Italian News Midsummer

The hot weather has begun in Italy, with temperatures over 30C. People who were last week complaining about the cold are complaining about the heat.

Central Italy has been found to be moving slowly eastwards. Within 100,000 years the Adriatic will no longer exist.

The diocese of Rome has refused permission to the makers of the prequel of the Da Vinci code to film in the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria in the city centre. A bourbon palace in Caserta will represent the Vatican where, understandably, they are not wanted either.

Italy has roughly the same population as the UK and roughly the same length of railway, but nearly twice the length of motorway

Coast guards checking safety standards on the beach at Imperia discovered that a lifeguard had taken a break from his post, leaving in his place an inflatable doll, wearing his shirt and with his whistle in its mouth.

In an attempt to break Italy’s backlog of cases, the government proposes to suspend trials relating to crimes committed before June 30 2002, excluding those where the defendant could receive a jail sentence of more than ten years or those connected to the mafia or workplace accidents.

Coincidentally this would include a corruption trial involving Silvio Berlusconi and British corporate lawyer David Mills, although Berlusconi as said he will not avail himself of the law.

The number of women holding top-level company director posts in Italy has increased by over 28,000 in the last five years, although it lags behind the European average.

Italian scientists are creating a genetic database to conserve the taste and smells of Italy's different tomato varieties, such as the San Marzano plum tomato and the pink Sorrento tomato.

Florence will revoke the 700-year-old sentence which forced Dante into exile for the rest of his life. Five councillors opposed the motion which would be ''a decisive step towards Dante's complete rehabilitation''.

Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, where he was buried. ‘Dante’s tomb’ in Florence’s Santa Croce church is empty.

Judge Edi Pinatto, whose failure to write up a sentence over an eight-year period left convicted Mafia bosses at loose in Sicily has been dismissed from the judiciary, although he may appeal. He has said that all judges do it.

The Court of Cassation has ruled that the Carabinieri cannot have extramarital affairs because they besmirch the honour of the corps. It is still permitted in the local and provincial police.
Italy has 34,000 hectares of vineyards dedicated to the production of organic wine, the largest of any country, out of a total of 80,000 worldwide.

An increasing number of Italian wine producers are making kosher wine. ’In order to respect Jewish law, it is necessary for only observers of the Jewish faith to come into direct contact with the wine. Therefore we have two Jewish employees who actually make the wine while the rest of our staff offer their advice,' said Alesandro Calmieri of Feudi di San Gregorio. A similar procedure operates for inorganic wine (two people doing the work, the rest offering advice).

Italy is number five in the world and first in Europe for producing organic foods, which take up 1.147 million hectares of the country's farmland. There are 51,000 organic farmers in Italy who produce a turnover of 2.2 billion euros.

A dentist in Genova is offering his services on the Internet in exchange for sex. His professional body is investigating whether this is in breach of its ethics code.

Italy's black economy fell to a maximum of 17% of gross national product in 2006 down from 9% in 2000. Italy includes the underground economy in GDP estimates

Italian researchers at Catania University have been the first to observe the formation and emission of helium-2 nuclei, a new type of radioactivity that opens up fresh avenues for research. The new nuclei are extremely unstable and have a half-life of less than a billionth of a second before they decay, so they were able to observe them between coffees.

Students taking English as part of the maturita exam (A-levels) were given as a text an online interview by a Yemeni journalist with the German-born owners of a resort at Swakopmund in Namibia, ‘a funky guest-house’ . The text, in halting English, was described as ‘almost incomprehensible’ by a language teacher. The chief examiner has been dismissed.

The end of an era: there has been widespread dismay at a proposal by the State Railway to end the dining car service, replacing it with a snack bar. Many Italians expect a full meal on long journeys.

The new security bill before parliament includes a proposal to put 2,500 troops on patrol in large cities alongside police, restrictions on magistrates' use of phone tapping in investigations and the expulsion of EU citizens unable to prove they have "sufficient economic resources" to stay in Italy for more than three months, a measure aimed above all at Romanians.

However, following Finance Minister Tremonti’s first budget Romanians are asking whether Italy has the resources to support them for more than three months.