Italy News 05.25.09

Some news from Italy for your Sunday Monday reading pleasure:

(Sorry, this update’s a day late – I got back from my quick trip to Rome yesterday and then went straight to the AC Milan game, after which I collapsed from heat exhaustion. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Anyway, on with the news!)

• The record for the world’s most expensive car has just been broken, as a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa went for a cool $12.2 million at an auction in Maranello, Italy (where Ferrari is based) last week.
• If you prefer fizzy water to still water – and you happen to live in Venice – you can now pay a little extra to have the water that comes out of your tap automatically carbonated.
• The Spanish cyclist who fell 60 yards over a railing during the Giro d’Italia last week was awakened from his induced coma and was reportedly moving his legs and talking with doctors, so that’s very good news, indeed.
• I just can’t picture these space-age bus stops in the Renaissance city of Florence. But maybe the juxtaposition of old and new will make them work?
• If you’re a fan of Italian football like I am, then you’ll be as pleased to know that Fabio Cannavaro will be returning to play on Italian soil next season – he’s rejoining Juventus.
• A man who is alleged to be a leader in the Naples mafia (otherwise known as the Camorra) and who’s been on the run from Italian police since 2006 has been arrested in Spain.
• More suspected Camorra mobsters were arrested outside Naples last week, too.
• And in another bit of Mafia news, a convicted drug trafficker and one of the top bosses in a New York crime family has been deported from the United States to Italy where he has been a wanted man since 1980.
• While it may appear to most that Italy’s PM Silvio Berlusconi has control over all the media in the country, at least one newspaper – La Repubblica – is asking some questions Silvio doesn’t like very much.
• If you didn’t win the Italy guidebook contest I had here last week, here’s another contest you can enter for Dario Castagno’s latest, “Too Much Tuscan Wine,” over at Bleeding Espresso.
• Although Italy still has relatively few cases of the swine flu, two Rome high schools were closed last week after it was revealed that four students had the flu.
• Europe’s first female astronaut will be an Italian Air Force pilot.
• Have you ever been irritated that you couldn’t actually touch the priceless art in museums? If so, then you’ll love the State Tactile Museum Omero in Ancona, Italy – where you’re encouraged to touch scale models and replicas of some of the world’s most famous sculptures.
• I don’t know if you remember the Knights of Malta keyhole photo I linked to in a recent news roundup, but Miss Expatria got a shot of St. Peter’s Basilica through that keyhole at night. Very cool.
• Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous picture of the moon through the trees in San Gimignano, Tuscany.
• Debi and Gabriele of Under the Tuscan Gun have teamed up with Salvatore Ferragamo – not to mention their many celeb friends – to raise money for the L’Aquila earthquake relief efforts. There’s going to be an online auction of Ferragamo items donated by celebrities like Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, and Eva Longoria, and the reception is set for June 2nd at the Rodeo Drive Ferragamo store.
• The economy’s taking a hit everywhere, including Italy – and for some families that has meant cutting back on expenses like the cleaning lady. Unfortunately, some studies show that the vast majority of Italian men don’t traditionally help (and have never helped) with housework – though the women of the house are certainly hoping that changes.
• The apartment in which I’m staying in Milan has an air-conditioning unit in the main living room, which I’m feeling really thankful for as it’s supposed to be over 95F today. But if you’re in Italy when it’s hot and you don’t have AC (or when it’s cold and you don’t have adequate heating), this post about regulating the temperature could help – though I still think I’ll stick to cool showers in hot weather.