Italy

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(Italian justice)
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One of the most famous and diverse cuisines in the world. And no, you can't just put spaghetti sauce on anything and call it Italian.
 
One of the most famous and diverse cuisines in the world. And no, you can't just put spaghetti sauce on anything and call it Italian.
  
==Italian justice==
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==Quirks==
  
If you are thinking of moving to Italy, or if your kid is thinking of going there as an exchange student, you may want to consider what happens to those who run afoul of the Italian justice system.  For example:
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Although functioning fairly well on the whole, courts of law in Italy have made a couple of rather odd rulings recently:
  
 
*Amanda Knox, an [[American]] college student, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher.  There was no forensic evidence linking them to the murder, and another man, Rudy Guede -- who did leave forensic evidence at the scene -- had confessed to the crime after initially denying any involvement.  (Guede received a 30 year sentence.)  Knox and Sollecito were tried anyway because the prosecutor was a follower of a [[conspiracy theorist]] blogger who claimed that Kercher was the victim of a [[satanic]]/[[Masonic]] killing.  The blogger, Gabriella Carlizzi, claimed that Knox and Kircher (both in their early 20s) were members of a Masonic sect called The Order of the Red Rose and that The Order commanded Knox to murder Kercher for some unknown reason.<ref>Popham, Peter.  [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/masonic-theory-that-put-knox-in-the-dock-981759.html "Masonic theory that put Knox in the dock"], ''The Independent'' (UK), 1 November 2008.</ref>  To add insult to injury, privilege does not apply in Italian court proceedings; so, thanks to her testimony that the cops had assaulted her, Knox was later tried for slander.<ref>Pisa, Nick.  [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327792/Amanda-Knox-faces-slander-trial-claim-police-beat-Meredith-quizzing.html "Amanda Knox will face slander trial over claim police beat her up while quizzing her over Meredith murder"], ''Daily Mail'' (UK), 9 November 2010.</ref>
 
*Amanda Knox, an [[American]] college student, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher.  There was no forensic evidence linking them to the murder, and another man, Rudy Guede -- who did leave forensic evidence at the scene -- had confessed to the crime after initially denying any involvement.  (Guede received a 30 year sentence.)  Knox and Sollecito were tried anyway because the prosecutor was a follower of a [[conspiracy theorist]] blogger who claimed that Kercher was the victim of a [[satanic]]/[[Masonic]] killing.  The blogger, Gabriella Carlizzi, claimed that Knox and Kircher (both in their early 20s) were members of a Masonic sect called The Order of the Red Rose and that The Order commanded Knox to murder Kercher for some unknown reason.<ref>Popham, Peter.  [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/masonic-theory-that-put-knox-in-the-dock-981759.html "Masonic theory that put Knox in the dock"], ''The Independent'' (UK), 1 November 2008.</ref>  To add insult to injury, privilege does not apply in Italian court proceedings; so, thanks to her testimony that the cops had assaulted her, Knox was later tried for slander.<ref>Pisa, Nick.  [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327792/Amanda-Knox-faces-slander-trial-claim-police-beat-Meredith-quizzing.html "Amanda Knox will face slander trial over claim police beat her up while quizzing her over Meredith murder"], ''Daily Mail'' (UK), 9 November 2010.</ref>

Revision as of 19:27, 11 November 2010

Italy is a European country. Rome is in Italy. There are tensions between the developed North of Italy and the less developed South.

Contents

Famous Italians

  • Silvio Berlusconi, businessman, politician and all-round scheming, corrupt bastard swell guy.
  • Leonardo da Vinci invented everything that the Chinese and Thomas Edison didn't, as well as being quite good at painting. Michelangelo Buonarroti was an artistic equal and contemporary of leonardo. As the reigning artistic geniuses of the Renaissance, and sharing the same city at the same time, naturally they hated each other.
  • Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince, the ultimate "how-to" book of dirty pragmatism in politics. His name is now a byword for deviousness. He also wrote a lesser known book about establishing a republic. He was a republican, you see.
  • Garibaldi united Italy and had a biscuit named after him - it turned out to be a massive advertising campaign for United Biscuits.
  • Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida had many fine qualities.
  • The Three Tenors, except only one of them was Italian.
  • Primo Levi deserves an article, deffo.

The food

One of the most famous and diverse cuisines in the world. And no, you can't just put spaghetti sauce on anything and call it Italian.

Quirks

Although functioning fairly well on the whole, courts of law in Italy have made a couple of rather odd rulings recently:

  • Amanda Knox, an American college student, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher. There was no forensic evidence linking them to the murder, and another man, Rudy Guede -- who did leave forensic evidence at the scene -- had confessed to the crime after initially denying any involvement. (Guede received a 30 year sentence.) Knox and Sollecito were tried anyway because the prosecutor was a follower of a conspiracy theorist blogger who claimed that Kercher was the victim of a satanic/Masonic killing. The blogger, Gabriella Carlizzi, claimed that Knox and Kircher (both in their early 20s) were members of a Masonic sect called The Order of the Red Rose and that The Order commanded Knox to murder Kercher for some unknown reason.[1] To add insult to injury, privilege does not apply in Italian court proceedings; so, thanks to her testimony that the cops had assaulted her, Knox was later tried for slander.[2]
  • The following blurb -- reposted here in toto -- appeared on The Independent website:[3]
"Italian judges set an astonishing legal precedent yesterday by annulling a marriage because the wife had merely thought of having an affair.[4] The Cassation Court, Italy's highest, backed the decision of a church court[5][6] in Modena, to dissolve the marriage – even though the woman had never been unfaithful.

The woman, who was not named, was trying to have the ruling overturned to benefit from no-blame financial arrangements, including alimony. She will no receive no such benefits."

See also

Footnotes

  1. Popham, Peter. "Masonic theory that put Knox in the dock", The Independent (UK), 1 November 2008.
  2. Pisa, Nick. "Amanda Knox will face slander trial over claim police beat her up while quizzing her over Meredith murder", Daily Mail (UK), 9 November 2010.
  3. Day, Michael. "Thoughts of affair end Italian marriage", The Independent (UK), 10 November 2010.
  4. Emphasis added.
  5. Emphasis added.
  6. Note: When a Catholic Church court annuls a marriage, any children the couple may have had during the marriage become illegitimate, which opens the children up to discrimination that is (ahem) "not frowned upon" by the Church.
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