What was done
The author studied various properties of alternating layers of organic-matter-rich soils and alluvial, glacial and periglacial sediments on higher Apennine massifs in Italy, located at approximately 42°23'N, 13°31'E, reconstructing a history of relative changes in temperature for this region over the past 6000 years.

What was learned
It was determined that organic-matter-rich soils formed on slopes currently subject to periglacial and glacial processes around 5740-5590, 1560-1370 and 1300-970 cal yr BP.  Based upon current relationships between elevation and soil periglacial and glacial processes, Giraudi estimated that the mean annual temperature during these three periods "must therefore have been higher than at present," and that winter temperatures were at least 0.9-1.2°C higher than those of today.  In addition, it was determined that the lowest wintertime temperatures reached during the Little Ice Age (ca. 790-150 cal yr B.P.) were as much as 3.0°C colder than at present.

What it means
Once again, we find substantial evidence for the broader occurrence of the Medieval Warm Period, which the world's climate alarmists adamantly refuse to acknowledge as having ever occurred outside of the lands that ring the North Atlantic Ocean.  Also, the existence of this period of likely greater-than-current warmth gives the lie to the claim that current warming must be due to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which were fully 100 ppm less than what they are today during the earlier medieval (1300-970 cal yr BP) warm period.