: tonight a busdriver discovered a fire in the mausoleum -
: cathedral of the (savoya) kings of italy, the superga
: cathedral near turin - italy, a very favourite and venered
: excursion place of italian people. at the moment the kind
: of damages caused by the fire are not clear.

Tuesday July 31 4:23 PM ET

Italy Govt. Wants to Open Door to Exiled Royals

ROME (Reuters) - The Savoy family, who once ruled Italy but have lived in forced exile for the past 55 years, may be nearer to treading Italian turf again after a minister said on Tuesday that the government wanted to lift the banishment.

The minister for parliamentary relations, Carlo Giovanardi, told the upper house Constitutional Affairs Committee that the new center-right government was in favor of overruling the exile clause which was written into the constitution in 1947.

``This is a story which has gone on for far too long and which requires a quick and speedy response by institutions and political forces,'' Giovanardi told reporters on the sidelines of a committee meeting on the Savoys.

``According to the European Convention of Human Rights, people's family heritage cannot stop them either returning to a country or from exercising their fundamental democratic rights.''

Male descendants of the House of Savoy have not been allowed to set foot in Italy since the monarchy was abolished in 1946 and the then King Umberto II went into exile.

But the Savoy question has clawed its way back into public awareness over the last few months after Umberto's wife and Italy's last queen Maria Jose died in January.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who had previously said he opposed any amendment to the exile ruling, wrote a letter of condolence to their son, Vittorio Emanuele, who was forced to leave Italy when he was eight years old.

Vittorio Emanuele then warmed up relations a little more by thanking Ciampi in a letter which started ``Dear President'' -- the first time a Savoy had addressed a post-war president by his constitutional title.

Living in Geneva with his son Emanuele Filiberto, Vittorio Emanuele has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, saying his family's banishment from Italy runs against a law allowing freedom of movement across the continent.

Various of Italy's 59 post-war governments have tried to tackle the constitutional question but to no avail.

The constitution can be changed by parliament, but past efforts have been difficult because hard-left members of center-left administrations have been firmly opposed. The current makeup of parliament, though, could make it easier than in the past.

Tuesday's comments by Giovanardi were the first guide to the approach of Silvio Berlusconi's government which was sworn in seven weeks ago.

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