The Italian Almanac
November 2005
Italian News - November 30 Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's latest efforts at writing love songs will be on display soon in a new CD being prepared by his partner in music Mariano Apicella.
Italian Science - November 30 Your heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly. It's all part of falling passionately in love but it won't last more than a year.
Italian News - November 29 A leading Italian expert has dismissed claims by an Australian marine biologist that sharks are a growing threat to humans.
Italian News - November 29 Italian league and cup football games in the next week are all to start five minutes late to protest against racism among fans which again provoked ugly incidents at the weekend.
Italian News - November 28 Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents.
Italian Sport - November 28 The Olympic torch has set off on the long journey that will take it to Turin next February, venue for the 2006 Winter Olympics. The torch was lit from a beacon kindled by the sun's rays in Olympia.
Italian Science - November 28 Italian scientists have found a way to scan the centres in the brain where epileptic fits are triggered. Surgeons will operate with precision to alleviate the condition.
Italian News - November 27 Celebrated Hollywood director Martin Scorsese on Saturday paid homage to Italian cinema in a long speech after receiving an honorary degree in Bologna.
Italian News - November 27 The St. Henry District High School Chamber Choir will leave Erlanger the day after Christmas for Rome. The choir will sing at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
Italian News - November 26 Daniela Mercury was dropped after Vatican authorities read statements by her in the Brazilian press that went "against the moral doctrine of the church."
Italian News - November 26 Everyday life is set around the Nativity, but this time the traditional figures are joined by others that reflect the chaos in today’s world.
Italian News - November 26 At the pre-tour press conference the crooner from Vancouver flashed the new passport - issued on October 21 - which means he now has dual Italian Canadian nationality.
Italian News - November 25 Mantua is Italy’s paradise and Vibo Valentia the country’s “inferno”. That was the verdict of the Legambiente survey to classify of cities and towns in Italy.
Italian News - November 25 A group of Italian researchers will leave Saturday to sail around Antarctica in a three-year project which will have sports and humanitarian goals as well as scientific ones.
Italian News - November 25 The Autostrade per l’Italia management company is ready to deliver to the country’s highway police one of the most formidable tools of prevention that they have ever had.
Italian News - November 24 The United States is to close a military base on the Italian island of Sardinia now considered surplus to requirements for the defence of the Mediterranean.
Italian News - November 24 The idea is simple: to bloat the subsurface of Venice and lift the city, defending it from high water. How? By injecting seawater 700 metres underground.
Italian News - November 22 Favoured by perfect weather conditions, the 63rd edition of the International Motorcycle Exhibition in Milan closed with yet another record of public visitors.
Italian News - November 22 Rome's Jewish community, the oldest in Europe, on Tuesday opened a museum under the city's synagogue, near the river Tiber, to document its long and eventful history.
Italian Science - November 22 Italian scientists working in Antarctica have dug up the first ever sample of under water permafrost, something not normally seen as possible.
Italian News - November 21 Police flagged down the Formula One driver at dawn on the outskirts of Rome where he was zipping along at 148 kph - almost 90 kilometres over the area speed limit.
Italian Science - November 21 Until now historians have found evidence suggesting ancient high priests in Egypt prohibited pig meat, in common with many Middle Eastern peoples.
Italian News - November 20 An Italian judge who refuses to hear cases because there are crucifixes in the nation’s courtrooms was convicted Friday of failing to carry out his official duties.
Italian News - November 20 A stunned Italian actor had to stub out the cigarette he had lit up on stage after a spectator complained, forcing the theatre to change the script of an Arthur Miller play.
Italian News - November 19 The next Venice Carnevale will be spiced up with a generous serving of Chinese culture, the city announced at the presentation of the 2006 programme.
Italian News - November 19 An Italian woman whose jealous husband was wrongly convinced she'd starred in an amateur video has wound up in a pickle after claiming she'd been abducted for the shoot.
Italian History - November 19 The oldest map of anywhere in the western world, known as the Soleto Map and dating from about 500 BC, has been unearthed in southern Italy.
Italian News - November 18 "Solo leisure activities are not a breach of marital duties," the court ruled, rejecting an appeal for alimony from a woman who divorced her husband.
Italian News - November 18 Monza's future as host of the Italian Grand Prix could be in peril after a court ruled cars racing there must have silencers to reduce noise pollution.
Italian News - November 17 The sweet tooth of two thieves proved their undoing after police nabbed them by following the paper trail of candy wrappers they left behind them.
Italian News / Music - November 17 Italy's most popular rock singer, Vasco Rossi, says in a new book that he'll give up his singing career before he becomes "pathetic".
Italian News - November 16 Veltroni is the voice of a character in the Italian version of Disney's latest animated movie, Chicken Little. Appropriately, his role is that of the mayor of the town.
Italian Science - November 16 Italian and American researchers have made a stem-cell breakthrough that could have huge implications for the treatment of heart conditions.
Italian News - November 15 Four people were arrested on Monday for stealing coins from the Trevi Fountain, the famous Roman landmark they had been hired to clean.
Italian News - November 15 Two animal-loving businessmen from Milan plan to open Europe's biggest animal cemetery early next year, providing what they say is a vital service.
Italian Sport - November 15 Italian skipper Giovanni Soldini's hopes of finally winning a major race with his state of the art trimaran vanished on Monday when it capsized off the African coast.
Italian News - November 14 The pope greeted a group of African desert nomads in St Peter's Basilica on Sunday as he recalled the "universal brotherhood" of all the peoples of the world.
Italian Television - November 14 The two-part film on Premier Silvio Berlusconi's flagship Canale 5 channel stars top Italian actors Sergio Rubini and Ennio Fantastichini as the two Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.
Italian News - November 14 Opera lovers in Italy this season may see something different about the performers: many of them are looking distinctly svelte after going on hunger strike.
Italian News - November 12 The former schoolteacher from Rome brought a tear to the nation’s eye when he put a small ad in the newspaper, explaining that he was alone in the world and looking for a family.
Italian News - November 12 Tonight, at a Medici residence in Tuscany which once hosted Michelangelo, prized white truffles will be offered to bidders from all over the world.
Italian Art - November 11 More than 200 bodies at the museum, in a major exhibit on mythology and erotica, ranging from chastely smooching cupids, to hermaphrodites and Olympian rape scenes.
Italian News - November 11 The bearer of the Coca-Cola Olympic torch is facing a series of “no through road” signs, and a clash of opinions. Two of Rome’s municipalities have refused access.
Italian News / Movies - November 10 World previews of works by some of today's best horror directors are among the star events at the Turin Film Festival, which opens tomorrow.
Italian History - November 10 The belief that Michelangelo designed the uniform of the Swiss Guard is a myth, according to the first insider's history of the colorful and secretive corps.
Italian Gossip - November 9 Italian pop sensation Eros Ramazzotti and his TV star ex-wife Michelle Hunziker have punctured hopes that their fairy tale romance is back on.
Italian Television - November 9 Italy's top television personality started a civil war at Premier Silvio Berlusconi's TV network with an extraordinary outburst on its flagship soccer show.
Italian News - November 9 The Holy See's official broadcaster, Vatican Radio, is "podcasting" audio content to any of the world's one billion plus Catholics who own a portable MP3 player.
Italian News - November 7 Italy's Fiat and America's Ford Motor Company have signed an agreement to develop a common platform which will allow each company to produce a new city car model.
Italian Science - November 7 Asthma experts from Rome's Universita' Cattolica and CNR worked with a team from Miami University to gauge NGF levels in newborn children.
Italian News - November 6 The Capracottesi Nel Mondo Committee goal is to raise $75,000 to build and erect the statue in Capracotta. the committee hopes to complete the project next year.
Italian News - November 6 Italian designer Roberto Cavalli has given supermodel Kate Moss her first job on her comeback after a cocaine scandal as the image for his 2006 Spring-Summer collection.
Italian Art - November 6 A major new show opening in Rome this weekend explores a turn of the century vision of Paris, through the eyes of a renowned Venetian impressionist.
Italian News - November 5 A Vatican cardinal said the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer: religion turns into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
Italian News - November 5 A sixth person connected to the discovery of the 5,300-year-old frozen corpse of a man who became known as Oetzi the Iceman has died.
Italian News - November 4 The Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana is being looked at in a new light this week, after it published its first ever picture of a naked female bottom.
Italian News - November 4 Italians are healthier than ever, smoking less and shunning fast food in favour of traditional balanced lunches, but they also feel much poorer.
Italian News - November 3 A Genoese society lady has been arrested for plundering some of the city's swankiest jewellers' shops by hiding the booty in her underwear.
Italian Science - November 3 An extensive study by Turin University's Animal Biology Department has shown that spiders could be a strong marketing point for Italian vintners.
Italian News - November 2 A woman in her 80s attempted to rob a bank in Genoa yesterday after being refused a loan of €2,000 to "help make ends meet".
Italian News - November 2 A group of international scientists are in Rome this week comparing notes on robots capable of rescuing people from fires and other disasters.
Italian News - November 2 Two teenagers were hospitalized in serious condition after a man allegedly opened fire on them as they went door-to-door to collect candy on Halloween night.