Discover Italy’s unique ecological past and how it has shaped its present—and its future, with this riveting look at the incredibly diverse natural history and our need to preserve it.

Italy is renowned for its antiquity, classical literature, philosophy, and modern-day culture, cuisine and fashion, but what has gone largely overlooked – and undocumented, even by its people – is its uniquely biodiverse landscape and wildlife. Italy has over 58,000 different species of wildlife, of which 4,777 are endemic, the highest in Europe. Italy provides a home for a third of all European flora and fauna, with a vast range of fruit and vegetable varieties: more grape varieties than France, more wheat than the US and more olives than Spain.  

Edward Cutler, an art historian by trade, began to explore this history when, four years ago on his small Tuscan farm, he found a salamander that turned out to be endemic to that specific location. In understanding how Italy came together as a country, one of the youngest and still geologically active landscapes in the world, and made up of mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, glacial lakes, desert islands, caves and forests, Ed realised that this natural history has also had an incredibly important influence on its human history, especially its food culture and low-impact agriculture. And along the way, Ed discovers that Italy once was home to pygmy elephants, giant killer hedgehogs, and vampire-toothed deer. Today we can see the relics of those ancient creatures in the flashy blue lizard of Capri, gladiator crabs under the forum in Rome, the crested porcupine, the beautiful Apennine chamois and of course the Marzipan brown bear and Italian grey wolf, not forgetting its flora, including the world’s rarest Christmas tree in Sicily.

About The Author

Edward Cutler is course director for the executive course, Biodiversity and Business Sustainability, at the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability in Rome. Ed is convinced that, in order to fully comprehend the country of Italy, and to foster a greater emphasis on its natural wonders, it is imperative to bring this knowledge to light.  

British-born and educated (MA History of Art, Edinburgh), Ed has resided in Italy since 2009 where he is a dual citizen, is married to an Italian and has three children. An art historian by training, Ed has been obsessed by Italy since childhood and became a successful art dealer for several years in Milan. Ed then moved back to Rome and at the same time became a farmer in southern Tuscany, following his other passion for the countryside and nature. In 2020, along with his childhood friend Ben Goldsmith, he founded the Tuscany Environment Foundation, part of the Conservation Collective, and set about raising funds to support the best environmental initiatives in the region.