Florence's museums authority on Tuesday played down the risk of Michelangelo's 500-year-old David statue falling down because of fractures in its ankles.

"Even if there is an earthquake of 5.0 or 5.5 on the Richter scale, Florence will stay in one piece. And David would be the last to fall," Marco Ferri, a spokesman for the authority, told Agence France Presse.

Italian customs found more than 600 scorpions in a routine check of the baggage of a Chinese man who flew into Florence, the daily La Repubblica reported Wednesday.

The 607 Manchurian scorpions (Mesobuthus martensii), half of which were still alive, were packed into plastic boxes with ice, the report said.

More than 260 people were rescued early Saturday from a ferry which ran aground off Italy in a snow storm, while emergency services freed people trapped in cars and trains in freezing temperatures.

The Shardon ferry ran aground shortly after setting off from Civitavecchia port near Rome, causing panic among the 262 passengers who feared a repeat of a cruise ship tragedy in the area last month which killed 32 people.

Abercrombie & Fitch has offered to pay Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, a character in hit reality show "Jersey Shore," to stop wearing its clothes, fearing its image is being tarnished.

The offer includes other members of the MTV show's brash, foul-mouthed, spray-tanned Italian-American cast, and A&F is "urgently awaiting a response," the U.S. fashion retailer said in a statement.