Italy News: 09.14.08

Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:

Well, haven’t things in Italian soccer come to a pretty pass – now they’re talking about putting holding cells right inside the soccer stadiums. This follows word that the Napoli fans involved in a riot in Rome two weeks ago may have ties to the Mafia, leading the hard core Napoli fans to not only be barred from away games but from their own home games as well (at least for awhile). Is this all about something that is, at its heart, a game? Or am I missing something??

Who would’ve thunk it? The newly redesigned (and oh-so-cute) Fiat 500 was recently voted the sexiest car of the year on a British car website.

If you’re anywhere near Naples this week, do yourself a favor and pay a visit to the city’s annual pizza festival. That’s right – a festival all about pizza in the city that invented it. Does it get any better than that?

Daniele de Rossi was the hero of Italy’s second World Cup qualifier against Georgia, but his pair of goals was bittersweet. He dedicated them to his father-in-law, who was murdered a month ago in what’s being considered a Mafia killing. The plot thickens, however, when you learn that the reason he was targeted is that he’d apparently taken part in an armed robbery on a bank and hadn’t been willing to share the spoils equally.

When you see an article with the title of “20 fabulous food festivals,” you know Italy’s going to be on the list. And it is – including the Naples Pizzafest in September, a truffle festival in Alba in October (and we’re not talking chocolates here), and the Slow Food Festival in Turin in October.

Luciano Pavarotti is being honored one year after his death with a bunch of memorial concerts and such all over Italy & the rest of the world.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the Pope thinks Italy needs a whole bunch more politicians who are Catholics.

The hotel booking site Venere has a contest going right now where you can win a 4-night stay in a 5-star luxury hotel in Rome – just watch the video & answer a question about it to enter.

I love this description from Susan Spano of the people who live in her apartment building in Rome.

Italy is set to implement tough new laws against pimps & prostitutes – as well as their clients.

Famed Italian fashion designer Ferragamo has been chosen to design some luxury penthouses in Dubai.

Just in case you’re breezing through Pisa and you happen to get a ticket for speeding, Alex has helpfully posted information about how to pay traffic fines in Pisa.

I’m not sure why they need more studies to show that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but here’s yet another one. I’d like to get in on the next one, if it means eating a Mediterranean diet all the time.

There’s a great collection of rare Etruscan artifacts in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage, but they’re being loaned back to Italy for a new exhibit. You can see them in Cortona at the Etruscan Academy Museum through January 11, 2009.

As if Chianti wine wasn’t enough of an elixir, a pharmacist in Tuscany has created what he says is a “Chianti-based elixir for long life” that’s based on an ancestral recipe from the 18th century.

An exhibit in Parma will showcase the work of one of the city’s most famous artists, Antonio Allegri da Correggio – the exhibit starts on September 20 and runs through January 25, 2009.

There’s more to Italian food than just the pasta names you’re familiar with, as Alex points out.