ROME -- Silvio Berlusconi’s demise is imminent. It might happen today when the Chamber votes on last year’s budget statement.

 Lele Luzzati’s picture of the she-wolf playing with children of different colours while looking after her foundlings is a perfect image of an Italy we hope is

By ALYX BARKER

ROME -- Once upon a time in a republic far, far away, every year or so the natives went through a fascinating, time consuming and very baroque rite to decide which of a restricted group of tribal e

ROME -- As always, Giannelli is sharp and elegant and this time prescient.

 NEW YORK -- A month after the acquittal of Amanda Knox, Americans still question whether she was a sex crazed murderer or the victim of a torturous legal system.

 AREZZO -- Giorgio Vasari is not as colourful as more turbulent artists but has another kind of interest.  His greatest success came eventually not as a visual artist but as a writer: his Lives

By INSIDER REPORTERS

ROME -- The Italian Government between an Irresistible Force and an Immoveable Object.

By SOPHIE INGE

ROME -- After the success of the major exhibition dedicated to 15th century Rome, the Fondazione Roma offers a fascinating retrospective on the Eternal City in the 16th century.

 By ALYX BARKER

ROME -- The other evening I was talking to an Argentinian who gave me graphic descriptions of their 2001 crisis – not the default and the financial side which is fair

By SABIKA SHAH POVIA

 MENFI -- Sicilian wines used to be considered too syrupy or too strong. But in the 1980s excellent Chardonnay was produced in Sicily, then quality wines were made from Nero d’Avola and other indig

ROME -- The most shocking aspect of Saturday’s riot in Rome was the fact that it did not come as a shock.

ROME -- Cherie Blair’s religious fervour has not always been taken seriously in the UK.

ROME -- While the rest of Europe is worrying about the possible implosion of the euro, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had to once again marshal his forces for a vote of confidence yesterd

By ALYX BARKER

 By INSIDER REPORTERS

By ALYX BARKER

ROME -- Italian writer Roberto Saviono, author of Gommorah, is the PEN/Pinter writer of courage 2011. He shares the PEN/Pinter prize with Sir David Hare.

MADRID -- On Friday I went to El Valle de los Caídos, Francisco Franco’s massive monument to himself, to Catholicism and in theory, at least, the dead (caídos) of the Spanish Civi