ItalyUpdate

5,361 antiquities  enough to fill a museum of their own ďż˝ have been returned to Italy from Switzerland. The objects are the result of years of tomb robbing, smuggling and illicit sales, master-minded by dealer Gianfranco Becchina from his headquarters in Basle, After a two-year legal battle Swiss courts have recognized the right of Italy to have the antiquities returned to the Italian state.

Visitors to EXPO 2015 in Milan (1 May-31 October ) will have plenty to keep them occupied outside  as well as inside the Fair area. The Italian Ministry of Culture has drawn up a programme of 1,300 exhibitions, concerts, musical performances and events to choose from all over Italy.

Residents in the historic area of Porta Pia, Rome, have been advised to brace themselves for the imminent invasion of Hollywood film crews shooting a dramatic sequence of the 24^th movie in the James Bond saga. The cast of Spectre, the latest 007 adventure, will be hard at work between the 19^th February-12^th March 2015, in various location in Rome.

Acqualagna (Marche), the self-styled Capital of Fresh Truffles All Year Round, gives vent to the Carnival spirit by tossing black truffles instead of sweets from the decorated floats that file through the town centre on the 15^th February 2015.

A welcome piece of news for wine lovers....the International Wine Academy of Rome (IWAR) is once more to be hosted in Il Palazzetto, situated at Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Between the 5^th February -28^th March 2015,

The Museo della Calzatura Pietro Bertolini (Museum of Shoes) at Vigevano (Lombardia) celebrates a milestone event this year: the 60th anniversary of the high heel  one of fashion's favourite accessories. Vigevano has a very long tradition in shoe.making that stretches back over seven hundred years to 1392.

For over three hundred years, the palace overlooking Lake Albano in the little hillside town of Castelgandolfo has been the summer refuge of the Popes. Pope Francis, however, shows little inclination to take an August break and the 55 hectare estate has lain virtually empty since he ascended the throne of Peter.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added the Zibibbo grape of Pantelleria Island to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The inclusion is a first for Italy as to date no other method of agricultural cultivation has received the prestigious recognition.

A wall of magical images, a chorus chanting rituals of the remote past and a soon-to-be-open cafeteria on a panoramic terrace are only some of the innovations introduced to stimulate the imagination and enhance the experience of visitors to the Museo Nazionale Romano inside the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian.

The museum, near Rome's Termini station, occupies a portion of the original 13 hectares of the Baths, built by the Emperor Diocletian between 298 and 306 AD.

The unexpected snowfalls this winter transformed many of the Italy's most beautiful gardens into authentic winter wonderlands, even in areas where snow is a rare event.