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I rather thought that 'il' in Italian means 'the' in English and that the clue uses the word 'he', not 'the'. That is why I referred to 'il' as meaning 'he' in French, not Italian. I wasn't trying to argue against anyone but was just giving my views as solicited by Caravaggio.

JimC

Thank you, Jim.

I've had to go out for a while and I apologise for my absence! You have really put the cat amongst the pigeons with PISAN - I hadn't thought about that possibility. I now have more food - literally and metaphorically - for thought!

Kind regards,

Caravaggio

Terry, Trevor & Jim,

Thank you all for your help. I have made a decision [but you'll all understand why this clue had been annoying me since last night] - MILAN.

I know Big Dave has stopped doing the Radio Times crossword as he was tempted to hurl mugs of tea at the television set! I think that the compiler has mixed up two European languages and, for that reason, Il [Elle] est un imbecile...

Best wishes to you all,

Caravaggio

Being new to this site I thought I'd throw my twopennyworth in. I do the RT and had MILAN as well. But the discussion about 'Il' brings another thought what about the Italian singing group 'IL DIVO' (four blokes)

Hi Dillon,

Thank you for your contribution and welcome! If you look back through the thread, you'll find that there is something of a problem with 'Il' because, whilst it means 'he' in French it doesn't mean 'he' in Italian.

Il Divo, a Simon Cowell creation, are, in fact, multi-national and 'Divo' in Italian means 'star'
or 'celebrity'. As you've probably guessed, it is the masculine form of 'diva' and is usually prefaced with 'a' and not 'il'. Besides that, the plural of a word ending in the letter 'o' becomes 'i' - graffito [singular] becomes graffiti [plural] so the title 'Il Divo' is contrived!

Best wishes,

Caravaggio

I think the clue doesn't require the word for 'he' to be Italian, or the word for 'chap' to be English, just the answer to be in Italy.
Not a well compiled clue though.