Culture
Pompeii restorers piece together painted ceiling
More than a quarter of a vaulted dining room ceiling from the House with Bakery has been rebuilt from fragments found where it collapsed nearly 2,000 years ago. It reveals a richly decorated scene of Dionysus and Ariadne.
Life in Italy
Births at post-war low in 2025
ROME — Italy’s severe demographic decline has hit another historic milestone, with live births falling to just 355,000 in 2025—a record low for the post-Second World War era.
Environment
River Po hits record low at Cremona
Water levels in the River Po at Cremona fell to -8.59 metres, breaking the previous record set in 2022. More than 100 municipalities in Piedmont and Lombardy face critical drinking water shortages.
Italy’s forests have quietly overtaken its farmland
A first-of-its-kind survey has found that forests now cover more of Italy than agriculture does, a shift not seen since medieval times. But the story behind the numbers is less a triumph for nature than a portrait of rural Italy slowly emptying.
Umbrian plateau becomes a living rainbow
Every summer, the high plains beneath the Sibillini Mountains erupt into a sweep of red, purple, blue and yellow. The plant responsible for the Umbrian spectacle isn’t a flower at all, but the humble lentil.
