Ryanair announces ten new winter routes from Milan Malpensa

Irish budget airline Ryanair was set to add ten new routes from Milan Malpensa Airport this winter, with direct links to popular international destinations, including Athens, Paris and Mallorca, the carrier said in a statement. 

Ryanair also announced new links to Krakow and Rzeszow in Poland, Budapest (Hungary), Marrakech (Morocco), Tallinn (Estonia), Fuerteventura (Spain) and Reggio Calabria (Italy).

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said during a press conference in Milan that Bergamo’s Orio al Serio Airport was set to lose five routes this winter due to aircraft delivery delays from Boeing amid workers’ strikes.

O’Leary also announced that the carrier was speeding up negotiations to add more flights to and from Venice’s Marco Polo Airport after EasyJet said it would close its Venice base from April 2025.

Tourist dies after being struck by falling statue in Naples

A 30-year-old tourist from Padua, Veneto, died on Tuesday after being struck in the head by a statue that had fallen from a balcony in Naples’ city centre, Ansa reported.

The woman was taking a walk in Naples’ Spanish Quarter on Sunday afternoon when she was hit by a falling statue. 

She was immediately rushed to the nearby Vecchio Pellegrini hospital before being transferred to the Ospedale del Mare, on the other side of town, but died due to brain injuries on Tuesday.

A police investigation into the incident was underway. 

Ten Italians hurt in Peru bus crash

At least 20 passengers, including ten Italians, were injured in a bus accident near the ancient Incan town of Machu Picchu, Peru, local police said on Tuesday, according to Ansa.

The Italian passengers were all taken to a hospital in Cusco, but none of them were in life-threatening condition, the report said.

Foreign ministry sources told Ansa that Italy’s embassy in Peru’s capital Lima was in close contact with local authorities and was assisting the tourists involved in the accident and their families.

“We continue monitoring the situation with great attention,” Foreign Ministry Antonio Tajani said on social media platform X. 

Italy withdraws EU funds for stalled electric car ‘gigafactory’

A €250-million EU fund originally earmarked for the construction of an electric car battery factory in Molise was set to be reallocated after Stellantis, the parent company of Fiat and Alfa Romeo, paused the project, government sources told AFP.

In June, ACC – a joint venture between Stellantis, Mercedes and French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies – said it was pausing the construction of a €2-billion e-vehicle “gigafactory” near Termoli, eastern Molise, while it updated the technology behind its batteries.

Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso told ACC and union representatives in Rome that, given the uncertainty surrounding the gigafactory’s new time-frame, EU funds would be “re-deployed towards other investments consistent with the sector’s energy transition,” AFP sources said.

The move came amid tensions between Stellantis and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, which accused the car manufacturer of moving production out of Italy to lower-cost countries.