Italy

January 2005 saw the launch of the Alpshealthcomp Project aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of the alpine region as a health and wellness destination. The partners of Alpshealthcomp, a project of the EU Community Initiative Interreg IIIB Alpine Space Programme, come from Italy, Austria and Germany, the project itself being endowed with around one million euros.

Less than one year before the start of the 2006 Winter Olympics uncertainty still prevails as to how to fill the financial gap of around €180 m that has resulted from a lack of revenue. Moreover the internal disputes within the Games' Organising Committee that have now been going on for several months have reached a new high with the forced resignations of both the Chairman and his deputy.

From 1 - 3 September 2005 the Italian RURALIA association is holding a two-day conference in the Piedmont entitled "Architecture and Landscape in Rural Mountain Areas and their Social and Economic Development". The objective of the conference is to consider proposals for saving villages from decline and rehabilitating rural buildings for new uses.

On 12 January a new regulation on climate-friendly house construction took effect in South Tyrol. According to the provisions of this Climate House Ordinance, the Provincial Office for Air and Noise must issue a climate pass for all new housing in South Tyrol showing the buildings' energy classification and thermal heat requirements.

In 2004 more than fifty percent fewer trucks were carried by the RoLa piggyback services on the Brenner railway than in the previous year. Whereas 140,000 HGVs used the rail link in 2003, the figure for 2004 was a mere 60,000. In contrast, truck traffic on the Brenner motorway increased by a monthly average of twenty percent (in the period January to October).

The 53rd "Città di Trento" Mountain Film Festival is being held from 30 April to 8 May 2005. The festival is devoted to mountain, research and adventure films, with "Arctic & Antarctic - North Pole & South Pole" as the theme selected for 2005.

Italy's Environment Minister presented the Mountains in the Mediterranean Region Project at the IUCN Congress held in Bangkok from 17 to 25 November.

The Ukrainian project at Bukovel reflects the global trend towards developing increasingly vast ski areas:

Services for the elderly and the accessibility of accommodation by the disabled are the two key issues of a seminar at Feltre in Italy on July 2. The seminar is being held as part of the Interreg IIIA Programme Montagna Accessibile (Mountains Within Reach) of the Belluno Province and the Federal Province of Tyrol/A.

The EU MOMO project, which focuses on applied research benefiting small and medium-sized companies, was recently unveiled in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Plastic materials for nanotechnology for example are to be developed at the Centre for Technological Innovations in Amaro.