Italian News Easter Edition

This Easter is the earliest since 1913 and there will not be another as early until 2160.

It has caused a problem in Italy in that Italians usually go away for Easter, and the weather is less clement than in mid-late April. Next year it will fall on April 12th

Over seven million Italians have left their homes for the long weekend. 85% will stay in Italy of which more than a third will go to the seaside. Nearly a quarter of Italian holidaymakers go to their own holiday home.

Italian animal rights associations have launched their annual plea for people to leave lamb and goat off the menu at Easter and eat sheep made of marzipan instead. Italians eat 536,000 lambs, 72,000 adult sheep and 56,000 goats over Easter.

Italy has more school caretakers than carabinieri, numbering 167,000. That is more than 15 per school and an average of more than two per class.

Florentine magistrates are investigating whether God exists, in pursuit of a claim of false exorcism against a priest for giving the benediction in church. Last year magistrates in Chiavari investigated what was meant by ‘art’. There is a huge backlog of cases in Italy, investigating magistrates claiming they don’t have enough time.

Silvio Berlusconi said he would veto Air France’s takeover of Alitalia if elected. He has urged an Italian solution, saying his children would participate.

Berlusconi declared an income of 139,245,570 euros last year, almost five times more than he declared a year earlier. The poorest political leader was Communist Refoundation secretary Franco Giordano, who in 2006 declared an income of 126,802 euros.

Researchers from the universities of Turin and Parma have developed a new form of aspirin which does not attack the stomach lining.

Italian researchers have developed a pill to cure chocolate cravings. They say 40% of women in western countries are chocoholics.

A prisoner from the Abruzzo given special dispensation to travel to Rome to attend a papal audience escaped from St Peter's Square. Magistrates will investigate whether the Pope exists.

The Apennine mountains are moving north-east to south-west at a rate of between one and three millimetres a year.

22 private investigators, accused of planting bugs in or under cars to get proof of marital infidelity, have been acquitted on the grounds that a car is not a residence and the privacy laws do not apply.

According to a study by Censis, in the forthcoming elections half the electorate will decide their vote on the values and principals of the parties or candidates. Party policies decide the vote for only a quarter while the personality of the leader is important for less than 14%. More than 40% of young people base their vote on the quality of the campaign.

Silvio Berlusconi is still ahead in the polls.

Researchers have discovered that coffee dregs can be used as a clean organic fuel.''The dregs make ideal fuel for stoves and boilers,'' said Roberto Lavecchia and Antonio Zuorro of Rome's La Sapienza University. The coffee residue was also useful in the removal of heavy metals, the researchers said. Around 70 million cups of coffee are drunk in Italy daily.

Two people have bought helicopters with interior design by Versace, one of them Ion Tiriac the former tennis champion

Italy exported over two million Parma hams last year, but more than three quarters of production was eaten in Italy

Italy's first university campus has been inaugurated at Pisa, one of the most important universities in the country. Pisa numbers 55,000 students, small by Italian standards (La Sapienza in Rome has over 200,000, mostly studying coffee dregs, whereas Oxford has fewer than 20,000). There will be beds for just 800 students of which 260 will be doubles. The rest will continue to commute

The interest on Italy’s national debt amounts to 70 billion euros a year

Pirated handbags and DVDs account for £5bn of Mafia income and the food industry £5.2bn, according to Tano Grasso, the head of Italy's anti-racketeering commission.

Gaetano Bastianelli, 57, is trying to overturn his purchase of an Umbrian farmhouse, on the grounds that the vendors should have told him it was haunted. According to his lawyer he has witnessed ''strange occurrences'' such as banging on the walls, furniture falling over without being touched and objects bursting into flame although these symptoms can be caused by the local grappa.

The names of Italian holders of Liechtenstein bank accounts being leaked to the press include Senator Luigi Grillo, EuroMP Vito Bonsignore, and a dog called Gunther.

Tuscany has passed a new law allowing pets into art galleries, theatres, restaurants, cinemas, post offices, museums and beaches. Gunther has to spend his money somewhere.