Italian students have rallied at famous landmarks around the country to demonstrate against the government's proposed education spending cuts.

Thousands of students marched at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Rome's iconic Colosseum. In the southern city of Palermo, students blocked railway tracks and marched through the town center holding up traffic. Italian lawmakers say the reforms will save several billion euros by the end of 2012. But students argue the planned cuts will further weaken Italy's educational system. The government was defeated in a parliamentary vote on Thursday on an amendment to the reform.