Authorities say at least six people have died in flash floods as torrential rains lashed Italy from the Alps to Sicily.

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.

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.

Roberto Martinez whas confirmed that Mauro Boselli, his £6m summer signing, will spend the rest of the season on loan to Serie A side Genoa.

Wigan striker Mauro Boselli has joined Genoa on loan for the rest of the season, the Barclays Premier League club have confirmed this afternoon.

Wigan striker Mauro Boselli could be set to join Genoa on loan until the end of the season.

It's got glitz, it's got glamour, and it's got some of the best seafood you'll taste in the whole of Italy. Sarah Barrell reveals how to get the best out of a holiday in Liguria

For a taste of undiscovered Italy, Laura Latham recommends a coast of great opportunities for overseas buyers

The best travel tip I ever had came from my late father. If you don't have the money to stay in a smart hotel, he said, then stay somewhere cheap but try to muster enough for lunch in the posh place. Then you can legitimately arrive early, linger all afternoon, and feel as though you're part of the beau monde. After all, who needs a cavernous bedroom with swags on the tails and tails on the swags? All you need is a bed. But every holiday should have a long, lazy lunch in fabulous surroundings, then an hour or two by a sparkling pool, ideally with waiters providing small chilled aerosols of mist to stop you overheating. If you can afford to stay the night, so much the better. If you can't, you've still had a five-star experience.

There's an awful lot of bereavement in cinema this week. In Michael Winterbottom's latest, Colin Firth plays a US-based academic who loses his wife in a car accident and takes his two daughters to Genoa, where he hopes to heal their grieving spirits.

Pesto, piazzas and palaces are among the highlights of Italy's principal port. And spring is the best time to enjoy them in splendid isolation, says Harriet O'Brien