Last spring, over coffee near Piazza Navona, I met a diplomat’s family fresh from Brussels.
Philip Stringer
27 Mar 2025
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME -- FAO Director General Qu Dongyu, evidently frustrated that staff have not translated his strategic framework for the UN agency into reality, has taken to picking on employees at random in the FAO canteen to admonish for not finishing their meals or speaking in the language of their erstwhile colonial masters, FAO sources say.
26 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – The Municipal council of Rome has proposed that the city join the ranks of Melbourne, Amsterdam and Milan and ban smoking in the city centre in the streets, piazzas, gardens and UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The vote was due to be cast Thursday and has created uproar on social media. The ban which has been hailed by some as ‘the right thing to do’ and others as completely ‘dick breaking’ – Italian for irritating, is in pursuit of improving ‘the health of citizens and also better the air quality in Rome’ according to local politicians.
26 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – Minister for Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, was far less polite than his Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, a public ally of President Trump, when discussing the effects of tariffs place by the US on Italian products.
26 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – A Spanish tourist, 55, who has yet to have been publicly identified, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning after falling from one of the walls of Trinità dei Monti at Piazza di Spagna in Rome.
26 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – Nicaragua, under the regime led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, has withdrawn from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and ordered its staff to leave in a spat over hunger statistics in the poverty-stricken country, diplomatic sources say.
25 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – A lorry carrying 92,000 chicks on board erupted into flames on the Pedemontana-Veneta motorway, killing all chickens on board.
25 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – Over 360,000 working mothers in Italy, who are on zero-hours contracts with two children have stopped receiving the Bonus Mamme in their monthly payslips, which had a value of up to 3000 euros per year in 2024.
25 Mar 2025
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – A 54-year-old Scottish tourist, identified as Grant Paterson, has been gravely injured after an explosion at 9 a.m. Sunday morning after the Bed&Breakfast in which he was staying, in via Vitellia, Monteverde, Rome, exploded.
24 Mar 2025