Italy Travel News 03/04/2010

The Fiumicino Airport in Rome (the country's main international gateway) is the first in Italy to start using a full-body scanner at security. It's in the terminal where all the US airlines arrive. In other words, wear your nice undies to Italy.

Italy is more often associated with art & food than skiing, but with all those mountains within the borders it shouldn't be surprising that there are some excellent ski resorts in Italy.

As if these abandoned towns weren't eerie enough, the name "citta' morte" doesn't just mean ghost town – it means "dead city."

My blogging friend Robin has another post with some more of her favorite Italian words.

A gelato university? Stop the presses. I am SO putting this on my to-do list for my next trip to Italy.

Annoyingly, you can't read the whole Wall Street Journal article without subscribing, but the gist of this article about the recent ruling in the Google video case is this line from the article: "Prosecuting Google because they couldn't go back in time to un-post the video, is crazy even for Italy."

Thanks to my pal Melanie at Italofile for the pointer to this most excellent board game. I wonder if you set the board on fire when you get to be Pope, & it goes up in a poof of white smoke?

I'm pleased that WhyGo Italy (and me, kind of) has been profiled on the TravelBlogSites blog – it's produced by TravelPod. Go check it out!

It would be sad to see George leave Lake Como, but I suspect he won't be leaving Italy. And if rumors are true & David Beckham buys Clooney's house, well, I think the local tourism trade shan't suffer much.

While the video footage at the center of this case was disturbing, some are calling this ruling a threat to internet freedom in Italy.

If you love history, travel, and Italy, this is a great opportunity to spend the summer digging through some actual Roman ruins – IN ROME. There's an email at the end of the post where you can send in your application.