New claims regarding the discovery of the body of Aldo Moro and the arrest of a senior Vatican official show how past mysteries still condition life in Italy, and within the walls of Vatican City.

ROME -- Could real change be underway in Vatican City? There are hopeful signs.

ROME- The subject of racism in Italy became more relevant this week after a Northern League councilor in Padua asked on  Facebook why no one raped Italy's first black cabinet minister Cécile Kyenge

ROME -- Italian analysts study local polls with the care of soothsayers in entrails and flight of birds to foresee Italy's future but this time there is more detachment

ROME-- Both Italian and UK news headlines have been tainted this month by the recent re-application of the Gelmini law, which has seen the salaries of up to 91 foreign lecturers, or lettori as they are known in Italian, being slashed by up to sixty per cent.

ROME-- Like the odour of a stale changing room, the smell of fascism keeps on reappearing. Stale sweat and cheap cigarettes just need some springcleaning but while Italy’s houses tend to be spotless, the political house leaves a lot to be desired.

ROME - It is unwise to learn your part when you are already centre stage… even unwiser to change parts.

ROME - 10 Feb was the “Day of Remembrance” (Giorno del ricordo) in which Italy remembers the Italians either killed or forced to leave Yugoslavia at the end of World War II.

ROME - There is a spectre haunting Italy - the spectre of the Beppe Grillo, the Genoese comic turned populist leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S).

ROME - Pope Benedict being in the monastery in the Vatican Gardens might influence the conclave.

ROME - Soon Benedict will retire to a monastery,  no longer Holy Father but a godfather, not of Cosa Nostra, more like the mostly

ROME - In Puccini’s La Bohème, the best aria for the philosopher, Colline is his farewell to his old coat, “vecchia zimarra”.