Berlusconi will likely give it up

From the AP:

ROME – Romano Prodi won his first parliamentary battle on Saturday when his candidates were elected speakers of the two houses of parliament, despite a bitterly fought race that indicated his center-left coalition’s difficulty in controlling the Senate.

Hours later, outgoing Premier Silvio Berlusconi suggested he would resign Tuesday, clearing the way for a Prodi government. (Link)

Poor old Silvio — I have to say, we'll miss the man. I hope he at least stays active in his party so that we can continue to blog his outrageous gaffes.

 

Florence cracks down on locking lovers

Nearly every tourist knows the tradition: when you and your loved one go to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, you're supposed to write your names on a lock, attach it to the railing, and throw the key in to the Arno River. This will symbolize your eternal love and commitment, as well as your susceptibility to recent traditions invented especially for tourists.

Anyway, Florence has recently seen quite an uptick in people locking their symbolic love to Ponte Vecchio, and the mess has begun to irk the venerable statue of Benvenuto Cellini (who, if you've read his autobiography, is much more venerable in bronze than he was in real life), not to mention the city leaders. So they've hacked off the huge metal lovers' knot, and now policemen will slap a 50 euro fine on any twitterpated couples foolish enough to break the new rules.

Link (en)

What’s next for Italian politics

A good rundown can be found here for what's facing the new government of Italy in the next few months. An interesting read, if you're into that sort of thing.

Public TV lets down soccer fans

Italian public TV (known as RAI) will apparently not be carrying all the games in the World Cup, and this has quite a few Italian soccer fans disgruntled–if they want to catch every game, they'll have to sign up for Sky, the major European satellite TV provider.

61% of Italians say that RAI, since it is a public service, should have to buy broadcasting rights for all the World Cup matches. Overall, 80% say they will watch the World Cup, following either all the matches or only the ones in which Italy is playing.

Link (it) 

Telecom to provide 20Mbit DSL w/o voice line

Competition among internet service providers wins: Italian Telecom is going to sell wholesale bandwidth to multiple ISPs so that they can provide 20Mbit ADSL service to residential customers, even if they don't pay for a voice line subscription through Telecom. Business customers can't get in on the deal, though they can get 640k or 4Mbit service without a voice subscription.

This is good news for customers: ISPs will have to compete for their business, and it could mean that VOIP phone services can take off. My DSL from Verizon, on the other hand, requires me to have a voice line. I wish US telephone and cable companies would be this flexible…

Link (Italian) 

Lobster abuse: it will cost you

A restaurant owner in Vicenza has been fined 688 euros (870 dollars) for mistreating his live lobsters, but we're not talking about mistreatment in terms of "boiling and eating." No, he merely kept his lobsters in a tub on ice. He was found out after a Greenpeace activist alerted authorities at the Italian Animal Protection Agency.

He plans an appeal, but meanwhile his restaurant is enjoying a lot of press attention, which if nothing else advertises his fresh seafood.

Link (Italian) 

Chinese copycats: first Gucci, now Ferrari??

The ’shameless’ copying of watches and purses apparently was successful. Now they’re moving on to bigger and better things. Italy watches in horror as their symbolic masterpiece is reduced to the level of fake leather purses sold by street vendors.

And they’re not copying ‘just any Ferrari.’ The copycats brazenly chose to make the very rare 330 P4 from 1967.

Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, spoke about the copy in regards to the new proposed EU law about ‘knockoffs.’

“There are only six of this car in the world. Well, this is the seventh,” he joked wryly, as he showed the photo of the bright red car parked in a squalid area outside Shanghai. “It’s beautiful, production was stopped.” He continued, speaking of the original Ferrari, “They explained that there were hardly any made. And now it’s being copied and produced in China.”

From the photos, experts say it’s hard to tell if it was copied well or not. Though there’s little hope that it was, since cars from this time period are very difficult to replicate.

The orginal six are worth about 3 million a piece.

Link(Italian)

The ‘boss’ won’t talk

In his first interrogation mafia boss Provenzano has decided to invoke his right to remain silent. By all accounts he has remained calm and collected, even shaking his interrogators’ hands after the brief meeting. “One question, one answer.” In all it lasted only 8 minutes, just long enough for the boss to say that he had no intention of answering any questions.

It also appears that his hideout was as ‘clean’ as possible, even equipped with simple devices to detect any type of electronic bugging. So far, little helpful has been found.

Link (Italian)

Italy celebrates Liberation Day

On April 25th, 1945, the Nazi army left Milan after an uprising among the Italian resistance movement and a renewed Allied offensive. The date is a national holiday in Italy, and was celebrated today by thousands of people in the streets of Milan, including newly-elected prime minister Romano Prodi, who hoped that "spirit of April 25th will always be with us," and promised to "build a new Italy."

It is fitting that April 25th also marks the day (in 2005) when Italy returned the Obelisk of Axum, which it stole from Ethopia after invading the country in 1937 — a pointless and cowardly war that only served to pump up Mussolini's fascist regime.

Coincidentally, today also marks the birth of the Italian physicist and inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who was a key player in the invention of modern radio technology. 

Giulianna Lazzerini paints Italy

In the last decade or so Ms. Lazzerini has appeared on the artistic horizon as a internationally acclaimed painter and is much sought after by collectors. Her watercolors are especially inspiring, delightful stylized portrayals of Tuscan landscape and life.

Lazzerini was born in Tuscany, and her inspiration comes from her homeland. She states,

"My first contact with Art was in Italy as a child in my father's Mosaic Studio. The translucency of Mosaic fragments and the way colours can vibrate against each other always fascinated me. These were mainly reproductions of early Religions Images where the use of Symbolic Figures made me realise that an Art Image has its own reality. This and the spectrum of European Art is in my attempt to create new expressive Images. Colour is very important to me, it helps me convey emotion in all my subjects. My Landscapes and Buildings are evocative of Tuscany, the land where I grew up. Tuscan Mediaeval Frescoes depicting Biblical Stories in a stylised manner have had an enormous influence in my early formation as an Artist."

Some of her work can be viewed on her website. While her original watercolors are quite costly, prints of some of her popular works can be purchased from many poster stores. Currently this shop is having a sale and 18 of Lazzerini's works are available.

Something to love: our favorite Italian chocolate cookie

Next time you're at the supermercato grab a package of Mulino Bianco's cookies. These disc-shaped, dark chocolate delights are from their gran cereale line, which is supposed to be healthy-ish (plus, they're vegan–no eggs or milk). Our favorite of the varieties of this fabulous snack cookie is fave di cacao which means 'cocoa beans.' Yes folks, there are honest-to-goodness cocoa beans chopped finely and put in this tasty, crunchy cookie. For true chocolate lovers everywhere this is a special treat.

Google Maps now cover Europe!

As reported over at the Google Maps Mania blog, Google Maps and driving directions now cover much of Europe, though the level of detail appears to be uneven in less-traveled countries. Coverage in Italy looks pretty good; here’s the city center of Perugia, where we used to live.

Italian for beginners: Diminuitives

In order to imply smallness (in a good way) or cuteness in general, Italian adds a variety of endings to nouns. The most common are -ino, and -etto. Here are some examples:

Motorino: Moto is short for motocicletta, motorcycle. Motorino is the diminuitive form and refers to motor scooters of the type which have recently become popular in the United States. They are present in droves in all Italian cities. The traffic is so dense in most areas that scooters are by far the most convenient–and most economic, considering gas prices–way to travel. A license is required to drive them, and anyone over 14 can get a license. They are also extremely dangerous: over 13,000 people died in motorino accidents in the last 10 years.

Telefonino: Coming obviously from the word telefono, a telefonino is a cell phone. Italians have one glued to their hands — the average number of text messages sent per mobile phone per month is between 30 and 40.  In America it's about 7. Huh.

Mafia successor already chosen

In their scouring of the ex-mafia boss Provenzano's hideout, detectives have found more than just the decoder key to his secret code.

Reading the notes found in the hideout gives a small glimpse into the curious world of the boss of bosses–and an idea of just how much respect was given to the legendary 'capo.' The supposed successor, Matteo Messina Denaro (head of a mafia gang called Trapani), wrote to the man as if he were a guru and a father, telling him everything and asking for advice.

Of the things Denaro mentions, one is a bit disquieting for Italian law enforcement. In one note Denaro mentions that he has received a letter from his ex-boss, Toto Riina. Riina is currently in a jail which permits absolutely no contact with the outside world.

Now Provenzano finds himself in similar confinement, and if his jailers are following the rules, we can assume Denaro has taken up his new role as the boss of the bosses.

 

Link 

Italian scientist discovers the ’shopping’ gene

An Italian scientist working at Harvard recently discovered a gene which helps you chose your purchases by assigning it's true value. It seems this little gene has a lot of work to since it has to process a great deal of information.

Next time you're having trouble chosing vanilla or chocolate blame it on your DNA.  Or something.