Watch Out for Airborne Gelato

By Romesh Ratnesar

If you're a radical anticapitalist with a weakness for black masks and tear gas, you'll love Genoa in July. The Italian city's old quarter is full of dark, winding alleys--perfect turf for antiglobalization protesters who hope to turn next month's G-8 summit into another spectacle of window-smashing mayhem. Genoa's police are mulling ways to forestall the kind of violence that erupted in June at the European Union confab in Sweden. Government officials nixed proposals to stage a floating summit in Genoa's harbor, but they have summoned American experts to train local police in "crowd control." Italy's government has already learned that about 3,000 Greek and Spanish anarchists and some 150,000 protesters will descend on the city. One thing police won't have to worry about: there are no Starbucks storefronts to destroy.

--Reported by Greg Burke/Genoa

With reporting by Greg Burke/Genoa