The Local

Snow in Turin earlier in December. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP Parts of northe Italy are on red alert after a weekend of freezing rain and snow that has left roads icy, trains stuck and schools closed. 
 Italy saw its first widespread snowfall of 2017 over the weekend as flakes fell from the far north as far as Tuscany. 
 While people enjoyed the wintery scenes in Milan and Venice, elsewhere the weather disrupted train services and created treacherous conditions on roads. 
 
 
 
 
 On Sunday, around 400 people were stranded on a train that got stuck between Milan and the French city of Nice when an overhead power line froze. Over three hours later – and with the h...

Two councils declared a state of emergency while others reported extreme floods, hailstorms and damage to infrastructure over the weekend across northe Italy. A teenage boy is missing too after being dragged away by strong currents in the Adda River. Torrential rains, storms, hailstorms and strong...

Roasted chestnuts are a familiar sight on Italy's streets - but the autumnal snack is under threat. Photo: Allen Brewer/FlickrThe sight, smell and taste of roasted chestnuts are one of the hallmarks of an Italian autumn - but production of the nuts has hit a "historic low" in 2016. A combination of unfavourable weather and parasites targeting chestnut trees has led to a huge drop in production this year, Italian farmers' organization Coldiretti waed on Saturday. In Saleo, the top location for chestnut farming, chestnut production could fall by as much as 90 percent, the local branch of Coldiretti said. The organization labelled the drop a "disaster" and met with local farmers over the weeken...

In the traditional Italian dish, ragù alla Bolognese, tomatoes are very much an essential ingredient. Photo: Sharon Mollerus/FlickrA recipe for a tomato-free bolognese published by the New York Times (NYT) has caused a stir in Italy, with scores of simmering Italians taking to the major newspaper's website message board to blast its recipe for ‘Rigatoni with white Bolognese’. In the traditional Italian dish, ragù alla Bolognese, tomatoes are very much an essential ingredient and their exclusion has upset food purists, who are tired of seeing ‘Bolognese’ used as an adjective to describe any kind of pasta dish served with minced meat. “Our suggestion is that you organize a trip to Bologna so y...

The Cinque Terre village of Veazza. Photo: Lucadea/FlickrHiking the coastal path that links the medieval fishing villages of Italy's Cinque Terre on its northwest coast is a stop-start affair these days. Nestled between azure expanses of sea and dry-stone terraced mountains thatcascade into the Mediterranean, the rocky way is barely a foot (30centimetres) wide in places. And as visitors arrive in ever greater numbers to see why this coer ofthe Riviera features on so many travel bucket lists, pedestrian traffic jamsmade the going slow on a sweltering August moing. But Chinese student Hardy Yang has no complaints on the crowded pathbetween Monterosso and Veazza, two of the five villages that m...

Renzi appears to be heading for a period that will make or break his premiership. Photo: AFPIn a sign of how good a summer it has been in Italy, coastguards are threatening holidaymakers with fines for bagging beach spots by parking deckchairs and towels oveight. From Sicily to Venice, the "no-vacancies" signs are up and sunlounger spaces are thin on the sand as the country's holiday resorts operate at full capacity for the busiest week of the year. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose own vacation destination is a closely-guarded secret, must wish the same could be said for the rest of his country's flagging economy. Weighed down by sluggish domestic demand and a bad debt-laden banking sector...

Christo's 'Floating Piers' were closed due to inclement weather on Sunday. Photo: FacebookFans of renowned artist Christo faced disappointment for a second day on Sunday after his latest work in northe Italy was partly closed by rain. His ambitious three kilometre-long (1.9 miles) walkway of 200,000 floatingcubes covered in orange fabric floating atop Lake Iseo was evacuated Saturdayevening after wind and rain made it unstable. "Given the influx of people and potentially bad weather, it is advisable torethink your trip," said a manager at the installation in a statement. Local authorities have also cancelled train services to the lake to limitthe numbers able to reach the project. After bein...

The navy has suspended its bid to raise a migrant disaster boat from the sea floor amid inclement weather. Photo: Italian NavyAn operation to salvage a sunken migrant boat packed with corpses was suspended on Friday due to bad weather, the Italian navy said. The boat's sinking last April left as many as 800 people dead in the worstmaritime tragedy in the Mediterranean since World War II. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has vowed to give all of the victimsdecent burials and the delicate and complex task of lifting the vessel fromthe seabed at a depth of 380 metres (1,245 feet) got under way on Wednesday. But weather conditions have deteriorated since then and the navy said theoperation ha...