As we know, forests grow without making any noise. Perhaps, however, we did not think they could grow so much and so quietly: since 1936, the Italian forest heritage has almost doubled in size, and about a third of the peninsula is now covered in woods.

This is good news, especially in times of climate change, but at the same time, it is an enormous responsibility for the entire Country System, since climate change itself not only challenges the forest ecosystem but also risks destroying it (and those who live next to it – us) more than ever. This is the starting point of Ferdinando Cotugno’s Italian Wood (Mondadori, 2020), which aims at helping us discover the hidden forests of Italy.