ROME -- Mantua has come out as the Italian province with the best quality of life in the yearly list issued by ItaliaOggi (ItalyToday)-La Sapienza University, whilst the Eternal City has fallen 19 places since last year, the university said Monday.

 The Lombard city of Mantua has replaced Trento this year as the best Italian city to live in, which had constantly remained at first place since 2011. Bellum, the capital city of the Veneto region, rose from eighth place to third place this year.

 The city of Pordenone in Friuli-Venezia Giulia dropped from third to fourth place, and Bolzano in Trentino-Alto Adige fell from second to eighth.

 In last place in the classification comes Crotone in Calabria, even if, as Il Messaggero reports, there are elements of discontinuity in relation to other southern-Italian cities -- “in Crotone, the standard of living is acceptable,” the newspaper writes, and it is not let down by criminality or population.

 Instead what brings it down seems to be the business and work, environment, social and personal unease, financial and education services, healthcare, and free time. The penultimate city in the list before Crotone is the Sicilian city of Syracuse in 104^th place.

 The big urban areas come at disappointing places in the classification, and have all dropped compared to last year, except for Turin that rose six places. Milan drops seven places and Naples drops five.

 Rome, however, has fallen 19 places in relation to last year -- and 31 in relation to 2014. This means that the Italian capital now ranks amongst the cities with an “insufficient quality of life,” Il Messaggero writes.

 When looking on Italian regions with a wider perspective, it is the north-east and the centre of Italy that have managed to cope better with the effects of the crisis, whereas the north-west and the south -- in particular the islands -- have been a lot harder hit.

 nkd