Italian premier Matteo Renzi cancelled a planned visit to Venice on Thursday and travelled to quake-hit central Italy, vowing solidarity with residents and urging them not to lose hope.
"Even if we are crushed, we can't give up," Renzi said.
He was speaking in the medieval Marche hilltown of Camerino, which was badly damaged by the two powerful earthquakes in the central Apennines on Wednesday.
"Italy can't be bowed by an earthquake," Renzi said.
"The country is standing shoulder to shoulder with you to help you keep going."
Camerino is the seat of one of Italy's oldest universities and Renzi said it was crucial that it reopened swiftly after the earthquake.
"It is vital the university is able to get going again immediately," he said.
The Italian government declared a state of emergency after the magnitude 5.4 and 5.9 quakes that struck the Marche and Umbria regions late on Wednesday.
The Italian cabinet also earmarked 40 million euros of relief for the quake area, where several thousand people have been left homeless and many dwellings and historic buildings were damaged or destroyed.
The epicentre of Wednesday's quakes was near the town of Visso in Marche's Macerata province, 70 kilometres northwest of the epicentre of the devastating earthquake that struck central Italy on 24 August, killing at least 297 people and leaving 4,000 homeless.
Renzi said that areas hit by Wednesday's tremors would also benefit from 50 million euros of emergency relief and a tax freeze announced by the government after the August earthquake.
He also pledged that no one left homeless by the earthquakes would pass the winter in tents.
"We say no to tents. Let's be serious. It's already October and people can't spend the winter under canvass," he said.
