The Italian system does not offer artificial insemination to lesbian parents and registering a child may require the mother to lie that she had sex with a man.

The recent election signaled a decisive shift in Italian politics, marking the collapse of the parties that have ruled Italy for the past 25 years. In this interview, conducted by Lewis Bassett, David Broder surveys the state of Italian politics in the four weeks since the election, and asks where next for Italian politics.

The Italian foreign ministry summoned France’s ambassador on Saturday, after uniformed French customs officers crossed the border to confront a man suspected of carrying drugs. France insisted the presence of its personnel at an alpine railway station just inside Italy was acceptable. However, the French ambassador, Christian Masset, was summoned over what Rome called “a serious act considered outside the scope of cooperation between states sharing a border”.

The undulating structure creates a transition from outdoors to in, holding 150 trees that absorb close to 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide an hour. This natural absorption brings pollution protection to its residents, helping to eliminate harmful gasses caused by cars and harsh sounds from the bustling streets outside. The trees’ seasonal progression also creates the ideal microclimate inside the building, steadying temperature extremes during the cold and warmer months. The plants’ full foliage block rays of sun during the summer while letting in warm light during the winter.

Russian efforts to fuel alarm about immigration in Italy had an impact on voters last year, according to an analysis of social-media activity. Russia’s state-controlled news agency Sputnik Italia was the most influential foreign media organization attacking immigration in Italy and among the top 2 percent of all news sources cited in the online debate, Madrid-based Alto Data Analytics found. The company uses software similar to Google’s search algorithm to rank websites by the number and quality of their links.

The long read: Italy’s CasaPound has been central to normalising fascism again in the country of its birth. Now they’re trying to enter parliament

CCTV footage from Milan's Repubblica metro station shows the moment the two-and-a-half-year-old tumbled onto the tracks, just one minute before a train was due to arrive in the station. Lorenzo Pianazza, who was on his way home after meeting with his parents nearby, jumped onto the track after the boy, also finding time to retrieve one of the child's toys.

Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin spends several pages of his book discussing the lessons to be learned from Mussolini’s seizure of power in Italy in the early 1920s.

Predappio’s mayor sees this as an opportunity to learn from a dark era, not to glorify it.

In 1972, fascination with American culture spurred an Italian showman to revive a medieval comic tradition.

Family loyalty made the Calabrian Mob strong, but its treatment of women was its undoing.

Legal weed is going global. After a sudden rise in demand, the Italian government has decided to import Medical Marijuana to help their patients. Italy legalized medical cannabis in 2007 and currently, Italian Ministry of Defence produces medical cannabis for the Italian market. A sharp rise in demand has made the government import medical marijuana.

Italy’s antitrust organization has launched two separate investigations against Apple and Samsung over accusations of planned obsolescence. The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM, is trying to determine whether the two popular smartphone manufacturers are using software updates to slow down devices in order to influence customers to upgrade their phones.

Steve Jobs jeans, anyone?

Everyone has heard of Vesuvius but the caldera of Campi Flegrei is a far more dangerous volcano. Helen Gordon travels to Naples to understand the enormous threat it poses

The construction of a subway line to central Rome has illuminated the city’s past in extraordinary detail through archaeology.

A Romanian woman went through terrifying moments in the ten years she had been held captive, raped and tortured by a man in Italy. It all started in 2007 when the Romanian woman, who was 19 years old at that time, went to Lamezia, a city in Southern Italy, to work for a an Italian family. She was hired to take care of the old woman living there, reports local Digi24.

Mauro Morandi's failing catamaran was carried to Budelli Island nearly three decades ago by chance. He never left.

Gangster "Boss of bosses" Toto Riina, who has died at the age of 87 according to Italian media reports, was one of the most violent and feared Godfathers in the history of the Sicilian Mafia.

The attack has shocked Italy after it was caught on camera. The journalist was investigating links between local fascists and organized crime. Italian police detained the brother of a major mafia boss on Thursday after he was caught on film assaulting a reporter for national broadcaster Rai. Roberto Spada, 42, has been accused of grievous bodily harm and acting "in a mafia context."