A video taken by a passenger of the wrecked Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia shows a member of the ship's staff asking everyone to remain calm and return to their cabins or remain in the lounges. The announcement, which came 40 minutes after the ship hit rocks off the coast of the island of Giglio, is designated as being "from the captain," and the woman stresses that "everything is fine." more ›

The captain of the Italian cruise liner who crashed the boat into rocks off the Tuscan coast last Friday, killing 11 and leaving 28 more missing, claimed at a hearing yesterday that he "tripped" into a lifeboat. more ›

Italian authorities say that five more bodies have been recovered from the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground near the Island of Giglio last Friday night. The bodies were of four men and one woman, bringing the total toll to 11. Authorities, which had been saying that the number of missing was 16, now say 28 are missing. more ›

One feline is probably hoping the Eurozone crisis is resolved sooner than later. The Guardian reports, "Tommaso, a four-year-old, one-time stray from Rome, is thought to have become the world's richest cat. Since the death of his 94-year-old mistress last month, he has become a property magnate — or perhaps mognate — with flats and houses worth an estimated €10m scattered from Milan in the north to Calabria in the south." Which works out to over $13.385 million! more ›

Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio "The Knight" Berlusconi has resigned shortly following the passage of a budget designed to pull the country from the brink of financial disaster. According to Reuters, demonstrators have gathered at President Giorgio Napolitano's residence in Rome and are loudly heckling him with shouts of "resign" and "clowns"—one reporter on the scene notes that she has "never seen anything like this." more ›

In just a few minutes, the decision will be read the trial of Amanda Knox, a 24-year-old former American exchange student accused of killing her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kircher, in their Perugia flat in 2007. more ›

Tenor singer Salvatore Licitra, who made a splash at the Metropolitan Opera by filling in for Luciano Pavarotti, has died in Italy following a severe motorscooter accident last month. The death was announced on Licitra's website, which said that Licitra has been in a coma since sustaining severe head and chest injuries during an August 27th accident in Sicily. He was 43. more ›

Gather 'round juiceheads: the new trailer for Jersey Shore has arrived! This is the one where they ruin any of your future plans to travel to Italy as an American. So what did they get into overseas? There's smushing, crashing, crying, kissing with tongues... and also Ronnie may have almost killed The Situation. more ›

Street renaming can be fairly a fairly controversial process, as seen in the Sean Bell Way renaming in 2009. Now, Borough Park residents are beginning to scrutinize the life of Zachary Sansone, a founder of the Congress of Italian American Organizations, who served in Mussolini's army and is close to having his name attached to 59th street between 14th and 15th avenues. Rabbi Chaim Israel told CBS News that the community "doesn't have enough information as to what Mr. Sansone's role was in the fascist Italian army during the second World War." more ›

The Italians are preparing for the invasion of Snooki & Co., who will be filming their next season of Jersey Shore in Italy soon. The mayor of Florence has already given the cast a list of strict rules, and now the Istituto Lorenzo de' Medici has warned its students that they should avoid the cast at all costs when they come to film at the school. According to TMZ, a letter to those residing in a student housing building that the cast will use, reads: more ›

While the cast is banned from the city’s historic buildings, as well, Renzi says he “could not ban them from using the city (Florence) as a set.” Meanwhile, MTV has started to air the show for the first time in the country, and locals are terrified... particularly those with daughters, as Pauly D aims to pick up a wife while he's in town. (And by the way, he'll be in our town on Thursday, spinning at Pacha.) more ›

As the Jersey Shore cast gets ready to make their move to Italy, the show's past seasons have just started airing in the country, putting fear into the locals. Or is that hatred? A newspaper in Rome (via the NY Post) said the cast embodies "the worst stereotypes of Italians, multiplied by thousands and Americanized." Another paper there described them as having "slicked hair, exaggerated narcissism, and outlandish eccentricity." more ›

So what's really going to happen when the cast of Jersey Shore moves to Italy for the filming of season 4? Pretty sure all of our fears lie in this newly released Taiwanese CGI, titled: Mami Mia! In it, the castmates are seen dining (and fist pumping) at Olive Garden, jet skiing down canals, painting over the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and dirty dancing with Michelangelo's David. more ›

Americans want to keep the Jersey Shore cast close to home now that word has come out they'll be filming season 4 in Italy. Like, real Italy, not Little Italy, or Epcot Center Italy, or an Italy they might not embarrass us in. UNICO, the Italian-American organization that pretty much just wants the cast sleeping with the fishes at this point, unsurprisingly has a lot to say about the location change. When the show began they wanted it banned, and now they say sending the castmates to the old country is going to make us all look like "buffoons and bimbos." more ›

Sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes adults who choose to call themselves J-Woww and Snooki and The Situation get to experience beautiful Italy before you do. (And sometimes one of them becomes a New York Times best selling author.) Anyway, the Jersey Shore cast is moving to Italy... at least to film season 4 of their hit reality show. more ›

Even though his hometown paper endorsed opponent Andrew Cuomo over the weekend, gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is getting some love from another town close to his heart: his ancestral hometown of Santa Croce di Magliano in Italy. The town of 4,876 still has 17 Paladinos listed in the phone book, and our Paladino has visited about seven times since his first trip in 1982. Francesco Di Nunzio told the Times, "We are all happy and really proud of him." However, few seem to know anything about the actual race. more ›

Staten Island's Dr. Gilbert Lederman—whom you may remember from such lawsuits as "Will You Sign This Guitar, Dying George Harrison?"—is being sued by a Sicilian woman for allegedly blasting her with radiation without verifying if she had pancreatic cancer. She was recommended for the procedure by Lederman's colleague Salvatore Conte, who isn't even a doctor. Rather, Conte and Lederman are partners in advertising "Fractionated Stereotactic Radiosurgery" on Italian infomercials. more ›

Mamma mia! Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hit in the face by a statue-wielding man in Milan. The 73-year-old leader, who had been signing autographs at the time, was rushed into his car—only to reappear briefly, his face bloodied, "apparently to show he was not badly injured." (Chaotic video here.) A 42-year-old man was apprehended; while the man doesn't have a criminal record, he has reportedly been treated for mental problems. Berlusconi had a "small fracture" to his nose, two broken teeth, and some cuts to his lip—and the hospital says he feels "demoralized." The last time we remember a world leader being attacked like this is...last December, when former President Bush was nearly shoed. more ›

Everything's coming up rosé on Staten Island: on the heels of the new aquarium unveiling in the ferry terminal, plans for the island’s first vineyard are coming into focus. Borough President James Molinaro (pictured, right) has pledged $2 million for the project, which will establish a 2 acre vineyard and demonstration winery at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. more ›

Actor Roy Scheider died yesterday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, after battling multiple myeloma for several years and suffering complications from a staph infection. He was 75 and had been living in Sag Harbor, New York (after moving out his house in Sagaponack that Billy Joel purchased). more ›

Sixty-two men associated with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families were arrested yesterday in a federal, state and local coordinated sweep in the New York region. A number of Gambino-related arrests were also made in Italy, and authorities have described this as the biggest mob bust in decades. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, "Our goal is and always has been simple: to dismantle the Gambino organized-crime family in a coordinated and consistent fashion." more ›