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
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.
Heatwave kills off Po Delta’s clams and mussels
Lagoon water temperatures of 32 degrees are starving clams and mussels of oxygen and fuelling algae blooms not seen in a decade. It is resulting in losses of up to 100% in some areas.
