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Background and Aim of the Work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 is a strong reminder that the lockdown period has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it's necessary to make resilient the built environment, both outdoor and mainly the indoor spaces: housing, workplaces, public buildings, and entertainment facilities. How can we re-design the concept of Well-being and Public Health in relation to the living places of the future?, Methods: According to the previous statements and scenario, this paper aims to integrate the building hygiene and well-being, focusing the possible responses, both existing and for the new buildings, taking home a strong message from this "period" of physical distancing., Results: The Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe, and sustainable housing are framed into the following key points: 1. Visible and accessible green elements and spaces; 2. Flexibility, adaptability, sharing, and crowding of living spaces, and compliant functions located into the buildings; 3. Re-appropriation of the basic principles and archetypes of sustainable architecture, thermal comfort and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ); 4. Water consumption and Wastewater Management; 5. Urban Solid Waste Management; 6. Housing automation and electromagnetic fields; 7. Indoor building and finishing materials., Conclusions: The Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe and sustainable housing may provide a useful basis for Designers, Policy Makers (fostering tax incentives for building renewal), Public Health experts and Local Health Agencies, in promoting actions and policies aimed to transform living places in healthier and Salutogenic spaces.

Background and Aim of the Work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which nowadays has exceeded 2.5 million notified infections in the world and about 200,000 deaths, is a strong reminder that urbanization has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it's necessary to make resilient the systems and local capacities to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. How we can re-design the concept of Public Health in relation to the built environment and the contemporary cities?, Methods: According to the previous statements and scenario, aim of this paper is to integrate the Urban Health strategic objectives, focusing the possible responses, both immediate and medium-long term, to the current environmental, social, and economic aspects of the "period" of physical distancing.  Results. Immediate Actions are 01. program the flexibility of city schedules; 02. plan a smart and sustainable mobility network; 03. define a neighborhood services' plan; 04. develop a digitization of the urban context, promoting the smart communities; 05. re-think the accessibility to the places of culture and tourism.  Medium-long term Actions are 06. design the indoor flexibility of domestic living spaces; 07. re-think building typologies, fostering the presence of semi-private or collective spaces; 08. renovate the basic care services' network; 09. integrate the existing environmental emergency plans, with those related to the health emergencies; 10. improve stakeholders' awareness of the factors affecting Public Health in the cities., Conclusions: The Decalogue of Public Health opportunities may provide a useful basis for Designers (Architects and Urban Planners), Policy Makers, Public Health experts and Local Health Agencies, in promoting actions and policies aimed to transform our cities in healthier and Salutogenic living environments. (www.actabiomedica.it).

The paper illustrates the life and the achievements of Enrico Ronzani, born in Padua and graduated in Medicine at the Bologna University. He directed the hospitals of Florence and the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, promoting its growth until it became the seat of the Medical School promoted by Prof Mangiagalli, and he himself became Full Professor of Hygiene. In such a position he taught Hygiene also to Architets and Engineers, built the new Institute of Hygiene and helped to design and build the new great Hospital of Niguarda. But, most of all, he was successful in designing, promoting and officializing the job of the Hospital Directors, which was subsequently recognized by the law; and, publishing a series of books on the role of the modern hospitals, he prefigured their position in a web of medical institutions to include also those devoted to pre- and post-hospital assistance to the population. Practically he foresaw what was realized many years later through the creation of the Italian National Health Service (Law 833 of 1978).

Public Health professionals and academics have been on the frontline of Italian history during the COVID-19 response like they never did before. Ancient professors of Hygiene such as Celli, Pagliani, Sclavo, Petragnani, Seppilli and Giovanardi flanked politicians in other critical moments. They helped them to manage healthcare reforms, earthquakes response, Seveso Dioxin disaster, cholera and poliomielitis epidemics and other health threats.   The ongoing COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the paramount importance of the practical application of basic concepts of public health, which were considered so far became obsolete, such as personal hygiene, quarantine, individual protective devices or basic epidemiological measures. Hygiene and Public Health used to have a targeted audience in professionals and lecturers. Nowadays, these topics are critical and of concern of a much larger audience. Public Health women and men are now asked to act in task forces, media broadcasts, webinars and consulting activities.   In phase 2 of this epidemic - which is about to begin when this volume is to be published - the role of Public Health professionals could become even more relevant. However, this unexpected season must be managed with seriousness and intelligence, capitalizing it also for the future. If our Post-Graduate Schools of Public Health ("Igiene e Medicina Preventiva"), our scientific associations, our academic lecturers and our officers do not prove to be up to the situation, a dull future for the discipline might very well be. On the contrary, if as we all hope, we will be able to ride the wave of a dramatic health crisis, transforming it into a relevant scientific and professional opportunity, then we will be able to build on the post-COVID-19 a cutting-edge, a more attractive, relevant and modern discipline. This Supplement of Acta Biomedica, planned before the onset of the epidemic emergency in Italy, but already successful in presenting two papers on COVID-19, is further proof of how current and lively our discipline is.

In 1917 Achille Sclavo, a distinguished researcher and founder of the Italian Society of Hygiene, ended up the first term as Rector of the University of Siena. Since then, the contribution of professors of hygiene in Italian universities has ranged over several relevant topics including vaccinations, environmental hygiene, hospital hygiene, healthcare organization and management, with an important contribution to the health reform of 1978 by Augusto Giovanardi and Alessandro Seppilli. Several Academic Schools (Roman, Neapolitan, Genoese, Sicilian, Venetian, Lombard, etc.) have produced excellent researchers, teachers and mentors who have also occupied important positions in the panorama of the Italian health system. This note analyzes the main research topics, the most famous institutes and departments of hygiene and public health and the contributions of the most famous professors for the development of the discipline, the management of the post- graduated Schools in hygiene and preventive medicine, the commitment in scientific associations and the role of some of them in important institutional positions. Even through its contribution and constant commitment to the institutions, Italian public health has achieved the reputation of being one of the best known and appreciated in the international scientific community.