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Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourismAuthorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a “theme park” as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (£4.30) charge, which comes...

Home secretary visits Lampedusa in Italy as National Audit Office says scheme could surpass £580m by 2030Several flights a month will deport asylum seekers to Rwanda “indefinitely”, the home secretary has said, as he argued that the £1.8m a person cost of the scheme was justified.James Cleverly, in his first interview since the government’s plan was approved by parliament on Monday, said he had...

Outcry over cancellation of Antonio Scurati’s Rai talkshow appearance as note says move was taken ‘for editorial reasons’A high-profile Italian author has accused Rai of censorship after his antifascist monologue was abruptly stopped from being aired, in what he called the “definitive demonstration” of alleged attempts by Giorgia Meloni’s government to wield its power over the state broadcaster.Antonio Scurati was due to read the...

Pope Francis to attend installation that includes short film featuring Zoë Saldaña and Giudecca inmatesOriginally a convent dating to the 13th century, and once a reformatory for prostitutes, the Giudecca women’s prison, set on an island in the Venetian lagoon, will this summer perform a quite different role: as the official pavilion for the Vatican at this year’s Venice Biennale.Pope Francis is due to...

Investigation urged into alleged bid to turn Rai into propaganda channel for ruling parties before electionsThe European commission has been urged to investigate alleged attempts by Italy’s far-right government to turn the public broadcaster, Rai, into a “megaphone” for the ruling parties ahead of the European elections.The appeal from the European Green party came after the Italian parliament’s supervisory committee for Rai approved a...

Health, jobs, defence, security and climate crisis all seen as more important than immigration with June elections approachingIrregular migration is not the top priority for European voters despite the prominence of the issue in the media and political campaigning by rightwing parties over the last year, a new survey commissioned by the European parliament shows.The Eurobarometer poll which tracks public opinions every quarter puts...

‘Black room’ with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern ItalyA banquet room replete with well preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war has been unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most striking discoveries ever made at the southern Italy archaeological site.The...

A search is continuing for the missing after parts of the structure collapsed and led to flooding at Enel’s power station near BolognaAn explosion at a hydroelectric plant in northern Italy has killed at least three workers and injured five others, a regional fire chief said. At least four other people are missing.The blast on Tuesday was at power company Enel’s decades-old Bergi plant,...

Mayor makes offer after number of goats on Alicudi reaches six times human populationThe mayor of a remote Italian island overrun by wild goats has offered to give the animals away to anyone willing to take one in.Riccardo Gullo came up with the novel idea after a recent census estimated the number of goats on the five-square kilometre Alicudi, the smallest of Sicily’s Aeolian...

Scheme was founded in 2012 to prevent at-risk children being enticed by Italy’s most powerful mafia, the ’NdranghetaA project to save children from Italy’s biggest mafia by removing them from mob families is being extended to organised crime groups in Sicily and Naples, the justice ministry has announced.The scheme aims to prevent at-risk children from following their parents into a life of crime, breaking...

Brussels vote cancelled after it became clear law would not pass final stage with majority voteThe EU’s nature restoration laws appear on the verge of collapse after eight member states, including Hungary and Italy, withdrew support for the legislation.The laws, which have been two years in the making and are designed to reverse decades of damage to wildlife on land and in waterways, were...

Police were called to reports of dangerous driving in Bondeno, northern Italy, in the early hours of the morningPolice in Italy have fined a 103-year-old woman who was caught driving an uninsured car at night with an expired driving licence.Officers received a call at about 1am reporting a vehicle being driven dangerously in the centre of Bondeno, a town with about 13,000 inhabitants near...

Gangs steal ‘liquid gold’ amid shortages and surging prices after extreme weather damages harvestsOlive oil has become the most stolen product in supermarkets across Spain, with organised criminal gangs targeting the “liquid gold” to resell on the hidden market, according to new figures.Olive oil is now the most shoplifted product in regions that account for 70% of the country’s population, the Financial Times reports....

Latin-inscribed artwork tells story of Walter Tirel, whose son killed British monarchThe Italian descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate a work of art partly depicting William’s death to a British museum.The three-slab triptych is owned by the Tirelli family, whose aristocratic origins can be traced back to France, for over 400 years. They have said they believe it was made by...

Highest court threw out previous convictions of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23A new trial has opened for two American men accused of killing an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy’s highest court threw out their convictions.Italy’s highest court of cassation ordered a new trial last year, saying it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that...

Instrument was adapted, translated and corrected by Muslim and Jewish users in Spain, north Africa and ItalyAlmost exactly a year ago, Federica Gigante was preparing a lecture and searching the internet for a portrait of the 17th-century Italian nobleman and collector Ludovico Moscardo when an altogether different image caught her eye.The historian’s gaze soon snagged on a photo of a metal disc with a...

Destroyer Caio Duilio, part of the EU shipping protection force, took out weapon when it came within four miles of the vesselAn Italian warship participating in the EU naval protection force in the Red Sea was forced to shoot down a Houthi missile on Saturday in a rare engagement by the country’s navy, which has largely avoided direct action since the second world war.The...

Phrixus and Helle are depicted in vibrant colours with exquisite artistry in remarkable discoveryIn a remarkable discovery at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, archaeologists have unearthed a fresco depicting the Greek mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle.Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, described the find as a poignant reflection of history unfolding once more. Continue reading...

The film-maker, who won the Palme d’Or for 1977’s Padre Padrone, was a towering presence for more than three decades, creating politically engaged works with his brother VittorioThe Italian film-maker Paolo Taviani, whose gritty biopic Padre Padrone won top prize at the Cannes film festival, has died aged 92, Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, said on Thursday.For more than three decades Taviani and his brother...

Cianni brothers aim to change minds with Italy’s first company to produce flour from crickets for human consumption“Go on, try it, it is good,” said José Francesco Cianni as he handed over a packet containing a light brown powder with a crispy texture. “I would even say it is really good.”Sitting in his office in a pristine warehouse-like building, down the corridor from five...

Defendants are being tried in absentia over kidnapping and murder of Italian student in 2016Italy will again attempt to secure justice for an Italian student kidnapped and murdered in Cairo with the opening on Tuesday of a second trial of four Egyptian security officers accused over the killing.Giulio Regeni, 28, had been conducting research when he was abducted in January 2016. His body was...

Florence museum boss compares process to cleaning a bathroom as media are granted privileged accessMichelangelo’s David is recognised as one of the most sublime works in the history of sculpture, but according to the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, dusting it is much like cleaning a bathroom.“You know when you clean a bathroom, you clean and clean and think you’ve done a great job...

Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shoreAn Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and...

Vittorio Sgarbi, who denies allegations over painting, cites separate antitrust investigation in resignationAn Italian art critic who was recently placed under investigation over allegations that a 17th-century painting in his possession was stolen from a castle more than a decade ago has resigned as a junior culture minister.“I am resigning with immediate effect as undersecretary of the government and will inform [the prime minister,...