Italy
Are you confiscating my ipod? EU citizens against ‘Acta’ treaty
A proposed worldwide ‘anti-counterfeiting trade agreement’ (ACTA) would impose a legal framework on online intellectual property rights. The term 'internet' is not even mentioned once in the entire treaty, infuriating European citizens who fear for their freedoms and about censorship
italy, germany, techno-media, censorship, hadopi, internet, law
Seadas or sebadas: how to make Sardinian cheese pastry
Originally simple dishes of rural origin, 'sebadas' or 'seadas' have been given a new identity and today are served as a dessert. This is the brief story of a Sardinian delicacy whose roots are buried deep in the ancient rustic tradition
italy, sebadas, yum nyam, eat, sardinia, traditions, cooking
Itanglish: new Italian dialect?
With their trendy gossip over social media, sometimes in a chat live online, Italians have integrated English words into their common vocabulary to a surprising extent. Does Italy still speak Italian? Or has the country switched to Itanglish, the new Anglo-Italian hybrid dialect?
italy, tower of babel, techno-media, society, multilingualism, language
Pesetas, liras, franks and drachmas: euro is living on borrowed time
Multiple defaults, a return to the lira, pesetas and francs, the break-up of the monetary union and Europe comes crashing down. Sounds like an endless chain of unreal events? Perhaps not: the end of the common currency is no longer a taboo for European press and economists
italy, germany, euro, best of cafebabel.com, economy, economical crisis, euweek
Multiculturalism in Italy: a Roman cocktail
Is Italy racist? This is the question posed by European media, some of which don’t hesitate to point to a lethal dose of racism particularly following the murder of two Senegalese in Florence. However, four journalists and a photographer sent to Rome by cafebabel.com chose instead to talk about the multicultural imprint of a nation which counts 5.4 million immigrants from non-EU countries. Of course, it’s not all sweetness. The Roma continue to battle for a decent future, while young Italians are fleeing a country which is losing its identity. However, second generation immigrants are aware of the civic role which they can play, while the piazza Vittoria in central Rome is a multicultural epicentre, a mixed drink shaken up in the most open of kitchens. In the view of these diverse facts, cafebabel.com is serving up a Roman cocktail which will warm you to embrace the ‘other’, turning away from the bar-side brawls stirred up by press-gang headlines. (Image: © Ehsan Maleki)
Most expensive EU TV production Borgia: outsiders from Spain in renaissance Italy
The fifteenth century Italian crime family is the subject of a hit Franco-German TV series originally filmed in Prague and screened as of this summer in three European countries. We discuss reality and fiction with French Borgia expert Pol Bruno at his welcoming home on the Breton coast
Italian economist Eugenio Benetazzo: 'act now or wait for social unrest'
In 2006 the Italian economist and independent trader forecasted the collapse of the global economy with his prophetic book Duri e Puri (‘Hard Core’). The financial guru gives us his bleak forecast for Europe
Jazz man Raphael Gualazzi: Italy’s Jamie Cullum?
The weekly German magazine Die Zeit called him ‘the perfect synthesis between Paolo Conte and Jamie Cullum’. In person, the 30-year-old is shy, but onstage he turns into a wild devilish creature. We catch him on the European tour for his second album Reality and Fantasy
Big city life: Europe’s pigeons
Doves and pigeons are one and the same except that the former got the 'symbol of peace' gig and the latter became the grey critters affectionately known as ‘rats with wings’. Whence the flight of fancy?
italy, tower of babel, germany, animals, languages, europe, united kingdom
Documentary Italy: love it or leave it in a Fiat 500
When the lease on their flat in Rome was up, film critic Luca Ragazzi convinced television journalist Gustav Hofer to spend a last six months touring their country and understand why they were moving abroad. Little did they know that those were the six months that changed Italy
italy, documentary, cinema, germany, berlin, best of cafebabel.com, culture
Papademos and Monti, Super Mario Bros vs markets
Lucas and Mario, the new independent prime ministers for Greece and Italy, have been delivered in advance for christmas in what has been a historic November for crisis-riddled Europe. The Swiss, Dutch, French, Spanish and local press blow a wind of caution concerning having technocrats in power
italy, greece, economy, financial crisis, economical crisis, mario monti, euweek
Missing you already Berlusconi - young Italians speak
It's official! Monti's in, Berly's out! His anti-politics, his vulgarity, his gaffes - at least three reasons why we won't be missing our beloved prime minister, who has been in power in Italy four times since 1994 - 2011. He announced his gradual resignation in mid-November, after Italy was forced to adopt a final series of austerity measures. Is it a trick? Will he be bouncing back into office, immune as they come? The state of the country's finances might ensure that won't happen. The 75-year-old seems to be alone, psychologically fragile and abandoned by his most loyal colleagues. 17 years of bad behaviour is enough. Better late than never (Image: © Kristof)
- Read the special edition Missing you already Berlusconi - young Italians speak
- Bunga bunga: European hanky panky guide for Mr. Berlusconi
- Meeting Mario Monti, interim Italian prime minister
- Berlusconi’s greatest crime is humiliating Montesquieu
- Four young Europeans react to Berlusconi's resignation: 'There will be civil war'
- Berlusconi raised us; how to re-educate Italy?
- Italian writer Alberto Toscano on political gaffes
How to make Polish potato pancakes
It’s cheap and available, warm and nourishing, omnipresent in most traditional European cuisines – but the starchy crop only hit the continent from South America as late as the 16th century
italy, netherlands, poland, potato, united kingdom, yum nyam, cooking
Eurozone crisis what crisis? 50% of Greece's debt cut
On 26 October the 27 heads of state and government of the European Union reached agreement in Brussels on a debt restructuring and new rescue package for Greece, among other things. Last chance saloon for Athens, say French, Austrian, Spanish and Greek commentators
italy, angela merkel, efsf, greece, euro, eurozone, currency
Ascanio Celestini: 'I denounce verbal violence of our time’
He is the mouthpiece of contemporary Italian theatre, a critic of power, an anthropologist who depicts the evils of our time better than anyone else. The 39-year-old actor, director and author talks about coming from outside Rome and where his one-man-show gets its inspirations from
italy, paris, brunch, theatre, rome, best of cafebabel.com, culture
Europe reacts: what Gaddafi’s expiration means
On 20 October the world saw a mediatised repeat of bloody images and videos of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on their deathbeds: Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, 69, was killed in his hometown of Sirte. French, US and British forces were part of the Nato airstrikes in the Libyan civil war which began in February 2011. Read presidential and prime ministerial postcards from Poland, Malta, Italy, France and Germany after the news broke
italy, business, josé luis rodríguez zapatero, angela merkel, germany, communism, poland
How an Italian boy became a ‘happiness coach’
Born in the land of ‘la dolce vita’, Bergamo-born Frank Ra, 32, travelled Europe before publishing a book on happiness. He offers his thoughts on spiritual scepticism, being a former erasmus student or ex-pat and how ‘no place is perfect unless we accept it with all its features’
italy, depression, psychology, health, men and women, estonia, canada
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