British embassy champions fashion and LGBT rights

Mariana Somensi

ROME – The British embassy hosted an event on Tuesday celebrating the revolutionary role of fashion and highlighting its support for the LGBT campaign, Love is GREAT. Speakers at the event discussed amongst other things miniskirts in women's emancipation and the right of the Roman LGBT community to express itself without fear, as Rome gears up for its annual gay pride celebration in June. 

 The event, in the form of a discussion named “The Aesthetic of Revolution” and held at Villa Wolkonsky, was part of the UK's campaign to promote LGBT rights worldwide.

Culture, Embassy Row
23 May 2019
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The dilemma faced by Italo-British nationals in EU elections

Insider reporters

ROME - Italo-British nationals, or expats living abroad in either country, face a momentous decision in the coming European elections: vote against Brexit and let Salvini’s League go unchallenged, or vote against the nascent populist movement and see Britain crash out of the EU without a fight.

 As put forward by Enrico Franceschini in an article for La Repubblica, these elections embody the hardest decision that Italians and Brits living abroad have had to face since the European Union’s official founding in Maastricht in 1993.

Comment, World, Italy
23 May 2019
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Venetian police remove Banksy work

Gabriel Barrie

VENICE – Graffiti artist Banksy has released a video which shows him setting up a new piece of art in San Marco, only to be removed by the police soon after.

 The video, which appeared on Instagram, shows the mysterious artist - his face hidden, as always, behind a newspaper - sitting beside a group of oil paintings. These collectively portray a large cruise ship entering La Serenissima, with smaller traditional gondolas in the foreground, and the title “Venice in oil” beside the unlicensed street stall.

Culture, Italy
23 May 2019
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Italian hostage freed in Syria after three years

INSIDER NEWSDESK

ROME – Alessandro Sandrini who was captured in 2016 has been free by the al-Qaeda linked Syrian Salvation Government in the northeastern Idlib area of the country, according to La Repubblica.

 Sandrini was captured on the border between Syria and Turkey. His father Fianfranco Sandrini said Wednesday: “My son is free. He is in Syria but in the hands of our security forces. I am delighted. It is the end of a nightmare. Now, I’m going to Rome and I hope to be able to speak to him on the phone tonight.”

World, Italy
22 May 2019
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Informant reveals dark world of the Banda della Magliana

Edwin Audland

ROME - Years of crime, violence, and gang power have been laid bare in an explosive new book in which the former boss of Rome’s infamous Banda della Magliana exposes life at the heart of the Eternal City’s criminal underworld.

 With gang links to Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, and counterparts abroad, Maurizio Abbatino’s confessions of a life of crime, as compiled by Raffaella Fanelli in “La verità del Freddo”, are undoubtedly set to open the lid on a little known, much darker side to Rome in the so-called anni di piombo (the “years of lead”).  

Culture, Rome, Italy
22 May 2019
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Study finds plastic pollution on Italy's Alpine glaciers

Philip Willan

ROME - Already identified as a major threat to the health of the oceans, plastic particles have now been found on a glacier in Italy in a mountain environment famous for its pristine nature and clean air.

 Scientists from two Milan universities found 75 particles of microplastic in every kilo of debris deposited on the surface of the Forni Glacier in the Stelvio National Park in a study carried out last summer, the first such investigation of a terrestrial glacier environment.

Italy
22 May 2019
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Acclaimed Trasimeno Music Festival returns

Insider reporters

PERUGIA - The Trasimeno Music Festival is returning to Italy for a 15th edition this summer under the artistic direction of world-famous pianist Angela Hewitt, who will headline the event.

 Hewitt will also be joined by some of the most sought-after musicians and most hotly tipped budding talents on the classical music circuit. Performances will be held in locations such as the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, the Castle of the Knights of Malta in Magione, and the Signorelli Theatre in Cortona.  

Culture, Italy
22 May 2019
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FAO Election officer 'axed' ahead of DG poll

JAN FILIPOWICZ

  ROME – FAO conference services director Raqesh Muthoo has axed a key elections officer at the UN agency and appointed a reputed acolyte to the sensitive post at the UN agency amid jockeying for position ahead of the election of a new director general next month, FAO sources say.

 Indian national Muthoo arranged for Gabriella Piacentini, a dual South African and Italian national, to be stripped of her electoral functions, while she was away on a short vacation. She was replaced by Ilja Betlem, a lawyer close to the fun-loving conference service director.

U.N., Embassy Row
22 May 2019

Tourist bus overturns in Tuscany killing one

INSIDER NEWSDESK

SIENA - A tourist bus travelling from Florence to Siena has overturned, killing one passenger and injuring others, police sources have said.

 The victim has not yet been identified, although reports indicate that the circa sixty tourists aboard the vehicle were Georgian, Armenian and Kazakh nationals visiting Italy on an art history holiday. 

 It is not thought that the injuries sustained by passengers who survived the crash are serious, and emergency help was quick on the scene to help passengers free themselves from the wreckage.

Italy
22 May 2019
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