"All the countries should relax: there is no Italian banking problem," Padoan said. Photo: AFPItaly does not have a problem with its banks, finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Sunday, despite investors fretting about nearly $400 billion of bad debts weighing down the sector. Fears of a renewed e...

The 79-year-old Argentine pontiff, a son of Italian immigrants, has chosen a theme of mercy for the 2016 edition of the faith extravaganza, dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock". Francis will meet Holocaust survivors at the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz, and lead prayers for its 1.1 million most...

The athletes taking part are dubbed T21s, named after the most common form of Down's Syndrome, trisomy 21. Photo: AFPThe roar from the stands in Florence could not have been louder if it had been stars Usain Bolt or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the track. It was the first world competition for athlete...

Milan is vying to be Europe's post-Brexit financial and business hub. Photo: Melanie BowmanMilan has also joined the race among European cities to pick up the post-Brexit spoils should London’s financial institutions choose to shift their operations elsewhere. “With Brexit, we want to bring a piece ...

Delilah Jay just before she waded into Rome's Trevi Fountain on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Delilah JayPlenty of people have made insipid imitations of the famous scene from Federico Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’, in which the late Swedish actress Anita Ekberg wades flirtatiously into Rome’s Trevi Founta...

Keita Balde, a Senegalese bo in Spain, is one of several black players in Italy's Serie A to have faced racist abuse in the past. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPKeita Balde has been offered apologies by the mayor of Padova after the Lazio striker fell victim to racist monkey chants during a pre-season...

Italy became the last major country in Europe to recognize same-sex civil unions in May. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFPSame-sex couples in Italy will finally have the chance to say “I do” from mid-August onward, Italy's Interior Ministry announced on Thursday. Italy became the last major country in Europ...

There are 135,000 people waiting in Italian reception centres. Photo: Giovanni Isolino/AFPItaly is scrambling to find extra places for incoming migrants amid fears the failure of a European relocation plan may result in mass encampments. Rome bowed to pressure from the EU at the end of last year and...

The Bourbon palace at Caserta is one of the sites looking for cash. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsItaly is looking to Chinese investors to secure the future of many of its crumbling archaeological sites. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini flew to China on Tuesday in order to promote a new system ...

"They squeezed them in everywhere for their last trip, packing them in like on the trains for Auschwitz". The harrowing task of recovering decomposing migrant bodies from a fishingxa0boat that sank with hundreds of people aboard is finished over a year after itxa0sank, but Italian firefighters' spok...

Italian police arrested the powerful 'Ndrangheta boss following a pursuit. Photo: Raffaele Esposito/FlickrItalian police slapped cuffs on a fugitive on Thursday after a high-speed chase tu ed into a hobble when the mobster broke his ankle. Giuseppe Alvaro, 33, a member of the powerful 'Ndrangheta cr...

Over 80,000 migrants have landed in Italy so far this year. Photo: Giovanni IsolinoRescue teams who pulled over 550 migrants to safety from rickety vessels in the Mediterranean on Wednesday said they had recovered 22 bodies from a dinghy. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Twitter...

Turin's new leaders want to make the city "more vegan". Photo: Maelick/Junya Osuar/FlickrTurin's new Five Star Movement mayor, Chiara Appendino, presented her new council's five-year political programme on Tuesday, which included plans to reduce the amount of animal products eaten in the Piedmont ca...

Rome's new mayor, Virginia Raggi, has taken action against the tacky photo-souvenir gladiators who've been gathering around Rome top attractions since the end of June. A gladiator-banning edict was passed by interim mayor, Francesco Paolo Tronca, in November, but expired in June, prompting scores of...

The fake notes had a nominal value of €6.5 million. Photo: ECBA gang of counterfeiters in southe Italy were caught red-handed as they printed fake €20 bills - a new banknote reputed to incorporate the latest tricks to defeat forgers. Public prosecutors in Naples said on Wednesday that three men were...

A o Kompatscher, the gove or of South Tyrol. Photo: Gustav HoferThe migrant situation at the Brenner crossing point is not as intense as it was in 2015, A o Kompatscher, the gove or of South Tyrol said on Wednesday. But that could change if Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party claims victory in the co...

Italy's Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said the money would be used to pay down debt. Photo: Gabriel Buoys/AFP AFP · 20 Jul 2016, 08:22 Published: 20 Jul 2016 08:22 GMT+02:00 The Italian gove ment hopes to ea "around €2 billion ($2.2 billion) from the sale of more shares in Poste Italiane SpA, t...

The woman was attempting to recreate an iconic scene from 'La Dolce Vita'. Photo: Screengrab/La RepubblicaA mystery woman shocked watching tourists on Tuesday mo ing when she waded into Rome's Trevi Fountain in a bid to recreate an iconic scene from Federico Fellini's 1960 film 'La Dolce Vita'. As s...

The Italian truckmaker Iveco has been hit with a €495m fine. Photo: IvecoItaly's Iveco was fined €495 million on Tuesday for forming a cartel with other European truckmakers. In total, the European Commission slapped more than €2.9 billion in fines on some of Europe's largest truckmakers, including ...

The woman was attempting to recreate an iconic scene from 'La Dolce Vita'. Photo: Screengrab/La RepubblicaA mystery woman shocked watching tourists on Tuesday mo ing when she waded into Rome's Trevi Fountain in a bid to recreate an iconic scene from Federico Fellini's 1960 film 'La Dolce Vita'. As s...