Italy

No More Smuggling: Many Cured Italian Meats Coming To America

Sylvia Poggioli — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:38:00 +0000

American gourmets and lovers of Italian food products, your days as food smugglers are over.

No more stuffing your suitcases with delicacies bought in Italy, hoping the sniffer dogs at JFK or other American airports won't detect the banned-in-the-USA foodstuffs inside your luggage.

In the U.S., they're called cured meats, the French say charcuterie and in Italy, the word for cured-pork products is salumi.

Prosecution Seeks Lifetime Political Ban On Berlusconi

Bill Chappell — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:25:00 +0000
The prosecutor in former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges that he had sex with an underage prostitute is seeking a term of six years behind bars and a lifetime ban on the former premier from holding public office.
"Prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told the court that the young women invited to the former premier's parties 'were part of a system of prostitution organized for the pleasure of Silvio Berlusconi,' " The Associated Press reports that divers had found seven bodies in the wreckage. Four others have been hospitalized and two were still unaccounted for, Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire rescue teams at the scene, told The Associated Press.
The AP says the crash occurred around 11 p.m.

Long Hidden, Vatican Painting Linked To Native Americans

Sylvia Poggioli — Sun, 05 May 2013 09:27:00 +0000
For close to 400 years, the painting was closed off to the world.

It's A 'Tale Of Two Popes' As Benedict Returns To Vatican

Scott Neuman — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:17:00 +0000
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI moved back to the Vatican and his new retirement residence Thursday, where he will live side by side with the reigning pontiff, Pope Francis.
The arrangement makes history because Benedict, 86, is the first pope to voluntarily step down as head of the Roman Catholic Church in more than 700 years.
Since his Feb. 28 resignation, Benedict has lived at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo in the hills south of Rome.