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Ryanair group CEO Michael O'Leary says Italy's price cap on domestic flights is 'illegal'

Ryanair's O'Leary takes aim at Italian price cap

Italy's price cap on flights to Sicily and Sardinia is "illegal and unenforceable", Ryanair group CEO Michael O'Leary told Reuters today, adding the budget airline had lodged a complaint with the European Commission.

Business • 12 Sep 23

The fee will be applied on a trial basis on 30 days next year

Venice to charge day-trippers €5 admission fee

Venice plans to experiment with an admission fee of €5 for day-trippers next year to try to manage the flow of tourists drawn to its historic canals, the city council said.

Europe • 05 Sep 23

Emergency service workers at the train station in Brandizzo, near where the deaths occurred

Five maintenance workers killed in Italy train incident

Five railway workers have died after being hit by a train during overnight maintenance on a track in northern Italy.

World • 31 Aug 23

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she takes responsibility for the new Italian bank tax

Italy's Meloni takes 'full responsibility' for bank tax

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has today taken "full responsibility" for last week's shock decision to impose a one-off bank tax that has been blamed for causing lasting damage to her government's credibility with financial markets.

Business • 14 Aug 23

Doctors Without Borders rescued migrants near Lampedusa on 7 August (Courtesy Stefan Pejovic)

41 dead in migrant shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa

At least 41 migrants have been killed in a shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa island, the ANSA news agency has reported, citing accounts from survivors.

World • 10 Aug 23

Since 2017, New York prosecutors have repatriated pieces that were looted from around 20 countries

New York returns over 40 stolen antiquities to Italy

New York authorities have returned several dozen stolen antiquities worth nearly $3.5m to Italy, as the US city strives to shake off the reputation as a key global hub for illicit art trade.

US • 09 Aug 23

Grana Padano is a hard cheese that resembles Parmesan (File pic)

Italian man crushed to death by falling cheese wheels

An Italian man has been crushed to death under thousands of vast wheels of a Parmesan-style hard cheese, which weigh around 40kg each, firefighters said.

World • 08 Aug 23

Napoli supporters celebrate their Serie A win

Italian fugitive caught after celebrating Napoli title

A fugitive on Italy's most-wanted list has been caught in Greece after he was snapped celebrating a historic win by his football team, Italian police have said.

World • 06 Aug 23

Monte dei Paschi 's net income for April-June stood at €383m, more than 10 times the figure of a year ago

Italy's Monte dei Paschi profits top forecasts

State-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena has today became the latest Italian bank to post above-forecast earnings for the second quarter as higher rates boost profits for the industry.

Business • 04 Aug 23

GDP contracted by 0.3% on a quarterly basis between April and June and was up 0.6% year-on-year, national statistics bureau ISTAT said. A Reuters analyst survey had point

Italy's economy records poor performance in Q2

Italy's economy performed surprisingly poorly in the second quarter, data showed on Monday, offering an uncomfortable outlook for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as her government tries to tackle the negative impact of high inflation.

Business • 31 Jul 23

Venice risks 'irreversible' damage due to a string of issues ranging from climate change to mass tourism, according to UNESCO

UNESCO proposes putting Venice on heritage danger list

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO has recommended that Venice be added to its list of world heritage in danger, saying that Italian authorities need to step up efforts to secure the historic city and its surrounding lagoon.

World • 31 Jul 23

Thousands of people have fled the fires on the island of Rhodes

Climate change 'no excuse' as wildfires burn - Greek PM

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said the country needs to take more steps to combat the effects of climate change as wildfires that have raged for a fortnight continue to burn.

World • 27 Jul 23

A man desperately tries to extinguish flames in the Aci Catena area 20km from Catania in Sicily

Three dead as Sicily 'devastated' by wildfires

Italy's southern island of Sicily has been devastated by wildfires that have killed three elderly people, its regional president said, as a heatwave and severe storms further north took a heavy toll.

Europe • 26 Jul 23

Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested earlier this year after 30 years on the run

Mafia boss jailed for life over 1992 killing of judges

An Italian appeal court has jailed a former crime boss for his role in the 1992 assassination of the anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, media reported.

World • 19 Jul 23

Animal rights activists demonstrating in front of the State Council in Rome, called to decide the fate of bears JJ4 and MJ5

Bear that killed jogger in Italy gets court reprieve

An Italian court has suspended a ruling that a brown bear should be put down for the mauling to death in April of a 26-year-old man who was jogging in the Alps.

World • 14 Jul 23

The court concluded that the inappropriate gesture was so brief that it left "ample doubts" on whether it was voluntary (File pic)

Outrage as Italian judges clear man over 'quick grope'

An Italian court has cleared a janitor who groped a schoolgirl on the grounds that he did it for "just a few seconds" and without "libidinous or lusty intent", in a ruling that has sparked widespread outrage.

World • 14 Jul 23

Mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi stands next to the charred open-air installation of 'Venus of the Rags'

Italian artist's 'Venus of the Rags' destroyed in fire

An open-air installation of 'Venus of the Rags', one of the most famous works by top Italian contemporary artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, has been destroyed by an overnight fire in Naples, local authorities said.

World • 12 Jul 23

Firefighters responded to the blaze at the facility

Six dead, 80 injured in fire at Milan retirement home

A fire at a retirement home in the early hours of this morning in Milan has killed six people, with some 80 other residents hospitalised suffering from smoke inhalation.

World • 07 Jul 23

Minors and Rome residents are exempt from paying (file image)

Rome's Pantheon begins to charge tourists for entry

Rome's 2,000-year-old Pantheon has from today started charging for entry, with tourists paying €5 to see Italy's most visited cultural site.

News Lens • 03 Jul 23

Tourists and locals can also often be seen whizzing around busy roads in Rome without helmets

Italy cracks down on use of e-scooters

The Italian government tightened road safety laws, cracking down on e-scooters and introducing harsher sanctions for drink driving.

World • 27 Jun 23

Pompeii is only 23km away from Naples, the modern-day home of the Italian pizza (Image: Archaeological Park of Pompeii)

Painting of 'ancestor to pizza' found at Pompeii ruins

A fresco that depicts what might be an ancestor of the Italian pizza has been found on the wall of a house in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy's Culture Ministry has said.

News Lens • 27 Jun 23

Emanuela Orlandi was last seen leaving a music class in Rome on 22 June 1983

Pope 'breaks taboo' with prayer for missing teenager

Pope Francis has offered prayers for the family of a teenager who went missing 40 years ago this week, an intervention her brother hailed as a sign the Vatican was finally engaging seriously with its most famous cold case.

World • 25 Jun 23

Surrogacy has been banned in Italy since 2004

Stricter ban on surrogacy comes into force in Italy

Italy may grant an "amnesty" to people who had children through surrogacy following the passage of a law extending criminal penalties to those who seek surrogates abroad, Family Minister Eugenia Roccella said.

World • 23 Jun 23

Paolo Macchiarini was employed by the Karolinska Institute research facility (file image)

Italian surgeon jailed in Sweden for harming patients

A Swedish appeals court has sentenced an Italian surgeon once hailed for pioneering windpipe surgery to two-and-a-half years in prison for aggravated assault on patients.

World • 21 Jun 23

Silvio Berlusconi will be cremated and his ashes held in a mausoleum he built for himself and his family in the grounds of his villa outside Milan

Italy bids farewell to Berlusconi with state funeral

Italy has bid farewell to four-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi at a funeral befitting the business tycoon's colourful life, with mourners bellowing football chants and politicians arguing over a day of national mourning.

World • 14 Jun 23