Colleen Barry

Rising global temperatures are worrying truffle hunters around in the Italian town of Alba, where the most prized specimens can fetch twice the price of gold. This particularly warm October, eight out of 10 white truffles unearthed by Carlo Olivero with his trusty 3-year-old dog Steel were dark, withered and dried out. “They are clearly signs of the temperatures,’’ Olivero...

As soon as waters receded from this week’s devastating flood, about 50 young Venetians wearing rubber boots and gripped by a sense of determination showed up at the city’s Music Conservatory to help save precious manuscripts. Thanks to their work, some 50 linear meters of archival manuscripts, dating from as far back as the 1500s, lay strewn in the conservatory’s...

Venice is experiencing continuous high tide levels this week, which is jeopardizing many of the city’s iconic treasures.

U.S. consumers who appreciate the tang of aged Italian Parmesan cheese as an aperitif or atop their favorite pasta dish are stocking up ahead of next week’s tariff hike and as dairy producers in the two countries square off. The Italian agricultural lobby Coldiretti said Friday that sales of both Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, aged cheeses with a distinctive...

A private rescue ship that has remained at sea with 121 migrants after being denied permission to enter ports in two European countries rescued 39 more people Saturday, a Spanish aid group said, further complicating conditions on and off board. The Open Arms made its latest rescue in international waters in the central Mediterranean Sea, where it has idled for...

Actor Kevin Spacey read a poem about a worn-out and dejected boxer during an unexpected performance at a Rome museum Friday night, weeks after a criminal sexual misconduct case against him collapsed in Massachusetts. Spacey’s appearance at the National Roman Museum was not publicly announced in advance.

A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their chaperones Wednesday, threatening them over a 40-minute ordeal before setting the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a Carabinieri blockade. Officers broke glass windows in the back of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities...

A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their chaperones Wednesday, threatening them over a 40-minute ordeal before setting the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a Carabinieri blockade. Officers broke glass windows in the back of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities...

An 8-meter (26-foot) sperm whale was found dead off Sardinia with 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) of plastic in its belly, prompting the World Wildlife Foundation to sound an alarm Monday over the dangers of plastic waste in the Mediterranean Sea. The environmental group said the garbage recovered from the sperm whale’s stomach included a corrugated tube for electrical works, plastic...

Europe’s human rights court on Thursday ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox financial damages for police failure to provide legal assistance and a translator during a long night of questioning following the Nov. 1, 2007, murder of her British roommate. But the court said there was insufficient evidence to support claims of psychological and physical mistreatment at the hands of...

Pope Francis on Saturday defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors, and to show greater transparency about how he’s responding to the church’s global sex abuse crisis, he publicly explained why they were removed. The Vatican’s unusually detailed statement announcing the laicization of retired Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and retired Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez signaled...

Milan Fashion Week got underway Wednesday with a moment’s pause to put focus on women who have come forward as victims of sexual misconduct.

Wearing a powder-blue logo of a map symbolizing peace between the Koreas, the most talked-about team at this year’s Olympics finally saw game action Sunday in a friendly that drew thousands of spectators in a country that never previously showed much passion for ice hockey. The North and South Korean women’s hockey players, who only began practicing together about a...

An Italian family of five was “reborn” after all three children buried in the rubble of their home by a 4.0-magnitude quake were pulled to safety Tuesday in a painstaking 16-hour rescue operation on the popular Mediterranean resort island of Ischia. The Toscano family’s happy ending brought cheers from the dozens of firefighters who worked through the night to extricate...

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s vision for the chain was largely inspired by the coffee bars he saw on his first trip to Milan more than three decades ago. But it took the company growing to about 26,000 stores in 75 countries to win the credibility he felt necessary to make the leap into the country that gave espresso to the...

From specialty shops in Rome to supermarkets around the world, lovers of Italian olive oil are in for some sticker shock this year, with prices due to jump by as much as 20 percent. The combination of bad weather and pests hit the harvest in Southern Europe, most of all in Italy, where production is halved from last fall. That’s...

The Mafia stronghold of Corleone has produced another godfather saga, but this one is unlikely to end up as a movie. A parish priest’s allowed the son of Italy’s most notorious mobster to become his niece’s godfather during a baptism ceremony in December, but a bishop in Sicily is contesting the decision. Archbishop Michele Pennisi was quoted Thursday by the...

Cuts haven’t been a major concern in Olympic boxing since 1980, but they will be a constant danger in Rio, where the 250 male fighters will box without headgear for the first time since Moscow. Fighters have had three years to adjust to the change, and they’ve adapted with the same tenacity that made them boxers in the first place....