Hello Dolce Vita lovers! This week we are wishing we could be at Umbria Jazz, which kicks off today. Instead, we will just have to turn up the Tony Bennett and pour ourselves a glass of Montefalco wine, and enjoy it outside in the beautiful weather we are having in DC. We will be following the lineup on their website, and hearing stories from our friends who are in Italy to keep us satiated. With the Jazz tunes cranked, here is what we have been looking at on the Italian Media this week:

A rare tornado occurs in Dolo, Italy, between Venice and Padua, and was caught on film. Yikes!

The Financial Times writes an excellent overview of the school reform in Italy, one of Renzi’s first pushes. This reform has wide consequences for Italy’s youth, and Italian society, and will be interesting to watch play out in the coming years. Through making a more meritocratic system, Renzi hopes to build an Italian society that is interested in competing on a European level.

And something a little lighter – Italian Grandmas eat Olive Garden for the first time in this hilarious Buzzed video. They probably are longing for something actually authentic from Emporio after that film!

The Times writes about Italian ghost hunters, and “…according to a study by Italian magazine Focus, 76% of Italians believe in ghosts, and half of them claim to have seen spirits of the deceased with their own eyes.” Wow. Spooky.

11 Motivational Wine Posters (that we want to make screen savers), for the wine lover in all of us.

Here’s an issue we hadn’t thought about – what does one do with seized mafia assets? Italian governments are totally overrun with dealing with Mafia assets once they are confiscated. The article features some pretty funny seized material, and the stories of what the police jump through!

We hope you have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.

Ci Vediamo!

— Via Umbria