Roma Drone Conference, which starts today, is the first of a series of UAV related conferences that will be held in Rome to discuss about many UAV aspects like safety, privacy, rulemaking, tecnology development related to "Drone Journalism". One of the most important display will be demonstration flights, because two companies (ItalDron and FlyTop) got the first Autothority approval for flight in "Critical Scenarios" (i.e. urban areas), a milestone for italian UAV scene!

Coverage here (italian language):

http://www.vanillamagazine.it/italdron-vola-su-roma-in-uno-scenario-critico/

http://www.dronezine.it/8416/domani-prima-missione-autorizzata-enac-su-roma-per-la-conferenza-drone-journalism/

Here some backstage details of last episode of "60 minutes", a popular tv show focused on the most relevant news around the world. This episode focuses on the biggest ship accident of modern era, the Costa Concordia sinking.

Starting from 1:40 of the embedded video you can see the italian made drone "Scrabble" which filmed aerial footage for CBS!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57559461-10391709/a-world-askew-on-board-the-costa-concordia/

Here is a fresh news from Italy, a drone startup called ItalDron, located in Ravenna (Italy), helped police forces to unveil a undercovered marijuana farm near the town. It's the same company which provided AP coverage during last May' central Italy earthquake. Now It's going viral through social networks and blogs!

here's some news coverage:

http://www.tmnews.it/web/sezioni/video/20120926_video_10173979.shtml

http://it.euronews.com/flashnews/1670068-droni-antisisma-scovano-vivaio-cannabis/

here's their FB page: 

http://www.facebook.com/italdron