Israel’s World Cup qualifying match at Italy next week is expected to attract more pro-Palestinian protesters outside the stadium in Udine than ticket-holding spectators inside the soccer arena.

The Vatican says Pope Francis has skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to protect his health, adding to concerns about his frail condition during a particularly busy liturgical period.

Italian health authorities are intensifying heat warnings as southern Europe enters a brutally hot week.

Pope Francis has joined other religious leaders at Rome’s Colosseum to make a plea for peace and ending what they called the “nuclear nightmare.”.

Russell Crowe, who won a best actor Academy Award for portraying a gladiator in the 2000 film of the same name, is being feted by the city of Rome, home to the Colosseum where real gladiators clashed before thousands of spectators through the time of the Roman Empire.

Anybody who has visited Rome, Italy lately might have had a “boar”-ing time.

Besides an admission ticket, visitors to Italy's museums and theaters now must show proof they've had a COVID-19 vaccine, recovered from the illness or recently tested negative.

Visitors admire the Sistine Chapel as the Vatican Museum reopened, in Rome, Monday, June 1, 2020. The Vatican Museums reopened Monday to visitors after three months of shutdown following COVID-19 containment measures. But as tourist destinations worldwide reopened for business, new rules were in place to guard against the virus spread. The data was based on reports received from about 80% of the nations 15,400 nursing homes as of May 24. A long line of masked visitors snaked outside the Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, as they reopened for the first time in three months.