After just over a year in office, Italian finance minister Domenico Siniscalco has resigned. Ostensibly provoked by the continuing inability of the Government to force the resignation of Banca Italia’s discredited Governor Fazio. Siniscalco commented: “The problem isn’t Fazio, but the inability to resolve the problem. I’m not bitter about this: I’m scandalized.” Arguments over […]
“I won’t finish in hell, but I’ll do a thousand years in purgatory,” banker Giampiero Fiorani joked about himself. A strangely religious outlook for a banker, one might think, particularly when faced with the more pressing concerns of avoiding a possible jail sentence. Fiorani is currently under investigation by the Milan magistrature for a number […]
In 1999, on a cold November night in Dublin, at the MTV European Music Video awards, Luciano Ligabue took to the stage, briefly. The Italian rock star was greeted by a baffled audience. Part of the price of staging a ‘European’ event many presumed. An interlude between Ricky Martin and Britney Spears. Last saturday, Ligabue […]
Silvio Berlusconi, back in April, as he formed his second government of this legislature, admonished those in the Parliament who spoke of economic crises and a downturn in Italy’s fortunes. It would become, he said, in English heavily-accented by his cheesy grin, ‘a self fulfilling prophecy‘. It’s hard to face the challenge against world communism […]
Next year’s annual Mobile Phone Throwing Championships may have some high profile Italian participants, judging on recent events dominating the news. Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, Governor of the Bank of Italy Antonio Fazio, and the President of Genoa football club (Italy’s oldest football club) Enrico Preziosi may all be queuing up to hurl a telefonino […]
Thankfully, the voices speaking out against the comments made by the ‘moderate’ President of the Senate, Marcello Pera, have been numerous. Amongst those criticising Pera’s warnings against a ‘mestizo’ nation, were former Prime Minister, and one time leader of the Democrazia Cristiana party, Giulio Andreotti. “The President of the Senate has his merits. Last year […]
Those left-wing, pinko-liberals will tell you that Italy’s military presence in Iraq [about 3,150 personnel] is part of an illegal occupation force. They’ll tell you that it’s all about oil, or somesuch [the Italians just happen to be based in the Nassiriyah area, securing an area with a gigantic oil field for which the Italian […]
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. [W.B.Yeats – […]
The View from Bologna, like many Italians, returns to work today after the traditional August vacation period. Bad weather coupled with uncompetitive prices appear to have hit the domestic Italian tourist market yet again, while a report in the weekend’s press suggested that Italians in the North of the country have started shopping in Switzerland, […]
Possible issues that may provoke an impassioned bout of (publicity generating) letter writing, on the part of an Italian Catholic Bishop:
