Culture, traditionally the Cinderella of government departments in Rome, despite Italy's rich artistic and cultural heritage, is getting short shrift in the 2006 budget now painfully making its way through parliament with drastic cuts being forced on practically every ministry.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Italy facing opera funding crisis

The Pope himself has been accused of being part of a culture of secrecy, and of not taking strong enough steps against paedophiles when he had that responsibility as a cardinal in Rome.

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Indeed, part of what Rome's military power imposed on Judea was Hellenic culture.

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"But it was when he visited Genoa and he actually saw the kind of properties that merchants were living in and he thought, I am the richest man in Wales I need something better than a ramshackle of pile, and when he was in Rome he commissioned another architect to design, what is in effect, a palace of culture, " Mr Gammond said.

BBC: Sir Watkin Williams