Italy News: 11 October 2009

Some news from Italy for your Sunday reading pleasure:

• The Constitutional Court in Italy ruled last week that the law Berlusconi instituted to protect him from lawsuits while he was Prime Minister does, in fact, violate the constitution, so the law has been overturned. In the last few weeks leading up to the court’s decision, La Berlusca hinted that he might resign if the court ruled against him, but – I know this will be shocking to you – he now says he’s not going to resign and will proceed forward with “even more grit than before.” If by “grit” he means “ridiculous, asanine, and thoroughly embarrassing behavior,” then I believe him.
• Hang on – here’s an even better (and by better I mean more ridiculous) quote by Berlusconi: “In my opinion, and not only mine, I am the best prime minister we can find today.” Not long ago he asserted he’s the best prime minister ever in Italian history (Oh, Silvio, you’re so modest!), and this time he added that he is “without a doubt the person who has been most persecuted by judges of all times, in the entire history of the world and the history of man.” And now I feel sick.
• Michelle has some information about how you can help the victims of the landslides in Sicily.
• With the death toll in the Messina landslides now up to 25 and the recent earthquake in L’Aquila having killed more than 300, this Time.com article about why disasters in Italy kill so many people is an interesting read. If the disasters themselves couldn’t have been prevented, investigators want to know whether the deaths could have.
• I’m with Arthur Frommer – I can’t believe that flights to Rome will be less than London or Paris this winter, since that’s basically never the case, but Arthur’s also almost never wrong.
• Sara’s wrapped up her series on the prosciutto-making process (which we learned about when we visited a prosciutto maker outside Parma last month) with this final post about the “maturing” – which features pictures from what I called the House of Ham.
• The photos on this story are very cool – a team of British archaeologists has uncovered an ancient Roman port city called Portus (two miles inland from the current Italian coastline and 20 miles from Rome) that includes an amphitheatre the size of the Pantheon.
• If you’re someone who likes the idea of watching Italian TV to help you practice your language skills, then check out this cool site that lists 29 Italian TV channels you can watch online (in addition to lots of other stations from countries all over the world).
• Caravaggio’s fantastic painting “Adoration of the Shepherds” will be restored in Rome before being put on display for the 400th anniversary of the painter’s death next February. But even more exciting is that the restoration will take place in public, in the Italian parliament building, so visitors will be able to watch the restorers’ progress. Nicole at Zoomata has all the info you’ll need if you’d like to book a visit during the Caravaggio restoration (it’s free!).
• Drinking just to get drunk never used to be an issue in Italy, but sadly that’s changing more recently, thanks in part to drunk tourists on pub crawls. Italy is now trying to curb the spread of binge drinking. (Which makes this a good time to remind those of you who are visiting Italy that it’s not one big historic outdoor bar. Respect the fact that there are real people living there. Don’t over-indulge. Don’t prowl the streets loudly at night. Be a good ambassador for your country. Thanks.)
• The Italian government has approved Italy’s third tax amnesty program in eight years, in the hopes that citizens with money held illegally offshore will repatriate the funds for a drastically decreased tax rate.
• Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Sforza Horse statue will be on display in Atlanta in an exhibit that opened this past week (this explains why it wasn’t in Milan the last time I was there!).
• Given how the already-enormous number of people who visit Venice every year is responsible for at least some of the damage to the city, I’m surprised that Venice will submit a bid as a possible host city for the 2020 Olympics. I love Venice dearly, which is why I hope it doesn’t win…
• Last weekend a huge crowd of protestors gathered in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome to express their anger toward Berlusconi’s attacks on the free press.
• A scientist in Italy says he’s recreated the Shroud of Turin, thereby proving that the “real thing” is a fake.
• The Muslim cleric who was abducted from Milan in 2003 allegedly by the CIA (33 people, Americans and Italians, are now on trial in Milan for the alleged kidnapping) is seeking €15 million in damages.
• A German aid group who picked up a boat full of African migrants stuck in the Mediterranean and brought them to the Italian mainland back in 2004 had been charged with “aiding illegal migration.” The trial ended last week with the Germans being acquitted of the crime.
• Berlusconi has been deemed “responsible” in a nearly 20-year-old corruption case involving his investment company, and a judge has ruled he’ll have to pay €750,000 in compensation.
• The European Union has issued warnings to 9 countries regarding budge deficits the EU deems to be too large. Those 9 countries include Italy and Germany.
• The first wave of citizen patrols in Italy has hit the streets.
• I enjoyed reading this travel story about a cooking school in Tuscany.
• Cherrye’s listed the five things she thinks every visitor to Italy should do – and I’m totally on board with them (especially since almost all of them have to do with food!). What about you?
• Since we’re coming up on Halloween (which isn’t celebrated in Italy, really), Melanie’s post on the “scariest place in Tuscany” is timely.
• I’ve never flown into Naples airport, but seeing these photos of Mt. Vesuvius from a plane make me want to now…
• Since parts of the new Twilight movie were shot in Italy, it’s only fitting that there are two Italian cities on this list of travel destinations for Twilight fans.
• The captain of the Italian national football team, Fabio Cannavaro, is in a bit of hot water at the moment – he apparently failed a drug test, testing positive for cortisone. He says he took cortisone to treat a wasp sting and just failed to turn in the necessary paperwork to the doping authorities, but we’ll see where this ends up.
• Did you know that October is Italian American Heritage Month? Well, y’do now.
• The drive along the Amalfi Coast has been included on National Geographic’s list of the “world’s 50 greatest drives.” I’d still prefer to not be the one driving, however.
• If you’re headed to the Alba area anytime soon, be on the lookout for white truffles gracing local menus. It’s truffle huntin’ season!
• George Clooney is in the Abruzzo region filming a movie.
• Oh dear. If Italy’s Museums Director is a former director of McDonald’s and he says he wants to increase the “commercial potential” of Italy’s monuments, does that mean we could be staring at a big billboard of the golden arches stuck to the side of the Colosseum?
• A Vatican priest was finally stopped by police – but not until he led them on a 20-minute car chase through the EUR neighborhood of Rome.
• This post by Melanie at Italy: Beyond the Obvious made me chuckle, but it’s also full of great advice if you’re trying to conduct a business meeting with Italians.