#italy

#italy

"Romantic" is certainly a subjective term. A long-distance hike through the mountains, with chilly nights spent in a two-person tent, might be a recipe for romance for some but a nightmare trip for others. You may swoon at the idea of a romantic theater weekend amid the glittering lights of a metropolis, while your boo just envisions taxi exhaust, surly crowds, show tunes, and overpriced cocktails.

How do you quantify the abuse of a company's power in its chosen industry? We're seeing one answer to that question in Italy this week, where the Italian Competition Authority has issued a fine to Apple over "abuse of a dominant position" related to the tech company's App Store. The fine that's been levied is a very specific €98,635,416.67, which translates to $116,000,725.26 at the current rate of exchange.

Two countries dominated the Eurail rankings this year: Switzerland and Italy. Florence to Rome (Santa Maria Novella to Roma Termini) was the most popular journey of 2025. Switzerland's Interlaken Ost-Lauterbrunnen line and the Visp-Zermatt connection followed-with mountain villages, waterfalls, and alpine views, both routes are stunning. Paris to London via Eurostar came in fourth, and Milan to Florence rounded out the top five.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

If you need yet another reason to visit Italy, boutique travel company SmoothRed just unveiled an enticing new train experience. This seven-day journey connects two of the country's most celebrated wine regions by train and offers the chance to sample more than 20 of the country's best wines. The trip begins with three nights in Turin in Italy's northern Piedmont region, an area known for its white truffles, coffee culture, and its connection to the Slow Food Movement.

When, out of curiosity, Leila Cader and her friends entered the gardens surrounding Castel Sant'Angelo, a prominent Rome monument that once served as a refuge for popes during times of war, they thought they'd chanced upon an enchanting winter wonderland. With the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, Santa's elves wandering around, stalls selling nativity-scene figurines and skaters merrily gliding on an ice-rink, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Farmers markets in particular are a way of understanding the people who live in any given place. Not only the produce or products that are sold, but how fresh are they, and where are those products from? Are the majority locally sourced or imported? What are the vendors like that are selling them? Who is shopping there?

"I looked ahead at the rest of my life and thought, 'I'll be damned if I spend the next 30 years in New Jersey,'" she told Business Insider. In 2018, at 57, La Valle bought a one-way ticket to Paris. Seven years later, at 64, she lives in Brescia, a city in northern Italy's Lombardy region, near the foothills of the Alps.

Italy registered 1,044 battery-electric buses in the first eleven months of 2025, reports our sister media Autobusweb based on data by ANFIA. They represent a 63.4% increase over 2024 and account for nearly 29% of all bus and coach registrations over 8 ton. From January to November, 3,629 buses above 8 tonnes were registered, down 11.8% year-on-year, yet the performance of the electric segment more than offsets the decline in other propulsion categories, reshaping procurement dynamics, especially in Class I fleets.

The review will focus on safeguards for both direct and indirect investments in crypto-assets by retail investors, regulators added. The decision came during a meeting of the Committee for Macroprudential Policies. The committee includes the heads of the Bank of Italy, market watchdog Consob, insurance and pension regulators, and the Treasury's director general, according to Reuters reporting. Committee members warned that risks from crypto-assets could rise. Growing connections between crypto and the wider financial system, along with inconsistent international regulations, could heighten vulnerabilities, they said.

For example, renting a car may seem convenient, but in some cities, finding parking can be tricky. This is because some areas have "limited traffic zones," where driving is limited to authorized vehicles only. In my experience, Uber isn't widely available in many parts of Italy, either. And although a train between two cities can sound practical, it sometimes ends up taking much longer than expected. Sometimes, a flight can be quicker.

A self-styled mystic who drew hundreds of pilgrims to a town near Rome by claiming a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood has been sent to trial for alleged fraud. Gisella Cardia, who also claimed the statue was transmitting messages to her, will be tried along with her husband, Gianni Cardia, in April next year. They are accused of staging fake apparitions of the Virgin Mary and making false predictions of catastrophes to attract donations from their Catholic followers.

Italian officials have reacted with outrage after Russia used the partial collapse of a medieval tower in central Rome to claim that Italy's support for Ukraine has drained funds needed to preserve its cultural heritage. The Torre dei Conti, a 29m-tall fortified residence built near the Colosseum in the 13th century, partially collapsed on Monday (4 November), causing the death of a Romanian worker who was trapped under rubble for 11 hours.

I travel a ton on tour, but I am really bad at taking vacation,

Three police officers were killed Tuesday when a house exploded during a forced eviction in Castel D'Azzano, a town near Verona in northern Italy, officials said. The blast occurred as officers tried to enter the two-story building, which collapsed and buried them under the debris. At least 15 other police officers and firefighters were injured. The evacuation had been planned for several days after the occupants refused to leave the property, according to Italian media.

In a "first-of-its-kind" test in the country, Italian operator Fastweb + Vodafone has revealed that a trial on its commercial 5G network in Rome has achieved a peak speed of 2.5 Gbps, marking a significant milestone for next-gen mobile and potentially transforming Italy's digital landscape. The trial was conducted in collaboration with mobile technology providers Honor, Qualcomm Technologies and Xiaomi. Fastweb + Vodafone claims it is set to revolutionise connectivity, paving the way for 5G Advanced, enabling support for advanced applications, and unlocking next-generation services based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

In this context, Italy has the advantage of a portion of the Alps, a strip of about 1,200 km along the borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. The Italian Alpine region hosts most of the facilities that have been prepared over the past five years for the Winter Olympics, which will take place from February 6 to 22, 2026, followed by the Paralympic Games from March 6 to 15.

You send a tidy email at 10:12, outline the request, add a friendly "when you have a moment," and expect a reply before lunch. In Italy, the moment might be next Tuesday. If you are wired to hit inbox zero, Italy can feel like a slow lane. You write at 09:00, someone opens it at 18:47, and nothing lands until the following week. Then, when the answer arrives, it is complete, polite, and stamped with a protocol number like the matter just entered a courthouse.

Italy is expected to be Europe's top relocation destination for millionaires in 2025, according to a recent report by investment and citizenship consultancy firm Henley & Partners. The firm's 2025 wealth flow forecasts estimate that, out of the over 142,000 millionaires expected to relocate worldwide, around 3,600 will have chosen Italy as their new home by the end of the year.

France enjoyed a one-sided 57-10 victory over South Africa at Franklin's Gardens to take top spot in Women's Rugby World Cup Pool D, scoring nine tries with two each for Emilie Boulard and Joanna Grisez. They will take on Ireland at Sandy Park in Exeter next Sunday in the last eight. The scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus earned a second straight player of the match award for orchestrating France's highest score over the Springbok Women in front of a sellout crowd of 15,000.

The sites permitted men to post intimate or doctored photographs of women -- from celebrities to the men's own wives or daughters -- along with sexual, misogynistic or violent comments. The porn site classified girls by their names, regions or cities and posted photographs stolen from social media or doctored images from official or public functions. Some users posted pictures of their former partners. A special spy section gave tips on installing hidden cameras.

At more than 6ft tall, Giacomo was hard to miss. He was also friendly, smiley and, while he didn't speak a word of English, I loved that he spared me the whole ciao bella swagger usually reserved for foreign girls. I wasn't foreign. Not really. My parents moved to Scotland in the 1960s, settling in the Borders town of Selkirk, but Atina had always been part of our lives, woven into every holiday, every dish on the dinner table.

Italy has a special place in the hearts of many, with everything from the cuisine, the Italian way of life, and history making it an ideal getaway that isn't too far from home,

In a remote monastery perched perilously on top of a crag in Piedmont, Italy, an old man lies dying. Thirty-two monks stand vigil at the deathbed; Mimo Vitaliani has lived among them for 40 years, yet few of them know exactly why. Nor did Vitaliani come alone, but with a mysterious statue that is kept under lock and key in the depths of the Sacra di San Michele,

The wildfire on Mount Vesuvius, close to Naples, broke out a few days ago, stretching to about 3km wide, destroying hundreds of hectares of woodland.