Italy

A bereaved Italian has reacted to Rome’s funeral crisis by putting up 9×7-metre digital billboardsbearing the words, “Mum, I’m sorry I’ve not been able to have you buried yet”. “There are hundreds of coffins waiting,” said Oberdan Zuccaroli, whose mother died of a heart attack on March 8. His aunt, who died on January 9, is […]

Turkey has been left angered by Italian prime minister Mario Draghi after he branded the country’s president a “dictator” for humiliating European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The comments about Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows tension between EU leaders and the Turkish government after claims Von der Leyen had been snubbed at a key meeting in the country’s capital. The […]

JAMES BALL on Europe’s very uneven vaccine rollout. With so much riding on the vaccine rollout across Europe, it is perhaps unsurprising it has been quite so tempestuous and bad-tempered. Governments have been accusing one another of irresponsibility, of cheating on supplies, or botching their rollouts. Last week, Italy even stopped a shipment of vaccines destined for […]

The news you might have missed from around Europe, selected by Steve Anglesey. Cyprus’ Eurovision entry is at the centre of protests over its supposedly sacrilegious lyrics. El Diablo by Elena Tsagrinou has scandalised some in the island nation, dominated by the Greek Orthodox church, with lines like: “I gave my heart to El Diablo” […]

Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times, on the task facing Mario Draghi, the man dragged out to rescue his country. Late last autumn, Mario Draghi sat in his house in Umbria waiting, half in dread, for the inevitable call from Rome. Almost a year had passed since his departure as president of the European […]

Italy’s new leader enters office with plenty of experience and esteem. But he will need even more than that to tackle the monumental task facing him, says Esmé O’Keeffe. Last Wednesday Mario Draghi became the latest Italian to receive a summons to the Quirinale and to trek up the highest hill in Rome to the palace – once home to […]

Emma Luck on the singer who shook up Italy. When the long-awaited call came for a meeting with Elvis’ manager Colonel Parker and the King himself in Memphis, Little Tony leapt at the chance. Known as ‘the Italian Elvis’, the performer had always acknowledged the influence of his American hero. It was not hard to […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks back on the life of Giovanni Falcone who played an instrumental role in bringing down the mafia. One hot Sicilian night in July 2017 somebody attacked a statue in a piazza in the poor San Filippo Neri neighbourhood of Palermo. They meant business too. It took a determined effort to knock the […]

Forty years ago this week saw one of the most audacious and tragic acts of political terror of the 20th century. And, as PATRICK SAWER ​reports, its riddles still cast a long shadow over Italy The image is seared onto the memory of most Italians of a certain age – in much the same the […]

Amidst the chaos of Brexit comes clarity from afar. Italian journalist and Anglophile PAOLA PEDUZZI provides a plaintive view of her beloved UK As Brexit edges closer, my overwhelming feeling is one of sadness. I love Britain. I always have. I hope I always will. But this sadness stems not just from what I fear […]

Opera has a long history of shaping national identity – much to the annoyance of some. PATRICK SAWER looks at its impact in Italy and, perhaps more surprisingly, in the UK Arriving in Britain from his native Germany in 1710, George Frideric Handel wasted no time making an impression on what would now be called […]