A preliminary cauldron has been lit by the Olympic flame at Italy’s presidential palace as the countdown to the Milan Cortina Winter Games approaches the two-months-to-go mark.

Pope Francis met privately with King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the Vatican during the royal couple’s four-day state visit to Italy and on the occasion of their 20th wedding anniversary.

Pope Francis’s condition has continued to improve and he no longer needs to use noninvasive mechanical ventilation to help him breathe at night.

President Joe Biden has canceled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to fires raging in California.

Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala presents Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” for its gala season premiere Saturday for the first time in 59 years, seeking to shake the opera's reputation for bringing bad luck.

Italy's president has sharply rebuked Elon Musk.

Pope Francis has congratulated Italy after tennis player Jannik Sinner became the country’s first man to win a Grand Slam singles title in nearly a half century.

When Giorgia Meloni was running to become Italy’s first far-right head of government of the post-war era, she steeped her winning campaign in the sharply ideological rhetoric of national sovereignty, “traditional families” and fear of migrants.

Silvio Berlusconi’s outsized hold on Italian political life over three decades had greatly diminished in recent years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, saying later he sought the pontiff's support for Ukraine's peace plan.

Former Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has been physically attacked during an official appearance in Tuscany by a man protesting against Italy’s lockdowns and other measures to contain the pandemic.

Italian former Premier Silvio Berlusconi has once again put himself at odds with current Premier Giorgia Meloni by openly criticizing her for meeting with Ukraine’s leader, whom he blamed for the nearly year-old Russian invasion.

Pope Francis joined tens of thousands of faithful in bidding farewell to Benedict XVI at a rare requiem Mass for a dead pope presided over by a living one.

Italy’s premier opera house has opened its new season with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov.”.

The presidents of Italy and France are seeking to tamp down tensions over migration.

As Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female premier, the world is watching closely to see if she will emerge as a firebrand leader of a far-right party with neo-fascist roots or the more moderate right-wing politician who succeded in capturing 26% of the vote.

Giorgia Meloni has formed Italy’s new ruling coalition, giving the country its first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.

Italy’s presumed next premier, Giorgia Meloni, and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi are seeking to put days of acrimony behind them over possible Cabinet picks.

Italy’s Fascist past and its future governed by a party with neo-fascist origins have come to an emotional head during the first seating of Parliament since general elections last month.

Forming a new government in Italy involves time and decades-old rituals.

A party with neo-fascist roots has won the most votes in Italy’s national election, setting the stage for talks to form the country’s first far right-led government since World War II, with Giorgia Meloni at the helm as Italy’s first female premier.

A Sunday parliamentary election will determine who next governs major industrial economy and key NATO member Italy.

Three Americans are among winners of this year’s Balzan Prize.

Italy's president is urging Italians to reinvigorate their democracy as the country notes the 100th anniversary of an attack that paved Benito Mussolini's path to power.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi's decision to turn in his resignation after his “unity” coalition broke apart dramatically in Parliament was the latest step in a political crisis that could take months before a new government is solidly in place to lead the European Union's third-largest economy.

Italy is headed for an early election after its president accepted Premier Mario Draghi’s resignation and decided there was no possibility for cobbling together another government.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi has won a confidence vote in the Senate, but boycotts by three of his key coalition allies in the voting have likely doomed his unity government’s prospects of survival.

Italy has had dozens of governments since the end of World War II.

Italy is entering five days of political and financial uncertainty after the 5-Star Movement sparked a government crisis by withholding support on a government-sponsored bill.

Italy's president has rebuffed Premier Mario Draghi's offer to resign after a key ally refused to back the government in a Senate vote.

Premier Mario Draghi says his government is still able to get things done despite tensions with the 5-Star Movement.

Italy's Premier Mario Draghi is meeting with Italy’s president to discuss the future of his government amid simmering tensions with a coalition member, the 5-Star Movement.

Italy is marking the second anniversary of a tragic milestone of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prosecutors in Florence have requested trial indictment for former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi for alleged illegal political party funding.

President Sergio Mattarella received an astounding 55 rounds of applause from an otherwise divided Italian parliament Thursday during a wide-ranging speech that underlined the need for national unity after he was sworn in to a second term in office.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been elected to a second seven-year term as the country’s head of state, ending days of political impasse as party leaders struggled to pick his successor.

Insistence by Italy's center-right bloc that their candidate becomes the nation's president has backfired.

Lawmakers and regional representatives have failed again to find consensus on a new Italian president.

The third round of voting for a new Italian president ended has again ended inconclusively, sending political parties into yet more intense negotiations to come up with a viable candidate to replace President Sergio Mattarella, whose term expires next week.

A first round of voting to elect Italy's next president has failed as expected amid a political impasse.

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been undergoing a series of medical examinations in a Milan hospital.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi has bowed out of Italy’s presidential election set for next week.

Italy is poised to elect a new president, a figure who is supposed to serve as the nation’s moral compass and foster unity by being above the political fray.

Italy has set Jan. 24 as the start date to begin voting for a new Italian president.

French authorities have announced that children six and older will have to wear masks in indoor places open to the public as new cases of the highly contagious omicron variant surge past 200.000 for the fourth consecutive day.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi says his government has accomplished most of what it set out do in fighting the pandemic and restoring economic growth.

Masked Milanese turned out in all their finery for La Scala’s gala season opener of Verdi’s “Macbeth” in a fully seated theater.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi says a bilateral treaty signed with French President Emmanuel Macron to deepen bilateral cooperation will in turn strengthen the European Union.

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies have endorsed a global minimum tax on corporations as part of an agreement on new international tax rules.

President Joe Biden says Pope Francis told him he's a “good Catholic” and should keep taking Communion when the world's two most prominent Roman Catholics met at the Vatican on Friday.

An Israeli-French-American Holocaust survivor and historian and a U.S. scientist specializing in gut bacteria were among the recipients this year’s Balzan Prizes, recognizing scholarly and scientific achievements.

Gino Strada, an Italian emergency room surgeon who helped establish a humanitarian group to operate on civilians wounded in war, has died.

Europe's soccer champions have returned home to the ecstatic cheers of Italians.

Italian Rai state TV says Raffaella Carra', for decades one of Italy's most popular entertainers, has died at 78.

Milva, one of Italy's most popular singers in the ‘60s and ’70s who also had many fans abroad, has died at her home in Milan.

Pope Francis and Italy's president have marked the nation's first annual day to honor doctors, nurses and other health care workers, exactly a year after the nation's first known native case of COVID-19 emerged. (Paolo Giandotti/Italian Presidency via AP)ROME – Pope Francis and Italy’s president on Saturday marked a newly established annual day to honor doctors, nurses and other health care workers, exactly one year after the nation’s first known native case of COVID-19 emerged. Expressing gratitude to doctors, nurses and other health care workers, Francis likened their dedication to “a vaccine against individualism and selfishness.'' AdPresident Sergio Mattarella marked the first National Day of Health Care Personnel by mourning the many medical workers who contracted COVID-19 and died. More COVID-19 anniversary commemorations are scheduled for Sunday in Italy, especially in the hard-hit north, where the outbreak first pummeled the nation.

Segre's efforts to encourage other older adults to receive the anti-COVID-19 vaccine as she did have triggered a wave of anti-Semitic comments and other invective on social media. (Yara Nardi/pool photo via AP, file)ROME – An Italian Holocaust survivor’s attempt to encourage other older adults to receive the anti-COVID-19 vaccine has triggered a wave of anti-Semitic comments and other invective on social media. Liliana Segre, 90, received the first of the two-shot vaccine series in Milan on Thursday. She urged people who reach her age “to not be afraid and to take the vaccine.”“I’m not afraid of the vaccine, I’m afraid of the illness," Segre remarked. Segre was one of the few Italian children to survive deportation to a Nazi death camp.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi attends a debate at the Senate, in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, before submitting his government to a vote of confidence. A confidence vote Thursday in the lower Chamber of Deputies is also expected to give Draghi broad backing, since he has secured support from across Italy's political spectrum. Ad“Today, unity isn’t an option, it’s an obligation,“ Draghi said to applause as he outlined his government program. Italy has one of the EU’s worst records on making use of designated EU funds, a trend Draghi seems intent on ending. Draghi quoted Pope Francis in calling for a new approach to preserving the environment and Italy’s cultural and natural treasures.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had tasked the former European Central Bank president with trying to form a government up to managing the the health, economic and social crises of the coronavirus pandemic. AdDraghi’s most-quoted words so far have been those uttered in 2012 when the euro-zone risked collapsing in a crisis of confidence and he vowed the European Central Bank would do “whatever it takes” to rescue the euro. The current head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, tweeted her congratulations. Italy's health minister through the pandemic, Roberto Speranza, kept his post, the sole minister from a small left-wing party. ___This story has been corrected to show that employees applauded for Conte, not Draghi.

The formation of a broad-based government of national unity was widely expected after most political parties across the spectrum signaled their support for Draghi. Draghi also has the support of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia and former Premier Matteo Renzi's Italy Alive Party. The far-right Brothers of Italy party said it will remain in opposition, after Salvini and Berlusconi broke their right-wing alliance to back Draghi. Draghi, 73, replaces Giuseppe Conte, who resigned after a small party yanked support over the handling of the pandemic. For his 23-member Cabinet, Draghi also transformed the environment ministry into a more developmentally oriented post for ecological transition, tapping Roberto Cingolani, an expert in nanotechnology, to run it.

Outgoing Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte waves as he leaves after meeting journalists outside Chigi palace Premier's office in Rome, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. Draghi must rely on political support to pass measures aimed at helping Italy emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and revive its economy, already stagnant before being pummeled by lockdown measures. “I hope for a political government that is solid and has sufficient cohesion to be able to make political choices, because the urgencies of the country need political choices, they can’t be entrusted to technocrats,” Conte said. Conte also pitched to two other parties from his unraveled coalition, the center-left Democrats and the leftist Free and Equal Party. His call for a political alliance appeared to indicate Conte intended to stay in politics, even while out of office.

FILE - In this Thursday, July 4, 2013 file photo, President of European Central Bank Mario Draghi smiles during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Because it is Mario Draghi,’’ the deputy manager of the leading Milan Daily Corriere della Sera, Daniele Manca, said on Wednesday. He took a pragmatic approach during the financial crisis. Draghi joined the ECB as its third chief in 2011, just as Italy was engulfed in a debt crisis. The largely ceremonial role proves key in helping manage Italy’s all-too-frequent political crises, which require deft negotiations and unassailable knowledge of Italy’s constitution and institutions.

Former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi speaks to the media after accepting a mandate to form Italy's new government from Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Rome's Quirinale Presidential Palace, Wednesday Feb. 3, 2021. During his tenure at the European Central Bank, Draghi became known as “Super Mario" for using new and sometimes unorthodox policy tools to solve the vexing debt crisis and other problems. “As such, it will not vote in favor of a technical government headed by Mario Draghi,” Crimi said in a statement. “If they (the 5-Stars and the League) are going to somehow support Draghi then the government I think can be born," he said in an interview. “Now everyone of good will must welcome President Mattarella's appeal to support the government of Mario Draghi," he said Wednesday.

Italian Premier Conte was meeting Tuesday, Jan. 26. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)ROME – Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday after a key coalition ally pulled his party’s support over Conte’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, setting the stage for consultations this week to determine if he can form a third government. Conte’s coalition government was thrown into turmoil earlier this month when a junior party headed by ex-Premier Matteo Renzi yanked its support. But Conte would need Renzi's support to form a new governing coalition or the backing of independents and the center-right Forza Italia party. Conte's first government starting in 2018 was a 5-Star alliance with the right-wing League party led by Matteo Salvini that lasted 15 months.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attends the debate at the Senate prior to a confidence vote, in Rome, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. With a reduced majority, Conte will have to cobble together support from outside the current coalition to pass legislation, including aid to help Italy’s pandemic-battered economy. Conte’s government on Tuesday survived what amounted to a confidence vote with a 156-to-140 win, with 16 abstentions. “The numbers speak clearly,” said Giorgia Melloni, head of the small but rising Brothers of Italy party. In the lower Chamber of Deputies, where the 16-month-old government holds a more comfortable margin, Conte won a first confidence vote on Monday.

The Italian cabinet was in crisis on January 13, 2021 following the resignations of ministers Teresa Bellanova and Elena Bonetti, members of former premier Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva party. Renzi orchestrated the resignations of two ministers from his tiny but key Italia Viva party. “Italia Viva did not start the crisis. CONTE’S NEXT MOVEWith the resignation of the Italia Viva ministers, Conte is working to shore up support in parliament among independent lawmakers. And it is still possible that Italia Viva will restore its backing.

ROME – Lidia Brisca Menapace, a Resistance member during World War II who later was an advocate of pacifism and women’s rights and was elected to the Italian Senate on a Communist party ticket, has died. Italian state radio said she had been hospitalized for several days with COVID-19 in Bolzano, the Alpine city where she had lived in latter decades. As young woman, Lidia Brisca pedaled a bicycle to deliver medicine and messages to Resistance fighters, known as Partisans, based in the countryside of the northern Piedmont region of her birth. She was the first woman to be elected to the provincial legislature of Bolzano, another Alpine province. She remained proud of the Resistance spirit, remarking that she was still a Partisan, because “being so is a choice of life."

The state reported 103 infections that day, the largest single day increase in cases. France’s government has shut down all nonessential businesses and ordered people to stay indoors for the next month to slow accelerating virus infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The Geneva canton, or region, said the University Hospitals of Geneva on Sunday counted 474 people hospitalized with coronavirus infections, including 56 in intensive care. Iran has reported more than 620,000 confirmed virus cases in all. Montenegro recently has seen a surge in virus cases.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is flanked by Italian President Sergio Mattarella after visiting the Duomo gothic cathedral, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)MILAN – An Italian coronavirus survivor from Bergamo warmly thanked Germany’s visiting president on Thursday for lifesaving treatment he received in the eastern Germany city of Leipzig. Frank-Walter Steinmeier met medical personnel who treated coronavirus patients during his visit to Milan, the capital of hard-hit Lombardy. ‘’If I hadn’t gone to Germany, I would have died,’’ Perani told Steinmeier, as Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella looked on. Perani said though they didn’t have a common language, the medical personnel in Germany ‘’spoke with their eyes.

FILE -- May 31, 1988 file photo of Gianni Agnelli, right, chairman of Italy's auto giant FIAT, and chief operating officer Cesare Romiti, as they leave the Banca d'Italia (Bankitalia)in Rome. Romiti has died Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in his house in Milan at the age of 97, according to Italian media. In 1975, during the global oil crisis that rocked the automobile industry, Romiti joined Fiat, going on to become CEO and eventually chairman. Romiti helped Fiat launch new car models and close the historic Lingotto factory in Turin to put the company solidly on the path to profits. Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann, an Agnelli family member highlighted the significant role Romiti had played in the automaker's past.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, center, speaks in front of Bergamo's cemetery, Sunday, June 28, 2020. Italy bid farewell to its coronavirus dead on Sunday with a haunting Requiem concert performed at the entrance to the cemetery of Bergamo, the hardest-hit province in the onetime epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. The orchestra performed the unfinished Requiem funeral Mass of Bergamo native Gaetano Donizetti, one of Italys most important 19th century composers. Images in mid-March of an army convoy hauling caskets away because Bergamos cemetery and crematoriums were full came to epitomize the horrific toll of the virus in Italys north. Many of the more than 6,000 Bergamo dead never had a funeral celebrated in their honor, depriving their families of the chance to say goodbye.