The Italy portal Portale Italia
Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country in Southern and Western Europe . It consists of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea , with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as nearly 800 islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia . Italy shares its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and two enclaves: Vatican City and San Marino . It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi), and third-most populous member state of the European Union , with a population of nearly 60 million. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome ; other major urban areas include Milan , Naples , Turin , Palermo , Bologna , Florence , Genoa , and Venice .
The history of Italy goes back to numerous Italic peoples , notably including the ancient Romans , who conquered the Mediterranean world during the Roman Republic and ruled it for centuries during the Roman Empire . With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the Catholic Church and the Papacy . Between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages , Italy experienced the arrival of Germanic tribes and the fall of the Western Roman Empire . By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. The Italian Renaissance flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World , contributing significantly to the European Age of Discovery . (Full article... )
Rome (Italian and Latin : Roma , pronounced [ˈroːma] ⓘ ) is the capital city of Italy . It is also the capital of the Lazio region , the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital , and a special comune (municipality) named Comune di Roma Capitale . With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi), Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula , within Lazio (Latium ), along the shores of the Tiber Valley . Vatican City (the smallest country in the world and headquarters of the worldwide Catholic Church under the governance of the Holy See ) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome is generally considered to be the cradle of Western civilization and Western Christian culture , and the centre of the Catholic Church .
Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement for over three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe. The city's early population originated from a mix of Latins , Etruscans , and Sabines . Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom , the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire , and is regarded by many as the first-ever Imperial city and metropolis . It was first called The Eternal City (Latin : Urbs Aeterna ; Italian : La Città Eterna ) by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid , Virgil , and Livy . Rome is also called Caput Mundi (Capital of the World). (Full article... )
Roman cuisine comes from the Italian city of Rome . It features fresh, seasonal and simply-prepared ingredients from the Roman Campagna . These include peas , globe artichokes and fava beans , shellfish, milk-fed lamb and goat , and cheeses such as pecorino romano and ricotta . Olive oil is used mostly to dress raw vegetables, while strutto (pork lard ) and fat from prosciutto are preferred for frying. The most popular sweets in Rome are small individual pastries called pasticcini , gelato ("ice cream") and handmade chocolates and candies. Special dishes are often reserved for different days of the week; for example, gnocchi is eaten on Thursdays, baccalà (salted cod) on Fridays, and trippa on Saturdays. (Full article... )
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories
The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 The
president of Italy Sergio Mattarella during his entry into the
Sala del Tricolore on the occasion of the
Tricolour Day on 7 January 2017 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 2 Ernesto Teodoro Moneta was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Peace in 1907. He adopted the motto
In varietate unitas! which later inspired
Motto of the European Union . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 4 Palazzo Senatorio , seat of the municipality of Rome. It has been a
town hall since AD 1144, making it the oldest town hall in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 7 The Last Supper by
Leonardo da Vinci , possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of
Italian art (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 10 Antonio Vivaldi , in 1723. His best-known work is a series of
violin concertos known as
The Four Seasons . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 12 John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 13 Map of the
Italian diaspora in the world
Italy
+ 10,000,000
+ 1,000,000
+ 100,000
+ 10,000
(from
Culture of Italy )
Image 14 The Italian explorer
Christopher Columbus leads an expedition to the
New World , 1492.
His voyages are celebrated as the discovery of the Americas from a European perspective, and they opened a
new era in the history of humankind and sustained contact between the two worlds. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 16 Milan Cathedral is the
fourth-largest church in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 17 Teatro di San Carlo , Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 18 The
Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 19 Giorgio Moroder , pioneer of
Italo disco and
electronic dance music , is known as the "Father of disco". (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 20 Anti-fascist demonstration at
Porta San Paolo in
Rome on the occasion of the
Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 21 The
Frecce Tricolori , with the smoke trail representing the
national colours of Italy , above the
Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome during the celebrations of the
Festa della Repubblica on 2 June 2022 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 22 The
Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 23 Entrance to
Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 24 Florence Cathedral , which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 25 Scrovegni Chapel . The chapel contains a
fresco cycle by
Giotto , completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of
Western art . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 26 Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of
radio . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 27 World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to
Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 28 Leonardo da Vinci , a
polymath of the
High Renaissance who was active as a painter,
draughtsman , engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 29 The
Colosseum , originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, the largest ever built in the
Roman Empire . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 31 Romulus and Remus , the
Lupercal ,
Father Tiber , and the
Palatine on a
relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of
Trajan (AD 98–117) (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 32 A wooden puppet depicting the
Befana (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 33 Enrico Fermi , creator of the world's
first nuclear reactor . He is considered the "architect of the
nuclear age " and the "architect of the
atomic bomb ". (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 34 Pietà , by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 36 Holographic copy of 1847 of "
Il Canto degli Italiani ", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 37 Starting in 1909, the
Giro d'Italia is the
Grands Tours ' second oldest. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 38 The
Roman Empire provided an inspiration for the medieval European. Although the
Holy Roman Empire rarely acquired a serious geopolitical reality, it possessed great symbolic significance. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 40 The ingredients of traditional
pizza Margherita —
tomatoes (red),
mozzarella (white), and
basil (green)—are inspired by the colours of the national
flag of Italy . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 41 The
Forum of
Pompeii with
Vesuvius in the distance (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 42 Leonardo da Vinci 's
Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 43 Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential
architect in the Western world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 44 Dante Alighieri , one of the greatest poets of the
Middle Ages . His epic poem
The Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of
world literature . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 46 The Creation of Adam is one of the scenes on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, painted by
Michelangelo sometime between 1508 and 1512. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 47 Folkloristic reconstruction of the
Company of Death led by
Alberto da Giussano who is preparing to carry out the
charge during the
battle of Legnano at the
Palio di Legnano 2014 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 50 Antonio Meucci , inventor of the first
telephone (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 51 Dario Fo , one of the most widely performed playwrights in modern theatre, received international acclaim for his highly
improvisational style. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 53 Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal residence in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 54 Regional seat of
RAI in Cosenza (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 55 Sandro Botticelli ,
The Birth of Venus (
c. 1486 ).
Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in).
Uffizi , Florence. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 60 An
Alfa Romeo 159 vehicle of the
Carabinieri corps (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 61 William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 62 The
Altare della Patria in Rome, a
national symbol of Italy celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the
Italian Unknown Soldier since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th
Anniversary of the Unification of Italy . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 63 David , by
Michelangelo (
Accademia di Belle Arti , Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 64 Linguistic map of the
Italian language throughout the world
Official language
Secondary, widely spoken or understood
(from
Culture of Italy )
Image 65 Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 66 Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel
The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 67 Espresso is a coffee brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground
coffee beans . The term
espresso comes from the Italian
esprimere , which means 'to express', and refers to the process by which hot water is forced under pressure through ground coffee. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 68 The historic seat of the
Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 70 The cover of the
Corriere dei Piccoli on 11 July 1911 carries a cartoon strip in the Italian style, without speech bubbles. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 71 Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 73 Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 74 The statue of
Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the
national personification of Italy. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 75 Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 77 Samantha Cristoforetti is the first Italian woman in space. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut (199 days, 16 hours). (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 78 Clockwise from top left:
Thomas Aquinas , proponent of natural theology and the Father of
Thomism ;
Giordano Bruno , one of the major scientific figures of the Western world;
Cesare Beccaria , considered the Father of criminal justice and modern criminal law; and
Maria Montessori , credited with the creation of the
Montessori education (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 79 Luciano Pavarotti , considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the
High Cs " (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 80 The
Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 81 The
Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Italy. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 82 The
Uffizi in Florence (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 83 Giosuè Carducci . In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the
Nobel Prize in Literature . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 85 The
Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 92 Federico Fellini , considered one of the most influential and widely revered
filmmakers in the history of cinema (from
Culture of Italy )
Articles related to Italy
Astronomical observatories in Italy
Automobile museums in Italy
Central bank Public banks Global banks (Supervised by ECB) Nationwide and multi-regional banks (Supervised by ECB) Multi-regional (total assets €30b to €8b) Multi-regional and regional cooperative bank (Popolari banks) Co-operative banks (BCC) and central banks Regional retail bank others Foreign banks Ancient banks Related topics
Historical minority communities Ethno-linguistic minorities Scattered minorities
Historic currency and coinage of Italy
Overview Ancient Medieval Modern Contemporary
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Exodus Neighborhoods
1890s-1950s 1960s-1980s Other
Historical linguistic minorities :
Albanian ,
Catalan ,
Croatian ,
French ,
Franco-Provençal ,
Friulian ,
Germanic ,
Greek ,
Ladin ,
Occitan ,
Romani ,
Sardinian ,
Slovene ,
Wenzhounese
^ Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist.
National Regional/local Financial Sports Free On-line
Resources in Italy
Oil Natural gas
Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)
Prima Triennale Pubblica Esposizione dell’anno (1829)
Seconda Triennale Pubblica Esposizione dell’anno (1832)
Pubblica esposizione dell'anno (1838)
Quarto Esposizione d'Industria et di Belle Arti (1844)
Esposizione dei Prodotti e delle Manufatture nazionale (1846)
Quinta Esposizione di Industria e di Belle Arti (1850)
Esposizione Industriale (1854)
Sesta Esposizione Nazionale di Prodotti d'Industria
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1808–1861)
Solenne Pubblica Esposizione di Arti e Manifatture (1853)
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)Italy (1946 - present)