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A woman plummeted 1,000 feet to her death after slipping off the edge of a cliff while hiking on a mountain in Italy. “The news that arrived this evening of the tragic death of the young Maria Cristina Masocco, which took place in the afternoon in the mountains, strikes us in a truly profound way,” lamented Viviana Fusaro, the mayor of Feltre, Belluno, located in the region of Veneto, where the accident took place. The disaster occurred around 4 p.m. on Sunday while Masocco, who lived in Feltre, was hiking with three friends in the Dolomites, the highest peak in...

An Italian restaurateur, dubbed the 'father of tiramisu', has died aged 93. Ado Campeol, the original owner of Le Beccherie restaurant in Treviso in northeastern Italy, died at his home on Saturday. Although disputed, Mr Campeol and his wife, Alba, are considered to be the inventors of the famous dessert. The dish, now a staple of Italian cuisine, was never patented by the family, but appeared on the restaurant menu in 1972. Le Beccherie, one of the oldest restaurants in Treviso, was opened by the Campeol family in 1939. But it wasn't until Mrs Campeol was pregnant in 1955 that...

A man named by Italian news agency Ansa as former construction company owner Adriano Trevisan, in his late 70s, was among almost 60 suspected or confirmed cases in Italy so far. The father-of-three died at a hospital in Padua, in the Veneto region in northern Italy, where he had been admitted along with another person who has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. A second patient - a woman - then died hours after in Lombardy, a region also in the north. The deaths have prompted local authorities in Lombardy and Veneto to shut schools, businesses...

Venetians have voted overwhelmingly for their own sovereign state in a ‘referendum’ on independence from Italy. Inspired by Scotland’s separatist ambitions, 89 per cent of the residents of the lagoon city and its surrounding area, opted to break away from Italy in an unofficial ballot. The proposed ‘Repubblica Veneta’ would include the five million inhabitants of the Veneto region and could later expand to include parts of Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The floating city has only been part of Italy for 150 years. The 1000 year–old democratic Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, was quashed by Napoleon and was subsumed into...

April 2, 2009 Italian authorities carry out raids against "Islamist radicals" across country SNIPPET: "Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities. The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta. The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Gospel today (cf. Lk 10: 1-12, 17-20) presents Jesus sending out 72 disciples to the villages he is about to visit in order to prepare the way. This is a particular feature of the Evangelist Luke, who stressed that the mission was not exclusive to the Twelve Apostles but extended also to the other disciples. Indeed, Jesus said: "The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few" (Lk 10: 2). There is work for all in God's field. Christ, however, did not limit himself to sending out his missionaries: he also gave them clear and...