Heavy snow in Italy cuts off villages

ROME?? Heavy snow fell across Italy on Saturday, blanketing the capital Rome, cutting off mountain villages and disrupting roads, railways and airports around the country.

The return within days of the heaviest snowfalls in Rome since the 1980s shut sites such as the Colosseum but gave tourists and residents another chance to see landmarks such as Saint Peter's Square and the Trevi fountain dusted with snow.

Rome's Fiumicino airport planned to cancel half of flights on Saturday, Italy's civil aviation authority Enac said in a statement. Several other airports across the country were closed or reducing operations.

Unusually heavy snow has been falling over much of Italy, causing disruption of train and road transport especially in mountainous regions where emergency services have been struggling to reach isolated villages.

Video: Much of Europe remains in deep freeze (on this page)

Snow continued to fall in the country's north-central regions, accentuating problems in towns in the Apennine mountains and near the Adriatic still struggling with several snowfalls in two weeks.

Snow also hit southern Italy. In the town of Castelvenere, a funeral had to be canceled when snow blocked the arrival of a coffin to church.

Buildings in several parts of the country were evacuated for fear that settled snow could cause them to collapse, Reuters reported.

Italian farm lobbies said that weeks of freezing cold and a string of snowstorms have prevented fruit, vegetables and meat from reaching market, leaving some 100,000 tons of products to rot. Dairy farmers also warned that unless roads linking them to markets are cleared soon, milk will spoil.

Story: At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo

Europe's big chill persists
Elsewhere, an avalanche hit a village in Kosovo's mountainous south Saturday, killing a married couple and their 17-year-old son and leaving nine others missing, police said, as heavy snow continued to blanket the Balkans.

The village of Restelica, where the deaths occurred, and its region bordering Macedonia and Albania have been blocked by snow for several days, Kosovo police spokesman Baki Kelani said. NATO peacekeepers have been called in to help local authorities in the rescue operation.

In neighboring Montenegro, authorities proclaimed a state of emergency after the heaviest snow there in 63 years sealed off hundreds of villages, shut down roads and railways and closed the main airport in the tiny Balkan state on Saturday.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46352241/ns/weather/

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