The Italian Almanac

Italian News - October 31

Naples  hailed the  success of its  first 
'White  Night'  experience,  saying  more 
than two million people took part  in the 
dusk-to-dawn bonanza of music and culture.

Italian News / Art - October 31

An outstanding exhibition in the  northern 
Italian town of Brescia offers the  public 
a unique opportunity to compare and admire 
the art of Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. 

Italian News - October 30

An  exhibition  featuring  the  recently 
discovered  fossil hatchlings of one  of 
history's largest  dinosaurs was a  star 
attraction at the Genoa Science Festival.

Italian Art - October 30

Renaissance genius and patron saint of 
artists Fra Angelico is set to wow New 
York  with the  first  major  American 
exhibition of his work. 

Italian News - October 28

Piazza Navona, which has Bernini's famous 
Four  Rivers  fountain at its centre,  is 
especially crowded at night with painters 
and artists of varying talents.

Italian News - October 28

A rare species of crab has taken up residence 
in one of the city's most important sites and 
is  not  only  thriving  but also  growing to 
abnormal proportions. 

Italian News - October 27

The 40-year-old  from Viterbo got  her 
marching orders when she flatly turned 
down  pleas for cash after a  360-euro 
fish lunch.   

Italian Music - October 27

Italian pop sensation Eros Ramazzotti is 
primed to  return  to the world's charts 
with 'Calma Apparente'  (Apparent Calm), 
his new album which comes out on Friday. 

Italian News - October 26

The city of Rome has banned goldfish 
bowls, which animal rights activists 
say are cruel,  after  reports  that 
they can cause fish to go blind.   

Italian News - October 26

Costantino Beltrami,  an adventurer who 
found the source of the Mississippi and 
roved the West when buffalo herds still 
covered the Great Plains. 

Italian News - October 25

After MotoGP champion Rossi's  recent 
tests  in a  Ferrari Formula One car, 
Schumacher tried out a Ducati similar 
to the one used by Loris Capirossi.   

Italian News - October 25

The  world's  best copy of  Christopher 
Columbus' first  letter about the lands 
he discovered is the highlight of a new 
show in Marche. 

Italian News - October 24

Perhaps those tuxedoed types aren’t real 
waiters. As in fact they aren’t. They’re 
The Camerieri Pazzi (Crazy Waiters)  and 
by trade they are stand-up comedians.   

Italian News - October 24

Despite protests from religious authorities, 
Halloween has taken root in Italy. In just a 
few  years this imported pagan  festival has 
become an accepted custom. 

Italian News - October 22

AC Milan's  scientific lab is to work  with 
the prestigious  Massachusetts Instutite of 
Technology (MIT) to try and cut down errors 
by coaches, players and doctors.   

Italian News - October 22

For Italian men becoming a new parent is an 
experience that takes place at an  advanced 
age, with the result that Italian dads have 
a smaller overall number of children. 

Italian News - October 20

Italian commuters  are set to get a  dose 
of culture with their journeys as writers 
and poets entertain them with readings as 
they ply their way to and from work.   

Italian News - October 20

Dario Fo, the Italian playwright who won the 
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, has said 
he wants  to run  for the office of mayor in 
Milan, his home city, next year. 

Italian News - October 19

All of a sudden, to the astonishment of her 
fellow politicians,  widow  Maria Viglianti 
announced she had taken vows as a nun in an 
enclosed order.   

Italian News - October 19

Two drunken youths entered the grounds of 
Premier  Silvio  Berlusconi's   luxurious 
Sardinian  villa  and  took  a dip in his 
swimming pool. 

Italian Television - October 18

"Rockpolitik,"  a  weekly  variety program 
to be shown on RAI, is expected to feature 
left-wing  political  commentator  Michele 
Santoro and comic Daniele Luttazzi.   

Italian News - October 17

Organizers say it is the first show  of 
this  kind  to examine the social  life 
surrounding Italian motorbikes, as well 
as the machines themselves. 

Italian Art - October 17

A rare collection of silver plates and 
sketches has gone on show,  as part of 
new exhibit exploring the feats of one 
of Genoa's most famous sons.   

Italian News - October 16

It appears that the shadow of the taxman, 
rather than the hand of God, has prompted 
the  former footballer to pull out  after 
three weeks. 

Italian Television - October 16

Oscar winner Roberto Benigni treated 
Italians  watching  Saturday's prime 
time news show to an impromptu strip 
tease.   

Italian News - October 15

Since they were introduced in 1948, the 
three-wheeled Ape (Bee)  has  been  the 
main mode of transport for thousands of 
Italian peasants. 

Italian News - October 15

Rinaldo Maestrelli,  73,  was declared 
dead by doctors after they battled  to 
revive him from a cardiac arrest.  The 
medics had struggled to save his life.   

Italian News - October 14

A dish filled with beautifully preserved 
yellow noodles  from 4,000 years ago has 
been unearthed at a dig near  the Yellow 
River in northwestern China. 

Italian Movies - October 14

The Academy of Motion Pictures has alerted 
Italy's Oscar selection committee that the 
film initially selected to represent Italy 
is ineligible.   

Italian News - October 14

The Impregilo-led consortium will be the 
general contractor for the final project 
and  completion  of the bridge over  the 
Strait of Messina. 

Italian Art - October 13

The fresco called Faith was discovered 
in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena 
beneath  a layer of plaster on a  semi 
circular panel or lunette.  

Italian News - October 11

Animal activists will stage demos across 
Italy this  weekend,  in a bid  to raise 
awareness  of the suffering of  chickens 
bred for meat. 

Italian Television - October 11

The Argentinian soccer legend has  abandoned 
the Dancing With the Stars  show after  only 
four weeks, leaving a troupe of lesser stars 
to entertain audiences.  

Italian News - October 9

MPs,  human rights activists,  economists and a 
Nobel laureate gathered in Florence on Saturday 
for an international conference  on the  status 
of women around the world. 

Italian Art - October 9

Subtitled  The International  Caravaggio 
School: From Caravaggio To Mattia Preti, 
the exhibit charts  the adoption  of the 
Italian artist's famous techniques.  

Italian News - October 8

Restaurants in Italy's northern province  of 
Trentino are being encouraged to stock up on 
bibs,  nappies and baby-bottle  warmers in a 
drive to make them more child-friendly. 

Italian News - October 8

Describing  the  burly  Genoa native as  a 
cross between John Belushi and Jose' Bove, 
Time dubbed him "that rare class clown who 
has done his homework."  

Italian News - October 7

The robot breathes, has blood pressure and 
flutters its eyelids when it feels poorly. 
It can simulate emergency situations  such 
as heart attacks and angina. 

Italian News - October 7

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani 
says  his club could leave their  famous 
San Siro home and build a new a venue in 
the city.   

Italian News - October 6

The  exhibition opening at Brescia's  Arms Museum 
on  October  22  focuses  on  beautiful  suits of 
armour and headgear made here in the 15th century 
and early 16th century.

Italian Movies - October 6

Clooney,  who spends much of the year at  his 
villa  on Lake Como  and has been  fulsome in 
his praise of Italy's lifestyle, will receive 
an award for supporting Italian movie-making.   

Italian News - October 6

An Italian man who spent two years supposedly 
unconscious  in a  deep coma  awoke saying he 
heard  and  understood  everything  happening 
around him.

Italian News - October 5

The fact that his tomb was in Rome's  basilica 
of St Apollinaire re-emerged  a few weeks  ago 
in a television broadcast, causing eyebrows to 
be raised across the nation.   

Italian Movies - October 5

La Tigre e la Neve (The Tiger and the Snow), 
a  romantic comedy set  against the backdrop 
of the  Iraq war, stars Benigni  as  a  love 
struck poet.

Italian News / Art - October 3

A major exhibition devoted to the brilliant, 
but  tragically  brief,  career of  American 
street artist Keith Haring opened at Milan's 
Triennale museum this week.   

Italian Science - October 3

Italian researchers  have discovered the  birth
place  of  consciousness,  a  breakthrough that 
could eventually help cure a variety of medical 
conditions.

Italian News - October 1

A woman  with a rare  brain disease stopped 
recognising  her  family  and  objects  but 
consistently identified the country's prime 
minister, Silvio Berlusconi.