Italy

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Tenor Luciano Pavarotti Dies
Tenor Luciano Pavarotti Dies

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti Dies

Succumbs to cancer surrounded by family in hometown Italian villa

(Newser) - Opera star Luciano Pavarotti, one of the greatest tenors of the last century, died early this morning of pancreatic cancer, surrounded by his wife, sister and four daughters, in his hometown villa in Modena, Italy. He was 71. "The Maestro fought a long, tough battle," said his manager....

11 Top Italian Cooking Schools
11 Top Italian Cooking Schools 

11 Top Italian Cooking Schools

(Newser) - Savor that Italian vacation by taking a short course at one these cooking schools, highly recommended by Food & Wine magazine:
  1. Cucina con Vista, Florence
  2. Castello Banfi–Il Borgo, Montalcino
  3. Italian Food Artisans, Montepulciano

Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem
Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem

Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem

Italian organized crime gains a foothold across the border

(Newser) - Germany is finding its mafia problem harder to ignore after the murder of six men outside an Italian restaurant in Duisburg last week. The killings were part of a feud between two warring mafia clans, both of which have established major footholds in Germany, Der Spiegel reports. Police are now...

Italian Grapes Make Early Debut
Italian Grapes Make Early Debut

Italian Grapes Make Early Debut

Spooks Wine Country

(Newser) - This year's grape harvest in Italy will be unlike any one in living memory—for starters because it's happening in August. Because of sky-high temperatures and scanty rainfall, grapes are ripening three to four weeks ahead of normal schedules. Some grape growers blame it on global warming, but scientists warn...

6 Dead in Mafia Hit in Germany
6 Dead in Mafia Hit in Germany

6 Dead in Mafia Hit in Germany

Feud between Italian clans boils over with unprecedented cross-border eruption

(Newser) - Police are calling the killing of six Italians early today in Duisburg, Germany, a probable Mafia hit job, Der Spiegel reports. Five bodies with gunshot wounds to the head were found outside an Italian restaurant, and a sixth man died en route to the hospital. The incident is one of...

Italian Cops Bust Secret Iraqi Arms Deal

US kept in the dark as ministry ordered guns that might have outfitted militias

(Newser) - A secret transaction providing the Iraqi government with over $40 million worth of weapons was uncovered by Italian police investigating local Mafiosi, the Guardian reports. Without the knowledge of American military commanders, the Iraqi interior ministry had ordered 105,000 rifles from arms traffickers, ostensibly to supply police. Italian police...

Forget the Pyramids—to the Bat Cave!

Tall monuments are great, but what about the caverns under the surface?

(Newser) - To appreciate the earth's natural beauty, sometimes you have to dig under the surface. Jaunted tips you off to the best caves in the world.
  1. Waitomo Glow Worms Caves, New Zealand: Abseil down a tiny hole, black-water raft for 3 hours, and then see a glow-worm-studded cave ceiling.

Getty Sends Looted Art Home
Getty Sends Looted Art Home

Getty Sends Looted Art Home

Italy wins decades-long fight over illegally purchased antiquities

(Newser) - The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return to Italy 40 works of art, including some of the finest in the museum's collection, following a decades-long legal battle. The museum has agreed to give up dozens of  masterpieces that Italy claims were looted, including its signature 5th-century marble...

Antonioni Dead at 94
Antonioni Dead at 94

Antonioni Dead at 94

Great Italian filmmaker was behind ‘L’Avventura’ and ‘Blow-Up’

(Newser) - Michelangelo Antonioni, one of Italy’s most beloved filmmakers, died yesterday at age 94, after directing 25 films over nearly 50 years. His masterpieces of alienation, known for their nearly wordless, melancholic style, included "Red Desert" and "The Passenger." Immobilized by a stroke that left him mute,...

Mama Mia! Italian Foodies Raise a Stink About Garlic

Trendy chefs opting for subtler flavors

(Newser) - Rome's trendiest chefs and diners are trash-talking garlic, contending it's time to replace the smelly bulb, and claiming it  overpowers everything it touches, NPR reports. Once the only tool peasant farmers had to flavor their meager meals, garlic should give way to a subtle array of flavors available in an...

7 New Wonders Wear Crown
7 New Wonders Wear Crown

7 New Wonders Wear Crown

Online poll spreads the wealth to South America, Asia

(Newser) - The largest online poll ever conducted wrapped up yesterday, and today the results became official. The seven wonders of the modern world, which were announced in Portugal, include an Asian engineering triumph and a South American religious monument, but not the Great Pyramid of Giza—the Egyptian government refused to...

Pavarotti's New Album Could Be Finale

Tenor records sacred music while battling cancer

(Newser) - Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti is recording songs for what could be his last album as the 71-year-old tenor battles pancreatic cancer. His elder daughter reportedly told a magazine that he "knows he will die soon," but later insisted her words had been twisted. Doctors discovered the cancer last...

Police Nab 'Ninja' in Italy
Police Nab
'Ninja' in Italy

Police Nab 'Ninja' in Italy

Black-cloaked, bow-wielding bandit preyed on farmers 14th-century-style

(Newser) - A weeks-long manhunt in northern Italy for an elusive "ninja"-styled thief ended yesterday after cops pursued the robber as he fled through cornfields on a bicycle, the BBC reports. The culprit, his head wrapped in a black bandanna, had stolen onto several isolated farms at night and robbed...

'Heresy' Goes Digital
'Heresy' Goes Digital

'Heresy' Goes Digital

Italians Catholics renouncing their faith turn to the Web for help with 'debaptism'

(Newser) - Cutting ties with the Catholic Church is, in theory, a relatively simple matter known as "debaptism." More and more Italians who aren't worried about the Vatican's formal stance on what it calls "an act of apostasy, heresy or schism" are finding the documents they need online. Wired ...

Italy Tries CIA Agents Accused of Kidnapping Terror Suspect

Seized imam moved to Egypt for interrogation

(Newser) - The controversial trial in absentia of 25 CIA operatives and a former head of Italian intelligence opens today in Milan, just as President Bush arrives in Italy. The International Herald Tribune reports on the implications of the case, which centers on the abduction of a Muslim terror suspect who was...

Italy Acquits Five in "God's Banker" Murder

Judge cites insufficient evidence in 25-year-old mafia hanging

(Newser) - A judge in Rome exonerated five suspects on trial for the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, citing a lack of evidence. Calvi—known as "God's banker" for his closeness to the Vatican— was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London in a presumed suicide. Newly discovered forensic evidence led...

Naples Reeks as Garbage Dumps, Landfills Close

Trash crisis in tourist mecca heats up along with weather

(Newser) - Mounds of smelly garbage are piling up in the streets of Naples, as a shortage of places to dump it has reached a crisis: the last landfill in Naples closed Saturday. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is pleading with politicians and citizens to save the the country's image, the Times reports.

German Firm Buys Tuscan Hamlet
German Firm Buys Tuscan Hamlet

German Firm Buys Tuscan Hamlet

Five remaining Italians see red (and yellow and black) as Goths invade

(Newser) - A German company has bought up an entire town in Northern Italy, with plans to convert it into a giant "holiday world" resort. The Guardian reports that Hanover-based tour giant TUI payed upwards of $340 million for the 13th-century Tuscan village of Tenuta di Castelfalfi, whose crumbling ramparts, squares...

Rome Deal Creates World's 5th-Largest Bank

(Newser) - Italian lenders UniCredit and Capitalia yesterday inked a $29.7 billion deal to create a bank with the world's fifth (and Europe's second) largest market cap. The hurried Rome merger indicates, according to the Wall Street Journal, a rush to consolidate Europe's banking sector, but also the persistent challenges to...

Polish Artist Installs Huge Nude Balloon in Italy

(Newser) - Polish artist Pawel Althamer has placed a 70-foot long nude balloon in a plaza in Milan. It is a self-portrait of the artist.  In Italy such a sculpture is "nothing new."   A passing American commented that it "wouldn't fly" in the U.S.

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