News

The first “dog hotel” inside an Italian airport, Dog Relais, opened in Rome’s Fiumicino airport. The facility is described as a “safe, stimulating and state-of-the-art environment where your dog can play, socialize while you’re at work, or enjoy a unique and comfortable stay during your travels.” Dogs can stay for about $46 per night in individual “lodges,” each with an indoor area of 43 square feet and an outdoor area of 107 square feet, with shaded and open areas. The facilities are equipped with radiant panel climate control, automatic water dispensers and background music “to ensure a pleasant experience at …

An erotic ancient Roman mosaic stolen in 1944 by a Wehrmacht officer (a commissioned officer in the German armed forces) and given to a German citizen was returned to Pompeii in July, ANSA reported. The German army captain, who was responsible for the military supply chain in Italy during World War II, handed over the mosaic of a pair of lovers to the German citizen, whose family returned it thanks to the work of the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Rome. The mosaic dates between the mid-last century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. The heirs of …

The new owner of NWA 16788, the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, is rumored to be a well-known Italian gallery owner, Adnkronos reported. The extraterrestrial rock was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York for the record sum of $5.3 million. The 54-pound meteorite was discovered in 2023 in the Nigerian Sahara and had been entrusted to a research team from the University of Florence, led by Giovanni Pratesi, professor of mineralogy, who studied its composition and origin in detail. Two fragments of the meteorite will remain at the University of Florence as specimens available to the …

Tennis champion Jannik Sinner defeated Spanish defending champion Carlos Alcaraz to win Wimbledon, becoming the first Italian to ever do so. Two Italians had come close before, with Matteo Berrettini reaching the men’s final in 2021 and Jasmine Paolini reaching the women’s final in 2024, tennis.com reported. Last year, Sinner tested positive for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid in March. He was initially cleared, based on the defense that he was accidentally exposed to the banned substance during a physiotherapist massage. The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the exoneration, and Sinner agreed to serve a three-month ban that ended …

Italian confectionery giant Ferrero Group plans to buy U.S. cereal company WK Kellogg Co. in a $3.1 billion deal to “invest in and grow” the Michigan-based business, which has 14,000 employees and 22 plants, CNN reported. Ferrero’s largest acquisition to date, WK Kellogg has a portfolio of cereals including Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Corn Flakes and Apple Jacks. In recent years, Ferrero also bought Nestlé’s U.S. business and Blue Bunny ice cream. Ferrero makes Nutella, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Baby Ruth candy bars, and Keebler and Famous Amos cookies.

Ostana, a small town at the foot of the Monviso mountain in the Piemonte region of Italy, has seen its population grow from 10 to 150 in just a few years. A bakery and clinic have reopened, an alpaca farm has put down roots, and there are now rooms for rent to tourists, Corriere della Sera reported. What happened in Ostana is part of a larger trend of people leaving Italy’s urban areas to settle in the mountains. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of people living in Italy’s mountain communities increased by 100,000, according to a report from UNCEM …

More than a million young people attended the closing Mass of the Jubilee dedicated to them in Tor Vergata, in the suburbs of Rome. “We are closer than ever to young people who suffer the gravest evils, caused by other human beings. We are with the young people of Gaza, we are with the young people of Ukraine, with those of every land bloodied by war,” Pope Leo XIV said during the Angelus in English, AGI reported. “You are the sign that a different world is possible: a world of brotherhood and friendship, where conflicts are resolved not with weapons …

  Accomplished Italian composer, arranger and record producer Celso Valli died in July, AGI reported. The 75-year-old worked with numerous Italian music stars, including Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Vasco Rossi. Posting photos of himself and the producer, Ramazzotti wrote, “Celso, I will miss you, maestro.” Born in Bologna in 1950, Valli studied music from a very young age at the city’s Martini Conservatory. He began his career as a keyboardist in the progressive rock band Ping Pong and later devoted himself to working as an arranger and producer.

The Women’s Division of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans honored nine accomplished women at the 2025 Impresa Awards. Scholarships were also presented to several deserving female high school seniors at the event. “We’re always so proud to host the Impresa Awards,” JCCIA Women’s Division President Rosemary Ranallo says. “It’s our opportunity to shine the spotlight on Italian-American women of accomplishment and to encourage young Italian-American women to follow in their footsteps.” This year’s honorees are: Lisa Capitanini, award-winning investigative producer for NBC 5 (WMAQ-TV) Chicago Tracey Tarantino DiBuono, founder and director of Zzazz Productions Linnea McHugh, chief policy …

The Italian American Veterans Museum has banded together with four other veterans museums from across the Chicago area to create a game-changing venture in Addison. The Chicagoland Veterans Campus will be located at 39 Army Trail Boulevard in a stately 100-year-old former school building owned by St. Paul Lutheran Church. Participating in the creation of the campus are the Chicagoland Combined Veterans Museum & Library (CCVML), Camp Grant Historical Society Museum, Hellenic American Veterans Memorial & Museum, Italian American Veterans Museum (IAVM) and 10th Mountain Division Museum. Spearheading the project is CCVML President Lorenzo Fiorentino, a retired Army Major and …