The foulest stench is in the air, but the zombie-like creatures lurching through rubbish-strewn streets of Rome are not monsters in Michael Jackson's "Thriller", but heat-weary tourists and furious residents.
Lazio's regional administrative court has scrapped an ordinance from Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi that would have seen fireworks banned in the capital on New Year's Eve.
Rome mayor Virginia Raggi remains reticent on her city's bid to host the 2024 Olympics, saying that it would be
better to first think about "abandoned municipal installations".
Rome's first female mayor takes office on Thursday, pledging to raise more than €1 billion a year for flagging public services with a crackdown on waste, mismanagement and corruption.
Giovanni Malago, the president of Rome's Olympic bid, has called on new mayor Virginia Raggi to work with him on the campaign to bring the 2024 Games to the Eternal City.
The former mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, will stand a fast-track trial in September over the expenses scandal which saw him toppled from city hall last October.
Italy's centre-left government was Monday counting the cost of stinging local election reverses that saw female mayors from the populist Five Star Movement elected in Rome and Turin.
Voters in the Italian capital went to the polls on Sunday with all signs indicating that they will elect Virginia Raggi as the first female mayor of the Eternal City.
Their leader has been dubbed the
clown prince of Italian politics.
And now the Five Star Movement (M5S) looks set to be given the chance to
run the circus by taking control of the country's capital.
Anti-establishment candidate Virginia Raggi easily took the lead in the first round of the Rome mayoral race, partial results showed on Monday, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's
ruling party.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party was locked in battle on Sunday, June 5, for control of Rome and other cities in municipal elections seen as a test for the ruling party and the country's divided right.
"Bread and circuses" was the formula that ancient Rome's rulers hoped would keep the restless natives happy. Two millennia later, residents of the Eternal City just want their buses to turn up on time, holes in the roads filled and garbage collected and dealt with safely.
A month ahead of Italian local elections, the spotlight is turning increasingly on Rome - where the anti-establishment
frontrunner is vowing to clean up a city long dogged by corruption and negligence.
One of the frontrunners to be Rome's next mayor said on Tuesday the city is far from being able to host the Olympics, two months after the Eternal City was short-listed for the 2024 Games.
Former Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno appeared in court on Wednesday for the first hearing in his trial for corruption and illegal financing as part of a crackdown on a mafia-style network in the Italian city.
Across Italy, hundreds of towns are struggling to survive amid a dwindling population. But in Satriano, a town in Calabria, refugees are bringing in new life, as the Italian journalist Simone d'Antonio discovers.
