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THE NEW YORK TIMES. For more than 400 years, the Accademia della Crusca has kept an eye on the transformation of the Italian language to ensure its survival. But in these austerity-driven times, the Florentine institution is itself at risk. With its staff of six and some two-dozen researchers, the institute, which published the first Italian dictionary in 1612, risks closure under the Italian government’s emergency austerity proposal, which would shut down state-financed organizations with fewer than 70 employees. (Read the article)

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. The San Francisco restaurant Delfina helped kick-start a more interesting wave of Italian food prepared by chefs who had a passion for regional fare; until that time, most Italian restaurants followed the same path. This was way  before A16, SPQR, Perbacco, Oenotri in Napa, La Ciccia, Cotogna  and other places opened by chefs who follow a more focused regional bent. (Read the article)

BAM. Red Desert tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitta), a young married woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Vitti - Antonioni's lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L'avventura, L'eclisse and La notte - gives a magnificent, startling performance. Richard Harris also stars as the restless young man who finds himself drawn to her. (Read the article)

NEW ZEALAND STUFF. For more than 50 years after WW II ended, the people of the small Italian town of Tavarnelle, near Florence, believed they were liberated from the Nazi occupation by black American soldiers. They were wrong, the soldiers who fought their way into the town in the summer of 1944, taking nearly 50 casualties, were New Zealand soldiers from the 28th Maori Battalion. (Read the article)