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

Stephanie Maskery boards a clipper to cruise the Amalfi Coast.

Italian Government commits over $30 million to restoring historic Rome arena.

Why hire a car in Italy when you can travel like the locals? asks Venetia Sherson.

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.

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.

All Italy stops to watch a spectacular boat race that's been contested for more than 700 years, writes Carol Smith.

A picture of a young boy who drowned off of the coast of the Greek island of Rhodes has come to represent the tragedy in the Mediterranean sea.

Venice is the setting for Nicky Pellegrino's new novel. On a fact-finding visit she strayed into richly rewarding back streets.

Bev Wood experiences the Italian capacity for both wild frenzy and languid indolence.

For most of their adult lives they have been entangled in one of Europe's most intriguing murder mysteries, prime suspects in the near-inexplicable murder of a young Englishwoman in Italy.

A bar atop a hill in Sicily's Taormina has plenty to seduce eyes, ears and palate, finds Kevin Pilley.

Italy has only grown 4 per cent - in total - since the euro was created 16 years ago.

New Zealand lamb wool prices jumped to their highest level in almost four years this week.

The wall of silence that has protected the Mafia for decades is finally cracking, even in its Sicilian heartland.

Nearly 1000 refugees were safely brought ashore in Italy yesterday after being abandoned by suspected smugglers on a merchant ship.

In 2013 Pope Francis had a lot to celebrate. Not only was he named Time magazine person of the year, but was also awarded the title of Esquire's best-dressed man.

Italy's leading tourist attractions including the Colosseum could soon be in foreign hands as the country seeks new directors from around the world to make its museums more profitable.