It was just last month, at the end of the European Council meeting on immigration in Brussels, that the Italian Prime Minister was reading the summit's final communiqué with satisfaction.

Mario Draghi himself is facing an acceleration he certainly did not expect. In such a context, the Italian Interior Ministry looks at the money and attention diverted toward the EU's eastern border with regret. It is a never-ending river of fleeing people, led by greedy and unscrupulous smugglers, that shows no sign of drying up, even when the winter seas are turbulent. It is a never-ending river of fleeing people, that shows no sign of drying up.Īnd the effects are being seen: A mass exodus aboard unstable boats, the remains often recovered later by NGO ships vessels arriving on their own on the tiny island of Lampedusa south of Sicily, where the reception center is bursting with nearly 1,000 people the landing of 1000 migrants from the Sea Eye 4 ship in Trapani, Sicily, with another 306 about to arrive in Augusta onboard the Ocean Viking. The Italian government of Mario Draghi thought it had finally shaken things up, but as the months passed, nothing happened. European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson had visited those countries and given her word that Brussels would help them. Only a few months ago, when it seemed that the central Mediterranean route was about to explode, North Africa finally became a European emergency.

The European Commission had committed to significant investments in Tunisia, Libya and sub-Saharan countries to keep would-be migrants from setting off for Italian shores. Italy's Interior Ministry finds itself isolated in its efforts to stem illegal immigration. That kind of luck beats winning a brand new car! When 20, 22 and 77 were the first numbers drawn on the national wheel, the Sicilian shopkeeper won 4,500 euros. There, as Italian-language local daily TrevisoToday reports, a tobacco shop owner saw the number of the license plate (TV 202277), and decided to play it on the weekly lottery. The small-town story made both national news, and even got some press abroad.īut here comes the final twist: The story of the legendary Lancia reached to the extreme south of Italy, in the Sicilian capital of Palermo.

Fregolent agreed when he was told that the car would be restored, and turned into a tourist attraction. It also became something of a local (true) urban legend.īut as parking rules have changed, Conegliano's city authorities finally insisted that the car be removed. Every year, he would pay the automobile registration and insurance fees, and have the luxury of seeing his ' baby' as he passed by to run errands or go to the local bar. When he retired, as the regional daily Il Gazzettino reports, he simply left the aging Lancia in the same place, which was also right next to the apartment where he and his wife lived.

Genital jousting free