News from italy
Florence Baptistry, unique view of magnificent mosaics
March 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
Restorers launched a groundbreaking project in Florence's historic Baptistry last month, allowing visitors a unique view of magnificent mosaics including a three-headed devil which inspired Italian poet Dante. For the next six years, tourists will...
Save the Verdi's house
March 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
Opera houses across Italy have come together to help the government meet the shortfall on a bid to save for the nation a country house lived in by composer Giuseppe Verdi for 50 years. Villa Verdi in Sant’Agata di Villanova – close to the town of...
An ancient Roman statue discovered under via Appia
March 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
An ancient Roman statue of Hercules has been discovered during repairs to the sewerage system underneath a park in Rome. The statue, which apparently dates back to the Roman imperial period (27BC to AD476), emerged from the ground around the second...
The Uffizi Museum will raise its prices in peak-season
February 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
After Florence’s Uffizi announced it would raise peak-season prices, Italy's culture minister said it was the right move as the “average American family” could afford to pay more. The Uffizi art gallery in Florence said it was increasing its basic...
Pope Benedict XVI passed away
February 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
Tens of thousands of Catholics lined up to pay their respects last month to former pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, at the start of three days of lying-in-state at St Peter's Basilica before his funeral. They began lining up before dawn to view...
The stolen art objects return to Italy
February 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
Prosecutors in New York returned dozens of antiquities stolen from Italy valued at around $19 million, some of which were found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “These 58 pieces represent thousands of years of rich history, yet traffickers...
A Russian yacht keeps mysteriously disappearing
January 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
A luxury yacht owned by a Russian oligarch that was supposedly seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port on the Italian island of Sardinia this summer. The 72-foot Aldabra is owned by Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a...
Sheep pastures to revive Pompeii
January 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
In late November, a flock of lawn-mowing sheep were released to trim unruly grass surrounding the ruins of Pompeii as part of an agricultural initiative for the site that also includes plans to revive ancient vineyards. The 150 sheep arrived in...
The Italian population is getting older and older
January 2023 | La Gazzetta Italiana
Italy is ageing at a considerably faster rate than its EU peers, with the country’s population having fallen to under 59 million, The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) said last month. Such significant population decline is a major...