Thousands of tourists have stormed the snowy slopes of Sicily’s Mount Etna in recent weeks, congesting roads and obstructing the paths of rescue crews, the Italian authorities said, despite their efforts to keep people safely away from explosive lava flows. Mount Etna regularly erupts, and it has drawn tourists for decades. But the latest eruption,…
Italian police officers on Tuesday arrested 181 people believed to be affiliated with the Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian mafia is known, dealing what officials said was an “important blow” to a criminal organization that has held the region in its grip for generations. “Cosa Nostra is far from dead,” even after years of being…
Jane Austen fans have a good reason to explore the southwest of England this year: It’s the 250th anniversary of her birth, and celebrations abound. Hampshire was both Austen’s birthplace and a source of inspiration; as a novelist, she was most prolific in this bucolic setting. Start out at Jane Austen’s House, her former cottage,…