 13 items including sunscreen and a meal.

Italian News - May 21

3G phone owners  spent  €140-million on 
pornographic  material in  2004 - three 
times the amount spent on old-fashioned 
pornographic magazines.    

Italian News - May 21

The explosive growth  of budget airlines 
has introduced millions of passengers to 
some  of Italy's  lesser-known  airports 
and to several real estate markets.

Italian News - May 20

A senior curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum 
in Los Angeles has been indicted in Italy on 
criminal  charges involving  the acquisition 
of precious antiquities.    

Italian News - May 20

Italian fashion house  Gianni Versace  plans 
to  build its  second beach resort  in Dubai 
as luxury groups keep betting that the ultra 
rich will follow their label lust.

Italian News - May 19

"Starting now, I'll be on a diet for 
the  next  month,"  Berlusconi  told 
reporters  on  Wednesday. "I want to 
lose 5 kilos."   

Italian News - May 19

An Italian mountaineer has been killed and 
three others injured when an avalanche hit 
their base camp on Mount Annapurna in west 
Nepal.

Italian News - May 18

A 26-year-old  slogging her way through an 
aptitude interview with a psychologist had 
an uncanny  feeling  that  her interviewer 
knew too much about her.   

Italian News - May 18

The “Piano Man” found  on a beach in  Kent 
may have  been identified.  Italian police 
contacted UK cops yesterday to reveal that 
the mystery man has been named.

Italian News - May 18

An Italian Alitalia  jet headed to Boston  was 
diverted to  Maine because a  passenger's name 
matched that of a man on the U.S. government's 
no-fly list.   

Italian News - May 17

Some might call Nevio Toich a  Renaissance 
man, but to a select circle of enthusiasts 
and experts in Italy, he’s known simply as 
a "coltellinaio".

Italian News - May 17

Horses injected  with the male impotency 
drug  Viagra were used in  illegal races 
organised near the southern Italian city 
of Naples.   

Italian Art - May 17

Heavily muscled,  naked men,  mighty battle 
scenes  and  perhaps  a glimpse  or  two of 
heaven:  you can find it all  in Ottawa  in 
this summer's show at the National Gallery.

Italian News - May 16

A police forensics laboratory in Rome is 
using a powerful supercomputer developed 
by  Silicon Graphics  to create a  three 
dimensional replica of a crime scene.   

Italian News - May 16

Rome's top  security official  suggested the 
city  needs  a red-light  district  to  keep 
prostitutes off the streets, saying citizens 
complain daily about prostitutes.

Italian Cookies - May 16

Italian-born  Tonia Winkler  has launched 
a company  that  is filling  coffeehouses 
in Anchorage and other Alaska cities with 
homemade biscotti.   

Italian News - May 14

Canadian households  will finally  get 
the chance to watch RAI International, 
the  Italian  state  broadcaster,   on 
their TV sets.

Italian Music - May 14

Buried  deep  in the  Villa dei Papiri,
covered by the molten lava of Vesuvius, 
lies one of the finest libraries of the 
ancient world.   

Italian News - May 13

An impotent Italian man who kept his 
problem a secret from his wife until 
after  their  wedding  must  pay her 
damages.

Italian Music - May 13

On Sunday,  the Metropolitan Opera honors 
this great artist from Modena with a gala 
concert  marking the 50th  anniversary of 
her professional debut.   

Italian News - May 13

Italy's Rai state TV was the latest 
broadcaster  to show  excerpts from 
murdered  director  Theo van Gogh's 
controversial film Submission.

Italian Science - May 13

Italian  researchers say the season 
in which a woman is born is related 
to  the  age  at which she  reaches 
menopause. 

Italian News - May 11

Multi  millionaire  Serena  Williams 
pleaded poverty as she vowed to stay 
away from “expensive”  Italian shops 
during the Rome Masters.

Italian News - May 11

It all started  when Zedda phoned Tiscali's help 
desk for problems with his email account. Gruff, 
with a strong regional accent, the customer made 
help desk gurus titter with his mangled English. 

Italian News - May 11

Officials throughout the  country are 
grappling with the ethical problem of 
financing much-needed restorations by 
using monuments as giant billboards.

Italian News - May 10

A Rome court convicted a Vatican cardinal and 
a top Vatican Radio official of polluting the 
environment with electromagnetic waves from a 
transmission tower. 

Italian News - May 10

From today,  non-residents  of Naples' 
center will be required to leave their 
scooters behind,  or walk them through 
the historic center, motors off.

Italian News - May 9

France  and Italy settled a long-running 
power dispute on Friday  as giant French 
electricity state firm EDF said it would 
stay in Italy. 

Italian News - May 9

Killings committed more than 30 years 
ago returned last week to haunt Italy 
and cast doubt over the competence of 
its justice system.

Italian Sport - May 9

Englishman  Steve Webster won 
the Italian Open Sunday,  his 
first victory on the European 
Tour.

Italian News - May 7

Italian  actress  Monica Bellucci  called 
in  an  interview  for a "yes"  vote in a 
referendum next month to partially repeal 
the country's fertility laws.

Italian Art - May 7

A scandal has broken out here ever since word got 
out  that the  sculptor Silla Ferradini  would be 
installing a piece titled "Large woman's curl ... 
I'd eat you up with kisses" in a Milanese park.

Italian News - May 6

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has 
received this year's Charlemagne Prize, in 
recognition of services  to European peace 
and unity.

Italian Music - May 6

Conte's own  story is highly unusual.  After 
training as a  lawyer he spent  his twenties 
working as a solicitor by day while learning 
to write music and composing songs at night. 

Italian News - May 5

The  death  toll  for Italy's  sexy pinup 
calendars has sounded: even truck drivers 
are  sick  of  them.  Pulchritude is out, 
sanctity is in.

Italian News - May 5

After losing  all their  games the  team decided 
to drown their sorrows and embarked on a massive 
pub crawl  that ended in police  being called to 
bring the situation under control.

Italian News - May 4

Day-trippers  beware:   this  summer  the 
Aeolian Islands  off the coast  of Sicily 
will admit only 500 visitors per day from 
June until September.

Italian News - May 4

Many  Italians  would be hard  pressed to 
locate  it  on  a  map,  although Bevagna 
lies 35 kilometers from Perugia and about 
150 kilometers from Rome.

Italian News - May 3

If  you hear your  name called  in  the 
street  or  park,   don't  turn  around 
straight away. It might just be someone 
looking for a dog.

Italian News - May 3

Jewels  worth about 10,000 Euro ($16,500) 
were stolen from  the grave of a woman in 
north-western Italy who had been dead for 
15 years.

Italian News - May 3

The couple flew to Venice on a private jet
on  Sunday to  celebrate David's  birthday 
Monday, according to a report in Britain's 
The Sun newspaper.

Italian News - May 2

Italian  media  have  published  classified 
sections of an official US military inquiry 
into the  accidental killing  of an Italian 
agent in Baghdad.

Italian Art - May 2

In Italy  they  called  it "Arte Povera", 
elsewhere "junk art".  For  artists  like 
Alberto Burri such trash would eventually 
become treasure.