Italian police fired tear gas on Saturday after coming under attack from protesters throwing stones and other objects in clashes in the square in front of Milan's Gothic cathedral, Italian media reported.
Police in riot gear also tried to clear hooded protesters from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the luxury shopping arcade which is on one side of the cathedral square, as groups broke away from a protest over the high cost of living.
Shops pulled down their shutters and tourists fled the central area. The central Duomo (Cathedral) metro station was closed during the clashes in which several people were reported injured, and a number of arrests made, according to Italian media reports.
Police in the northern Italian city of Bologna used water cannon to try to disperse crowds and made seven arrests after another protest turned violent, the ANSA news agency reported.
The clashes had echoes of the violence in neighbouring France, where tens of thousands of people angered by rising costs and declining public services took to the streets on Saturday in some of the country's most violent protests in years.
