Italy

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Hiker's Find Leads to Trove of Fossils Predating Dinosaurs

Hundreds of imprints of plants, animals, even raindrops discovered in northern Italian Alps

(Newser) - Claudia Steffensen was hiking in the Italian Alps last summer when she stepped on a rock that caught her eye. "It seemed more like a slab of cement" with "these strange circular designs with wavy lines," Steffensen tells the Guardian. "I took a closer look and...

Italy's President Snaps at Musk's Unsolicited Advice

Billionaire had posted that judges who ruled against Giorgia Meloni's immigration deal 'need to go'

(Newser) - Italian President Sergio Mattarella sharply rebuked Elon Musk on Wednesday for weighing in on Italian court rulings that have stymied the government's plans to process some asylum-seekers in Albania. Musk, who has been named to a top role in President-elect Trump's new administration, wrote Tuesday on X that...

Junior Champion Skier, 19, Dies in Training Accident

Fellow athletes are mourning Matilde Lorenzi

(Newser) - A teenager who was Italy's overall junior champion skier last year has died in a tragic training accident. "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Matilde Lorenzi," the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said in a statement Tuesday. "Matilde was tragically lost following a fall...

Italy Blocks LGBTQ+ Couples From Becoming Parents

New law against surrogacy abroad is punishable by $1M fine, up to 2 years in prison

(Newser) - After banning couples from having a baby through a surrogate, Italy is taking the further step of banning couples from traveling abroad to do the same thing. Though experts say 90% of couples who use surrogacy in Italy are heterosexual, the law proposed by Italy's far-right governing party, which...

Swine Fever Is Threatening Your Prosciutto

Outbreak in Italy has cost the industry billions, required the slaughter of 120K pigs

(Newser) - One of Giovanni Airoli's sows tested positive for African swine fever in late August. Within a week, all 6,200 sows, piglets, and fattening pigs on his farm south of Milan were slaughtered under strict protocols to halt the disease threatening Italy's $20 billion prosciutto, cured sausage, and...

Switzerland, Italy Redo Their Border Due to Ice Melt

The nations are redrawing shared boundary, thanks to climate change, melting glaciers

(Newser) - There are the expected repercussions of climate change, and then there are the more surprising ones—like two nations having to redraw their shared border due to ice melt. That's what's currently happening in Europe, where Switzerland and Italy are remapping in the Alps, because "large sections"...

'Dry Drowning' Blamed in Superyacht Deaths

Autopsies on 4 individuals suggest they found an air bubble, eventually asphyxiated

(Newser) - Initial autopsies performed on four of the seven people who lost their lives in the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily indicate they didn't drown , at least not in the usual way. Chris and Neda Morvillo and Jonathan and Anne Bloomer had no water in their...

Violent Storm Damages Ancient Roman Arch

Lightning strikes the Constantine Arch, which has stood near the Colosseum since AD315

(Newser) - Lightning struck Rome's Constantine Arch near the Colosseum during a violent thunderstorm, loosening fragments from the ancient structure. The fragments from Tuesday's lightning strike were immediately gathered by workers at the Colosseum Archaeological Park, officials said. The extent of the damage was being evaluated, reports the AP . "...

Near Summit of 10K-Foot Peak, Audi Exec Takes Fatal Fall

Fabrizio Longo, 62, was 'touring his beloved mountains,' company says

(Newser) - The managing director of Audi Italia has met a tragic end while doing something he loved. Fabrizio Longo, who was also an experienced mountaineer, fell on a solo climb up Cima Payer, a 10,000-foot mountain in Italy's Adamello-Presanella Alps, a few miles from the Swiss border, on Sunday,...

Final Body Recovered From Sunken Superyacht

Billionaire Mike Lynch's teen daughter was only person still unaccounted for

(Newser) - Italian rescuers have brought ashore the body of the final missing person who was on a superyacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily. The woman's body was detected on Friday, the Coast Guard said. She has not been officially identified, but Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British...

Superyacht Maker's CEO Says 'Incredible Mistake' Was Made

Bayesian's crew should have prepared for storm, he says

(Newser) - The CEO of Italian ship manufacturer Perini, maker of the doomed Bayesian superyacht , spoke out on the yacht's sinking Thursday after authorities confirmed the body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was one of four recovered from the vessel Wednesday, leaving Lynch's daughter, Hannah, the only passenger still...

5 Bodies Located Inside Billionaire's Sunken Yacht

Few details have been provided

(Newser) - Divers have located five bodies within the yacht that sank off Sicily on Monday with British tech magnate Mike Lynch aboard . Reuters' sources said one of the bodies was that of a "heavily built man," and the BBC cites La Repubblica as reporting two of the bodies were...

Divers Can't Get to Sunken Superyacht's Cabins

Debris is blocking their path amid search for 6 people missing some 165 feet below the waves

(Newser) - Divers are continuing to search the superyacht that sank Monday off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, but have yet to find any of the six people still missing from the luxury vessel. After five dives on Monday, dive teams were back in the water early Tuesday, per the BBC . Officials...

Locals Here Are Snitching on Each Other Over AC Units

Restrictions on air conditioning have neighbors turning on neighbors in scenic Portofino, Italy

(Newser) - You'd think a wealthy Italian coastal town that attracts the likes of Madonna and other celebrities would offer creature comforts like AC. But in Portofino, which is sweating it out right now amid a heat wave, neighbors are turning on neighbors as a crackdown on air conditioners continues. Per...

Tourist Apologizes for Carving Initials Into Pompeii Treasure
Tourist Leaves Mark in Pompeii
Aug 9, 2024 2:45 PM CDT

Tourist Leaves Mark in Pompeii

37-year-old apologizes but could face jail

(Newser) - A house in Pompeii stood unmarred for 2,000 years—though long covered after Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE—until a 37-year-old British tourist visited the ancient city this week. Employees at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Italy saw him defacing the house and called police, CNN reports. They...

Cheesy Photos of Italian Gymnast Resurface, Go Viral

Pics of silver medalist Giorgia Villa posing with large hunks of cheese are resurfacing

(Newser) - Giorgia Villa missed the Tokyo Olympics due to a sprained ankle. At the Paris Games, despite lingering back injuries, the 21-year-old gymnast made history. With their silver medal behind the Simone Biles-led US team's gold, Angela Andreoli, Alice D'Amato, Manila Esposito, Elisa Iorio, and Villa matched Italy's...

Venice Makes New Move on Tourist Influx

Italian city limits tour groups to 25 or fewer, with some exceptions

(Newser) - In April, Venetians raised an outcry over a new tourist entry fee that they said would make the destination less like a city and more akin to a museum or theme park attraction. Now, the Italian hot spot is making another big move to try to tamp down on overtourism—...

Italy Suffers Tough Loss, Gets Trolled With Pineapple Pizza

Italy files complaints over fencing final loss to Hong Kong's Cheung Ka Long

(Newser) - Hong Kong's Cheung Ka Long became the third man to defend his title in the individual foil, a fencing event, on Monday. In doing so, he unknowingly launched what the South China Morning News describes as an "all-out war" online. Ka Long had narrowly defeated Italy's Filippo...

2 Dead in Collapse at Italian Complex Tied to Mob

At least a dozen injured after passageway crumbles in suburb of Naples

(Newser) - Two people are dead and at least a dozen are injured after a third-floor pedestrian walkway collapsed late Monday at a housing project on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. Per the Guardian , a 29-year-old man, identified as Roberto Abbruzzo, and 35-year-old woman, Margherita della Ragione, were killed in the suburb...

Reporter Must Pay $5K for Mocking PM's Height

Italy's Giorgia Meloni went after journalist in court over slam

(Newser) - For the record, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is somewhere around 5-foot-3, notes the BBC . She is not, as an Italian journalist jokingly suggested on social media, 4 feet tall. And now the journalist has been ordered by an Italian court to pay 5,000 euro, or about $5,500,...

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