An Italian woman could face up to six years in jail after her husband accused her of not doing enough cooking and cleaning.

Italian police have seized a yacht that once belonged to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman suspected to be linked to organised crime.

Ewan McDonald sails (not cruises) on a yacht (not a ship) across the Mediterranean from Rome to points east and south.

In one region in Italy, some are rethinking the future of tourism, writes Venetia Sherson.

He lived, he loved, he sang, he ate. Ewan McDonald hangs out in Luciano Pavarotti's modest retreat in northern Italy.

The summer might be over in other parts of Europe but the heat lingers longer in Venice, discovers Helen Barlow. September is a good time to go.

Seven of Italy's best-known olive oil companies are being investigated for allegedly conning consumers by passing off inferior quality olive oil as extra-virgin.

Rome's Trevi fountain has been restored and the results are beaming from the breast of Oceanus.

Charming vistas and idyllic villages of Italy's Ligurian coast fuel an indecent obsession for Carol Smith.

They talk a lot about the light in Tuscany, but Michael Lamb found the darkness just as intriguing in Siena.

Italy is bracing for an invasion of caramel frappuccinos, skinny soy mochas and cinnamon dolce lattes amid reports that Starbucks is to open its first outlets in Milan.

A family holiday in Italy and France avoids the big towns and bright lights and finds the pleasures of rural living and small communities.

A string of picturesque fishing villages known as the Cinque Terre fear they are being suffocated by mass tourism.

Drunken British architects are facing obscenity charges after police catch them cavorting naked in Rome fountain.

A three-hour rail trip across Sicily gives Linda Herrick a glimpse of its ghost towns.

An Auckland University lecturer has won a major international film award with his film Free in Deed.

Venice's water cabbies steer Kevin Pilley to some of their favourite watering holes.

Stephanie Maskery boards a clipper to cruise the Amalfi Coast.

The mayor of Palermo has urged European Union leaders to respond to "a genocide caused by European selfishness".

A wooden fishing boat packed with at least 600 migrants overturned in the Mediterranean Sea and hundreds are feared dead.

Pint-sized Kiwi Kim Allan intends to run Tor des Geants next month - a 330km non-stop race through the Italian Alps that she must complete in under 150 hours.

Italian drivers who drink a bottle of wine before getting behind the wheel could face a fine of just a few hundred euros.

Eternal City is in chronic decline as a result of a toxic mix of corruption, debt, poor administration and shabby infrastructure.

More than 1.6 billion ($2.6 billion) worth of assets have been seized from a family of five Sicilian pensioners in one of Italy's largest anti-Mafia operations in 20 years, say Italian police.

The New Zealanders collected six medals at the Varese regatta in Italy early yesterday, including four gold, and that without the golden bankers.

Segolene Royal, the French Ecology Minister, has outraged Italy by suggesting that Nutella should be boycotted because it leads to deforestation in the tropics.

Italy is to offer a portfolio of publicly owned castles, monasteries, palaces and lighthouses to the highest bidder in an attempt to improve its finances.

They hoisted up tens of thousands of terrified wild animals to the blood-soaked sands of the Colosseum.

Scenery, great food, no packing and not too much exercise... that all suits Roger Hall.

Italy is now the only western European country that does not recognise either same-sex marriage or civil unions.