It’s a self-assembly wooden box measuring 35 by 60 centimetres and the Italian chain Coop sold 12,000 of them, at 27 euros each, during April and May.

Yes, Italy loves the “bat box”, sold as part of the Florence Natural History Museum ‘s project, “A Bat for a Friend”. This is an ecological campaign to support the species, which is at risk.

In the first three years of the project the bat box was only on sale in Coop stores in Tuscany, Lazio and Emilia Romagna but now it can be purchased all over Italy and online. It comes with a book of Disney cartoons featuring Paperino [Donald Duck] and the bat, Kiro.

Paolo Agnelli, a zoologist at the Florence Natural History Museum, told Corriere della Sera that March and April are the best months in which to set up the bat box, as that is when bats come out of hibernation. It is in the summer, however, that they become Italians’ best friends, because, says Mr Agnelli, the average bat eats 10,000 insects a night, 2000 of which will be mosquitoes. He says it is not true that bats bite humans or entangle themselves in human hair; in fact, they are shy little creatures.

A Coop spokesman emphasised that the bat box must be set up outside, not in the bedroom above the bed, as many of the chain’s customers wanted to do.

Could you live with bats?