Although Italy’s birth rate is one of the lowest in the world, one small Tuscan town, Quarrata, is turning that around. Last year, there were 256 bambini born in a hamlet of 25,000 — resulting in a birth rate of 10.32, about what was normal in Italy 30 years ago. “We don’t know exactly why [...]
Mothers in Verona, Italy can pop in to city-run pharmacies the next time they need to breast-feed. They’ll find a quiet back room with a comfortable chair, changing table and bathroom. Thanks to a short training course for pharmacists, they should also find an understanding environment. Participating pharmacies have the above logo, which somewhat redundantly [...]
By many accounts, Italian men are some of the laziest in Europe when it comes to lending a hand at home. According to the national association of house husbands, 70% of Italian men never cook, 90% have never, ever, ironed a shirt, 95% have never done a load of wash. With the financial crisis hitting [...]
Fellow reporter and friend Eric Sylvers is on the road again, this time he and three friends are walking the lower half of Italy’s pilgrim route to where the boats once left for Jeruselem, the Via Francigena del Sud, 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Rome to Otranto, Puglia. While the northern part of the trek [...]
www.zoomata.com staff No television means more bambini. The equation seems that simple, at least in a tiny Italian hill town with poor television reception. The 250 inhabitants of Torri, about 9 kilometers (5.7 miles) inland from Ventimiglia in the Liguria region, appear to have turned to procreation as recreation: the percentage of children in the [...]
zoomata staff posted: Tue Jan. 20 10:49 am Looks like a lot of spoiling in store for the Italian baby boy with four grandparents, eight great-grand parents and a great-great grandma. Nicolas Cristini was born in Sondrio, 37 kilometers (85 miles) north of Milan, to a large brood of relatives who have already presented him [...]
by Nicole Martinelli posted Thu 11 Sept. 8:24 am Northern Italy’s hospitals are overflowing with a bumper crop of newborn bambini after decades of low birth rates. Milan alone counted a record 2,000 stork visits in July and August, an 8% jump over 2002. After similar reports came in from the provinces of Venice and [...]
by Nicole Martinelli posted Thu 12 June 11:36 am Joining the chorus of cell phones animating Italian beaches this year will be warning bells from a kiddy safety device that works like an electronic bracelet for criminals. In an effort to restore some peace to the burning sand, use of the electronic ‘restraining’ device has [...]
by Nicole Martinelli posted Tue 29 Apr 11:07 am Traditional Italian names like Marco, Giuseppe and Francesca are making a slow comeback after what was considered an “alarming” trend of babies in the Bel Paese being named after American movie and soap opera stars. Italians are now back to doling out grandparent’s names or those [...]
by Nicole Martinelli posted Tue 8 April 11:24 am An Italian town, drained of population from emigration, will light up the main square every time a baby is born. The initiative to celebrate every much-needed bambino comes from Moretta, a town of about 4,000 inhabitants 30 miles from Turin.It’s the latest of a series of [...]
