Italy News: 09.28.08

Some news from Italy for your Sunday reading pleasure:

• As if there weren’t already enough weird laws in Italy, Tui at Mental Mosaic just sent me news that an Italian town is going to be collecting dog DNA samples so that, when someone fails to clean up their doggy’s doo-doo, they can take a poopy sample and fine the exact owner responsible for not tending to the mess. Brilliant, I say!
• What happens when the actor who created Borat decides to incorporate the Milan fashion world into his new movie? Well, he gets arrested, for starters.
• Walking on Italian cobbled streets in high-heels is hard enough already, but apparently this year’s fashion trends call for higher heels and platforms. The models can’t even walk in these stilt-like shoes on the flat runway – how do they expect real women to walk in them on uneven surfaces?
• So, apparently millions of EU funds that went to the government of Calabria and were supposed to fund economic growth in the region (one of Europe’s poorest) has instead been allocated for “promotional branding” for the Italian national soccer team during their upcoming attempt to defend their World Cup title. Umm, what?
• A few months ago, the government in Italy increased the number of police officers on the streets of some major cities in an effort to fight crime. But after 6 African immigrants were killed in what are being called “gangland style” shootings last week, they’ve had to deploy even more police troops near Naples to deal with both the investigation into the killings and the riots that followed.
• Here’s the first installment to one traveler’s list of 100 (or more) things you should know if you’re going to Italy. She’s only up to #18 on this post, and while I like some of them, I also disagree with others… Perhaps I should create my own list? Hmm…
• If you’re not already planning a trip to Italy, perhaps these absolutely stunning photographs of Italy will make you start hunting for an airline ticket. I may have actually drooled on my keyboard when I saw some of these… Jeez, I wish I could do that with my camera…
• Three spas in Italy make this list of Europe’s top spas. I think I feel a research trip coming up.
• Let’s play a little game here. If I say that the former head of covert operations in Italy is on trial in Milan for helping with the 2003 CIA abduction of a Muslim cleric, and then I tell you that he wants Condoleezza Rice to testify at his trial, what do you think his chances are of having that happen? Yeah.
• Are you an expat in Italy, or a former expat? Then you can enter this “Italy snapshots” contest at Career by Choice. And even if you’re not an expat, you’ll still enjoy reading the snapshots the Italy expats have contributed!
• Two hotels in Italy are featured in this list of “hotels to stay in before you die” – one in Venice and one in Positano.
• Leave it to Italian scientists to come up with a study that says eating pasta will actually improve your mood.
• Any of you Italian wine lovers heading to Chianti anytime soon? Check out the wine routes in Tuscany for links to the vineyards that are open to visitors.
• If you’re tired of all that classic art in Italy (yawn, right?), then check out some of the contemporary art museums instead.
• So, the Alitalia saga continues – does she live or die? It’s like a bad soap opera, where she keeps coming back. Or is that her twin sister, long assumed to be dead? We may never know…
• What did the Ara Pacis look like when it was freshly painted back in the day? Roman archaeologists think they have a good idea, and they’ve put the colorful representation on display – in a virtual sense, anyway.
• I love these crazy studies sometimes. This one says that Italian women are reportedly “the most elegant and fascinating” in all of Europe, but “also the most sexually inhibited.” If you’re wondering, French women were supposedly the “most liberated” in bed.
• A gay couple was arrested in Rome after kissing in front of the Colosseum; officials say they were actually doing more than kissing, however, and that if it had been a simple kiss nothing would have happened. I’m not sure I believe the second part of that sentence.
• An exhibit dedicated entirely to the life of Julius Ceasar opened in Rome last week. It runs through early April of next year.
• Night clubs and discos in Italy are now required to post information that tells people how they can figure out whether they’re over the legal alcohol limit. It’s based on a person’s weight, so it’s not an exact science, but it’s a start. Wonder if anyone will pay attention to the signs?
• Step aside – there’s a new gigantic mozzarella on the block, folks.