The fully-functioning gold toilet. Photo: William Edwards/AFP The request was for a Van Gogh to ado the walls of the president and first lady's private residence in the White House. The answer? No -- but how about a fully functioning, 18-karat gold toilet instead? While it's customary for US preside...

Paolo Gentiloni says Italy's centre-left will not gove alongside the centre-right. Photo: Andrea Solaro/AFP Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s centre-left prime minister, said his party would not consider gove ing alongside Silvio Berlusconi’s alliance of centrists and the far-right after a general election i...

Italian politics are full of characters –xa0so many that sometimes it’s hard to keep track. If you want to know who’s ruling, who’s running and who’s making the headlines, check out The Local’s beginner’s to the names you need to know before Italy goes to the polls on March 4th. The incumbent: Paolo...

Pope Francis pictured during his weekly general audience. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP Pope Francis wa ed on Wednesday against the temptation of fake news, drawing a parallel between ethically compromised jou alism and the biblical tale of Adam, Eve, the snake and the forbidden fruit. In his annual Wor...

A photo of the train which derailed. Photo: Italian Fire Service The death toll after a regional train derailed near Milan in northe Italy has risen to three, with more than 40 people injured, emergency services said. All of the dead were women, news agencyxa0Ansa reported. They have been publicly i...

Emergency services workers search the wreckage for trapped passengers. Photo: Italian Fire Service A train derailed west of Milan on Thursday mo ing in a serious rail accident which has reportedly killed three passengers and left around a hundred injured. Pictures from the scene show the wreckage of...

Lazio have been fined 50,000 euros ($61,000) but avoided a stadium ban over posters created by their fans featuring Holocaust victim Anne Frank, the Italian football federation (FIGC) announced on Thursday. FIGC prosecutor Giuseppe Pecoraro had demanded a fine and two games be played behind closed d...

The Sacra di San Michele, the abbey that inspired The Name of the Rose. Photo: Cristian Buda, CC-BY-SA 4.0 Life imitated art when a fire broke out at the northe Italian abbey that inspired Umberto Eco’s classic The Name of the Rose. Part of the Sacra di San Michele’s roof was damaged in the blaze, w...

Venice's tourist hotspots have been accused of ripping off visitors. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP An expensive lunch in the heart of Venice ended up costing the restaurant dearer than the guests: the eatery that charged four tourists €1,100 for their meal has been fined more than €10,000. The incident, ...

The train that derailed near Milan. Piero Cruciatti/AFP The latest information on the victims, the aftermath and what may have caused the train crash that killed three people near Milan on Thursday mo ing. WHAT HAPPENED? A Trenord commuter train from Cremona to Milan partially derailed at 6.57am on ...

The Sacra di San Michele, the abbey that inspired The Name of the Rose. Photo: Elio Pallard, CC-BY-SA 3.0Hollywood stars Rupert Everett and John Turturro are to star in the first television adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, its producers said on Wednesday. The big-budget, eight-part ...

Pope Francis has been given a two-wheeled Popemobile. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP The answer is Pope Francis on a bike, a prospect made tantalizingly possible by the pontiff's latest gift.xa0 Francis was presented with a customized racing bike on Wednesday by three-time world cycling champion Peter Sa...

Italy gets top scores for heritage, but loses marks for its economy and liveability. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPIf you want good job prospects, affordable living and political stability, you're better off in China than Italy, according to a new global survey. The 2018 Best Countries report places Ita...

Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director of Call Me by Your Name. Photo: Robin Beck/AFPCall Me by Your Name, a film telling the story of a gay romance in the northe Italian countryside, has been nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. The English-language film, based on a novel by Egyptian-A...

Snow in the Dolomite mountains in South Tyrol, Italy. Photo: [email protected]/DepositphotosScores of tourists remained trapped in ski resorts in South Tyrol on Monday after heavy snowfall blocked roads and triggered avalanche wa ings. Up to three metres of snow were reported inxa0Val Senales, al...

Juventus FC is the subject of a new Netflix documentary. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFPGianluigi Buffon will be among the Juventus players to star in a fly-on-the-wall documentary series on Netflix from February 16th, the reigning Serie A champions confirmed on Monday. 'First team: Juventus FC', the origi...

Chinese tourists make selfies in a lavender field in Valensole, southe France, in June 2017. PHOTO: BORIS HORVAT / AFPChinese tourists are big spenders and with the numbers visiting Europe set to soar by nearly 70 percent over the next five years, the countries of the Old Continent are rolling out t...

A handout photo from Osservatore Romano shows Pope Francis waving at the crowd outside the Cathedral of Trujillo on Saturday. AFP PHOTO / OSSERVATORE ROMANOPope Francis on Saturday urged Latin America's faithful to fight rampant violent crime against women including murder, while holding mass in Tru...

Sofia Goggia of Italy celebrates her first World Cup win at home. Photo: Tiziania Fabi/AFPItaly's Sofia Goggia snatched her second straight Women's World Cup downhill on home snow at Cortina d'Ampezzo on Friday as an error left favourite Lindsey Vonn in second. Goggia followed her downhill win at Ba...

An aerial view of Hotel Rigopiano the day after the disaster. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco/AFPOn January 18th, Italy marks the one-year anniversary of a major avalanche in Rigopiano that engulfed a luxury hotel and killed 29 people. The disaster was the deadliest avalanche in Italy in almost 100 years. O...