by Qin Xie

Italy is famed for fashion, food and, of course, history. In fact, Italy has the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of any country in the world. As other social needs have taken priority in economically turbulent times, however, the country's budget for maintaining and restoring some of its greatest tourist attractions has been drastically reduced. While the Italian State Tourist Board said it couldn't supply statistics, as much as a third of culture budgets (€1.42 billion/$1.83 billion) have been cut over the past three years, according to a September 2012 report in The Daily Beast.

Restoration of historic monuments has instead been left largely to the generosity of private donors. Step forward Italian fashion industry. Over the past two years, several Italian fashion brands have pledged substantial amounts of money for the restoration of well known heritage sites.

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Fonte: CNN