Venice's Palazzo del Cinema, home of the city's film festival. Photo: AFPGun cartridges and 'anarchic' messages written on toilet paper caused panic at Venice's Palazzo del Cinema, where the city's film festival is taking place. Security forces and a bomb squad were called in after two men alerted t...

Italy is top in the EU for tax evasion. Photo: FuFu Wolf/FlickrItaly is known for many things: its art, landscapes, food and wine, for example. But they also have the dubious honour of being crowned the biggest tax dodgers in the EU. Evasion of VAT cost the country a staggering €36.9 billion in 2014...

Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has announced his decision to rid Italy of the millions of slot machines which can be found in bars, shops and hotels across the country. In an interview with Vita Non Profit magazine, which comes out on Thursday, Renzi said he had no intention of funding the co...

A robot surveys a quake-damaged church. Photo: Vigili FuocoWith the last of the missing accounted for, emergency services have begun the task of rebuilding central Italy's damaged towns - with the help of high-tech drones and robots. The robots have begun to carry out structural checks, reducing the...

File photo of migrants at Milan train station. The arrests were made in Como and Milan. Photo: AFPAn inte ational police operation has arrested 21 people in northe Italy, suspected of running a Europe-wide people-trafficking ring. The group are thought to have transported hundreds of migrants illega...

Paolo Sorrentino (R) will make a Berlusconi (L) film next year. Photos: AFPOcsar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is set to make a film about former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Sorrentino made the announcement while speaking to U.S Entertainment magazine Variety. The 46-year-...

A migrant's body is lifted from an Italian navy ship earlier this year. Photo: Giovani Isolino/AFPThe Italian navy announced on Monday it had recovered the bodies of six migrants in search and rescue operations which saved nearly 500 people. Two patrol boats "recovered nearly 500 people during six r...

Firefighters inspect buildings in a hamlet near Amatrice. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFPTwelve days after the devastating earthquake in central Italy, authorities have wa ed that the water in amatrice is not safe to drink. The mayor of Amatrice, the town of around 2,500 which suffered the heaviest casual...

Scientists on Monday revealed part of the secret to why a small village in southe Italy has an unusual number of centenarians - low levels of a particular hormone that affects circulation. Italian and US experts have spent the last six months investigating thexa0extraordinary longevity of residents ...

Please note: the dog on the picture is not Romeo. Photo: Filippo Monteforte / AFPA golden retriever called Romeo has been pulled from the rubble of Italy's earthquake, more than nine days after he was given up for dead. Touching footage filmed by the firemen who saved him shows the shaggy dog being ...

Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin. Photo: AFPAn Italian gove ment campaign urging young couples to "get on with it" to boost the country's flagging birthrate has been pulled after a furious backlash on social media. Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said Friday she had ordered changes toxa0t...

After over three years at the helm of The Local Italy, Angela Giuffrida is leaving. Now at a crossroads in Italy, she ponders the question: “Should I stay or should I go?” It was Christmas Eve 2012 and I was standing on a packed commuter train, heading to work in central London, when I received a ca...

The French embassy in Rome immediately issued a statement saying the carton ‘in no way’ represents France’s position. Photo: Mario Laporta, AFPA Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting victims of the Italian earthquake victims as lasagna has sparked outrage in the country which is still mou ing the nearly 3...

Italy's 'Fertility Day', aimed at reversing the declining birth rate, is being held on September 22nd. Photo: Joel Saget/AFPA publicity campaign encouraging Italians to have more babies – by reminding women that the older they get, the less fertile they become – has backfired on the Italian gove men...

Have the Italians been fluffing their emissions figures? Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFPThe German gove ment has accused Fiat-Chrysler of incorporating emissions cheating technology into some vehicles, in a letter to the European Commission seen by AFP on Thursday. "From our point of view, evidence has b...

The EU's 'big three': Matteo Renzi, Angela Merkel and François Hollande. Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFPWith Britain soon out of the way, Italy is looking like a bigger European player. But will Europe's daunting problems overwhelm the 'big three'? Angela Giuffrida reports. The tiny island of Ventotene, of...

Abdel Hamid al-Souei of Libya's Red Crescent said improved weather triggered this week's mass outflow of migrants to Europe. Photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFPThousands of migrants are "racing against the clock" to make the perilous crossing from Libya to Europe before summer ends, with authorities in the con...

A temporary town at Onna, built after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. Photo: Vincenzo Pito/AFPWork has begun on temporary wooden towns for those who lost their homes in last Wednesday’s earthquake which hit central Italy. In total, 2,700 people have been left homeless across the northe Lazio and March...

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi argues that the Olympics are not a priority for the capital. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPRome mayor Virginia Raggi remains reticent on her city's bid to host the 2024 Olympics, saying that it would be better to first think about "abandoned municipal installations". Speakin...

Relatives mou during a funeral service for victims of the earthquake in Amatrice. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFPItaly on Tuesday held a poignantly symbolic funeral for victims of last week's earthquake amid the ruins of Amatrice, the small town that bore the brunt of the disaster. President Sergio Mattar...