Italy profile – Timeline – BBC News

2013 August – Italy’s highest court upholds Silvio Berlusconi’s sentencing for tax fraud in October 2012, in the former prime minister’s first definitive conviction. Because of his age, he is sentenced to community service rather than prison and a two-year ban on holding public office.

2013 October – The governor of Sicily declares a state of emergency after hundreds of migrants die in shipwrecks while attempting to reach Europe from Africa.

2013 November – Senate expels Mr Berlusconi from parliament over his conviction for tax fraud, depriving him of his immunity from arrest.

2014 February – New Democratic Party leader and mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, forms a new left-right coalition government and unveils plans for major economic and political reform.

2014 July – Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wins an appeal against his conviction in June 2013 for paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

2014 August – The Senate, or upper house of parliament, votes to back Prime Minister Renzi’s plans to drastically cut the chamber’s size and powers.

2015 May – Parliament approves an electoral reform giving the largest party an automatic majority of seats in parliament.

2016 August – Earthquake rocks mountainous Apennine area of central Italy, causing extensive damage and casualties.

2016 November – Prime Minister Renzi resigns after his flagship constitutional reform package is overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum. He is succeeded by his Democratic Party ally Paolo Gentiloni.

2017 July – EU regulators approve a state bailout of the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi, which has been at the centre of Italy’s banking crisis.

2017 October – Veneto and Lombardy, two wealthy northern regions, vote overwhelmingly in favour of greater autonomy in non-binding referendums.