Free Republic

An Italian senator presented a “pizza makers’ bill” Tuesday, which aims to create a professional registry of all Italian pizza chefs. If successful, the bill will establish a nationally regulated pizza-making qualification, which will be recognized in all European countries. The proposals would force aspiring pizzaioli to complete a 120-hour course made up of 20 hours of food science, 20 hours of pizza-making workshops, 30 hours of food hygiene and 40 hours of foreign languages. […] According to the Forza Italia senator who presented the bill, Bartolomeo Amidei, the registry will protect the country’s culinary traditions and stop consumers from...

You have come through the eye of the needle into Kingdom Come , Zion lays before you blessed daughters and sons, So now the "real awakening begins", Truly you ARE worthy free from all sins, Look you are dressed in righteousness for you wear my gown, I have bestowed on you and a clean turban as your crown, Your feet shine at the mention of My WORD, For Now they Know it IS the Path of Righteousness they have heard, Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! Is the sound, That you hear now echoing all around, Voices that sound like...

Rome (AFP) – Virginia Raggi was elected Sunday as Rome’s first female mayor, exit polls showed, in an electoral triumph for the populist Five Star Movement that represents a major setback for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

A team of Italian researchers have possibly uncovered the oldest ever fossilized footprint left behind by modern man's ancestor, Homo Erectus. The prints are thought to date back some 800,000 years and were unearthed in the desert of south eastern Eritrea... Alfredo Coppa... from Rome's Sapienza university... and his Italian colleagues were working with researchers from Eritrea's National Museum when they unearthed the 26 m2 slab of stone containing the footprints. Today, the area lies in the middle of an arid desert, but 800,000 years ago the environment was very different. The fossilized footprints, which are almost indistinguishable to those...

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Friday that a British exit from the EU would be more harmful to Britons than the 28-nation bloc. Speaking on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Renzi told the Russian news agency, TASS: “Of course it would be a problem, but it would be a small problem for Europe and a much larger one for Britain.” …

Italian state-controlled ship builder Fincantieri has won a €4 billion contract from Qatar as leader of Italy’s defense industry to supply five warships equipped with radars, systems and missiles, according to trustworthy sources of Il Sole 24 Ore-ItalyEurope24. The official ratification of the agreement will take place tomorrow afternoon in Rome between Italy’s Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti and her counterpart from Doha, Khalid bin Muhammad Al-Attiyar. Fincantieri will supply to Doha four corvette warships and a support vessel. The order is very important also for Leonardo-Finmeccanica, which is bound to receive about half the total amount for the supply of...

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today (13 June) admitted a referendum called by euroskeptic groups on whether to back closer ties between Ukraine and the EU had been “disastrous” after voters soundly rejected the pact. “I’m totally against referenda, and I’m totally, totally, totally against referenda on multilateral agreements, because it makes no sense as we have seen with the Dutch referendum,” Rutte told a conference of European MPs. “The referendum led to disastrous results,” he added. …

... "The fact is that in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, voters have come to associate the centre-left with many of the (unpopular) policies traditionally championed by the right: austerity, deregulation, liberalisation, free trade." ...

A former CIA counterterrorism officer who is set to be extradited to Italy where she faces a four-year prison sentence in connection with the rendition of a suspected terrorist that took place in Milan in 2003 said Hillary Clinton is partially to blame for her ordeal. Sabrina De Sousa, two-dozen other CIA officers, and an Air Force colonel were convicted in absentia in 2009 in Italy on kidnapping and other charges in connection with the abduction of Osama Mustapha Hassan Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, a radical Egyptian cleric whose fiery anti-American speeches in the immediate aftermath of 9/11...

Parishioners visiting a church in Italy were told they must “pray in silence” so as not to disturb African migrants being housed there. Some of the faithful hoping to practice their Christianity at the church of St. Anthony in Ventimiglia were surprised when they were told by Caritas volunteers they couldn’t recite the rosary and would instead have to pray in silence out of respect to migrants who are living there. Caritas is ostensibly a Catholic charity, although much of its resources are spent on facilitating mass migration to Europe; the organisation even boasts that it contributes to and seeks...

Parishioners visiting a church in Italy were told they must “pray in silence” so as not to disturb African migrants being housed there. Some of the faithful hoping to practice their Christianity at the church of St. Anthony in Ventimiglia were surprised when they were told by Caritas volunteers they couldn’t recite the rosary and would instead have to pray in silence out of respect to migrants who are living there. Caritas is ostensibly a Catholic charity, although much of its resources are spent on facilitating mass migration to Europe; the organisation even boasts that it contributes to and seeks...

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (5SM) took a large lead in the first round of voting for the mayor of Rome, in a possible blow to prime minister Matteo Renzi. Some 13 million people, or a quarter of the adult population, were eligible to vote for mayors in around 1,300 towns and cities, with attention focused firmly on a handful of major centres, including the capital. Victory in Rome would be a huge breakthrough for anti-establishment 5SM, which was founded in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo and has grown to be Italy's second largest party. A victory by the populist...

The massive feminization of culture has had a major impact on European politics and the decisions which have lead to the European Migrant Crisis. Iben Thranholm joins Stefan Molyneux to discuss the deficiency of masculinity in European culture, how feminism has programmed women to see men as the enemy and the future of western civilization. "As the refugee crisis erupted and overwhelmed Europe, its political leaders - spearheaded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel - acted like timid mother hens, not as strong men responsible for guarding their country from an invasion." - Iben Thranholm Iben Thranholm is one of Denmark’s...

But his address took a turn toward the propaganda style when, minutes into his remarks, he said, “Migrants are not a danger – they are in danger,” and then called on the children to repeat after and with him: “They are not a danger – they are in danger,” Breitbart reported. During his remarks, the pope also invited the children to recite a Hail Mary prayer out loud with him, to honor those who’ve died at sea during their refugee flights. He also carried what he said was the life jacket of a drowned Syrian girl, age 6, who lost...

A Christian brother and sister from Syria felt blessed to have been among the dozen refugees selected to start a new life in Italy — but now say their savior, Pope Francis, abandoned them on a Greek island, according to a report. Roula and Malek Abo, who had been housed in a refugee camp on Lesbos, said they thanked their lucky stars when they found out the Vatican had selected them during the pontiff’s visit to the island last week, the Daily Mail reported. Their dreams were shattered, though, when they were informed the following day that they would not...

A Christian brother and sister from Syria felt blessed to have been among the dozen refugees selected to start a new life in Italy — but now say their savior, Pope Francis, abandoned them on a Greek island, according to a report.

In a tasty settlement, an Italian court has ruled in favor of a divorced father to make alimony payments to his ex-partner in the form of €300 ($333) worth of pizza every month. Ex-wife Nicoletta Zuin, who took the case to court was more than unhappy with the final verdict, according to local newspaper Il Gazzettino. The 50-year-old father, Nicola Toso, was accused of failing to make his monthly child support payments, when showing up with pizza instead of payments. His ex-wife eventually had enough of seeing ham and mushroom toppings and took Toso to court in the city of...

Plans to move towards the creation of a European army are reportedly being kept secret from British voters until the day after next month’s referendum. Drawn up by the EU’s foreign policy chief, the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy foresees the formation of new European military and operational structures. This first step towards an EU army is supported by Germany and other countries, The Times reports. In 2011, similar proposals were vetoed by Britain, although there were concerns that a loophole could allow nine states to group together to bypass opponents. In an effort to avoid derailing the...

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Rome Saturday to march in protest against the European Union’s lax immigration policies and what they described as the “invasion” of Italy by migrants. The demonstration began at a refugee welcome center in Piazza Vittorio, Rome, and as they marched, the protesters chanted, “Stop the invasion! This is my home!” Referring to the migrant crisis, Di Stefano said that Italy “is no paradise and the people coming in are living at the margins of society with nothing to do. We would like to help these people, but in their home countries, by creating the conditions...

Quick background: I found this while searching for events that happened on September 9 (we just had 09/09/09). A Web site mistakenly lists this disaster as happening on September 9, 1963; actually it happened October 9, 1963. Hadn't heard of it before, but it's listed as one of the top engineering disasters in history. The Vajont (Vaiont) Landslide The site linked in the header provides small snapshots of the whole area. Two examples: Here's an annotated picture that helps put it in context. Here's a picture of the immediate aftermath: To really get this in perspective, though, use Google Maps....