There’s a special joy in finding a secret travel destination that no one else knows about. Sure, sharing it does slightly dull your smug grin, but you can’t lay claim to a beautiful spot. So spill your travel secrets…
Italy
Who owns David?
Michelangelo’s David is not a free man. A battle has broken out in Italy over whether the nation or the city of Florence owns him. The mayor of Florence declares it a “David vs. Goliath” war.
New media may challenge Berlusconi’s grip on power
Technological improvement may be shaping the Italian media landscape in such way as to undermine Silvio Berlusconi’s future grip on national media. Crikey intern — and proud Italian — Patrick Tombola reports.
What elections? Berlusconi silences the Italian media
Significant regional elections are coming up in Italy, yet thanks to PM Silvio Berlusconi’s control over Italian TV — and the expectation that results won’t be kind to Berlusconi — they will hardly rate a mention.
A tale of two Romes
Rome, the city where tourists live peacefully — minus their cameras — with a huge homeless population. It might not always be pretty, but it makes for interesting travelling, writes Tristan.
Berlusconi busted trying to censor the press
After learning that the state broadcaster was to show a program focused on corruption cases against him, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi went on a tirade against the country’s broadcasting regulator.
Guy Rundle: A panini brings Berlusconi to the brink of constitutional crisis
It takes anti-talent to bring Italy to the brink of a constitutional crisis not despite but because officials followed the rules — but Silvio Berlusconi appears to have done so, writes Guy Rundle from Rome.
Guy Rundle: Rundle in Rome: a violet day in protest to Berlusconi
How does one begin to explain Silvio Berlusconi floating over Italy like a giant inflatable pig this last decade and a half?
VIDEO: Italy’s pasta mafia
As Mamma Spaghetti would say: itsa not nice! Italy’s top five pasta makers have been accused of forming a “pasta cartel”, fixing prices and causing the cost of spag in the country to skyrocket by 36%
How immigants to Italy are enslaved by the mafia
Impoverished African and Eastern European immigrants to Italy are being trapped into a mafia-controlled employment racket that sees them working 10-14-hour days for $3 an hour.
Inside the Italian Mafia
Roberto Saviano is the author of a best-selling book that exposes the inner workings of the most powerful, but least known Italian Mafia groups, Naples’ Camorra. He takes Vice inside their vicious and violent world.
gross VIDEO: Pow! Berlusconi gets punched in the face
Raw footage of bloodied Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi directly after being hit in the face with a small statue following a rally in Milan. He was left with a broken nose. Warning: it’s quite graphic.
Europe’s secret nukes
Europe’s “dirty secret” is that four non-nuclear states — Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — have nuclear bombs and air forces capable of dropping them, reports TIME. Is it time for this Cold War anachronism to end?
Silvio Berlusconi: Rolling Stone‘s Rockstar of the Year
The Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine has named Playboy PM Silvio Berlusconi as its “Rockstar of the Year” for his “lifestyle worthy of the greatest rock star.”
Why policies are more important than rhetoric
There isn’t as much obnoxious rhetoric by foreign governments on asylum seekers as you might assume, writes Andrew Bartlett. And the rhetoric isn’t as horrific as sending people back home to imprisonment, torture or death.
How Italy’s Taliban bribery got French soldiers killed
When French soldiers arrived in the Afghan region of Sarobi last year, they believed the area to be peaceful. Ten dead and mutilated soldiers later, it’s clear they were wrong. And it was Italy who misled them.
Mussolini was a British agent
Newly discovered documents have revealed that, at age 34, Benito Mussolini was paid a regular wage by British spy agency MI5 to publish propaganda in his paper and beat up peace protesters.
Berlusconi’s Ministry of Truth
Silvio Berlusconi’s ongoing war against newspapers saying nasty things about him continues, with the Italian PM assembling a crack team of journos and PR hacks to monitor the world’s media for mean comments and “bombard those newsrooms with truthful and positive news.”
Berlusconi may yet get his day in court
Silvio Berlusconi is not Italy’s head of state — just its head of government. If the country’s minister is a crook, the courts need to be given the opportunity to say so.
Berlusconi gets busted: Italy’s love affair ends
PM Silvio Berlusconi will now face prosecution against charges of fraud, corruption, tax evasion and bribery, with an Italian court stripping him of immunity. Italians can forgive the perma-tan and philandering but not this, says Richard Owen.
The Italian Mafia’s new standover men: crocodiles
Because sometimes guys in suits carrying violin cases just aren’t scary enough: an Italian Mafia boss has been using a 1.7m crocodile to shake-down people for protection money.
Berlusconi sues the European media
Irreverent Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is launching legal action against a series of media outlets across Europe for their coverage of his private life, which his lawyer describes as an “intolerable campaign” of slander.
Women break through Italian Mafia’s glass ceiling
Score one for the sisterhood: Female mobsters — or “Godmothers” — are on the rise amongst high-ranking members of Naples area crime families, as their husbands get knocked off or go to prison.
Italian bank accepts cheesy collateral
Credito Emiliano SpA in northern Italy is accepting parmesan cheese as collateral to keep the region’s cheesemakers in business while the country weathers the recession. The bank’s vaults now hold 17,000 tons of high-quality parmesan, each 80-pound wheel valued at about 300 euros.
Silvio and scandal: a Crikey timeline
Italian billionaire media tycoon and three-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is no stranger to gaffes and sex scandals. We take a look at some of the Latin lothario’s greatest hits.
