University professors and students dragged out four donkeys under the Leaning Tower of Pisa on Monday in protest over proposed government cuts in the higher education sector.
Bewildered tourists looked on as Pisa University's veterinary science department held an open-air lecture on the rearing and reproduction of endangered Amiata donkeys in the famous Piazza dei Miracoli.
Professor Franco Camillo explained that he had chosen his lecture subject after Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta cited research into donkeys as an example of how universities wasted public money.
Camillo said that research into the Amiata donkey, which is found only in the zone around Tucany's Mount Amiata, was fundamental not only because of the species' endangered status but also for its ''scientific and social'' significance.
''For example, donkey milk is given to pediatric hospitals for newborn babies who can't be breast-fed by their mothers and who have an intolerance to other types of milk,'' he said.
Veterinary science students meanwhile held anti-government banners that read ''cats, horses, donkeys, cows and dogs don't want education in your hands''.
The protest in Pisa was one of dozens across the country as students and professors began a third week of sit-ins, open-air lessons and marches against the upcoming reforms, which reportedly include cuts of some 1.5 billion euros.
In Genoa students sounded a WWII air raid siren to protest against the education 'emergency' and launch a festival of open-air lessons, while in Milan university students disrupted the ceremony inaugurating the new academic year.
Protests were set to continue on Tuesday, with researchers and professors in Florence readying to wash car windows and distribute flyers warning of the proposed cuts' repercussions on jobs in the sector.
Unions have meanwhile called for a general strike on November 14 - the second in just over two weeks for the sector.
On Thursday an estimated one million university and high school students turned up in Rome for a national rally after parliament okayed controversial cost-cutting school reforms.
Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini is still working on details of the university package, which is likely to include a reduction in the number of degree courses available and an overhaul of recruitment and management.
The reforms are also thought to include measures that will allow universities to become foundations in order to top up public funding with private investments.
Gelmini has pledged the protests will not alter government plans for a sector in serious need of reform.
According to the minister, Italian students attend three times as many lectures than the European average.
Despite this, the Italian system ''produces less graduates than Chile'', while ''there is not a single Italian university that features among the top 150 in the world'', Gelmini said.
