Italian News Snippets: 08.12.07

Some Italian news bits for your Sunday reading pleasure:

• If you’re not usually inclined to turn on Italian TV in your hotel room because you can’t understand the language, you might want to change your mind. With game shows like “Everybody Naked” making it on the air, you never know what you’ll see.
• A judge in Italy says that if you suspect your spouse is cheating on you that you are perfectly within your rights to bug your spouse’s car and “use the evidence in court.”
• If you’re going to be in Rome over the night of September 8th, be sure to join in on “White Night” – the museums, cafes and the like stay open all night, and there are extras like concerts and fireworks to boot.
• Apparently in Italy, even if you’re a 61-year-old man, your mother can still take away your allowance. What do you expect? He criticized her cooking, for pete’s sake, which is tantamount to sin.
• The notion of “to go” food is a rather foreign concept in Italy, but Jessica in Rome found the Italian version of a take-away coffee. Let’s just say it’s not what you might expect.
• If you, like me, marvel at the Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, then you’ll love the ancient Syrian mosaics on display there now. The show runs through November 5.
• Wandering Italy details the benefits of not adhering to queues, while most visitors to Italy wonder why Italians can’t form a line.
• Reports say that Italian cars are actually less expensive if you buy them in Denmark. So get yourself to Copenhagen if you’re eyeing that new Ferrari.
• Some spots in Italy have recently made their way onto a few of those ubitquitous “top-10” lists bloggers are so fond of, including a hotel in Cortona on the “world’s best hotels” list, a beach in Sardinia on the top of the “world’s sexiest beaches” list, and an expensive hotel in Rome on a Fodor’s “hot” list.
• Jamie Rhein thinks that there ought to be a “wonders of the world” list where the people who are responsible for creating said wonders are the ones who make the list, rather than the objects themselves. She’s nominating Michelangelo.
• Cooking Italian when you’re not actually in Italy and surrounded by all the typical ingredients within easy reach can be a challenge, and Rachel Lee thinks that we shouldn’t necessarily try. Instead, cook with what’s local, wherever you are, and you’re cooking like an Italian, even if you aren’t cooking Italian.
• There’s a long piece about touring a little-visited spot in Italy – Sardinia – in case you want to get off the beaten path this year.
• The Telegraph looks at a few places to stay in Assisi, a gem of a town in Umbria that’s popular with more than just pilgrims.
• Here are one American man’s impressions of the 10 Commandments of Living in Italy, via My Italy. Very funny stuff. I’m sure the expat community could make that list about seven times as long as it currently is, too.
• Italy is trying to cut down on the national pastime of tax evasion, and that includes celebrities like motorcycle champ Valentino Rossi, who is being asked to pay more than €110 million.
• If anyone you know is a fan of Italian soccer, you might want to show them this limited-edition Lazio 7-Euro note. Unless they’re an AS Roma fan, in which case you might be looking for a fight.
• Sara and Shelley are regular posters on Sara’s “Tour del Gelato,” and both of them have written recently about their hands-down all-time favorite gelato spots. Shelley’s is in Rome, and Sara’s is in Milan. Handy, because that’s where each gal lives. Sognatrice also posted about her favorite gelateria in Calabria not long ago, too. It’s hot in Italy, and everyone’s heading for the gelato. I can’t say I blame them.
• If you’re taking the kids to Italy, you’ll want to know about the kid-friendly destinations and what they have to offer your wee ones. Ciao Bambino has all of that for not just Italy, but also Spain, England and France.
• Alex points out that yes, Italians are going to be shocked when you tell them that elsewhere in the world ravioli comes in a can. Frankly, it’s often surprising to me that those of us who eat canned ravioli aren’t shocked by that, too.
• Here is a list of a few things going on in Italy this month, courtesy of Italofile.
• If clean energy can be gotten from olives and grapevines, can you just imagine what the exhaust from that car would smell like? It’d smell like Italy, that’s what!
• An Italian porn icon dies, and a French clinic is under scrutiny. Police think her husband might have helped her commit suicide.
• Dogs are the new lifeguards on some of Italy’s beaches.
• The early grape harvest this year, due to the unusually hot weather, will result in less wine being produced overall. Which is okay if you’re one of the people who’s encouraging people to drink better, but drink less.
• The sex-ed movement is hitting the beach in Italy this summer – not because they’re on vacation, mind you. Instead, they’re trying to educate those who are.