Q. We are hoping to go to Rome in September for a long weekend. How easy would it be to extend the stay with a few days by the beach or in the countryside afterwards, to combine some culture with recharging the batteries? Claire Allard, Southampton

As the man charged with cleaning out the stables at the scandal-struck Vatican bank, Monsignor Battista Ricca will need Machiavellian cunning, good fortune and a whiter-than-white record to have even a fighting chance.

Midfielder has two years left on his current contract but insists that he is happy in Italy amid speculation of a move to north London

Lyon also reportedly interested in the Ivory Coast international

Angelino Alfano accused of ordering an 'extraordinary rendition' to help Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev

Douglas Coupland was all set to interview Morrissey. And then the sleeping pills kicked in…

The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned on Monday following the latest developments in a broadening finance scandal that has already landed one Vatican monsignor into prison and added urgency to Pope Francis’ reform efforts.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is already under investigation in an alleged money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank

Italy’s supreme court has declared that clues that implicated Amanda Knox in the killing of British student Meredith Kercher had been underestimated by the judges who quashed her conviction for the crime and freed her from prison in 2011.

Conspiracy theories swirled around then premier Giulio Andreotti - who died earlier this year - for opposing any sort of negotiation with the kidnappers

Pope Francis has welcomed the Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby in Rome, the first time the two church leaders have met.

Both claim an interest in global justice and financial regulation, as well as a common distaste for gay marriage

As a pioneering transplant surgeon, Ignazio Marino has accepted many difficult cases in his career. It’s unlikely, however, that any of them have been as daunting as the task he’s now preparing for – taking the reins of one of the western world’s most celebrated but chaotic capital cities.