The Amazing Luxurious Villas of Lake Como, Italy | Part 1

Mar 2, 2020

Part 2 and Part 3

Neo-fascism in Italy I ARTE.tv Documentary

Feb 13, 2023 | A surprising number of Italians feel nostalgic for fascist leader Mussolini, who they see as a great statesman. But is today’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni and her post-fascist government causing an upsurge of far-right activity?

Andrea Giambruno: Meloni's Ex-partner Dropped as TV Host over Lewd Remarks

The Italian PM separated with Andrea Giambruno after sexually explicit remarks were leaked | ANDREAS SOLARO
BBC: Andrea Giambruno, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni's ex-partner, has been dropped as host of a national TV show after sexist off-air comments were leaked to another programme.

TV company Mediaset said he would maintain an editorial role on the show.

Ms Meloni announced last week that she was separating from her long-term partner after a recording was broadcast on a satirical TV show.

Mediaset is owned by the family of late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Striscia La Notizia - The News Strip - last week broadcast a leaked recording of Giambruno talking to female colleagues about an affair he was having, and appeared to proposition one woman for group sex.

Mediaset said Giambruno was "sorry for the embarrassment and discomfort caused by his behaviour", adding that he had agreed to leave his screen role on Diario del giorno (Diary of the Day) on Mediaset channel Rete4.

The statement indicated there would be no disciplinary proceedings against the former presenter. » | Ido Vock, BBC News | Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Related article here.

This man's sacking seems very suspicious to me. One can but wonder who the power is behind this decision! – © Mark Alexander

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni Splits from Partner after His Sexist Comments

GUARDIAN EUROPE: TV journalist Andrea Giambruno was recorded making suggestive comments towards a female colleague

Giorgia Meloni said of the split: ‘Our paths have diverged for some time and it is time to acknowledge it.’ Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has split from her partner, Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist who has made several embarrassing, sexist comments.

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” Meloni wrote on social media, two days after two off-air recordings emerged of Giambruno, a presenter on Mediaset’s news talkshow Diario Del Giorno, making foul remarks and suggestive comments towards a female colleague.

The couple have a seven-year-old daughter. “I thank him for the wonderful years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through and for giving me the most important thing in my life, which is our daughter Ginevra,” Meloni wrote. “Our paths have diverged for some time and it is time to acknowledge it.” » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Friday, October 20, 2023

Silvio Berlusconi Heirs Weigh Up Fate of His Mostly Worthless Art Collection

GUARDIAN EUROPE: Italian former PM estimated to have spent €20m on artworks, often buying through TV auctions

The heirs of Silvio Berlusconi inherited billions from his empire but now they are faced with a dilemma: what to do with his vast collection of mostly worthless artwork, including paintings of nude women and the Madonna, stored in a warehouse opposite his home near Milan.

The former prime minister, who died in June at the age of 86, reportedly amassed the 25,000 works during the final years of his life, buying the majority from late-night shopping channels in his quest to become a top collector.

Vittorio Sgarbi, an undersecretary at the culture ministry, art critic and close friend of Berlusconi, said the compulsion for buying art sold through TV auctions began in earnest in 2018 as a result of “sleepless nights”. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Thursday, October 19, 2023

Roberto Saviano Faces Defamation Verdict for Remark about Giorgia Meloni

GUARDIAN EUROPE: Writer could be imprisoned if found guilty over comments castigating Italian PM for her vitriol about Mediterranean rescues

Saviano, the author of Gomorrah, has had libel cases brought against him by two other current government ministers. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP
A Rome judge is poised to deliver a verdict in a criminal defamation trial against the Italian anti-mafia author Roberto Saviano for calling the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “bastard”.

In a case that has attracted international attention and criticism of Italy’s draconian defamation laws, Saviano, who has lived under police protection since the publication of his bestselling book Gomorrah, faces up to three years in prison if found guilty at Rome’s criminal court on Thursday.

The global writers’ association, Pen International, has expressed solidarity with Saviano and urged Meloni to drop the charges.

Sabrina Tucci, the communications and campaigns manager for Pen who is in Rome for the hearing, said: “The fact that this lawsuit was initiated by Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, serves as a dangerous warning to writers and journalists, suggesting that their words could lead to prolonged legal battles, financial strain, emotional distress, and possible imprisonment. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Thursday, October 12, 2023

Anti-Mafia-Kämpfer Roberto Saviano wegen Verleumdung verurteilt: Der Schriftsteller hatte Giorgia Melonis Haltung in der Migrationsfrage scharf kritisiert. Nun muss Saviano eine Geldstrafe zahlen, er selbst sieht sich als „Opfer einer autoritären Regierung“. »

UK, US and Allies Offer Israel ‘Steadfast Support’ in Joint Statement

GUARDIAN INTERNATIONAL: Quint group – which also includes France, Germany and Italy – says ‘terrorist actions’ of Hamas must be ‘universally condemned’

The leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany and Italy have released a joint statement expressing “steadfast and united support” for the state of Israel and “unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas.

It follows an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza on Saturday by the Palestinian militant group, with Israel responding with airstrikes and a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip.

The statement was released after a call between the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak; the US president, Joe Biden; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz; and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. Together the five countries comprise the Quint international organisation.

“We make clear that the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned,” the statement reads. “There is never any justification for terrorism. » | Hayden Vernon | Monday, October 9, 2023

Who Is Giorgia Meloni?

Sep 28, 2022 | She's set to become Italy's first woman prime minister leading the most far-right government since Benito Mussolini … And some GOP lawmakers are here for it. Who is Giorgia Meloni?

Princess Vittoria of Savoy: The 19-year-old Fashion Influencer to Become Italy’s Next Queen

Princess Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria di Savoia (born 28 December 2003) is a member of the House of Savoy. Credit: Instagram/ vittoria.disavoia
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN: Boasting beauty, brains and blue blood, Princess Vittoria of Savoy is already a queen of Instagram with nearly 80,000 followers.

Now the 19-year-old fashion influencer, who is studying political science and history of art at a university in London, is poised to become first in line for Italy’s defunct crown.

Her father Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, 50, has declared he will renounce his claim to the throne – predicting his “rock’n’roll’ princess” would do a better job than he could.

He said: “It won’t be tomorrow or in one year, but when she is ready. It’s important that the younger generation have a chance to put new, modern ideas into practice. They are much more conscious than us of the problems facing the world.”

Prince Emanuele Filiberto, who lives between Geneva, Paris and Italy with his family, also told the Daily Telegraph he has the “utmost respect’ for King Charles III ‘but he did wait a long time”. » | David Wilkes | Daily Mail | Thursday, Hune 8, 2023

WIKIPEDIA: House of Savoy »

Italian PM ‘Astonished’ at Germany Paying Charities for Refugee Rescues

GUARDIAN EUROPE: In stern letter to Olaf Scholz, Giorgia Meloni criticises support provided for saving people in the Mediterranean

Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Italy’s far-right prime minster, Giorgia Meloni, has written a stern letter to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, telling him she was “astonished” to learn that Berlin was paying charities to rescue people in the Mediterranean.

The row between Italy and German broke out after the Catholic charity Sant’Egidio said it had signed a fresh deal with Berlin to fund activities assisting refugees in Italy.

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said his government had implemented a “financial support programme” worth €790,000 (£685,000) to support the German NGO SOS Humanity in carrying out search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. Saving people at sea was a “legal, humanitarian and moral duty”, the spokesperson added. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Monday, September 25, 2023

Benito Mussolini: The Father of Fascism | Evolution of Evil | Timeline

Jul 28, 2022 | The rise and fall of Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, whose involvement in the creation of fascism made him a role model to Adolf Hitler and other 20th-century dictators.
This documentary is age-restricted; so it cannot be embedded on external websites. For this reason, it must be watched on YouTube itself. Please click here to watch it.

The Origins of Mussolini's Italy | Secrets of War | Timeline

Jan 10, 2021 | An inside look at fascist Italy. Starting with Mussolini's rise to power, the unknown stories of the shadowy figures who protected "Il Duce" and the tenuous Axis relationship with Nazi Germany.

How Life Is Changing for Italy's Gay Families – BBC News

Sep 23, 2023 | Italy’s government is planning to criminalise people who travel abroad to have children via surrogacy, which is already banned in the country.

While the majority of Italians who seek surrogacy abroad are believed to be heterosexual, many same-sex parents fear the new law is targeting LGBT families by making it harder for them to have children.

A recent Ipsos poll shows that 45% of Italians oppose the idea of surrogacy, but 45% were also in favour of granting legal recognition for children born via surrogacy.

Italy - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 78th Session

Sep 21, 2023 | Giorgia Meloni, President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Italy, addresses the general debate of the 78th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (New York, 19 - 26 September 2023). This video is available in multiple languages. Click the settings ⚙️ button to change the language track.

‘A Success for Kremlin Propaganda’: How Pro-Putin Views Permeate Italian Media

THE GUARDIAN: With pro-Russia commentators regularly appearing on TV, Italians are less likely to back Ukraine than people in most other EU states

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in an interview on Italian television.Photograph: YouTube
Whenever Nello Scavo returns from Ukraine, he is overcome with frustration. As a war correspondent for the Italian national newspaper Avvenire, he knows the first question people will ask him is: “Is it really as bad as they say?”

“Sometimes I think that only if I come back badly injured will people start taking me seriously,” he told the Guardian. “It’s as if they don’t believe that Russia is massacring civilians. The problem is that Vladimir Putin has always enjoyed wide sympathy in Italian politics and public opinion, with the Kremlin always enjoying effective propaganda here.”

Although Italy’s far-right government is one of Ukraine’s staunchest European supporters, Russian propaganda and disinformation permeates Italian media – something researchers attribute to politics and historical anti-Atlanticism – with openly pro-Russian guests invited on the country’s most popular talkshows. A survey released by Ipsos in April revealed that almost 50% of Italians prefer not to take sides in the conflict. » | Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo | Thursday, August 31, 2023

‘Orphaned by Decree’: Italy’s Same-sex Parents React to Losing Their Rights

THE GUARDIAN: Rightwing PM Giorgia Meloni has demanded councils register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving partners in legal limbo

People protest in March 2023 after Italy's rightwing government told Milan's city council to stop registering same-sex parents' children. Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters
Whether it is school runs or doctors’ visits, Maria Silvia Fiengo and Francesca Pardi have always shared in the raising of their four children. But in recent months – after Italy’s rightwing government began cracking down on the listing of same-sex parents on birth certificates – the life they have forged together has been thrust into uncertainty.

“We’re a bit worried. You never know what is going to happen,” said Fiengo. “Our children have had two parents from the very first moment they were dreamed of and brought into the world. But we’re not protected by any law.”

Following the birth of their children, she and Pardi spent years battling for legal recognition, butting up constantly against the absence of a national law setting out parental rights for same-sex couples. In 2018, the city council of Milan offered up a lifeline, telling them it would begin listing parents of the same gender on their children’s birth certificates.

“It was really beautiful,” said Fiengo. “It gave us strength, our family felt more secure.” » | Ashifa Kassam, Europe Community affairs correspondent | Monday, August 21, 2023

Do you think, perhaps, that Giorgia Meloni feels justified in robbing same-sex couples of their rights because she herself is a paragon of Christian virtue? Check this out and make up your own mind!

The birth-rate in the West is at an all-time low; in fact, it is dangerously low. It could be said that any population growth is due largely to immigration rather than to births in the indigenous population.

One of the main reasons for this is the growth of feminism in the West, and women wanting to have all the rights of men in the workplace instead of concentrating on their traditional roles as mothers as a devout Christian believes God is said to have ordained. Gay rights have nothing to do with this, because, indubitably, a gay is born that way; so, generally doesn’t get married and father children anyway, with or without gay rights. Denying a gay the right to be gay or the right to be a father is NOT going to increase the birth-rate in Western countries.

As it happens, the birth-rate in Italy is abominably low! Only 1.25 babies per woman are being born. This means that for every twelve deaths, only seven babies are being born. [Source: CNN>].

Might I therefore suggest to Signora Meloni that the way to deal with this unsettling situation is not to take rights away from gays; rather, it is to introduce policies to attract woman back into the home to start procreating! There is a plethora of possible government policies that could be introduced to attract women back into the home; there are many ways to make motherhood cool again. – © Mark Alexander

Hundreds of Firefighters Continue to Battle Wildfires across Europe - BBC News

Jul 28, 2023 | Wildfires continue to spread across Europe and the Mediterranean, with hundreds of firefighters tackling fires in countries like Italy and Greece. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said his country needs to take more steps to combat the effects of climate change. The BBC’s Bethany Bell and Sofia Bettiza report from Rhodes and southern Italy.

Italian Parliament Approves Bill to Criminalise Surrogacy Abroad

THE GUARDIAN: Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples

Demonstrators gather in Rome wearing placards that say ‘We are families, not criminals’.Photograph: Simona Granati/Corbis/Getty
The Italian parliament has approved a bill criminalising people who go abroad to have children via surrogacy, a measure described as “a disgrace”.

The bill, passed in the chamber of deputies with 166 votes in support and 109 against, is aimed only at Italians and envisages fines of up to €1m (£856,690) and jail terms of up to two years for those who break it.

Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples. Extending the ban to include surrogacy overseas was a flagship policy of Brothers of Italy, the party led by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and also her far-right counterpart and coalition partner, the League.

The measure needs approval in the Italian senate before being passed into law. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Wednesday, July 26, 2023

The Western world, once the fountain of enlightened and progressive thinking, is quickly becoming enshrouded in darkness. – © Mark Alexander

‘I’ve Never Seen Heat This Bad. It’s Not Normal’: Italy Struggles as Temperature Tops 40C

THE GUARDIAN: Anticyclone Caronte could send thermometer to 48C/118F as Mediterranean heatwave intensifies

A fierce anticyclone named after Cerberus, a three-headed monster-dog that features in Dante’s Inferno, had not even ended before Italians were warned that a more intense one called Caronte, or Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, was on its way.

Italy sweltered in temperatures reaching highs of 38C over the weekend, while Caronte will grip the country from Monday, sending the mercury beyond 40C in central and southern regions, with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia possibly hitting a peak of 48C.

Italians are used to hot summers. But not this hot, especially as the consecutive heatwaves struck abruptly, and followed a spring and early summer marked by storms, flooding and below average temperatures. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Saturday, July 15, 2023

Acropolis closes to protect tourists as Greece faces unprecedented heatwave: First-aid workers drafted in to treat visitors suffering effects of 48C – 118F –temperatures at the country’s most visited monument »

Die nächste Hitzewelle rollt schon an: Von Spanien über Griechenland bis in den Westen der Türkei – die Temperaturen erreichen neue Rekorde. Auf La Palma mussten wegen eines Waldbrandes 2500 Menschen in Sicherheit gebracht worden. Meteorologen warnen derweil vor der nächsten Hitzewelle. »

Canicule : de l’Italie à la Californie, le monde suffoque : Acropole fermée, mort de footballeurs amateurs italiens, incendies violents en Californie... Depuis le début de l’été, les épisodes caniculaires se succèdent et s’intensifient. »

Silvio Berlusconi Leaves €100m to Partner Marta Fascina in His Will

THE GUARDIAN: Three-time Italian prime minister leaves overall control of family holding company to two eldest children

The late Silvio Berlusconi left €100m (£85.4m) to his partner, Marta Fascina, in his will and control of the family holding company, Fininvest, to his two eldest children, a source has confirmed.

The three-time Italian prime minister, who died last month and whose empire is estimated to be worth more than €6bn, also left €100m to his brother, Paolo, and €30m to Marcello Dell’Utri, a former senator with his Forza Italia party who served jail time for association with the mafia.

Marina and Pier Silvio – his children with his first wife, Carla Elvira Dall’Oglio – will hold a combined stake of 53% in Fininvest, according to details of the will which was unsealed on Wednesday night and first reported by Ansa, an Italian news agency.

Fascina, 33, a Forza Italia deputy, began a relationship with Berlusconi in 2020. The pair held a “symbolic” marriage ceremony in March 2022 and Berlusconi reportedly referred to her as his “wife” on his deathbed. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Thursday, July 6, 2023