A restored warehouse in Italy’s financial capital might seem an unlikely place for a recent meeting of more than 180 grassroots activists, gathering in Milan to challenge the way the international food market is managed.

The number of migrants to have arrived in Italy by boat this year passed 50,000 at the weekend as around 5,000 people were rescued in the Mediterranean.

Italians grow weary of asylum seekers amid the steady flow of migrants and the country's economic woes.

Walking slowly and uncertainly down a ramp, clutching onto the handrail as she goes, a heavily pregnant woman takes her first step onto Italian soil.

A baby girl has been born on an Italian navy vessel after her mother became one of nearly 6,800 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in three days. In a nod to her naval rescuers – the Italian Marina Militare – the newborn was named Francesca Marina on Monday.

10 stab wounds – but an Italian court called it suicide.

The walk to Dario Franceschini’s office is in itself testament to Italy’s vast heritage. Past countless paintings lining the corridors of the culture ministry, he sits dwarfed by high walls adorned with books. In any other capital, such a scene might seem as if it were put on for guests, but in Rome it feels more as if Italy has simply run out of space.

Few refugees imagine ending up in a field in the toe of Italy's boot. But this rural slope between Tarsia, a hilltop town in the Calabria region, and the remains of the country's largest fascist concentration camp, may soon become the final resting place for those who lose their lives en route to Italian shores.