#Rome
: Waited 50 minutes for a taxi. Nothing. No one. I have given up.
@Roma
doesn’t deserve any tourists because it doesn’t have the courage to solve this age-old problem. (Btw Rome’s taxi drivers claimed, on average, to make around €12,700 gross last year - €240 a week 🤣)
Italy's population fell by 384,000 in 2020, following record low births and the highest number of deaths since World War II. Statistics office Istat says it is as though Florence vanished off the map.
“I woke up at 5.30 a.m. I was so excited,” says one grandmother, overjoyed at the prospect of seeing her little grandson again as Italy started the slow process of rolling back its lockdown
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is claiming that GDP in southern Italy is about to overtake that of Germany and France, calling it an historic event that will silence the naysayers … I thought this might be a parody account but it isn’t…
Which reminds me of another abandoned escalator— this time in Calabria. I don’t know if was just dumped there or if something had been expected to be built around it.
Italy's coronavirus death toll has climbed by 837 to 12,428, slightly up on Monday's rise, while the number of new cases was largely steady, growing by 4,053 to 105,792. It is clearly going to take sometime for the curve to descend.
This is Italian state television RAI, in 2020, offering viewers a lesson in how to shop in a "sexy fashion". And we have to pay a licence fee to fund this rubbish....
Rome is preparing to greet returning tourists with piles of trash. Rubbish taxes are higher here than most other Italian cities, but you would never guess it looking at the streets
Berlusconi, on the eve of an election his bloc is expected to win, says Putin only wanted to replace Zelenskiy with a govt of “decent people” and adds that Russian forces should just have stayed around Kyiv rather than go all over Ukraine
It might be late. It might have cost billions. It might have been plagued by corruption. BUT. It worked! Flood barrier successfully protects Venice from high tide
Italian Prime Minister Draghi has just referred to Turkey's Erdogan as a "dictator" and accused him of humiliating European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week with the sofa saga.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella waits in line with ordinary citizens to get his COVID vaccine. He is 79 and clearly did not want to do any queue jumping, which is pretty admirable.
Italy has a whole load of problems BUT it is a wonderful place to visit -- as this great map testifies (all the countries coloured green are places where 'Italy' was the no. 1 google search for a holiday destination)
Schools to stay closed until April 3, all leave for health care workers cancelled, shopping malls to close at weekends. Restaurants and bars can open so long as they guarantee a safe distance between customers. Decree not set in stone. Should be passed today
Italian government has not yet signed its shutdown order for Lombardy. Local politicians want clarifications. There is a lot of concern and confusion. And zero official communication.
The wonderful Agitu Idea Gudeta, an Ethiopian migrant who built a new life for herself in Italy, has been murdered. Words fail me. Here is a story Reuters did about her in 2018.
Italy's Salvini threatens to use strict new law on German charity rescue ship. “This is the umpteenth time Sea Watch, which is a real pirate ship, has done something like this"
France has recalled its ambassador to Italy for consultations following recent verbal attacks from governing parties in Rome. Apparently it is the first time this has happened since World War Two.
@reuters
The places off-limits are: the whole region of Lombardy and the provinces of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro, Urbino, Venice, Padua, Treviso, Asti and Alessandria (needless to say this is unprecedented)
So, I posted a photo yesterday of an abandoned escalator that got a lot of notice. But I don't want you to get the wrong idea.
#VillaBorghese
is one of the greatest parks in the world. Over the next week, I will post snaps from recent years that show it off in a better light
So. After a week of intrigue, scheming, conjecture and conniving, we are back where we started with Mattarella as president and Draghi as prime minister. You have to love Italy, don't you?
The temperature in a province of Siracusa, southeast Sicily, hit 48.8C today. Italian media say it is the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe. Heatwave only just starting here.
I cannot recall any other Western leader justifying the invasion of Ukraine in this way. There has been speculation in the press that Berlusconi’s right hand man Tajani will be the next foreign minister. Whatever Meloni says, is Rome going to shatter EU unity on Russia?
Having triggered a political crisis in Italy, Renzi found time this week to fly to Saudi Arabia for a "special conversation" with MbS. He doesn't seem to have asked him about the killing of Khashoggi.
Could Saudi Arabia be the birthplace of our world’s Neo-Renaissance? Senator
@matteorenzi
, Former Prime Minister, Italy, Board of Trustees Member, FII Institute, explains why he thinks so in a special conversation with H.R.H. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
#FIINeoRenaissance
The feeling in Rome is that
#ECB
’s Lagarde has thrown Italy under a bus. Even the mild mannered president put out a statement saying Italy expected solidarity not obstacles (he might have also been referring to Austria which is blocking traffic at Brenner Pass)
Italy’s railways desperately need investment. There have been multiple accidents and deaths in recent years. Yet now the state rail firm is buying Alitalia, that has lost obscene amounts of money over the years. Why is this happening??
Our
@Reuters
colleagues in Myanmar have been imprisoned for a year because they were doing their job so well, but the Thumbs Up gesture has become a symbol of their resolve. The Rome bureau stands by them.
#FreeWaLoneKyawSoeOo
@ReutersPR
Although Rome is heaving with tourists, Palazzo Barberini was semi-deserted today. Yet in just one of its rooms you will find amazing works by Leonardo, Botticelli, Messina and Bellini. Elsewhere there is one of the greatest Caravaggios, a stunning Raphael etc. CRAZY low profile
All Italy's museums seem to be closing. I feel very privileged to have seen the amazing Raphael exhibition before the shutters came down, and am desperately sorry for the organisers who worked for years to put the show together. Hopefully they will all re-open soon.
@Scuderie
The Italian government calls ANOTHER late cabinet meeting. Yesterday's started at 10 pm. Today's is slated for 8.30 pm (they never start on time). Just wondering what is wrong with holding them during the day.
Italy's mild-mannered president takes Boris Johnson to task for suggesting Britain was more attached to freedom than elsewhere, saying Italy was not only freedom-loving, but also serious
Italy locks down millions as its coronavirus deaths jump. “What is happening in my city is worrying and is also upsetting, because Milan is a lively city and to see it like this today is almost a defeat for me.”
The draft decree says people should not move around in Lombardy and 11 northern provinces (including Venice) unless their work is essential. All museums, gyms, swimming pools and ski stations in these areas must close. All religious services, including funerals, suspended
The power of Twitter. Two weeks ago I posted a photo of a dilapidated escalator in Villa Borghese. The tweet caused a bit of a stir. Rome city council now says the eyesore will be removed and all the area around it "rehabilitated".
Italian foreign policy flounders amidst Libyan blunders. “The process by which Turkey and Russia are taking the diplomatic space is ruthless and largely irreversible. Italy is improvising alone and it is failing miserably”
Joe Biden tells Mario Draghi: “You are doing a hell of a job here! We need to show that democracies can function and that we can produce a new economic model. You are doing it.”
The death toll in Italy from coronavirus jumped by 919 on Friday, the highest daily total recorded anywhere in the world to date. The number of new cases dipped slightly to 5,959
@Reuters
So, "only" 756 deaths today in Italy from coronavirus, bringing total to 10,779, while new cases are up 5,217 to 97,689. That is the lowest rate of new cases since March 25, and the lowest number of deaths for two days. So maybe we might be peaking. Maybe, fingers crossed etc
Deaths in Italy from coronavirus rose by 542 on Wednesday, a lower tally than the 604 the day before, but the number of new cases rose 3,836 compared with a previous 3,039. Good to see another fall in the number of people in intensive care -- 3,693 vs 3,792
The current intelligence assessment is that the Taliban took more than 2,000 armored vehicles, including Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft potentially including Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and ScanEagle military drones.
Italy registers more coronavirus deaths in one day than even China at the height of its epidemic. “I want to see the roads empty, lights off in the bars, the beaches empty, the squares deserted,” says Veneto governor Luca Zaia
Italian prosecutor pays a high price for taking on the mob. “I haven’t been to a restaurant for more than 20 years and haven’t gone to the cinema for more than 30 years. I am always closed away. I eat in the office. My house is a bunker."
Everyday a new coronavirus-linked worry: Doctors in northern Italy have reported extraordinarily large numbers of children aged under 9 with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease, more common in parts of Asia
Italy spends considerably less on education than many of its European partners. The education minister has quit after the 2020 budget failed once again to row back on years of neglect.
@gavinjones10
The mild mannered Italian PM pulls the plug on his govt, but not before giving Salvini a rare verbal lashing, at the end accusing him of lacking courage. Great parliamentary drama
"Rome probably has one of the worst transport networks in the world. There is no way the city can welcome in more people without big change."
@AndreaGiuricin
I don't get Italy's vaccination policy. So far it has vaccinated 354k 20-29 yr-olds vs 365k 80-89 yr olds. I know they are focusing on health workers BUT latest data says just 45 (forty five) 20-29 yr olds have died of COVID vs 35,508 80-89 yr olds. Surely they need priority
Flying back to Britain for the first time in more than two years … and for the first time in decades I get an exit stamp in my passport at Rome border control. Sad.
I am beginning to worry about Rome’s rubbish collection teams. Have they themselves been buried alive under garbage? Perhaps we need to send out a search party...