Barbie Nadeau

The couple held in connection with Perugia's 'extreme sex' murder release their account of events.

Naples is enduring yet another garbage strike. But if the rats, cockroaches and stench are familiar, the outcome may be different this time around.

Why did Italian leaders wait almost a year to unveil Rome's latest archaeological finds? The answer is as old as the city itself.

Italian industry is pledging to banish the age-old practice of paying 'protection money' to the mafia, while brave citizens take to the streets. But can Italy really eradicate organized crime?

After writing a best-selling book about the Neapolitan mafia, Roberto Saviano was forced into hiding. With Italian police arresting dozens of mafia suspects, he comes out to talk about his nation's fight against organized crime.

Police in Italy have turned to the Web to unravel a gruesome and heartbreaking homicide mystery.

Italian police have arrested another man in connection with the Perugia killing of British student Meredith Kercher.

An Italian judge believes that a young Seattle woman instigated a vicious 'extreme sex' killing. Her student friends say she is just a dorky sweetheart. Deconstructing the grim tale of Amanda Knox.

Correspondent Barbie Nadeau finds out what a Maserati can do in the right hands.

Not long ago Maserati was nearly bankrupt. Now it's growing fast while sales of the big three German luxury carmakers are falling. How'd that happen?

Scientists—from France, no less—now want to tinker with the DNA of wine.

Pisa is famous for its leaning tower, but archeologists there are now uncovering an amazing fleet of ancient ships, some complete with crew and cargo.

NEWSWEEK's Barbie Nadeau reviews her favorite sites, beaches and nightlife in the Mediterranean island of Malta.

The plan was to rid Italy's streets of squeegee people and panhandlers. What went wrong—and what it says about the country's attitude toward the nomads known as Roma.

By 7 a.m. on a winter's day in the heart of medieval Florence, the queue for the Uffizi Gallery's ticket booth already winds around the block. Bundled against frigid winds off the nearby Arno River, thousands of tourists wait outside for two hours or more for a glimpse of the world's best collection of Renaissance art.

In six years as mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni has calmed a notoriously fractious city built upon a 2,500-year-old infrastructure and centuries of ineffective management.

For some, nothing feels as luxurious as a designer insignia. Whether it's a massive C on the bow of glossy sunglasses or the offset LV on a well-crafted piece of luggage, the symbol plays a big part in announcing one's status.

The town of Prato, just outside Florence, is not exactly typical of this part of Italy. Sure, it's got the requisite medieval wall, a handful of baroque churches and charming cobblestone streets.

A general rule of thumb when dealing with protesters is that they don't like to be tricked. So when hundreds of would-be demonstrators from across Italy took advantage Saturday of discount train tickets offered to those participating in the peaceful anti-Bush demonstrations in Rome, they were a little more than miffed to find their discount wasn't exactly a bargain.

In Naples, the tourist season is kicking off with a plague of flies, burned rats and nauseating stenches. What happens when an Italian city can't collect its garbage.

The Villa Torlonia is one of Rome's last existing examples of 17th-century grandeur. But when city authorities recently unveiled its main palazzo after a $6 million restoration, the result was anything but majestic.

The view from Punta la Bronzo Pizzeria on the upper reaches of the volcanic island of Stromboli is stunning. Tiny islands dot the turquoise sea in the distance, and dramatic cliffs tower above a black-sand beach below.

Chef Heinz Beck's kitchen at Rome's exquisite La Pergola restaurant is arguably one of the best in the Eternal City, serving up innovative cuisine like cannelloni with duck, foie gras in kuzu béchamel, and venison in a pistachio crust with chestnut purée and persimmon jam to a discerning international clientele.

Now you can stay warm and manage to still look hot riding your Vespa this winter. Tucano Urbano, the leader in moped and motor-cycle accessories, has just added a line of fur- and cashmere-lined faux-zebra or -leopard leg aprons that recycle air from the radiator in order to keep you warm ($200 to $800; tucanourbano.it ).

Last fall, when the Naples police were mopping up blood from the cobblestones near Piazza Plebiscito after a fatal Camorra shoot-out, the orchestra at the nearby Teatro di San Carlo opera house was preoccupied with another violent scene: the battle in Leonard Bernstein's "Candide." Given the violence outside, those inside the San Carlo had reason to believe it would be a good season; in the house's 270-year history, trouble in the streets has often translated into better attendance.

How sports therapy has helped patients with severe mental illnesses.

The dusty Via Garibaldi is about as trendy as it gets in the northwestern Sicilian village of Trapani, known mostly for its salt mines and ferry terminal.

In one of the most captivating scenes from the 1953 Oscar-winning movie "Roman Holiday," a young Audrey Hepburn hops on a Vespa and weaves through the ancient cobblestone streets of Rome.

Forget red wine; forget pasta. Nothing, not even mamma, is more important to the average Italian than soccer. So when what looks to be the biggest money-laundering, game-fixing, mafia-esque scandal in the history of world soccer cripples Italy just weeks before the World Cup, what do the Italians do?

Adjacent to the picturesque Piazza Santa Maria in Rome's medieval Trastevere district, the San Calisto coffee bar is the quintessential local haunt. Marcello, the owner, serves spectacular coffee just the way the trendy neighborhood clientele expects it.