Italian News Snippets: 04.13.08

Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:

• It’s election day in Italy today! Well, the first of two (April 13-14). So, if you’re even vaguely curious about the Italian elections, you can read the party platforms and see who you might have voted for.
• Venice might be seriously expensive, but the famous Harry’s Bar is offering “discounts to ‘poor’ Americans,” so that should help.
• Italians say they’d sacrifice higher pay for even more time off. I think I’d be okay with that, too, especially if I were getting paid in euros.
• I thought Milan’s smog was bad, but apparently it’s not the worst offender in Italy.
• Venice’s decorum police are back for 2008, so remember to keep your shirt on.
• How awful – an Italian woman “won” a free breast augmentation and in return she’s going to blog about the experience. Ugh.
• Berlusconi thinks prosecutors in Italy should have their heads examined regularly. Perhaps he only means the ones who are prosecuting cases against him (though that’s quite a few of them).
• 30 farms near Naples are starting to produce buffalo mozzarella again after the dioxin scare.
• The city of Ferrara is hoping to become Europe’s first heart-friendly city.
• The Italian trash issue hasn’t gone away, even if you’re not hearing about it in the Naples news anymore. The EU isn’t happy about Italy’s landfills.