The Italian Almanac

Italian News - February 28

The  Giffoni Film Festival (GFF)  for  children
is going to Australia. The 35-year-old festival
has set up a new branch in  Sydney  which  will
stage a sister event there.

Italian News - February 28

Italian luxury jewelry firm Bulgari is to help save
the  crumbling  gravestones  of  Rome's  Protestant
cemetery,  the burial place of  English poets  John
Keats and Percy Shelley.

Italian News - February 26

Adult toys  jostled for space with  cotton  pads
and cough syrup on pharmacy shelves in Rome this
week,  but a rash of publicity has prompted shop
owners to withdraw them from view.

Italian News - February 26

Italy  has not  merely lost its allure as  a  holiday
destination: it no longs appeals to its own citizens.
According to a Eurispes survey, about 37% of Italians
would move to another country if they could.

Italian News - February 25

An Ornithological Museum at Marostica near Venice
has set up  Europe's first professional school in
the ancient art, which can be traced back through
the medieval nobility.

Italian News - February 25

The forthcoming publication of the 'Gospel of Judas'
has sparked fears  among some  Catholic  theologians
that it could give people wrong ideas about the  man
who is famous for betraying Jesus Christ.

Italian News - February 24

Vladimir Luxuria says she shares something with
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: they both dab
on  make-up  and  wear heels  to make them look
taller. The similarities end there.

Italian News - February 24

Online love is booming, with a growing number of
people turning to the internet to find  partners
through chatrooms ,  blog sites,  newsgroups and
bulletin boards.

Italian Sport - February 23

Enrico Fabris' Winter Games are not over yet,
but the 24-year-old  speed skater is  already
being  hailed as  Italy's hero  of the  Turin
Winter Olympics.

Italian News - February 23

Italian pop princess Laura Pausini, who recently
became the first Italian woman to win a  Grammy,
has  now  been awarded  one of the country's top
honours for achievements in the arts.

Italian News / Art - February 22

The 90 large-scale images feature a series of
Newton's legendary explorations of the female
form,  as well  as  lesser-known  travel  and
landscape studies.

Italian News - February 22

An exhibition of costumes from  Bertolucci's  Oscar
winning  movie  The Last Emperor  has kicked off  a
rich programme of events giving an oriental flavour
to this year's Venice Carnevale.

Italian News - February 22

After an absence of 13 years, legendary Italian
motorcycle maker Gilera is  to  return  to  the
250cc class in world championship  racing.  The
team has hired Italian riders for both bikes.

Italian News - February 21

The Russian Olympic delegation in Turin has been
accused  of shipping  large quantities of  black
caviar  into  Italy  and  breaking international
environmental conventions.

Italian News - February 21

The muses of classical antiquity are  appearing
at the Colosseum in a new show spotlighting the
workings of artistic creation.  The  exhibition
features statues, vases and frescoes.

Italian News - February 19

Italian journalists have coined 5,000 new  words
over the last five years, many of them come from
English,  according to a book from the  National
Research Center.

Italian News - February 19

The Turin Winter Olympics is proving  to be
more popular on the Internet than  the 2004
Summer Games in Athens. The Torino 2006 Web
site had 50 million hits on Wednesday.

Italian News - February 18

Italy's Constitutional Court  criticized a law
preventing children from taking their mother's
name but said it was powerless to  change  the
situation.

Italian News - February 18

An Italian clothes firm is producing  jeans
that are tailor-made for the Islamic world.
The  trousers are  the brainchild  of  Luca
Corradi, an Italian stylist.

Italian News - February 17

Curling has gained a record television audience
in Italy at the  Turin Winter Olympics.  Nearly
five million Italians tuned in to watch Italy's
unranked men.

Italian Recipes - February 17

These fritters are a specialty of the Veneto
during Carnevale. Be warned, they are highly
addictive! The fritole are much  more than a
donut or a simple fritter.

Italian News - February 16

Recurrent reports of a panther on the loose  in
the capital spurred police to put  out  an  all
points bulletin for the big cat. It was Italy's
sixth panther alert in just over a decade.

Italian News - February 16

Italy's highest administrative court ruled
on Wednesday that crucifixes should remain
in the country's classrooms as a symbol of
key Italian values.

Italian News / Movies - February 15

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci is about to
get back behind the camera to make a movie about
terrorism. The flick will be an adaptation  of a
best-selling novel by US writer Ann Patchett.

Italian Television - February 15

Five of Italy's top fashion designers have
been called in to splash an extra dose  of
glamour onto a glitzy  song contest  which
becomes a national obsession every spring.

Italian News - February 14

Priceless jewels which once belonged to Italy's
royal family  could soon emerge from the  dusty
vault where the Bank of Italy has kept them for
nearly 60 years.

Italian Science - February 14

Italy has found a new way of treating pain that
could  be  used where traditional methods  have
failed.  The new compound holds out  hope for a
string of crippling conditions.

Italian News - February 12

Italy is set to dig up more of the Medici family in
a bid to discover the buried secrets of  Florence's
dynasty, to find out more about how the opulent and
sometimes murderous family lived and died.

Italian News - February 12

Russia and Italy plan to  conduct  large-scale
naval exercises, Ionex-2006, in the Ionian Sea
in 2006,"  Russia's Deputy Prime Minister  and
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

Italian News - February 11

More than 4,700 performers,  including fast-moving
skaters with fiery rocket packs, dancers and  even
dancing cows opened the festivities. The worldwide
television audience was estimated at two billion.

Italian Art - February 11

Mantua is paying tribute to Andrea Mantegna on
the 500th anniversary of his death with a wide
ranging show charting his immense contribution
to cultural Renaissance in the 15th century.

Italian News / Music - February 10

The Italian pop princess,  who picked up this 
year's Grammy award for best Latin pop album, 
received dozens of messages of congratulation 
from fellow singers. 

Italian News - February 10

Researchers have produced futuristic  clothing
able to monitor their wearer's environment and
help protect them from danger. The clothes are
created using micro and nanotechnology.

Italian News - February 9

Opera star Luciano Pavarotti will sing at the
opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.  The
singer has  recently been on a farewell  tour
that is expected to last several years.

Italian Science - February 9

A chemical in the wine slows ageing and wards
off two things the elderly often gripe about,
feeling weaker and slower on the uptake, the
scientists said.

Italian News - February 8

Turin's richly stocked National Cinema Museum
has been revamped ready to shine for the 20th
Winter Olympics. The new-look museum will  be
uncovered Thursday.

Italian News - February 8

Italy has finished the huge task of hauling
tonnes  of measuring  devices up Everest to
build  the  world's  highest   station  for
analysing the atmosphere.

Italian News - February 8

Dante Alighieri Manila is the first  Filipino
branch of Società Dante Alighieri, one of the
most  prestigious Italian  nonprofit cultural
organizations.

Italian News - February 7

An Italian priest who runs a music label  of
religious  songs  said  that Michael Jackson
could be one of several artists to sing on a
CD of Pope John Paul II's prayers.

Italian News - February 7

The fans at the Turin Games won't be the only
ones cheering  on  their  favorite  Olympians
starting this weekend.  They'll get some help
from cheerleaders.

Italian News - February 5

Too many youngsters whose perfect peachy skin,
gangly legs and flat chests  make  them  ideal
clothes-horses are being exploited  as  models
before they are mature enough to cope.

Italian News - February 5

Hadrian's Villa  has  unveiled its latest secret,
a monumental staircase complete with huge columns
and a giant sphinx.  "Extraordinary finds,"  said
the archaeologist who made the discoveries.

Italian News - February 4

Internationally recognized  jazz  pianist,
Romano  Mussolini,  the  youngest  son  of 
Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, 
died on Friday at the age of 78.

Italian News - February 4

Italians are notorious across Europe  for
staying at home longer than any other but
according to a new report  their  parents
could be the ones to blame.

Italian News - February 3

The search for George Clooney lookalikes
has moved from America to Lake Como. The
actor burst out laughing when he saw his
double.

Italian News - February 3

Italians can be fined for using traditional
insulting gestures against fellow motorists
but are free to use the Italian  language's
full vocabulary of obscenities.

Italian Music - February 2

Italian pop princess Laura Pausini has  been
nominated for one of this year's prestigious
Grammy music awards. She believes she has  a
strong chance of actually winning.

Italian Movies - February 2

A Rome court has ruled that men have no monopoly
over Waiting for Godot, dismissing objections to
the use of actresses in an Italian production of
the play.

Italian News - February 2

The Europolis fair seeks both to give a  view
of the metropolis of the future and provide a
showcase for new products that can make  life
easier for city-dwellers today.

Italian Movies - February 1

The Italian film La Bestia nel Cuore (Don't
Tell) has been nominated to compete in  the
best foreign film category for the upcoming
Oscar awards.

Italian News - February 1

Italy will be able to use Swiss air space to
make sure the 2006 Winter Olympics in  Turin
are safe from airborne threats, according to
an agreement signed on Tuesday.