Gabriele Sinopoli, brother of the late, great orchrestra conductor Giuseppe, has emerged from a coma after being attacked by a group of drunks.

They kept punching me in the head, one seemed like a professional. A group of thugs.

The 64-year-old had beeped his horn to ask six young men to move out of the street outside a bar in the centre of Mestre, near Venice, so that he could pass with his car. When he returned home he found them waiting for him, and he was violently attacked, resulting in a brain haemorrhage and coma. The leader of the group was later found by police sitting outsider a kebab shop. When asked why he’d done it, he replied, “Because I’m an idiot.”

The Mestre Town Council has now started a campaign to try and limit the consumption of spritz, costing just €1.50, and used to get drunk quickly. Some bar owners have have a points system to reward the customer who manages to down the most.