City News

Rome’s hopes of staging a Formula One grand prix would appear to rest on the level of opposition from local residents.

A race through the streets of the Eternal City has long been on the agenda, potentially as early as 2012.

The 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome will see a variety of activities taking place that will set the city up for its bid to host the 2020 edition.

SportsFeatures.com explained that there will be a delegation of figures from the Italian National Olympic Committee and other relevant organisations appearing at the ceremony today (August 25th).

Guests at 5 star hotels in Rome may also have the chance to see famous sporting heroes, as the organisers hope to involve athletes such as former boxing champion Nino Benvenuti in cameo roles.

The Italian cities of Rome and Florence are enmeshed in a Renaissance-style feud over who owns Michelangelo’s marble masterpiece “David.”

The Florence mayor has defended his city’s ownership of the towering nude depiction of “David” after the Culture Ministry reportedly asserted that the treasure belongs to the central government in Rome.

A judge ordered Italian billionaire and Fastweb SpA founder Silvio Scaglia to stand trial on Nov. 2 on charges of belonging to a criminal association aimed at tax fraud, Rome prosecutors said.

Mr. Scaglia, along with other former executives of Italian telecommunications operators Fastweb SpA and Telecom Italia SpA’s cable unit Sparkle, are accused of involvement in a €2 billion ($2.64 billion) money laundering and tax fraud scheme.

On a recent afternoon, a group of American diplomats gathered on Rome’s cobblestones with buckets and rollers, spreading peach-colored paint across the weather-beaten façade of a medieval storefront. Their mission: To cover up the swirls of graffiti lining one of Rome’s oldest neighborhoods.

“It’s just so sad and so devastating,” said Rebecca Spitzmiller, an American lawyer living in Rome, who donned rubber gloves and a dust mask. “We’re retaking Rome.”

They knock the noses off statues in a park that was a favorite haunt of poet John Keats and throw dye into the iconic Trevi Fountain.

Vandals are increasingly on the prowl in the Eternal City — and now Italian authorities are fighting back, sending more police, installing cameras and even considering using convicts to protect monuments and artworks.

Star conductor Antonio Pappano has just finished a three-day recording session in Rome, working on a rarely-heard choral piece by Rossini.

The piece was recorded in the ultra-modern Auditorium, a world-class venue, giving it what Pappano calls “emotion… precision… conviction”.

Rome Ramirez from Sublime With Rome recently updated the band’s official website and mentioned that the band plans to record new material this coming October:

I’m currently in New York on a day off (kinda). The tour has Been Nuts! Def do not want to miss any of the shows this summer! They have been the most inspirational monuments in my life . Every city we go to the love is right there welcoming the music that unites us all. We gotta handful of sick new tunes and plan to hit the studio [in October] to do pre production and release a single !! Thank you guys so much !! Your support is appreciated!!

A Toronto architectural office that studies issues faced by cold climate communities has won the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture.

The $50,000 prize is awarded annually by the Canada Council for the Arts to a young architect or architecture firm that has completed its first buildings and shown exceptional potential.

Residents from the Italian region struck by a major earthquake in 2009 have skirmished with police at a demonstration in Rome.

Several thousand people took part in the rally, complaining that they had not received enough help from the government following the disaster.