Letters from Rome
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May 7, 2012
Diary of an economic tragedy: “Look us in the face”
The march of the widows in Bologna
"Open your shutters and look us in the face!" is what a mournful group of widows of debt-related suicide victims shouted last Saturday in Bologna during a demonstration in front...
April 13, 2012
Family values, Bossi style
Umberto Bossi hands a cruet full of water from the river Po to his son Renzo.
Umberto Bossi, founding father of the Northern League, resigned as head of his party last week. After 30 years of blaming Rome of robbing, it turns out that some in Bossi's...
March 27, 2012
It's About Togetherness
Italian poet Paola Pennecchi and Canadian photographer Allison Harris have joined forces to create an evocative, coffee table-sized book entitled "Traslochi" ("Moving on" in...
March 9, 2012
Good News Gazette
There's good news from Italy, and it's about time. (Never fear: at the tail end of this piece we'll report some bad news, too.)
March 7, 2012
Derailing Turin’s High-Speed Train
Protests over the construction of the TAV (Treno Alta Velocità) have spread all over Italy, with people blocking highways and city centers. Let's see what are the CONS and what...
March 1, 2012
“Where the Tall Grasses Grow”: A peek into the secret archives of the Vatican
For the first time in history the Vatican is offering the Roman public and visitors a peek into its famous “secret archives,” its collection of ancient and modern documents...
February 21, 2012
Moms, Jobs and Bamboccioni
A Scene from the Movie "Tanguy", the Adult Refusing to Grow Up
A much debated issue has been the center of many discussions recently, the so-called "bamboccioni" are the young Italian adults who still live at home with their parents, cuddled...
February 11, 2012
America Loves Monti—and just maybe, so does Italy
A subtle and sober intellectual economist in a discreet blue suit, the new "emergency premier" marks a departure from the recent Italian past. For one, he is hailed and respected...
February 6, 2012
Mr. Monti Takes a Verbal Tumble
Examinations for a guaranteed lifetime job
Italy’s suave emergency premier Mario Monti has floated on a wave of extraordinary popularity until last week, when a wisecrack he made about the labor market upstaged even the...
January 7, 2012
China is Finally Near
Last week in Rome, a Chinese shop owner named Zhou Zeng, his wife Lia and baby daughter, Joy, six months old, were leaving their store when two men whose faces were hidden by...
January 4, 2012
Protecting Pompeii and the Italian heritage in 2012
Pompeii - Buried Alive - Ancient Civilizations
On August 24, AD 79, the world came to a catastrophic end for those people living in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius. A day that began like any other in the thriving towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii would end in a dark and fiery disaster.
ROME – The good news is that during the three days of the European Christmas holiday—Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St. Silvester’s on Dec. 26—some 64,000 people visited...
December 23, 2011
A New Census Takes Stock of Italy
This October Italy launched a new national census on the family, the 15th such census in history, and by November, over 16 million families - 60% of the total – had already...
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