He described the Italian population's skull as being rounder in form than that of the typical European wolf, with smaller teeth closely approaching those of dogs and golden jackals in appearance.

Among the discovered characteristics distinguishing the Italian wolf were its relatively narrow palate between the first premolars, a broad frontal shield, and shallow jugal bone.

The earliest remains of a wolf in Europe were found in the Middle Pleistocene site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio, 20 km (12 mi) north-west of Rome in deposits dated 406 thousand years ago.

[10][24] In 2010, a study compared the mDNA haplotypes of 24 ancient wolf specimens from Western Europe dated between 44,000 and 1,200 YBP with those of modern gray wolves.

The phylogenetic tree generated from the sequences showed the Italian wolf positioned close to the ancient wolves of the Late Pleistocene.

Additionally, one canid specimen from the Cava Filo archaeological site of San Lazzaro di Savena, Bologna fell within the domestic dog clade A haplotype — it was radio-carbon dated to be 24,700 years old.

[29] In 2020, a genomic study of Eurasian wolves found that the populations of the Dinaric Alps-Balkan Mountains region, the Iberian peninsula, and Italy diverged from each other 10,500 years ago followed by negligible gene flow between them.

The size of these wolves is thought to be an adaptation to a cold environment (Bergmann's rule) and plentiful game, as their remains have been found in association with reindeer fossils.

The belly and cheeks are more lightly coloured, and dark bands are present on the back and tail tip, and occasionally along the fore limbs.

Black wolves have been reported in the north-central Apennines, though their origin is unknown, as some melanistic individuals show no sign of wolf-dog hybridisation.

The extermination of the grey wolf in Italy was not as complete as in Northern Europe, due to greater cultural tolerance of the species.

Its range along the south-central Apennines was still relatively continuous by the 1950s, though this population was reduced in the decades after World War II because of widespread poisoning campaigns.

The census revealed that the Italian wolf population consisted of 100–110 individuals distributed throughout a fragmented range in the main mountainous areas of south-central Italy, from the Sibillini to La Sila.

In spite of the recent increase in numbers and range, the Italian wolf population is still highly vulnerable to local extermination from human pressures (poison, shooting, car accidents) and the stochastic nature of these events suggest to maintain a cautionary assessment.

The population does not qualify for the category Endangered, but it may easily reverse its current favorable status.” In the early 1990s Italian wolves began to cross from Italy into France, where they have become established in approximately one third of its contintental territories, particularly in the French Alps and Provence, but also throughout the Massif Central.

In the two decades following its initial recolonisation, the wolf has expanded its range at the west of the Rhône, in the Massif Central, the eastern Pyrenees, and the Jura and Vosges Mountains.

[13] At least 13 transient Italian wolves (12 males and a female) were counted in Catalonia between 2000 and 2011, a century after the local Iberian wolf (C. l. signatus) was extirpated from the area.

[46] Although the Italian and Dinaric wolf populations have remained distinct for a long time, their ranges are beginning to overlap as they expand.

According to Terry Jones, "The Romans did not see [the tale of Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf] as a charming story; they meant to show that they had imbibed wolfish appetites and ferocity with their mother's milk".

The use of wolves in Roman folk medicine, while attested by Pliny the Elder, was minimal compared to other animals such as snakes or bears and, contrary to popular imagery, Roman standard bearers did not wear wolf skins, with the only units attested to have worn them being the velites, who were the poorest and youngest warriors using the wolf skins to distinguish themselves.

Rheumatism and tonsillitis were treated with wolf fat, while a tooth or tuft of fur was worn as a talisman against the evil eye.

[52] Although Italy has no records of wolf attacks on humans after World War II and the eradication of rabies in the 1960s,[53] historians examining church and administrative records from northern Italy's central Po Valley region (which includes a part of modern-day Switzerland) found 440 cases of wolves attacking people between the 15th and 19th centuries.