By Elisabetta Povoledo Plans to bring this city into the jet age with the expansion of its small airport are being contested by an embattled group of citizens who say that Siena is doing fine, just as it is.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Gruppo Monte Paschi Siena today announced a 260 million euro IT Services agreement for IBM to help cut costs and improve efficiencies for the Italian bank's Operational Consortium.

Shares of Alitalia, the largest Italian airline, fell 1.4 percent on Tuesday after the company said its first-quarter loss widened, hurt by strikes in January and rising oil prices. Alitalia shares declined 1 euro cent to 93 cents, or 72 U.S.