Low turnout and a crumbling centre-right vote in Italian local elections were blamed yesterday on austerity measures introduced by Mario Monti's technocrat administration and a series of corruption scandals, particularly on the right.

Genoa have fired Alberto Malesani following a protest-filled 4-1 loss to Siena and hired Luigi De Canio for the final five matches of Serie A, marking the record 18th coaching change in the Italian league this season.

Genoa's 4-1 home defeat to Siena yesterday was suspended for nearly an hour, with Genoa "Ultra" fans demanding their players hand back their club shirts which the supporters claimed they had dishonoured.

Eleven years after police severely beat scores of peaceful campaigners at the Genoa G8 meeting, the Italian government is expected to announce within days the first compensation payment, a six-figure sum, to one of the British victims of the violence.

Activist expected to get six-figure sum for injuries at hands of Italian police during Genoa summit

For this week's Insider's Guide, Kay D'Souza, regional manager of the slow travel specialist Inntravel (inntravel.co.uk), offers her top tips for a holiday in Liguria.

Manchester United striker Federico Macheda believes his career will benefit by returning to England after spending six months on loan with Italian side Sampdoria.

Internazionale have confirmed Gian Piero Gasperini will be the club's new manager next season.

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

One of the sensations of last year's opera calendar was the London showing of Dmitri Tcherniakov's revelatory Bolshoi staging of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Hikers beware: Italy's most celebrated walk – the route through the Cinque Terre – is closed indefinitely. Happily, there is an alternative...

Lisa Genova's debut, Still Alice, was a faux-memoir of a psychology professor coping with early-onset Alzheimer's. Her latest neurologically-inspired novel deals with a less well-known condition called "left neglect", a brain injury that interferes with the ability of the victim to perceive any signals from the left side of the body.

Karim Benzema scored twice as Real Madrid survived a scare to win 3-1 at Racing Santander last night to move seven points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona.

A series of headline grabbing performances by Genoa’s buccaneering Brazilian right-back Rafinha has awoken the interest of Tottenham Hotspur. Rafinha talks to The South American Football Show in association with The Independent about his dream to someday soon be playing in the English Premier League.