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.

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.

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.

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

A cafe owner found so much archaeological treasure buried beneath his property that he now has a museum. Michael Day hears his story ...

A shipwreck in which hundreds of people are feared dead may be one of the worst disasters of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

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.