Stories covering all aspects of la vita italiana have made international headlines over the past couple of days. Some of the highlights:
1) It’s snowing: Across Europe, frigid weather conditions hampered travel plans and forced many cities to shut down. Italy was no exception.
2) Berlusconi Survives…To Protests: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a no-confidence vote.… by three votes. In spite of the narrow margin, the success allows the premiere to continue governing. Young people immediately took to the streets of Rome in protest, burning cars and fighting with police officers. The Guardian called the riots “the worst in 30 years.”
3) Then, More Bad News for Berlusconi: The Italian Prime Minister addressed a European Union meeting in Brussels. Organizers decided to create a “Tweet Wall” that would publish status updates from the popular social media site in real-time. Once critics of Berlusconi realized anything tagged #EUCO would appear on the screen, they published scathing condemnations of the Prime Minister. The summit quickly took the wall down.
4) Finally…a Controversial TV Advertisement: The publicity strategy might have worked after all. A new television commercial for the Renault Twingo (what a name?) was banned by Italian authorities because of its lesbian undertones. See the controversial piece below:
Not Intent on Arriving 
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