The 68-year-old manager is hoping to make a successful start. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFPChelsea jokes aside, Giampiero Ventura ishoping to pick up where Antonio Conte left off when he leads a new-look Italy for the first time in a friendly against beaten Euro 2016 finalists France on Thursday. xa0"I wa...

The Golden Lion is the top price at Venice's annual film festival. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPA bewitching musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone will open the Venice film festival on Wednesday, kicking off a US-heavy line-up of flicks vying for the coveted Golden Lion. Damien Chazelle's "La La...

Joe Hart is set to join Torino on loan. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFPEngland goalkeeper Joe Hart arrived in Turin on Tuesday ahead of undergoing a medical that should see him sign a season-long loan deal with the unfashionable Serie A club. Hart, 29, has fallen out of favour with Pep Guardiola at M...

Tom and O a on their wedding day in Veneto in July.O a O’Reilly had been widowed for over 20 years before she moved to Italy’s Veneto region from Ireland in March 2013. A few months later, she met her future husband – via The Local Italy. The Local Italy had only been running for a few months when w...

Handout photo from Italy's Red Cross after a rescue operation by Moas on August 15th. Photo: Yara Nardi/AFPAround 6,500 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Monday, the Italian coastguard said, in one of its busiest days of life-saving in recent years. Dramatic images of one operation sho...

Firefighters visit damaged houses in Accumoli on Monday. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFPRomanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos on Tuesday will become the first European Union leader to visit Italy since last week's earthquake, which left nearly 300 people dead including 11 Romanians. Last Wednesday's quake...

Gioia is dehydrated but doing well. Photo: Facebook/ENPAThere were rare scenes of joy in earthquake-hit Amatrice on Monday, when a fortunate cat was rescued from the ruins of a collapsed home and retu ed to its tearful owner. The cat, named 'Gioia' - meaning 'joy', xa0had been trapped under the rubb...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) has given €500,000 to help the earthquake relief effort in Italy. Photos: AFPFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told Italian students how the social media site gave €500,000 to the Italian Red Cross following Wednesday's devastating earthquake in central Italy. Faceboo...

Some 2,700 people lost their homes in the quake. Photo: Olivier Morin/AFPThose left homeless after Wednesday's devastating earthquake in central Italy will be moved out of their tent camps by the end of September. Some 2,700 people lost their homes in the 6.0-6.2 magnitude quake, the majority of who...

For 40 minutes before an earthquake struck central Italy in the early hours of last Wednesday, a pet dog, living with its family in Poggio Castellano, a hamlet near Amatrice, kept barking. Lucia Deleri and her husband, who were at home with their five-year-old son, were woken up by the anxious four-...

How much coffee you drink could come down to your genetic make-up. Photo: McPig/FlickrA groundbreaking study carried out in coffee-mad Italy has helped identify a gene scientists say could regulate our appetite for espressos and cappuccinos. The research, published in the jou al,xa0Scientific Report...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in Rome on Monday for a Q&A with employees. Photo: Drew Angerer/AFPFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will hold a Townhall Q&A in Rome on Monday, the latest in a series of events during which employees get to interrogate the social media site’s owner. The billionaire arrive...

’I hope to come and see you,’ the pope said. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto /AFPPope Francis said Sunday he wanted to visit some of the central Italian villages devastated in this week's earthquake, as survivors and rescue workers dug in for the long haul with winter approaching. Francis said the Catholic Ch...

Amatrice had been due to host its Amatriciana pasta festival this weekend. Photo: Angela GiuffridaThe Lazio town of Amatrice was the hardist-hit by Wednesday's devastating earthquake. The Local's Angela Giuffrida visited what is left of the town on Friday. One of the things that survived the earthqu...

More than 280 people were killed in the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck on August 24. Photo: Andreas Solaro /AFPFlags flew at half mast across Italy on Saturday as the country observed a day of mou ing for the victims of an earthquake that killed nearly 300 people. President Sergio Mattarella p...

A refugee dines at a makeshift camp in central Italy. Photo: Mario Laporta/AFPIn a children's play park in the tiny Italian village of Illica, survivors of this week's earthquake are enjoying a meal that gives new meaning to the term "comfort food". As they prepare for a second night under canvas th...

A damaged church in Amatrice. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPItaly's museums will donate all money raised from ticket sales on Sunday to help restore cultural treasures damaged or destroyed by Wednesday’s 6.0 magnitude quake in central Italy. The Initiative, dubbed ‘museums4italy’ was announced on Thu...

A suitcase in the rubble of a collapsed home in Amatrice. Photo: Angela Giuffrida/The LocalA team of specialist rescue workers from Shanghai is searching for 15 people unaccounted for in Amatrice, the Lazio town to apart by Wednesday's devastating earthquake. The team, coordinated by Ho Chin, is usi...

A man stands among damaged buildings in Amatrice. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPAn increasingly forlo search for victims of the earthquake that brought ca age to central Italy entered a third day Friday as the confirmed death toll climbed to 267. Releasing the new count, Immacolata Postiglione, head ...

Ana Huete with her Italian husband Christian Casini. Photo: FacebookAna Huete died in Wednesday's earthquake, crushed as she slept in the house of her new husband’s family in Illicia, a small town in the province of Rieti very near to the epicentre of the devastating quake. The 27-year-old was confi...