How medieval lessons for managing floods could help those facing them in northern Italy today

By Marco Panato, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Department of History, University of Nottingham

Northern Italy has been hit by a series of devastating floods in recent years. In March 2025 and the previous autumn, heavy rainfall hammered the region, swamping fields, farms and towns. More than 3,000 had to leave their homes in Emilia-Romagna, between Bologna and Ravenna.

The downpours caused widespread floods, landslides, and infrastructure damage. This has been a repeated event since 2023 when the area saw what has…

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