In a municipal building in the heart of the Alpine city of Bolzano, Stefano Baldo left work early to take a break to breastfeed. “It’s clear that I don’t breastfeed,” said Baldo, a 38-year-old transportation administrator, in his office decorated with photographs of his wife and six children.

But with his wife at home with a newborn, a parent had the right by law to take time to pick up the children.“It’s very convenient.” Sold out has become more and more history in Italy, which has one of lower birth rates of Europe and where the prime minister Giorgia MeloneI, as well as Pope Francis, have warned that Italians risk disappearing.