The Local

That is the final deadline for registering to take part in one of the most historic decisions that the British people will make for a generation on June 23rd.

The deadline for registering for a postal vote has now passed, but you can still appoint someone you trust in the UK to vote for you.

The process is easy and takes just five minutes. Go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote or search for ‘UK register to vote’ on www.gov.uk. 

You need only your National Insurance number and passport. If you did vote in the general election last year, don’t assume you are still on the electoral roll: just as in the UK, you must renew your registration every year.

Meanwhile, if you were last on the electoral roll in Northe Ireland then the deadline to arrange a proxy vote is 5pm on June 3rd.
 

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said on Friday that he has issued a decree for the husband and wife, aged 59 and 50, to be deported back to Morocco, Ansa reported.

They are accused of sharing the extremist ideology of their two sons, one whom died while fighting for Isis. The other was arrested in late April as part of a probe into inteational terrorism.

The couple had been living in Varese, a city in Italy’s northe Lombardy reason-

This brings the number of people, believed to be a security risk, deported from Italy to 88 since the start of 2015.

The number of families without a job income rose from 9.4 percent in 2004 to 14.2 percent last year, corresponding to 2.2 million households, Istat said in its report on the "economic situation of the country" for 2016.

The rise peaked at 24.5 percent in the impoverished southe regions. In the wealthier north, the figure stood at 8.2 percent and 11.5 percent in Italy’s central regions.

“The effects of the crisis on the working conditions of families are remarkable,” Istat said in the report.

Younger families are the worst off, with unemployment going from 6.7 percent in 2004 to 13 percent last year.

Although the unemployment rate has dipped slightly in recent months, Italy’s labour market “remains uncertain”, Istat said.

Meanwhile, Italy’s social security system is “among the least efficient” in Europe, second only to Greece.

“Pension spending compresses the rest of social spending”, the agency said, “therefore increasing the risk of poverty”. 

The move comes after local officers complained to local police chief, Diego Peruga, that they could no longer carry out their jobs effectively due to their lack of foreign language skills.

The city, which is located in the mountains of central Sicily, sees thousands of foreign visitors and migrants pass through each year. But the local police struggle to provide them with support as they are unable to do simple things like provide people with directions in English.

After repeated requests for language lessons, Peruga broached the topic with city mayor, Giovanni Ruvolo.

Ruvolo had a brainwave: get some of the city's asylum seekers to lay on a 30-hour basic English course for 74 members of Caltanisetta's police force.

When the mayor asked them, they were all too happy to volunteer as teachers.

“I want to help people here,” Rahaman, an asylum seeker from Pakistan, told La Repubblica. “I used to be a teacher back home and so feel I have a lot to offer."

Ruvolo hopes the scheme could play an important role in helping asylum seekers integrate into Italian life.

"It also provides them with the opportunity to give something back to the town which has welcomed them with open arms," Ruvolo told The Local.

"I also think it's a great way to show people that migrants can be a resource for the country," he said.

"Behind news stories of statistics and tragedies there are unique and talented people." 

Many of the forty people waiting for their claims to be processed at Caltanissetta's state-run Sprar refugee centre are fluent in English and already have experience teaching in a classroom environment.

The crash course, currently involves bi-weekly lessons from two different teachers.

“The students are making good progress. By far the most difficult part for me is explaining things to them in Italian because it's a language I'm still studying,” Rahaman explained.

But in spite of linguistic and cultural boundaries, the lessons have been a success.

"We hope to offer a second round of lessons between September and December and want to raise the number of teachers from two to four," Ruvolo added.

Prosecutors confirmed to AFP that an "important figure" within the Ndrangheta clan and wanted by Italian authorities had been arrested on May 12th in The Hague's seaside suburb of Scheveningen after living in the country for about 15 years.

The mafia boss had been sentenced by Italian judges to 14 years and eight months in prison for fraud and drug-smuggling.

But in 2001, while under house arrest awaiting trial he managed to slip out of the country and arrived in the Netherlands.

The prosecution did not name him, but popular daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad identified the man as Rocco Gasperoni, 73, who has been on the run for 15 years.

Gasperoni first owned a delicatessen in the Netherlands, and then a liquor shop before ending up with a pizzeria "making the best pizzas in the neighbourhood", said AD.

Italian judges finalised his sentence in 2007 and afterwards asked for his extradition from the Netherlands.

But Gasperoni walked free after three days because his extradition request was wrongly filled out, the AD said.

In 2012, Italy filed another extradition request but Gasperoni "had been in the country too long for the request to be carried out."

"Eventually Italian and Dutch authorities agreed that Gasperoni will serve his sentence in the Netherlands," where he has a residency permit.

He will now spend 12 years behind bars on the Italian drug smuggling and fraud convictions.

Residents told the AD they were gobsmacked by the news of Gasperoni's arrest.

"We're thunderstruck," his neighbour Wim Mos told the AD, adding "he was a guy who always had a big smile on his face."

"Until recently the whole neighbourhood ate at Rocco's Pizzeria... which made the best pizzas, had the freshest meat and fish and where everything was prepared with love," added the AD.

The arrested man "had no violent offences to his name in the Netherlands," Dutch prosecutors said in a statement.

"What was known is that he's been making pizzas for the last 15 years - and that's not a punishable offence," they added.

The signs, put up before Christmas, inform drivers approaching Pontoglio, a town of almost 7,000 residents in Brescia province, about its “profound Christian traditions”, waing anyone caught disrespecting those would be asked to leave.

Needless to say, the signs sparked controversy and after months of wrangling the final word has come from the Ministry of Infrastructure, which said they must be taken down within the next two weeks as they “do not respect the Highway Code”, Gioale di Brescia reported.

Mayor Alessandro Seghezzi had been granted permission from the local council to erect the signs at entrances to the town, explaining in a letter in December that the move was intended to preserve the area’s values and culture, as well as keep citizens safe.

“Today we’re living in a transitory period,” he wrote.

“It’s our job to ensure that all comply with rules that gove civil life.”

Seghezzi added that the town’s culture is “based on mutual respect: from women and music to dress, customs and traditions”.

Meanwhile, local councillor Paolo Bocchi backed the move, insisting that there was "nothing racist about it".

"These are just the interpretations being made...this is purely information about our history, our tradition. I challenge anyone to say that Pontoglio’s story is any different."

At least, that's according to figures released earlier this month by UK pollsters Ipsos Mori.

But the latest figures bear a stark contrast to the results of a similar poll carried out in 2010, when 73 percent of those surveyed said they were in favour of the union.

Source: Ipsos Mori

So what's changed in six years? Are Italians really falling out of love with the idea of a united Europe?

It would seem so.

In spite of the poll's small sample size (between 500 and 1000 Italians participated) its findings are no anomaly. 

A March study by Italian research group, Demo, suggested a third of all Italians wanted to leave the bloc, while over the last five years half of all Italian political parties have run anti-EU campaigns.

Current opinion polls show that the combined support for the main euro-skeptic Italian parties: the Five Star Movement (M5S) , the Northe League and Brothers of Italy adds up to around 47 percent, Raffele Marchetti, a professor of inteational relations at Rome's Luiss University, said. 

"So the Ipsos poll could be very accurate,” he told The Local.

By far the key factor driving Italian antagonism towards the EU is the economy.

“We have seen the same trend across all member states since the financial crisis began in 2008,” Marchetti added.

During times of boom and prosperity, the EU is viewed as a positive force, which boosts trade and creates economic stability. In times of crisis, however, it is blamed for all manner of ills: from creating too much competition for jobs to costing taxpayers too much money.

“With Italy struggling to recover from what has now become a triple-dip recession, these sentiments have found a fertile breeding ground,” Marchetti explained.

The EU has become a soft target for politicians looking to lay the blame for the county's hamstrung economy at someone else's door.

It's an easy game to play: Italy is a net loser among the 28 countries of the union, contributing some €4.3 billion more than it gets back in funding from Brussels.

“Anti-Europe rhetoric has grown in intensity from certain quarters of Italian politics, especially from Matteo Salvini [the leader of the far-right Northe League], and Georgia Meloni [the co-founder of Brothers of Italy],” said Feretti.

The Five Star Movement – which exploded onto the Italian political scene in 2008, fronted by stand-up comic Beppe Grillo – have also been strong critics of European fiscal policy although their position on the EU is unclear.

M5S is now the second most popular party in Italy and has promised to take the country out of the single currency if it ever forms a govement.

The promise has proved popular among Italians who still view the days of the Lira (which was replaced by the Euro in 2002) with great affection.

“Everybody in Italy will tell you the same thing,” laughed Claudia, a 44-year-old bar owner from Rome. “When the Euro came in, prices doubled oveight and have never recovered.”

“In terms of spending power, things have never been the same since,” she added, taking down a 10,000 Lire note from the notice board behind the bar and waving it in the air.

“Nowadays, it's much more difficult for people who are eaing low salaries to get by.”

Economy aside, there are other factors driving the palpable anti-European sentiment in Italy.

The ongoing migrant crisis has seen the number of refugees arriving in Italy by sea skyrocket from 42,000 in 2013 to 170,000 in 2014 and 150,000 last year.

With such high numbers, the Italian govement has repeatedly called on the EU to develop a common solution to the problem.

Yet in spite of numerous summits and conferences, an EU-wide strategy to deal with the issue is yet to materialize.

As the crisis rumbles on, France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and Germany have all chosen to suspend open-boarders agreements in a bid to stop the flow of arrivals.

In the meantime the EU has failed to agree on plans to repatriate tens of thousands of refugees from Italy while threatening the country with sanctions for not doing enough to stop asylum seekers from leaving for northe Europe.

“The EU's inability to propose a coordinated response to the crisis involving a common solution for all countries has caused many Italians to lose faith in it as an institution,” explained Marchetti.

Between rigid economic policies and lack of leadership during the migrant crisis a rift has opened up between Italy and the rest of Europe.

Last year, Italy's Democratic Party Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, usually a staunch Europhile, laid into the EU on several occasions, calling the institution out on what he felt were double standards.

“If that's your idea of Europe you can keep it,” he told reporters last year after another failed attempt to get other European countries to share the migrant burden.

“Either give us solidarity or don't waste our time.”

Even Italy's pro-Europe leader Matteo Renzi has criticized the EU as an institution. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

High-profile clashes between Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council president Donald Tusk have further added to the feeling that anti-Brussels sentiment is no longer confined to the political fringes.

In addition, the column inches dedicated to the UK referendum on the EU on June 23rd has taken euro-skepticism into the mainstream, providing Italians with the opportunity to reflect on their own status within the EU.

'Is the union democratic enough?', 'what do we gain from it?', and 'should we have a referendum too?' are all questions which are now in some way tangible – and not merely the realm of political theory.

“The Italians in particular hope to have their own opportunity to go to the polls on their EU membership, which lends a sense that even if the British vote sticks with the status quo in June, it will not be the end of the EU’s challenges,” said Ipsos Mori managing director, Bobby Duffy.

So could we see an 'Italexit' any time soon?

“It's easy to speculate based on this or that, but the strongest indicator we have is to look at how Italians have voted historically,” added Marchetti.

During the last European elections in which a number of anti-European parties made ground -  from Nigel Farage's UKIP in the UK to Marine Le Pen's National front in France - Italy's pro-European Democratic Party got 40.3 percent of the vote, making it the second largest national party within the European Parliament.

At Italy's last general election, the Democratic Party also took home the lion's share of the vote (29.5 percent) in spite of a tidal wave of support for M5S, which currently finds itself embroiled in a high-profile corruption scandal.

“The majority of Italians have always voted in for Europe and even if we consider a 'worst case' scenario – most Italians are still in favour of the EU,” Marchetti said. 

The 80-year-old American filmmaker told a masterclass at the Cannes film festival late on Thursday that he was invited by the chief exorcist in Rome to record the event.

"I was invited by the Vatican exorcist to shoot and video an actual exorcism which... few people have ever seen and which nobody has ever photographed," he said.

Friedkin said he was taken aback at how close the ceremony was to the exorcism depicted in his 1973 film.

"I was pretty astonished by that. I don't think I will ever be the same having seen this astonishing thing.

"I am not talking about some cult, I am talking about an exorcism by the Catholic Church in Rome," he added.

The Vatican did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The director said he intended to shoot "The Exorcist" - based on a bestselling novel by William Peter Blatty - as a horror movie, but the more he leaed the more it became a story of the supeatural instead.

While the book was based on the 1949 case of an American teenager called Roland, Friedkin said the Catholic "archdiocese of Washington DC asked Blatty to change the gender (in the novel) so as not to draw attention to the young man."

Demonic possession

But in reality, the director said, "it was a young man of 14 years, not a girl" who was allegedly possessed.

The film recounts the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to win her back through a rite conducted by two priests.

Friedkin said he believed the boy was genuinely possessed. "I'm convinced that there was no other explanation. I read the diaries not only of the priest involved (in the exorcism), but the doctors, the nurses and the patients at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Saint Louis where this case was carried out," he added.

"Everything having to do with medical science and psychiatry was attempted. This young men suffered from afflictions very similar to what's in the film, as hard is that is to believe."

The exorcism scenes in the film has been repeatedly voted among some of the scariest ever shown in cinemas.

"When I started I thought I was making a horror film and then the priest, who was the president of Georgetown University (in Washington DC), let me read these diaries and I knew that it was not a horror film," Friedkin said. "This was a case of exorcism."

'I believed'

"I believed in this story," Friedkin told the audience in Cannes, referring to the original possession of the boy. "I made this story as a believer. I'm not Catholic, I don't to church, I don't belong to a church or a synagogue.

"I do believe in the teachings of Jesus," Friedkin added, whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.

"I believe they are incredibly profound and beautiful and we know that this character existed... the supeatural aspect I leave to each person's conscience and belief system," he added.

"I don't intend to join a church and yet what amazes me... is the fact that this man (Jesus) over 2,000 years ago preached in the desert, on street coers and in synagogues and there is no recording of his voice, there is no words that he wrote... yet billions of people have believed in the idea of Jesus Christ.

"There must be something in there," said Friedkin, who also made "The French Connection", and was with Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich one of the leaders of the "New Hollywood" group of filmmakers in the early 1970s.

In a career that spanned over 65 years, Pannella was one of the first European federalists who thought for the creation of the European Union.

He was also at the forefront of many revolutionary changes in Italy, including the divorce referendum in 1974 and the legalization of abortion in 1978.

A staunch defender of civil rights, he also fought on behalf of Easte Europeans, leading to his arrest in 1968 in Sofia for distributing leaflets against the Communist regime.

Over the years, he carried out several hunger strikes to get his civil rights message across, including one against the death penalty in 2007, a protest which was prompted by the hanging of Saddam Hussein. His most recent hunger strike in 2014 – in protest against conditions in Italian conditions – led to him needing surgery.

Pannella, who was bo in the Abruzzo town of Teramo in 1930, began his political career aged 20, becoming a national representative at university level for the Italian Liberal Party.

He founded the Radical Party, a bastion of Italian liberalism, in 1955. Led by Pannella and Emma Bonino, Italy’s former foreign minister, the party was reincaated as the Italian Radicals in 2001.

On top of all of that he was one of the first promoters of the Green party movements across Europe and was elected to the European Parliament in 1979, serving until 2009.

He a took a hardline approach against Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, during John Chilcot’s Iraq inquiry in 2010, saying: “Tony Blair must be asked the right questions at the Iraq inquiry. Mine would be this: why did he boycott the possibility of sending Saddam Hussein into exile, as several Arab countries were trying to request through a resolution to be adopted at the Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on March 1st 2003?”

Aside from the politics, Pannella worked as a joualist in Paris for Il Gioo newpaper in the early 1960s.

He never married and had no children, but had been in a decades-long relationship Mirella Paracchini. In an interview in 2010 he said the relationship between them was “open” and also admitted to being bisexual.

Pannella died on Wednesday after being hospitalized in Rome. 

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi paid tribute on Twitter, saying Pannella was an “extraordinary protagonist of life” and not just of Italian politics, “one might say he was transnational”. 

After more than a week of inclement weather, which brought heavy rain and wind to most of the peninsular – even forcing Naples to cancel its pizza world-record challenge last weekend – sunshine and warmth are finally on the way.

Northe regions will still experience some bad weather on Thursday and Friday, but by Saturday temperatures across the north will reach highs of 28 degrees Celsius.

Saturday might bring a brief storm to Salento and Calabria, but for the most part temperatures in the southe regions will hover in the mid-20s, while in the centre there'll be highs of 28.

Sunday will be the perfect beach day, according to IlMeteo.it, with temperatures ranging from highs of 26 degrees Celsius in Sardinia to 29 in Sicily.   

Will this weekend bring the year's first 'bagno' (swim)

The outlook for early next week is also looking good as “anticyclone Ugolino invades Italy with sunshine and warmth everywhere”, according to IlMeteo.it.

It took 250 expert pizza chefs from all over the world some six hours and 11 minutes to build the giant pizza, which when complete stretched along the city's seafront between Castel dell'Ovo and the US consulate.

The recipe called for some 2000 kg of flour, 1600 kg of tomatoes, 2000 kg of mozzarella, 200 litres of oil and 30 kg of basil.

A chef at work on the city's seafront. Photo: Naples' Pizza Village.

The monster margherita beat the previous Guinness world record of 1595 metres, set by chefs at Milan's Expo last year.

But unlike the Expo pizza, Naples' effort was baked to perfection, and in accordance with local tradition, using five specially-designed motorized wood-buing stoves.

Alessandro Marinacci, from Naples' Pizza Village, told The Local the challenge was “absolutely a point of pride for our city, which is the home of pizza.”

The world-famous cheese and tomato pizza is strongly associated with Naples, having first been baked by local chef Rafaelle Esposito in 1889, for Bourbon Queen Regina Margherita.

The world-record bid had been scheduled for Sunday but organizers were forced to postpone until Wednesday due to bad weather.

Once complete, the giant pizza was sliced up and given to various charitable organizations who took portions to the city's poor and needy.

In March, Italy submitted a dossier to Unesco in a bid to get its traditional Neapolitan pizza listed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
 

The question on Facebook from a clever, cosmopolitan schoolfriend set the alarm bells ringing: ‘If we leave the EU, will it really make it harder for us to move to other countries?’

The answer to this is surely that it might. Yet it’s worrying if many young Brits don’t know what’s at stake.

The thing is, Brits rather like their freedom to move around Europe - but the campaign for Britain to leave the EU has focused heavily on restricting the right of other Europeans to live and work in the UK. 

According to a revealing poll by YouGov in December, two thirds of Brits thought they should have the right to live and work in other EU countries - yet only one third believed that other Europeans should have the right to live in Britain.

In other words, Britain is about to go and vote on a subject which, terrifyingly, it can’t be bothered to focus on long enough to form a coherent view. The Leave campaign has so far managed to create a vague impression that you can restrict immigration to Britain without equivalent restrictions being placed on Brits who want to move abroad.

Perhaps this reflects the way Brits talk about migration: Brits on the continent are expats; Europeans in Britain are migrants. 

Unfortunately for any British diplomats charged with interpreting the will of the people in negotiations, inteational law doesn’t recognize this distinction. As far as the negotiators will be conceed, 100,000 Bulgarian immigrant kitchen fitters have at least the same value as 100,000 sunbut British expat pensioners.

Let’s be clear about one thing: a vote for Britain to leave the EU will be a vote to cut immigration from Europe. It would mean becoming even more detached than Norway or Switzerland, which have pretty much the same immigration rules as EU member states. Immigration is the most important issue for Leave voters and it has been the main focus of the Leave campaign. And if you stop EU citizens coming to Britain, Brits will be prevented from moving to the EU.

This would be a shame: the right to move from one European country to another has perhaps increased Britons’ personal freedom more than any other reform since the country joined in 1973. The movement the other way has also been positive – people from the rest of the EU who live in the UK are an asset, paying far more in tax than they take out in benefits.

Like over two million other Brits, I’m biased: I’ve used this freedom myself – and I’d recommend any fellow Brit to try it. At the age of 21 I hopped onto a train in London, hopped off in Paris and jumped into a job. I then fell in love with a Swede and landed in Sweden, where I launched a career that has been more stimulating than anything I’d have done at home.

And whether you want to start a lingerie shop in Madrid, be a crime-scene cleaner in Germany, or a gardener in Sweden, the opportunities are out there.

There are lots of compelling reasons for Britain to stay in the EU - there’s a consensus that it’s better for the country’s economy, it serves Britain’s strategic interests and our allies say it’s where we belong.

But these reasons, while vitally important, perhaps don’t resonate on an emotional level. But our right to put down roots in Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Krakow or Nice - just because we want to - should. It is a privilege worth protecting, and I suspect young Britons understand this. It’s important that they know that this right is at risk.

Ministers from more than 40 African states attending talks in Rome on Wednesday voiced strong backing for one of the central elements of the Italian plan - the stabilization of Libya. But long-standing conces about the creation of a "fortress Europe" were also aired.

Italy is on the frontline of a wave of migrant arrivals from north Africa, with more than 350,000 people having reached its shores since the start of 2014, spurring efforts to find a long-term solution.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Rome's "migration compact" proposals had been given a "very favourable" reception at the first of what is to become a regular, bi-annual Italy-Africa summit.

Senegal's Foreign Minister Mankeur N'Diaye however waed that the EU could not simply slam the door shut without doing huge damage to economies dependent on the remittances of migrant workers.

"We have many young people who head to Libya, from Niger, and are ready to try their chance on people smugglers' boats," N'Diaye told AFP.

"We have to fight illegal immigration but we also have to create new avenues for regular, legal migration. The support that migrants bring to our development is extraordinary."

Chad, which currently holds the African Union's rotating presidency, welcomed moves this week to arm Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj's fledgling administration.

"The situation in Libya deserves to have our full attention. This country is on its way to becoming a haven for terrorism," Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat said.

The minister praised the "courageous decisions" taken earlier this week in Vienna, where a 25-nation coalition assembled by the US and Italy agreed to exempt the Govement of National Accord from a UN arms embargo on Libya to enable it to combat Islamic State militants.

The embargo was imposed to stem fighting in a country that has been rife with conflict since the 2011 uprising which led to the overthrow and killing of Moamer Kadhafi.

Billions more needed

Gentiloni said Rome wanted its migration plan approved at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels next month and the first pilot projects launched "without delay".

Under the plan the EU would offer African countries substantially increased aid and investment in retu for them improving border controls to make it harder for migrants to reach the southe shores of the Mediterranean, and to accept the repatriation of those who make it to Europe but are judged to have no right to stay.

The pact also envisages an increase in legal migration opportunities for Africans wanting to start new lives in Europe and incentives for African states to establish their own reception centres and absorption procedures for asylum seekers from elsewhere in the region.

At a summit last year in the Maltese capital Valletta, EU leaders agreed with their African counterparts to set up a €1.8 billion trust fund to help finance some of these objectives.

But the amount was attacked by aid agencies and African govements as a drop in the ocean when set against what needs to be done to address the root causes of migration from Africa.

Italy agrees with that view, Gentiloni's deputy, Mario Giro, told AFP. "The Valletta money was far too little. We have to talk about big investment and in exchange for that, we (the EU and Africa) work together to manage migration flows and the security aspect."

Giro said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had recently discussed creating a €10 billion investment fund for Africa.

Germany has made it clear however that it will not go along with one of the elements of Italy's plan: the issuing of EU-Africa bonds to finance it.

Proposals to increase legal migration from Africa are also likely to encounter opposition within the EU.

Gentiloni said two million Africans had arrived in Europe between 2010 and 2015 and the vast majority of people landing at Italy's southe ports this year have been from sub-Saharan Africa.

"Italy has chosen to bet on the future of Africa through long-term investment in sustainable development, security and peace and in managing migrant flows," he said.

Italy, the bearer of divine wine and fabulous cuisine, and a global trailblazer in fashion, design and art.

It’s also an unquestionably desirable place to live.

But what it’s like to do business here, as a foreigner and as a woman?

Speaking to eight who have taken the plunge, Emma Cuthbertson, a British marketing and PR expert who lives in Lombardy, finds out whether being female and foreign is an asset or obstacle as an entrepreneur in Italy, while addressing the difficulties of going back to work after having children and the role of women in Italian society and the workplace.

What are the great things about being an entrepreneur in Italy?

Jody de Best, originally from Califoia, runs the deBestStudio in Lombardy. 

Photo: Jody deBest

She is an interpretive and museum design specialist with over 10 years experience in New York at one of the most prolific interpretative design agencies in the world. Jody explains that running her business in Italy is, from a professional standpoint, an invaluable opportunity : “Italy has some of the best thinkers and artisans in the world. In the US I was always sourcing materials from Italy for my work. Now I am living here side by side these materials and the masters who craft them. That for me is priceless.”

Kathy Moulton is a Canadian lawyer who has lived in Milan for three and a half years. Having reinvented herself professionally in Italy by following her passion for yoga and health, Kathy co-owns a mateity store, manages an online community, www.kalilacommunity.com dedicated to prenatal well-being, and is currently designing a range of specialized mateity wear.

Photo: Kathy Moulton

“The best parts of running a business in Italy are customer loyalty, the importance of family and the resourceful nature of Italians," she said.

"Customers become friends and come back time and time again, which is really rewarding. The big emphasis on family here means customers are generally very understanding if things have to be cancelled because your kids are sick. Italians also have a wonderful resourceful trait in that ‘no’ never really means ‘no’, it means ‘let’s find another way to do this’. I highly respect that.”

Amy West, an American, handcrafts bespoke glass and jewellery from her Murano studio in Veneto, amywestdesign.com.

Photo: Amy West

"There is no place like Italy, especially for a creative soul," she said.

"My soul finds daily wonder and renewal in being here and ongoing inspiration and restitution make up and contribute in innumerable means to a great life in Italy. I am in a special situation being located near Venice, living in her canals and on her Laguna."

Linda Martinez, based in Rome, owns and runs The Beehive, a cross between a budget hotel and an upscale hostel.

Linda with her husband, Steve, owners of The Beehive in Rome.

“The great thing about doing business in Italy is that people truly are open to new ideas and are excited about working together," Linda said.

"There are so many creative and entrepreneurial people here. The big problem is that balloons get popped when the reality of actually doing the business rudely interrupts the big picture.”

Ginny Bevan is a British wedding planner on Lake Garda, weddingsatlakegarda.com.

Photo: Ginny Bevan

“The lake setting itself allows me to offer a very high-end solution which is a major selling point for my business," she said.

"Italy is renowned for fantastic food and wine so that also makes weddings here even more compelling for my couples. On the personal side the quality of life here is good for raising a family. Lake Garda is also a mesmerizingly beautiful and tranquil location. The stunning views and walks can truly calm your soul and warm your heart; these make for great stress busters too… which are important in wedding planning!"

Being female and foreign. An obstacle or an asset?

From Ginny’s experience there have definitely been swings and roundabouts to being a female and foreign whilst running her wedding planning business in Italy.

“Being tall and blonde has definitely opened some doors for me, whilst on other occasions I have tued up to meet a supplier and just by the look on their faces I can see doors and minds mentally closing. I often concluded that they were assuming I was a bored housewife looking for a hobby to tinker with.”

Christina Ayer is an online entrepreneur, managing two businesses in Italy: xinamarie.com is a niche-market online store that supplies mosaic art materials and holiday-garda.com specializes in the rental of luxury villas on Lake Garda.

Photo: Christina Ayer

“Women are not very common in business echelons. It depends on who you have on the other side of the table," she said.

"At the higher levels, they take me for what I am and I have never experienced disrespect for being a woman. At the lower levels, there is a pre-conception that I am probably not that important. Once they get to know me and what I have to say, they tend to pass me swiftly onto a higher level in their business hierarchy!"

Lady Capulet Apartments ladycapulet.com are owned and run by Julia Maria Cardoza in Verona’s historical city centre. Julia told me:

Photo: Julia Maria Cardoza

“Being a native English speaker definitely allows me to differentiate myself from my competitors. My guests come from all over the world and most speak English. I find that they almost breathe a sigh of relief when they realize I can speak their language and understand their needs.”

Julianna Northcott, originally from Cowall in the UK, was the managing director of one of the largest campsites on the south side of Lake Garda for over ten years. “I suppose I was quite unusual at the time in 1990s Italy, holding a relatively high-level position as a female, foreign newcomer," she said.

"Most of the campsites are family businesses so I was an outsider on three levels. It was tough at times. I distinctly remember attending meetings with local authorities and tourist boards whilst representing the campsite. My voice and feedback were largely ignored on some such occasions. Male counterparts would actually avoid eye contact or use certain body language to ensure that I was not part of the dialogue at the meeting."

Kathy believes that in 2016 that same attitude is still prevalent in Italy: “It’s not always openly evident but it’s there and underlying that, suppliers or business partners would prefer to speak to my husband rather than to me. Or they just automatically assume that he’s the business owner. Women are expected to be always attractive and are usually sexualized, even if they hold positions of power.”

The Italian media has certainly raised eyebrows in the inteational arena over the years for its overt sexualization of women, especially on television.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Peter Pan playboy of Italian politics and media mogul was infamous for his showgirl TV shows and sexist gaffs whilst in power. However, the “Bunga Bunga” sex scandal ended his premiership in 2011 and was also the final straw for Italian women, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in protest about the portrayal of women in Italian media and their treatment in society.

Mario Monti made “dignity for women” one of his key messages during his time as technocrat premier. "We should be able to unleash all the potential of women in society, and this isn't only a social duty, it is also essential for economic growth," he said on the first day of the Berlusconi sex trial.

The winds of change are continuing to muster in Italy at top levels though. Premier Matteo Renzi made history when he took the reins of govement in 2014 with over half of his cabinet made up of women for the first time ever.

Interesting too, is the current race for the mayor of Rome which is being predominately contended by two women. Virginia Raggi, a 37 year old lawyer from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), is leading polls to become mayor of the capital, closely followed by far-right minister Giorgia Meloni. The idea of two women running for mayor of Rome would be have inconceivable a few years ago.

Elena Kloppenburg, from Germany, is a professional portrait photographer based out of Milan www.elenakphotography.com.

Photo: Elena Kloppenburg

Elena explains her take on the question of obstacle versus asset: “Italians sometimes assume that because I am a woman, I am doing photography as an unpaid hobby. On the whole though I don’t think that being a woman penalizes me. On the contrary, in my line of work, family portraiture, it is a strength as I believe it allows me to emphasize with fellow mothers. Empathy is key in taking compelling photographs."

MaryLynn Castriciano has built up her dental practice www.studiodentisticocastriciano.it in Desenzano, Lombardy, over the past nine years.

Photo: MaryLynn Castriciano

She has found that preconceived ideas still dominate in the medical profession in Italy. “The perception is that a male doctor or dentist will do a better job and that female dentists treat children or should be limited to operative or endodontic work. Having said that, I believe kindness and determination have prevailed in my case and the fact that I hold an American degree is definitely a positive here.”

Jody added: “In my field as a design architect I have always been in a male-dominated field and I have found every situation to be unique. I can compare Italy to Saudi Arabia, to Singapore, to India to Illinois. The field of museums and interpretive design is in perhaps a special bubble of professionalism since it takes so many different types of professionals to bring the project all together.”

Mummy is just off to work now. Or is she?

Ginny initially began wedding planning eight years ago as a new venture after her two children were bo and her previous employer wouldn’t allow her to go back to work part-time. As Ginny’s children have grown, so has her business and she currently manages on average 20 weddings during the summer months.

Going back to work once you have had children can be a complicated affair anywhere in the world. Doing that abroad where you are already out of your cultural, social and linguistic comfort zones makes it increasingly challengingly and stressful. Part-time work is especially difficult to find in Italy for back-to-work mums, as:

• Employers are generally not incentivized by the authorities to offer this as an option.
• School hours vary across the education system and geographical areas. Typically a school day in the state system finishes at lunchtime on at least three, if not five days, of the week.
• That complexity is increased with the 90-day school summer holidays: June until September.
• After-school care facilities are still not always widely available, especially in rural areas.
• Greater movement of families away from home areas and a population that is having children later in life mean that family support networks are less and less common.

On the flipside, however, the difficulty of finding part-time work does create positive opportunities and prompts women to follow their dreams to set-up their own businesses and brands, as in the case of Ginny and Kathy.

However, it is important to point out that overall in Italy women are still very much an under-utilised resource in the workforce: "Italy is a country in which women are still very connected to a traditional vision of their role. Care work is work principally done by women. So we find ourselves in a situation where women aren't getting work," said Maddalena Vianello, a leading feminist activist.

"If they get it, statistics show that they are more precarious, worse paid and in professional positions which, let's say, are inferior in relation to their level of education."

A 2015 study by Eurostat placed Italy amongst the three worst countries in Europe when it comes to the work gender gap with just over 50.6 percent of women in employment versus 70.6 percent of men.

By Emma Cuthbertson

Emma Cuthbertson, originally from Cowall in the UK, runs La Piccola Agency, a boutique Marketing and PR agency in Lombardy. Emma's background is marketing communications and PR in the IT sector. She has lived and worked in Barcelona, London and Milan.

Europe's most active volcano has spent the last 24 hours sending huge plumes of ash and smoke hundreds of metres into the skies above Sicily.

The 3350-metre high volcano began to stir on Tuesday, with emissions from its north-east crater growing in intensity throughout the day.

“On May 17th we witnessed an increase in the amplitude of volcanic tremors and recorded intense degassing accompanied by occasional, weak emissions from the north-easte crater,” explained the Catania branch of Italy's National Vulcanology and Geophysics Institute (INGV).

Vulcanologists are classing the eruption as 'Strombolian' - a category characterized by explosive bursts of activity during which cinder, ash and smoke are ejected from the crater with great force.

So far, thanks to favourable atmospheric conditions, the ejected material has only fallen in the immediate vicinity of the 1190 km² volcano and flights at Fontanarossa airport in nearby Catania have not been affected.

But the eruption has provided people in the vicinity with a great photo opportunity, with many great snaps being shared on Twitter.

A live video of the north-east crater can be seen here.

It is the most significant period of activity on the volcano since December 2015, when the mountain witnessed one of its most severe eruptions of the last two decades.
 

Another 18 countries in Europe, including France and Malta, were also placed in the 'moderate outlook' group ahead of the upcoming summer months, while the Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia and Russia face a high risk, the WHO waed.

"The overall risk of a Zika virus outbreak across the WHO European Region is low to moderate during late spring and summer," it said.

That was largely due to the presence of another mosquito species in those countries: the Aedes albopictus, which is less "prone" to causing outbreaks than its cousin in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to research by the Pasteur Institute.

Meanwhile, the Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia and Russia face a high risk of a Zika virus outbreak.

"The likelihood of local Zika virus transmission, if no measures are taken to mitigate the threat, is ... high in limited geographical areas: the (Portuguese) island of Madeira (off Africa) and the northeaste coast of the Black Sea," WHO said.

The reason for the high-level threat in those areas is the presence there of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry the Zika virus that health authorities say causes birth defects in newbos, the UN global health agency said.

Within the "moderate likelihood" group, France, Italy and Malta had the top three transmission likelihood scores.

The score was based on factors including climatic suitability for the mosquitoes, shipping and air connectivity, population density, urbanisation and history of previous outbreaks of viruses transmitted by insects or other animals.

"With this risk assessment, we at WHO want to inform and target preparedness work in each European country based on its level of risk," said Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

"We call particularly on countries at higher risk to strengthen their national capacities and prioritise the activities that will prevent a large Zika outbreak."

Recent scientific consensus is that Zika causes microcephaly, a form of severe brain damage in newbos, as well as adult-onset neurological problems which can lead to paralysis and even death.

There is no vaccine or treatment for the virus, which in most people causes only mild symptoms - a rash, joint pain or fever.

Columbus, an Italian from the north-weste port city of Genoa, was the first European to land in the New World in 1492.

On February 15th 1493 he penned a letter about his discovery from his Caravel the Niña, while making his way back to Europe from the Americas.

Once Columbus arrived in Europe, several copies of letter in various languages were dispatched to different European countries to spread the word.

Only a handful of these copies have survived - one of them in Florence.

The letter was stolen from Florence's Riccardiana library, with the thieves replacing it with a forged copy.

The stolen letter was later bought by a private purchaser for €400,000, who then donated it to the Library of Congress in Washington in 2004. The letter is today valued at some €1 million.

In a press release the Italian police said they had managed to track down the document thanks to "efficient collaboration with US authorities over the illegal traffic of stolen artefacts".

The letter is of extraordinary historical interest and will be unveiled to the Italian press on Wednesday.

More details to follow.

Knox, who along with ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was cleared of the murder in 2015, claims she was subjected to an unfair trial and mistreatment during questioning - allegations which have never been investigated by the Italian authorities.

The case, put forward by lawyers Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Dalla Vedova, states Knox was not provided with a lawyer or official interpreter during interrogations on November 5th and 6th 2007, even though she only had an elementary grasp of Italian at the time.

The lawyers also allege that Knox, 28, was given inhumane treatment during questioning, including "degrading smacks to the head".

It was during these interrogations that Knox accused local barman, Patrick Lumumba, of Kercher's murder – an accusation for which she was convicted – and later cleared - of slander.

The European Court of Human Rights will now seek more information from the Italian govement before the case is brought to trial, a process which could take several years.

“The court's acceptance of the appeal is great news,” Luciano Ghirga told Corriere della Sera. “It's difficult to get cases accepted.”

“I can't say it gives me any satisfaction however, as so much suffering has already been caused,” Ghirga added.

In March 2015, Knox and Sollecito were finally acquitted of the brutal murder of Kercher, who was killed at her student home in Perugia on November 1st 2007, by Italy's Court of Cassation.

It was the end of an eight-year long ordeal which saw the pair condemned for the murder, acquitted once and then finally cleared following a retrial.  

The young men - three from Eritrea and the other from central Africa - are the first batch to arrive from Italy in Cyprus and the second to be accommodated on the Mediterranean island under the scheme.
   
Soon after arriving at Laaca airport on Tuesday evening the four were taken to a reception centre near the southe coastal town of Kofinou.
   
The first group of six asylum-seekers - from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea - were relocated from Greece in February.
 
The transfers are part of the EU relocation programme agreed by the European Union institutions and a number of member states in September 2015.
   
Under the scheme, Cyprus pledged to accept the relocation of 440 asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy - the worst hit countries in the migrant crisis.
   
Cyprus has also agreed to offer resettlement places for 69 vulnerable refugees selected by the UNHCR in countries outside the EU.
   
The EU responsibility-sharing scheme, which foresees the relocation of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece, is seen as an important step towards stabilizing the biggest refugee crisis that Europe has seen in decades.
   
More than one million people arrived by sea in Europe in 2015. The majority were refugees fleeing persecution and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
 
Authorities say 3,771 people have died or gone missing attempting cross the Mediterranean.
   
In 2015, Cyprus received 2,105 asylum applications, including 908 from Syrian nationals.

The move was revealed in a letter from the European Commission that Italy published on the eve of the EU executive's release of its assessment of whether Eurozone countries are sticking to Stability Pact rules on their public finances.

The letter confirms that Brussels has granted Italy's demand for spending equivalent to 0.85 percent of its GDP to be effectively stripped out of the calculation of whether Rome is acting fast enough to cut its huge national debt.

The Commission said it was granting the leeway on condition that Italy stands ready to tighten its belt more than currently planned in 2017.

But it failed to win any clear commitment on that score. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan replied to the Commission's letter by saying he was confident Italy would "broadly comply" with EU requirements in 2017 on the basis of his current fiscal plans.

Renzi said the flexibility granted by Brussels was worth "lots of money" for Italy.

"(It is) less than I would have liked and it is not a solution for every problem, but it is the principle of flexibility," he said.

"It means a green light for investment that otherwise would have been blocked."

Italy has argued strongly in favour of the EU's deficit and debt rules being interpreted in a way that means one-off or exceptional spending is not included in the calculation of whether a country is compliant.

In its budget for 2016, it proposed discounting amounts equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP to cover the cost of implementing structural reforms, 0.25 percent for infrastructural investment and a total of 0.1 percent for costs related to the migrant crisis and anti-terrorism measures.

Brussels granted them all - on condition that Italy does what is needed to get its budget deficit to GDP ratio down to 1.8 percent.

"It must be recalled that no other Member State has requested nor received anything close to this unprecedented amount of flexibility," the Commission's letter states.

Slow recovery from recession

It later notes that "our current assessment of the planned fiscal effort for 2017 indicates a projected gap of between 0.15 percent and 0.2 percent of GDP."

In his reply, Padoan gave no commitment to tightening his fiscal stance, stressing instead the need for growth friendly policies at national and European levels to bolster a slow recovery.

"In this complex scenario, let me reiterate the commitment, including the planned fiscal effort, taken by the Italian Govement ... to broadly comply with EU fiscal rules in 2017," he wrote, adding he was confident Italy would avoid "significant deviation" from Brussels' requirements.

Although Italy's deficit is well under the three percent ceiling enshrined in the EU's Stability Pact, Rome is under pressure to cut its annual borrowing requirement as a means of bringing down its huge debt mountain.

This currently stands at €2.2 trillion, equivalent to more than 130 percent of the country's annual economic output. Renzi has pledged that the debt level will fall this year for the first time since 2007.

The Italian premier has been a vocal critic of what he sees as EU austerity. Italy's budget for this year includes tax cuts and new spending worth around €30 billion, around half of which is being financed by letting the deficit run higher than it otherwise would.

Renzi says the measures are essential to consolidate Italy's tentative recovery from a triple-dip recession.