A different cemetery in Sicily. Photo: Roberto Salomone/AFP The mayor of a town in Sicily says he is "mortified" after a photograph shared online showed people barbecuing in a local cemetery. The undated image, which has been widely shared on Facebook in the past few days, shows men sitting around a...

A stall at Bolzano Christmas market. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP The Christmas season has officially begun here in Italy. The first festive markets are already open and more are set to follow as advent continues. Many of Italy's most established Christmas markets are in the South Tyrol region near Aus...

Italian motorcycling ace Valentino Rossi has revealed he is afraid to stop racing and intends to tu to cars when his career on two wheels ends. The 38-year-old nine-time world champion -- who is driving a Ford Fiesta in Milan this weekend as he bids for a record sixth win at the Monza Rally Show -- ...

From the creamy cannoli to crunchy biscotti, Italy is home to some of the world's most mouthwatering pastries, and if you're looking for the very best of the bunch, this list could provide the answer. The Gambero Rosso - the equivalent of the Michelin guide or the Bible for Italian foodies - has rel...

The ships would be built based on the Frimm frigate design, pictured here. Photo: FRED TANNEAU / AFP A consortium of French and Italian shipbuilders, backed by their respective gove ments, on Friday offered to build 15 warships for Canada, reportedly at half the price it has budgeted to renew its na...

Ultra Orthodox Jews look at the city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives on Friday. PHOTO: THOMAS COEX / AFP The Palestinians accused the organisers of the Giro d'Italia cycle race Friday of being "complicit in Israel's military occupation" by starting the 2018 race from Jerusalem. "By organising ...

Alitalia cabin crew uniforms presented by designer Ettore Bilotta last summer. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP Italian carrier Alitalia, grappling with debt and fighting to compete with low-cost rivals, announced on Wednesday it has hired the Alberta Ferretti fashion house to redesign its staff uniforms, 18...

A general view of Jerusalem's Old City skyline from the west. Photo: Gali Tibbon/AFP Giro d'Italia organizers said on Thursday they removed references to "west Jerusalem" for next year's cycling race, after Israel threatened to drop an agreement to host the start of the event. The organizers of the ...

An Italian ham company will fund the restoration of an ancient underground fresco in Naples. The fresco is located in the city's San Gennaro catacombs, a huge network of underground tombs dating back to the second century BC and containing the tomb of San Gennaro, one of Naples's patron saints. The ...

The Institute for Religious Works (IOR) the Vatican's bank at the Vatican. Photo: Gabriel Buoys/AFP The deputy director of the Vatican bank has been sacked, throwing yet another question mark over Pope Francis's reform efforts for the Holy See's finances. Vatican spokeswoman Paloma Garcia Ovejero sa...

Voting in Rome. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP Italy's populist Five Star movement (M5S) on Thursday called for inte ational observers to monitor next year's elections, claiming irregularities during Sicily's regional polls. Luigi Di Maio, the party's candidate for prime minister, sent a letter making t...

Benetton's famous sweaters on sale in Milan. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP Luciano Benetton, one of the founders of the eponymous Italian clothing company, announced his retu on Thursday to the helm of the struggling company. "In 2008, I left the company with €155 million euros in assets, and am takin...

The city of Belluno in Belluno province. Photo: giustina_ilyusha/Flickr If you’re looking for a place to live that’s clean, wealthy and above all safe, you could do a lot worse than Belluno. The north-easte province, dotted with snowy slopes and picturesque mountain villages, has been judged to have...

Carabinieri in Ostia earlier this month. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP Police swept Rome’s coastal district of Ostia on Tuesday, amid fears that the area’s mafia clans are preparing for war. National police, carabinieri and finance police patrolled the streets and searched buildings in Ostia, on the...

Gianluigi Buffon is the Serie A player of the year. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP Italy legend Gianluigi Buffon eased some of his World Cup heartache by winning the Serie A Best Player of the Year award at the Gran Gala del Calcio Awards in Milan. "The failure to participate in the World Cup is the bigge...

A newbo at Rome's Bambino Gesu hospital. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP The number of births in Italy fell by more than 12,000 last year, the country’s national statistics office said on Tuesday. Italy registered 473,438 births in 2016, continuing a downward trend that has seen births drop by over 100,000...

Rome's Libreria Croce, which shut down in 2011. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP Italy will introduce tax credits for bookshops, with independent stores eligible for the biggest breaks. It’s a bid to help save Italy’s bookshops, which “are at continual risk of closure all across the country,” according...

Italian police were questioning five Chinese minors on Tuesday on suspicion of murder after a man was apparently suffocated by his teenage ex-boyfriend in a revenge attack. The victim Hu Congliang, 20, is believed to have been dating one of the five in Modena, a city in northe Italy near Prato, wher...

Ikea isn't popular in Italy right now. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP Swedish home store Ikea is facing a backlash in Italy after one of its employees complained that she was sacked for refusing early mo ing shifts because she had to care for her disabled son. Marica Ricutti, a 39-year-old single mo...

Barrels on a beach in northe Alaska. Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images North America/AFP Italian energy giant Eni will start exploring for oil off Alaska after the United States authorized it to start drilling, despite environmental conce s. The US Interior Department’s safety and environment watchd...