Nicholas Farrell

What Labour can learn from Giorgia Meloni

17 December 2024 9:48 pm

What else can you do but laugh? Former human rights supremo Sir Keir Starmer has done a deal to tackle…

If Meloni is ‘far right’, why are neo-Nazis trying to kill her?

9 December 2024 11:24 pm

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Italian police have arrested 12 alleged terrorists who are accused of plotting a Day of the Jackal…

How Musk, Meloni and Trump are set to define European politics

14 November 2024 6:15 pm

Few have noticed yet but Giorgia Meloni looks set to become Donald Trump’s key point of contact in Europe – above all thanks…

The slippery business of catching a snake

9 November 2024 9:00 am

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna It is strange how events elide and create a pattern whose significance remains elusive. I had just…

Giorgia Meloni is going to war with Italy’s judges

24 October 2024 8:02 pm

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has declared war on Italy’s judges who are trying to kybosh at birth her much…

Meloni’s migration strategy is working – and the rest of Europe is watching

19 October 2024 9:00 am

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female Prime Minister, has this week achieved what the Tories failed so fatally to do with…

My teenage Interrailing adventures

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna In my life I have nearly killed myself mainly with cigarettes and alcohol and dangerous journeys into…

Portofino has become a living nightmare

25 August 2024 4:00 pm

I can think of few things worse than being a tourist. So I must admit that I did manage a…

How rescuing Egyptian maus may make me millions

25 August 2024 8:00 am

Was it chance or destiny, I wonder, that caused the eldest of our six children, Caterina, to pull over in…

My Egyptian mau pyramid scheme

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Was it chance or destiny, I wonder, that caused the eldest of our six children, Caterina, to…

Watching the Euros final in Italy was a bad idea

27 July 2024 9:00 am

There was not a Spaniard in sight, I was pretty sure of that. But I was surrounded by the enemy,…

Italians are beautiful – but not on this beach

29 June 2024 9:00 am

When Pope Francis complained recently about too much frociaggine (faggotry) in the Catholic Church, he certainly struck a chord in…

Who will my wife marry next?

1 June 2024 9:00 am

Since I had a brush with death a couple of years ago, I have often wondered who my far younger…

Giorgia Meloni’s opponents are becoming hysterical

4 May 2024 4:00 pm

Like drowning men clutching at straws, Giorgia Meloni’s opponents are trying ever more hopelessly to justify their claim that she is a…

Why Giorgia Meloni is taking on Alfa Romeo

19 April 2024 2:51 am

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s crusade to defend Italian excellence from the destructive side of globalisation has won a small…

Under the Italian sun, the insects are stirring

6 April 2024 9:00 am

The sun was setting on the first day of spring and I felt unusually happy as I fed the donkey.…

How I ran away to Italy

2 March 2024 9:00 am

A quarter of a century ago I somehow managed to get out of Paris where I had haunted a cheap…

The ancient roots of Italy’s Festa della Befana

1 January 2024 6:00 pm

In Italy if you are not careful, you are condemned to measure out your life in religious festivals. There are…

Are the Pope’s allies funding people smugglers?

24 December 2023 5:00 pm

Some of Pope Francis’s closest allies in the Catholic Church are alleged to have secretly given more than €2 million to…

The Italian left wants to blame Giorgia Meloni for the patriarchy

29 November 2023 9:35 pm

This weekend, demonstrations took place in major Italian cities to mark the UN’s international day for the elimination of violence…

Could Britain learn from Italy’s Albania plan?

15 November 2023 5:30 pm

Italy has become the first European Union country to bite the bullet and set up a scheme to off-shore migrant…

How Giorgia Meloni stabilised Italy

30 October 2023 7:35 am

Giorgia Meloni has just marked her first year as Italy’s prime minister. When elected, she was described as a far-right…

Italy can’t handle the migrant crisis alone

20 September 2023 9:32 pm

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Lampedusa at the weekend – at the invitation of Italy’s right-wing Prime…

The tragedy of Italy’s dead bear – and the folly of rewilding

9 September 2023 11:00 am

A butcher who has killed the most famous wild bear in Italy is now unable to leave his house for…

How Georgia Meloni plans to stop the boats

28 August 2023 6:32 pm

Few can argue that the arrival of 100,000 illegal migrants to Britain from France by small boat since 2018 is…