Italian News Snippets: 03.25.07

A few newsy tidbits for your Sunday afternoon reading:

• Italy is surprised by negative reactions to hostage exchange, and recent hostage Mastrogiacomo won’t go back to Afghanistan – he recounts his ordeal here
• Italy’s paparazzi king exposed as blackmailer – Berlusconi’s daughter, footballer Totti among those blackmailed
• Leonardo’s “Annunciation” visits Japan to debut new art preservation methods
• The Uffizi Gallery in Florence will be increasing security after a journalist got a knife into the museum
• The exterior of Florence’s Duomo is undergoing a close inspection to see what on the ornate facade needs repair
• World’s oldest perfumes discovered on Cyprus by Italian archaeologists
• The beatification of the late Pope John Paul II is full steam ahead
• A villa in historic Pompeii has been vandalized
• Italian woman thought dead, turns out she’s very much alive
• Italy will help recast Middle Eastern history with something other than Western thinking
• Sicily’s Baroque Noto Cathedral to reopen after ten years of restoration