2009 L'Aquila earthquake injured. Twenty of the victims were children. Around 65,000 people were rendered homeless. The main earthquake was preceded by two smaller earthquakes the previous day. The earthquake was felt as far away as Rome ( away), in other parts of Lazio, as well as Marche, Molise, Umbria and Campania. Schools remained closed in the Abruzzo region. Most of the inhabitants of L'Aquila abandoned their homes and the city itself; in the city centre of L'Aquila, and the nearby village of Paganica which was also badly damaged, many streets were impassable due to fallen masonry. The hospital at L'Aquila, where many
Financial centre used type of security, were invented by the Italian city-states (such as Venice and Genoa) of the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. In the sixteenth century, the overall economic supremacy of the Italian city-states gradually came to an end, and the centre of financial activities in Europe shifted to the Low Countries, first to Bruges, and later to Antwerp and Amsterdam. They also became important centres of financial innovation. In the 17th century, Amsterdam became the leading commercial and financial centre. It held this position for more than a century, and was the first modern model of an international