28 people have been arrested in Palermo, Sicily, for Mafia activities. Apparently they had managed by corrupt means to get several supply contracts for a popular TV series about cops fighting the Mafia.

Meanwhile statistics inform us that Italians are the most long-lived nation in the world, with an average life estimate of 76,1 years for men and 82,2 for women.

In many ways, Italy is different. For one thing, I was taught at school as a child, we have no tradition of racism like in America. For another, the leading schools in Italy - the schools where the rich children go, where the best teachers are found, and which insure a swift passage to the best university courses - are generally state schools. For ( Read more... )

A few years back, a man called Cesare Lupo was condemned to a fair few years in jail for Mafia crimes. While in jail, he joined the external law course of the University of Catanzaro (southern Italy) and graduated in 2008 with a respectable 104 out of 110, with a thesis on "Extortion aggravated by facilitation towards Cosa Nostra." One year later ( Read more... )

I haven't been this disgusted at my country since 1982, when we betrayed Britain over the Falklands. (The British won, too, which means that Italy got nothing for its betrayal of an ally except shame and disgrace. But then Italians are like that: they are always at their most stupid when they think they are being crafty.) The Meredith Kercher ( Read more... )

One doesn't, in general, think of popular music as a vehicle for patriotism. But apart from the USA, where nobody is ashamed of waving the flag, there have been beautiful patriotic songs from Australia -

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- and, more surprisingly, from Italy:

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I reckon that part of the reason why this is so surprising is the central position of Britain in modern and ( Read more... )

...ours are gorgeous, too.

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In the last few weeks, Italy has seen an important set of local elections - including the governments of the largest cities, Milan and Naples - and a set of national referenda. The results seem to have marked the moment when the long-expected collapse of Berlusconi and his party begin. All the referenda were lost, some humiliatingly: the ( Read more... )

I feel very bad about being unable to post my usual April 25 post commemorating the Italian Partisans of WWII.

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One day after the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the free and united nation of Italy, the European Court of Human Rights voted by fifteen against two that the display of the Crucifix in school rooms does not violate any human right ( Read more... )