arshal Pietro Badoglio. In those months Salerno was the temporary "Capital of the Kingdom of Italy", and the King Victor Emmanuel III lived in a mansion in its outskirts.
The post-war period was difficult for all the Italian cities, but Salerno managed to improve little by little and to aim at becoming a modern European city. In recent years the town administration has taken great strides giving a great impulse to the revaluation of the whole urban territory. The city's population doubled in a few years, from 80,000 in 1946 to nearly 160,000 in 1976.
In the last two decades, Salerno became one of the most important cities in the world for great contemporary architecture. In fact, there are operas designed by architects as Zaha Hadid (maritime station), Ricardo Bofill (Liberty Square and Crescent), Santiago Calatrava (Marina d'Arechi Port Village), David Chipperfield (judiciary citadel), Massimiliano Fuksas and Renzo Piano. The municipal theatre called Giuseppe Verdi has one of the best lyrical programming of Italy and the city of Salerno, although it's near Naples and its province, is the first city in Italy, for its range of population, for the cycle of rubbish and recycle. The luminous and artistic installations of Christmas period, called Luci d'Artista and prepared with collaboration of Turin, are famous in all Europe. In November 2011 the famous designer Massimo Vignelli, designed a turistic brand for the city of Salerno
