The prime minister’s claim that more people died during the Mare Nostrum search and rescue operation is disingenuous.
The captain of the Costa Concordia has been sentenced to 16 years’ jail after the ship ran aground off the coast of Italy two years ago.
EPA/Luca Zennaro
Late last week, an Italian court sentenced the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner, Francesco Schettino, to 16 years’ jail after finding him guilty of multiple charges of manslaughter. On January…
The bodies of the latest victims arrive in Italy.
EPA
Italy has a new president in the form of Sergio Mattarella, a 73-year-old constitutional judge from Sicily. Mattarella was elected to the role in the wake of the retirement of Giorgio Napolitano, who had…
If Campi Flegrei ever goes off, you won’t want to be in Naples - or Europe!
Emanuele Nicastro
Ever heard of Campi Flegrei? It is a supervolcano in southern Italy. Literally translating as “fields of fire,” only the Yellowstone caldera in the United States has more potential to devastate. The Naples…
Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s 89-year-old president, has resigned from the office he has held for nearly a decade. His departure will prompt a secret ballot among parliamentarians to replace him. But this…
Neapolitans have given fishmongers and celebrities alike a place at the nativity for hundreds of years.
acetosa888
There’s a scene in the film Love Actually where a little girl announces that she’ll be playing “first lobster” in the school nativity play. “There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus…
Italian politics has been rocked by a scandal in the country’s capital. Politicians stand accused of working within a pervasive and wide-reaching criminal network dubbed “Mafia Capitale” to skim money…
Italy has been experiencing a resurgence of xenophobia recently. Migrants and Roma have been violently attacked by gangs, and people claiming to be “ordinary citizens” have organised marches in racially…
Migrant boats continue to arrive in Lampedusa.
EPA/Ettore Ferrari
“If you love somebody, set them free” sang Sting in 1985. Few would argue with that sentiment. Yet for thousands of lovers around the world, the perfect symbol of their love has become a padlock. Not a…
Augustus, who died 2000 years ago, was the first emperor of Rome. He brought peace after the turmoil in the republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar when he defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra…
Even Angela Merkel now seems to agree that austerity has run its course. When Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, together with other European leaders, led a fresh charge against the ill-fated policy…
Thirty lifeless bodies found in the bow of a fishing boat carrying 600 migrants off the coast of Sicily have reignited the debate on illegal crossings in the Mediterranean and how the EU should respond…
It started with a bang, but it ended with a whisper, a scandal, two immediate resignations (the manager and the head of the football federation), and a bite that shook the world. Italy’s 2014 World Cup…
Italian striker Mario Balotelli is a pioneer in a society that still struggles to accept its multiethnic composition.
EPA/Kai Foersterling
Mario Balotelli is already an international football star and has the potential to become one of Italy’s greatest ever strikers. But is Italy ready to accept a black player as its next football hero? Balotelli…
For much of its more than 100-year history, Italian football has been dogged by stereotypes. It has been seen as defensive, cynical, as lacking in “fair play”. These stereotypes have often applied to Italian…
The EU election result will affect Matteo Renzi’s domestic reform programme.
EPA/Ian Langsdon
In Italy, as elsewhere, elections for the European parliament have always tended to be “second order”. This means that voters see them as less important than the “first-order” elections for the national…
Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham