“Centuries after it was colonised by Vandals and Visigoths, Italy is being invaded again – this time by trees.  A report released yesterday revealed that the widespread abandonment of farmland, particularly in mountainous areas in the south of the country, has led re-afforestation on a massive scale.  Italy now has more forest and woodland than it has had in modern times – 35 per cent of the country is covered in trees. The south of Italy is also now increasingly wooded.  It is there that the decline in upland farming has been most pronounced, after small-scale farmers gave up their hard-scrabble properties and moved to towns and cities, or left Italy altogether.”