Italian News

Italian families can expect to spend over 1,000 euros more next year for food, utilities and fuel, according to the consumer rights group Codacons.
Police in Rome seized 2.2 tons of Chinese fireworks which had counterfeit authorization labels and had higher amounts of explosive power than what had been written on the packages. Value for money!

Among those arrested for illegal possession of fireworks was a 38-year-old man in Brindisi who was taken to jail after police found 120kg of illegal fireworks in his home. He was at home because he was under house arrest for possession of, yes, 400kg of illegal fireworks.
There has not been a single firework-related fatality in Italy since New Year's Eve 2000: most are so powerful they explode in neighbouring countries.

Discussion of El Sobrepaso continues. At present the EU and the Spanish believe Spain has overtaken Italy in GDP per head while the IMF and the Italians believe it has not. In absolute terms, all agree that average income in Italy is higher than in Spain by 25,263 euros to 22,294 euros.

Rubbish has been heaped in the streets in and around Naples for days and many piles set alight on New Year's Eve were still smoking on Wednesday, sending toxic fumes across the city.Elsewhere, police had to move in to break up a renewed protest against a new rubbish incinerator and all six waste-disposal plants in the Campania region had to close down because of demonstrators stopping the packed rubbish leaving their gates.European Commission Environment Spokesman Stavros Dimas – incredibly they have selected someone from the only European city that is worse - said there were ''dangerous'' levels of dioxin in the air and they will weigh whether to take action in the coming days

Pope Benedict, who had a tough act to follow, appears to be an unexpected success. Nearly three million pilgrims came to Rome in 2007 to hear the weekly audiences and Sunday addresses which compares favourably with the numbers that came to hear his Polish predecessor. The 'Peter's Pence' offerings made by lay Catholics to support the upkeep of the Holy See. In 2007 the total nearly doubled to 102 million dollars. Meanwhile, Vatican Radio said on Thursday that sales of Benedict's last book, Jesus of Nazareth, have now reached two million. By the end of 2008 the volume will be on sale in 50 countries. That’s what comes of having a German in charge.

The news agency ANSA reported on the same day that Italy's annual inflation rate dropped to an eight-year-low of 1.8% in 2007 and that inflation rose to a four-year high of 2.6% in December. Both are true.

Italian Tocai wine has been without a name for several months after it was banned for sounding like Hungarian Tokay. It is now agreed that wine produced for export will be called 'Friulano', while wine for domestic consumption can be called either 'Tocai Friulano' or just Friulano, the choice up to the producer. Clear?

The Ecopass – a tax on driving polluting vehicles in the city centre - has been introduced in Milan. However, most left it to the last minute to apply, by internet or phone line, and both payment channels promptly broke down under the weight of calls. But Transport Police admitted the key test would come on Monday 7th when the city really returned to work. ''It's going to be much more hectic. Then we'll be dancing a tarantella,'' said one officer.

Italians gained an average of between two and three kilos over the Christmas and New Year's holidays and will now have to stick to a fruit and vegetable diet and take more exercise if they want to lose the undesired weight, said officials. Dancing the tarantella with the traffic police is not recommended.

A manufacturer of torrone – like nougat - is putting together a 400m-long torrone snake which it aims to wind through the streets of Camerino (Marche) on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, when Italian children receive a second helping of sweets and gifts from a legendary witch called the Befana.The Torrone Francucci shop is bidding for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest calorie tarantella ever performed.