Italy’s birthrate is falling. Can the storks help?

Last year, the population of Europe's fourth biggest economy dropped by the equivalent of a city the size of Florence. Yet the northern hamlets of Val d'Ultimo have found ways to buck the trend

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As if having a baby wasn't expensive enough, fathers of newborns in the mountain hamlets that make up Italy's Val d'Ultimo have an additional cost. In a revival of an ancient myth that white storks deliver babies, carved wooden storks carrying a newborn child in a sling are a common feature outside homes in the valley. They are put there by friends of the father and there they remain until he stumps up for a round of drinks.

There has been a noticeable increase in storks and other symbols of birth being put outside someone's house, especially in recent years," said Stefan Schwarz, the mayor of Ultimo, home to almost 3,000 people spread over three hamlets.