Geophysics and Cultural heritage: a living field of research for Italian Geophysicists.

The conservation, the exploration and the management of artistic and cultural heritage are of paramount importance for Italy. Many efforts are daily made to conserve, explore and manage the art crafts, the historical buildings, the museums, the archaeological sites and all the "objects" that can be considered a part of the World Cultural Heritage. Geophysics techniques, and geophysicists, had, have and will likely have a key role in this efforts. In this paper some of the Italian geophysicists working on problems related to Cultural Heritage will present case histories telling how usual geophysical techniques, suitably adapted, have been used to contribute to finding, restoring and managing some Italian Cultural Heritage jewels. The investigations were carried out using different 2D and 3D tomographic approaches as well as different energy sources: sonic, ultrasonic and electromagnetic sources as well as magnetic and remote sensing investigations.