The Italian Almanac

Italian News - December 30

Zinedine Zidane's  World Cup Final  head-butt  has
become the inspiration for Italy's latest New Year
firecracker, joining past favourites like Saddam's
Head or the Bin Laden Bomb.

Italian News - December 30

A dolphin saved a 14-year-old  boy from drowning
in the Adriatic sea,  pushing him to the surface
and helping him to a nearby boat.  The boy,  who
could not swim, said he fell from the boat.

Italian News - December 29

Brothers Piero and Giancarlo Bockos flew in from
Verona, Italy, to Pasadena after they won judges
over with  a  video of them  marching  and  role
playing at a theme park.

Italian News - December 29

The unidentified officer, a deputy superintendent,
was  fired after he was seen on several occasions
in Venice city centre wearing a mini-skirt,  long
earrings and a skimpy T-shirt.

Italian News - December 28

The New Year is on its way and Italy's news stands
and book stores are bristling with the usual array
of calendars of naked and semi-naked women models.
But the pin-ups are facing stiff competition.

Italian News - December 28

A long-lost manuscript on the  art  of  chess  by
celebrated Renaissance mathematician Luca Pacioli,
believed to have been written  around  1500,  has
been discovered in a villa in northeast Italy.

Italian News - December 22

An Italian wood is leading the  country's  bid to
meet greenhouse-gas reductions.. The oaks, ashes,
willow and poplars  are  making  a  "significant"
contribution to greenhouse-gas elimination.

Italian News - December 22

An Italian doctor said he had switched  off  the
life support system of a terminally ill  man who
died after losing a legal  battle  to  have  his
respirator disconnected.

Italian News - December 21

The first songs ever recorded  by  Italian comic
actor Toto'  have come to light  some  40  years
after the legendary Neapolitan  artist's  death.
The recordings are on a rare 78 rpm disc.

Italian Television - December 21

Grande Fratello  (Big Brother)  and  L'Isola Dei
Famosi  (Celebrity  Island)  were  punished  for
"violating the rules  of respect  for  religious
sentiment and protection of minors".

Italian News - December 20

Italian women are steadily catching up  with  men
when it comes to Internet use and among teenagers
the girls have even overtaken the boys, according
to the latest statistics.

Italian Sport - December 20

Siena is  the best place to live in Italy,  says
the annual study made by the authoritative daily
Il Sole 24 Ore.  The study  compared Italy's 103
provinces according to 36 parameters.

Italian News - December 19

Italian director Gabriele Muccino was overwhelmed
on Tuesday after his new film starring Will Smith
struck box  office  gold  in  the  United States,
raking in $27 million in its debut weekend.

Italian Sport - December 19

The Vatican may be the world's smallest state but
it is thinking of mustering  a  soccer team  that
could compete with the world's best, according to
Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone.

Italian News - December 16

Bologna city council's Nativity scene  was at the
centre of  a  heated  row  on  Friday  after  the
decision to include a naked figurine representing
a famous dead porno star.

Italian News - December 16

University  of  Bologna professor  Giorgio Celli
exposes the animals that are guilty of the seven
deadly sins in his  latest book: 'Animals' Seven
Capital Vices'.

Italian News - December 15

No carol concert at Bolzano nursery school.  Parents
and politicians protest. Head teacher says one pupil
in three is foreign. Imam says Jesus is holy for us,
too.

Italian News - December 15

Italian movie  composer  Ennio Morricone,  famed
for his work  on  such  "spaghetti westerns"  as
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,"  will  receive
an honorary Oscar.

Italian News - December 14

Racing gear worn by seven-time motorcycling champion
Valentino Rossi fetched  almost  35,000  euros  at a
charity auction on Wednesday in favor of the Gaslini
Children's Hospital in Genoa.

Italian News - December 14

Italian Sergio Leone's 1968 Western classic "Once
Upon a Time in the  West,"  like  so  many  films
stashed away in storerooms for decades,  has  not
aged well.

Italian News - December 13

The dreams that shaped Italian movie great Federico
Fellini's  masterpieces  will be presented for  the
first time at the  second  edition  of  Rome's Film
Festival next year.

Italian News - December 13

A letter chronicling  Michelangelo's  payments to
his assistants fetched a record price of $576,000
at Sotheby's.  Michelangelo's signed letter dates
from 1521.

Italian News - December 12

The city council in Padua  has voted to create a
domestic partner registry for same-sex  and  not
married couples. The leftist coalition-dominated
council voted 26-7 in favor of the motion.

Italian News / Music - December 12

Famous tenor Roberto Alagna, who quit La Scala on
Sunday night after being  booed  by  the  public,
said that he  would be back singing at the  Milan
opera house later this week.

Italian News - December 11

After opening to an avalanche of  controversy in
spring, Italy's first Museum of Eroticism failed
to arouse the Venetian public's interest and has
had to close.

Italian News - December 11

Italy is gearing up to mark the 10th anniversary
of the death of one of  its  best-known  actors,
Marcello Mastroianni, who died of cancer aged 72
on December 19, 1996 in Paris.

Italian News - December 9

A wedding dress made of fabric derived  from  maize
was modelled in Naples on Thursday as local farmers
and  researchers set out to show  that  these  days
anything can be biodegradable.

Italian News - December 9

The medieval 'foundling wheel', a device allowing
young women to abandon newborn babies anonymously,
is making a come-back at hospitals and  religious
institutions around Italy.

Italian Art - December 7

Michelangelo was the mind behind the mythological
dreamscape that draws thousands  of  visitors  to
the Monster Park  of Bomarzo  near  Viterbo  each
year.

Italian News - December 7

Milan's famed La Scala opera house opens its new
season tonight with a production of Verdi's Aida
that director Franco Zeffirelli  hopes will  re-
establish Italy's supremacy in the art of opera.

Italian News - December 6

A new exhibition in Rovereto  enables visitors to
discover the secrets of revolutionary car designs
of the past and take a  peek at the  motoring  of
the future.

Italian News - December 6

According to the Italian Food and Wine Institute,
exports of spumante and prosecco in 2006 will hit
the threshold  of  100  million bottles  for  the
first time ever.

Italian News - December 5

The young woman,  armed with a portable stereo  and
dressed in a black latex girdle, fishnet stockings,
black boots and cloth cat ears,  has  been  sighted
doing her dance on late-night trains.

Italian News - December 5

A poll out Monday  showed that 60%  of  Italians
side with Piergiorgio Welby,  a  terminally  ill
man  whose  request  to  die  has   stirred  the
euthanasia debate in Italy.

Italian News - December 5

Fiona May, the British-born former athlete is the
star of 'Butta la Luna' (Fling the Moon),  a  new
drama  about immigration  and  social integration
produced by state broadcaster Rai.

Italian News - December 2

Italy is recycling  more plastic waste each year
but there continues to be a major divide between
north and south, according to  figures  unveiled
at a conference in Catania.

Italian News - December 2

Italian  scientists  say  geological  evidence
suggests a  giant tsunami  resulted  from  the
collapse of the eastern flanks  of  Mount Etna
nearly 8,000 years ago.

Italian News - December 1

A 12-year-old turtle is to be  awarded  honorary
citizenship of Brancaleone,  a seaside resort in
southwest Italy,  after  being saved  from  near
death by locals.

Italian Science - December 1

Italian researchers hope the eye can be used as a
pathway to treat Alzheimer's disease.  In the new
approach nerve growth factor is put in eye  drops
to stop the degenerative disease in its tracks.