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Gay couple ‘insulted’ while on Sicilian holiday

A couple on holiday in Trapani, Sicily, were abused by fellow holidaymakers because of their sexuality.

Gay couple 'insulted' while on Sicilian holiday
Photo: Wikicommons

Alessio Conte, 43, and his partner Diego had anti-gay messages slipped under their door at the four-star Delfino Beach Hotel in Marsala.

One of the messages said, “go away ugly fags”, Conte told the Palermo edition of Corriere del Mezzogiorno.

“We live our relationship in the open,” he said.

“Unfortunately, most people are not open to us.”

He said the couple, who have been together for five years, avoided excessive displays of affection but were met with “giggles” from fellow holidaymakers who “turned away from us, and looked at us as if were were two rare beasts every time we entered the pool.”

Another message found in their room said: "Shame on you, your homosexuality disturbs our children!”

“We are responsible adults and so we are able to cushion the blows,” Conte added.

“I hope these cowards know that people are not measured by their sexual choices, but by moral and personal values.”

The couple had intended to spend the Ferragosto holiday at the hotel but left after a few days.

A spokesperson for the Delfino could not be reached for comment when contacted by The Local.

A 14-year-old boy in Rome committed suicide after being bullied for being gay. His death has prompted calls from politicians and activist groups for Italy to enforce an anti-homophobia bill, which is being debated by parliament.  

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CLIMATE

Sicily braces for rare Mediterranean cyclone as storms continue

Sicily's residents are bracing for the arrival of a cyclone later on Thursday, the second this week after a deadly storm hammered the Italian island, killing three people.

Sicily braces for rare Mediterranean cyclone as storms continue
Cars and market stalls submerged in Catania, Sicily, after heavy rain hit the city and province on october 26th. Photo: STRINGER/ANSA/AFP

A rare tropical-style cyclone known as a “medicane” is set to reach Sicily’s eastern coast and the tip of mainland Calabria between Thursday evening and Friday morning, according to Italian public research institute ISPRA.

“Heavy rainfall and strong sea storms are expected on the coast, with waves of significant height over 4.5 metres (15 feet),” ISPRA said.

The Italian Department for Civil Protection placed eastern Sicily under a new amber alert for Thursday and the highest-level red lert for Friday in anticipation of the storm’s arrival, after almost a week of extreme weather in the area.

A total of three people have been reported killed in flooding on the island this week amid storms that left city streets and squares submerged.

On Tuesday, parts of eastern Sicily were ravaged by a cyclone following days of heavy rains that had sparked flooding and mudslides, killing three people.

Television images from Tuesday showed flooding in the emergency room of Catania’s Garibaldi-Nesima hospital, while rain was seen pouring from the roof inside offices at the city courtroom.

Thursday’s storm was set to hit the same area around Catania, Sicily’s second-largest city, even as residents were still mucking out their streets and homes.

Schools were closed in Syracuse and Catania, where the local government ordered public offices and courts closed through Friday.

The mayor of Catania on Tuesday shut down all businesses and urged residents to stay home.

Antonio Navarra, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper this week that Sicily was at the centre of extreme weather events, including heatwaves and cyclones.

“We’re trying to understand if, with climate change, these phenomena will become even more intense, if they will change their character as their frequency intensifies,” he said.

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: The Italian cities worst affected by flooding and heatwaves

Cars submerged in Catania, Sicily, after storms hit the city and province on October 26th. Photo: STRINGER/ANSA/AFP

Other forecasters have said the “medicane” is the latest evidence that the climate crisis is irreversibly tropicalising the Mediterranean, after the island’s south-eastern city of Syracuse this August recorded a temperature of 48.8C, the hottest ever seen in Europe.

“Sicily is tropicalising and the upcoming medicane is perhaps the first of this entity, but it certainly won’t be the last,” Christian Mulder, a professor of ecology and climate emergency at the University of Catania, told The Guardian on Wednesday.

“We are used to thinking that this type of hurricane and cyclone begins in the oceans and not in a closed basin like the Mediterranean. But this is not the case,” he said.

“This medicane is forming due to the torrid climate of north Africa and the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Aegean Sea has a temperature of 3C higher than the average, while the Ionian Sea has a temperature of almost 2C higher than the average. The result is a pressure cooker.”

The storm is expected to leave the area between Saturday and Sunday.

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