ROME -- The Domus Talenti in via Quattro Fontane was occupied on Friday by an army of British expats who gathered together to watch the royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
The viewing was organized by the Association of British expats in Italy, who masterminded a British street party with a distinctly Italian flavour. Its own royal kudos was affirmed by the attendance of a Prince and ambassador of Nigeria, as well as two ambassadors from Kenya and Ghana.
VATICAN CITY — John Paul II’s funeral six years ago drew more than 2 million visitors to Rome, some of whom urged his successor to “make him a saint immediately”.
ROME — Ahead of the British Royal nuptials a selection of eligible damsels from Rome’s upper social stratosphere spoke of their admiration for Kate Middleton’s normality and their preference for the future King’s more roguish younger brother.
The common Latin origins of Italian and English can often lead to bewilderment cautions Angus Campbell
SICILY-- It is often said, with much reason, that the two best methods of learning a language are finding yourself in either of these contrasting states-- suffering near famine in a country the language of which you are completely ignorant, or, more fortunately, enjoying a lover who is completely ignorant of what you are saying.
No one was prepared for the dizzying pace of Pope John Paul II’s global travels as the Polish pontiff’s beatification in the Vatican approaches.
VATICAN CITY – On return from one of his many African expeditions Pope John Paul II admitted there was something excessive about his trips but added “that’s often the case with Providence.”
ROME — There is an essential incongruency seeing prelates celebrating an anti-clerical movement led mainly by Masons. Or of proven republicans celebrating the proclamation of a new kingdom. Or of the left celebrating an elitist movement in which in 1861, only 1.8 percent of the population were enfranchised. But anniversaries are all about symbols and today’s politics and not very much about real history.
ROME– The Tamara de Lempicka exhibition is an achievement. It brings together 80 paintings and about 40 drawings by the Polish artist plus 50 period photographs and two 1930s documentary films which feature the woman it describes as “the queen of modernity.”
FLORENCE – Part of the charm of paintings is that they never change. Ever since the artist put their name to it, the painting has stayed the same in space and time. Perhaps this is why ” Modern Art”, with its preoccupation with flux, has moved in favour of the installation. Our art has to move with time, to change form and then change again, always in process, without end.
ROME—Silvio Berlusconi made unwelcome legal history in Milan on Wednesday when he became the first serving Italian Prime Minister to go on trial for paying for sex with an under-age prostitute and abuse of office.
