PoCo

I love Italy. The best vacation I ever had in my life was a month in Firenze (Florence). You've heard the joke that says Italy isn't really a Third-World Country, it's just that nobody has told the Italians? As with so many things Italian, this is both sad and funny. It could explain some lack of productivity, at least in the Po valley.

THE rivers of Italy are flowing with cocaine, say scientists who have adopted a new approach to measuring the extent of drug misuse. The biggest river, the Po, carries the equivalent of about 4kg (8lb 13oz) of the drug a day, with a street value of about £20,000.