Recent bad weather in Italy has caused major flooding up in the north and also down in the south. The Marche has been spared the worst of the weather although even hear the Iper-coop supermarket that we go to was flooded as a nearby river burst its banks. The problem was a lot of rain in a short time but also the fact that in recent years there has been a lot of new building in most parts of Italy and this building has been on vulnerable land. This problem is called cementificazione. A recent survey said that in the 1960s 92% of the marche was defined as agricultural land while today only 69% is agricultural.