Tom Kington

Genoa's new mayor on Giorgia Meloni's bewitching of world leaders: “By focusing on foreign policy you can shift attention from, and avoid getting bogged down by domestic problems that are far harder to fix, from the health service to wages.” https://t.co/huFu3Wyu0p

Should Giorgia Meloni be worried about a hammer throwing former Olympian uniting Italy's fractured opposition? "If progressive parties in Italy unite, the right loses every argument and we can win at local and national level,” Silvia Salis tells me https://t.co/ajBQSI1IBq

Italian mayors vow to continue removing key boxes from their streets with bolt cutters as court throws out police ban on short term rental remote check-ins https://t.co/giKackWhlu

A series of scribbled notes in the margin of a copy of The Divine Comedy found in the British Library is the latest proof that Shakespeare copied lines from Italy’s greatest poet, Dante, a group of literary sleuths have claimed https://t.co/Lc4ALt991J

Italian magistrates are probing engineer Tim Parker Eaton on suspicion of ignoring water entering the Bayesian. But the UK report says “There was no indication of flooding .. until water came in over the starboard rails" when the yacht was already at 90° https://t.co/gZKPP2O091

'“For a man of 69, he was surprisingly fit — you could see he exercised,” said the instructor who put Leo through his paces and offered this week to give me the papal workout — or to put it another way, to show me how to pump iron like a Pope.' https://t.co/e2LdfkI2Du

'Prevost would complete four sets of ten pulls with 25kg loaded on each arm. After doing ten, I was grimacing, so if the leader of world’s 1.4 billion Catholics can do it, he’s pretty trim under his cassock' https://t.co/e2LdfkI2Du

The Etruscans were the coolest

Gareth Harney @OptimoPrincipi

Painted terracotta roof antefix in the form of a satyr, from the Etruscan city of Cerveteri, c.400 BC, British Museum https://t.co/Z60fhRxuRj

The Bayesian sank due to “vulnerabilities” in its design, an interim report by British investigators states, contradicting the Italian owner of the yard that built the yacht, who blames the British crew. Wonder who Italian prosecutors will agree with? https://t.co/tDmHwfjvgQ

The fact a brutal Libyan militia boss was murdered in a gangland style ambush after a tussle with the PM over control of a state telecoms firm says it all about the total overlap between armed groups and state institutions in Libya https://t.co/cm24VNfpdh

On the balcony at St Peter's, the Augustinian Pope Leo wore a cross with a removable cover containing relics (tiny pieces of bone) of St Augustine and his mother St Monica, St Thomas of Villanova, Anselmo Polanco and Giuseppe Bartolomeo Menochio https://t.co/mqnzQEOpid

'A conservative source knowledgeable of the talks said that two Italian cardinals, Camillo Ruini and Beniamino Stella were lobbying for Parolin by telling conservatives that if elected he would allow them to use the Latin Mass' https://t.co/2ldVTelEYi

What should bored cardinals seek out in the Sistine Chapel frescoes while conclave votes are counted? My guide - from spotting a hidden Mary Magdelene to why Jonah and the demons all have an extra tooth https://t.co/d3GA36H6da

Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, dismissed rumours that Cardinal Pietro Parolin had been taken ill as “not true”, raising the possibility that the papal favourite was a victim of the disinformation which often spreads at conclaves to besmirch rivals https://t.co/KBrOEPwg38

'Scorsese and Francis both loved Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky. “Scorsese told me he based Taxi Driver on it, and was surprised when I told him Francis loved the book too,” said Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro' https://t.co/vG9RYZGOCC

My visit to the Rome restaurant where Pope Benedict asked the female owner to dine with him because 'it's sad to eat alone' and where a US cardinal loved to order a spicy pasta dish invented by prostitutes in Naples https://t.co/bQBddjngZZ

'Asked if he agreed with Cardinal Müller's claim the Church will split if it gets another Francis, Cardinal Nichols said: “Certainly not. Cardinal Müller has a fine and wonderful scholar’s mind and he tends to see things in those somewhat abstract ways.” https://t.co/TrGI1W74fa