Italy /ˈɪtəli/ (help·info) (Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by another 10 million Italian descendants in the world, making it spoken by a total of 70 million native speakers. It is also spoken by an additional 125 million people as a foreign language. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four: Italia, [iˈta:lja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by another 10 million Italian descendants in the world, making it spoken by a total of 70 million native speakers. It is also spoken by an additional 125 million people as a foreign language. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four: Repubblica Italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands. Notably, in British English usage, the term means Europe excluding the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Ireland and Iceland and partly on the Italian Peninsula The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe (the other two being the Iberian Peninsula and Balkan Peninsula), spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale (The Boot). Three smaller in Southern Europe The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical geographical, phytogeographic or climatic and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate, Sicily Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. Minor islands around it are also considered to be part of Sicily and Sardinia Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). Italy shares its northern, Alpine The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west boundary with France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ franss or /ˈfrɑːns/ frahns; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a member state of the European Union located in its western region, with several overseas territories and islands located on other, Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to, Austria Austria /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich; Austro-Bavarian: Repubblik Östareich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to and Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ , officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, listen (help·info)) /reˈpublika sloˈveːnija/, is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on the. The independent states of San Marino The Most Serene Republic of San Marino (pronounced /ˌsæn məˈriːnoʊ/ san mə-REE-noh; Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino) is a country situated in the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 60 km2 with an estimated population of almost 30,000. Its capital is the City of and the Vatican City Vatican City /ˈvætɪkən ˈsɪti/ , officially the State of the Vatican City (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano, pronounced [ˈsta(ː)to della tʃitˈta del vatiˈka(ː)no]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy. It has an area of approximately are enclaves In political geography, an enclave is a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d'Italia Campione d'Italia is an Italian comune of the Province of Como in the Lombardy region, occupying an enclave within the Swiss canton of Ticino, separated from the rest of Italy by Lake Lugano and mountains. The enclave is less than 1 km at the shortest point from the rest of Italy, but the hilly terrain requires a journey by road of over 14 km to is an Italian exclave In political geography, an enclave is a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers 301,338 km² and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold. But in continental areas, such as central North America the variations between summer and winter can be extreme. In regions traditionally. With 60.2 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
The land known as Italy today has been the cradle of European cultures and peoples, such as the Etruscans Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in an area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci. Their Roman name is the origin of the names of Tuscany, their heartland, and Etruria, their wider region and the Romans Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world. Italy's capital, Rome Rome (English pronunciation: /roʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The, was for centuries the political centre of Western civilisation The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical, as the capital of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus. After its decline The decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom. The English historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire made this concept part of the framework of the English language, but he was not the first to speculate on why, Italy would endure numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages, which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The descendants of these peoples became, and in many areas contributed to, the ethnic groups of North such as the Lombards The Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Lombard Kingdom, later named Kingdom of Italy, which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks. Their influence on Italian political and Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths (the other branch being the Visigoths), an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late Roman Empire, to the Normans The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity emerged initially in the first half of the tenth century, and gradually evolved over succeeding centuries until they and later, the Byzantines The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors. It was called the Roman Empire, and also as Romania , by its inhabitants and its neighbours. As the distinction between "Roman Empire" and "Byzantine Empire" is purely a, among others. Centuries later, Italy would become the birthplace of the Renaissance The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The term renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the,[5] an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
Through much of its post-Roman history, Italy was fragmented into numerous kingdoms and city-states (such as the Kingdom of Sardinia Kingdom of Sardinia, also known as Piedmont-Sardinia or Sardinia-Piedmont, was the name given to the possessions of the House of Savoy in 1720, when the crown of Sardinia was awarded by the Treaty of The Hague to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy to compensate him for the loss of the crown of Sicily to Austria, retaining in that way the title of, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , commonly known as just the Two Sicilies, was the largest, richest and most important of the states before Italian unification. It lasted until 1860, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Piedmont (officially known as Kingdom of Sardinia, but it's capital was Turin), that changed name in Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan was a state in northern Italy from 1395 to 1797. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire, by then a decentralised entity, and was ruled by several dynasties, most of them major powers from outside Italy. Although the Duchy's territory varied over the centuries, it generally covered much of Lombardy, including both Milan and Pavia,), but was unified Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end in 1861,[6] a tumultuous period in history known as the "Risorgimento Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end". In the late 19th century, through World War I World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies against the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were, and to World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Japanese occupation of Hong Kong · Hungary ·, Italy possessed a colonial empire The Italian colonial empire, created after the Kingdom of Italy, joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved out large empires over several, which extended its rule to Libya Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībiyā pronunciation ; Libyan vernacular: Lībya pronunciation (help·info); Amazigh: ), officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ( Arabic: الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الإشتراكية العظمى Al-Jamāhīriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Š, Eritrea Eritrea (Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia, Italian Somaliland Italian Somaliland was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) from the 1880s until 1941 in the territory of the modern-day Northeast African nation of Somalia, Ethiopia Ethiopia (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), a landlocked state in the Horn of Africa, is one of the most ancient countries in the world[citation needed]. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth largest by area. The capital, Albania Albania /ælˈbeɪniə/ al-BAY-nee-ə (Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria, Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia or Shqypnia), officially the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, pronounced [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːs]), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo[a] to the northeast,, Rhodes Rhodes is a Greek island approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the homonymous capital city of the island, the Dodecanese The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete. They have a rich history, and many of even the smallest inhabited islands boast dozens of Byzantine churches and medieval castles and a concession in Tianjin The Concessions in Tianjin were concession territories ceded by the Chinese imperial Qing Dynasty to the European imperial powers in Tianjin , China, China.[7]
Modern Italy is a democratic republic and the world's eighteenth most developed country,[8] with the eighth or tenth highest quality of life index rating The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries. The index was calculated in 2005 and includes data from 111 countries and territories in the world.[9][10] Italy enjoys a very high standard of living This is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report released on October 5, 2009, compiled on the basis of data from 2007. It covers 180 UN member states , along with Hong Kong (SAR of China) and the Palestinian territories. Twelve UN member states are not, and has a high nominal GDP per capita This article includes three lists of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product per capita at nominal values, the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year, converted at market exchange rates to current U.S. dollars, divided by the average population for the same year.[11][12] It is a founding member of what is now the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Italy is also a member of the G8 and G20. It has the world's seventh-largest nominal GDP, tenth highest GDP (PPP)[13] and the fifth highest government budget in the world.[14] It is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union. Italy, on addition to this, has the world's eight-largest defence budget and shares NATO's nuclear weapons.
Italy, especially Rome, has an important place in political, military and cultural affairs, with worldwide organizations such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),[15] World Food Programme (WFP), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Glocal Forum,[16] and the NATO Defence College being headquartered in the country and the city. The country's European political, social and economic influence make it a major regional power, alongside the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia.[17][18][19][20][21] The country has a high public education level, high labour force,[22] is a globalised nation,[23] and also has 2009's sixth best international reputation.[24] Italy also has the world's nineteenth highest life expectancy,[25] and the world's second best healthcare system.[26][27][28] It is the world's fifth most visited country, with over 43.7 million international arrivals,[29] and boasts a long tradition of excellence in all the arts and sciences, including the fact that Italy has the world's greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites to date (44).[30][31]
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Wall Street Journal
ROME Italy's highest court on Thursday threw out the long-running corruption trial of David Mills, a former lawyer of Prime Minister ...
Italy's Silvio Berlusconi attacks 'Taliban' judiciary BBC News
Italian Court Action Gives One Victory to Premier New York Times
David Mills could escape jail over Berlusconi bribe case The Guardian
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Q. I am planning a trip to Italy with a family member that will include Rome, Sorrento, Naples, Florence. I know there are so many incredible museums, art galleries, and cathedrals to see, and we plan to hit the major ones, but we're really more interested in experiencing the Italian culture. Do you have any recommendations on what we should do? Thanks in advance for your help.
Asked by Kris - Fri Sep 7 17:37:56 2007 - - 7 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Look for local festivals near where you'll be - it makes a nice break from the museums/churches/gallerie s and you'll get a better feel for the traditions and actual life in Italy. An added advantage is great food. Some of the most interesting are in the smaller towns. There are several sites that list events by type of event, month, location:
Answered by conley39 - Sat Sep 8 05:49:09 2007
