Italy has no tradition of ladies proposing on 29th February. However a third of Italian ladies say they would be prepared to do the asking themselves. Of these 29% said they would like to propose by posting a video on the Internet so that friends could watch and comment on their performance, whereas 16% would prefer to propose on live television, while 10% would opt for a large advertising billboard on the streets.
Instead, February 29th was Rare Diseases Day in Italy. About 1 million Italians say they have a rare disease.
In an operation called Red Passion Italian police arrested 15 people in a nationwide crackdown on imitation Ferraris. The customers are aware that they are buying a fake but they are proving very popular. Two years ago the EU's justice commissioner, an Italian, Franco Frattini, caused a diplomatic incident by claiming to have spotted a fake 1967 Ferrari in China.
Sicilian crime writer Andrea Camilleri has been ranked among the 50 greatest ever in a list published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Hard on the heels of its rubbish crisis, Naples is running out of burial sites. About 60 people die in the city every day.
In Italy, fewer than 10% of people are cremated, compared to an average of 36% for Europe.
In 2006, there were 130,000 terminated pregnancies in Italy, 44.6 per cent fewer than in 1982. The comparable figure for the UK is 190,000
Whilst Italy and the UK spend around the same total per head on health, 25% more Italians go private.
German producers have been banned from using the label ‘Parmesan’ for fake Parmigiano cheese
The Sanremo festival, a competition which showcases Italy’s unique tradition of lyrical songs, has been a flop this year with lowest ever audience numbers. Superstar singer Loredana Berte has been banned for copying a 1988 song ‘The Last Secret’ but she will sing anyway.
Italy’s dependency ratio of slightly over 50 per cent (two workers to each dependent) is causing concern
In Prato, Tuscany, the Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross will be made in Chinese during Lent. Father Giuseppe Zhao will perform mass in Mandarin.
Italy has marked World Slow Day with a host of initiatives reminding people to ''slow down to live better'', including Rome's second annual Slow Marathon, in the Trastevere area of the city. Athletes attempt to cover 300 metres in not less than an hour and 27 minutes without stopping. In Milan culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi has invited citizens to the Teatro Franco Parenti to hear him reading Dante through the night. Unmissable.
A 'gentleman thief' who presented his victims with red roses has been caught in Genova. Police said they had tracked down the man, 48, by following the trail left by his flowers at various shops
The number of candidates running for the post of premier in Italy's April general elections has reduced to the unusually low figure of nine
The comedian Beppe Grillo is announcing candidates for his ‘F*** Off’ party. Candidate for governor of Sicily is Sonia Alfano, daughter of the journalist Beppe Alfano who was murdered by the mafia in 1993
Walter Veltroni, leader of the centre left Democratic Party, on a 12,000km campaign tour of Italy in a green, eco-friendly bus has been fined €70 for a seat-belt violation
Rome hosts a festival dedicated to magic. Magicians from around the world will attend the show, entitled 'The Reality of Illusion'. Visitors have been put off, believing it to be a political demonstration.
Gianni Mattiolo, one of Italy's best known magicians, will seek to create the largest physical illusion ever seen in the country. It is believed to be Walter Veltroni winning the election
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