Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Italia, IPA: or Repubblica Italiana, IPA: ), is a Southern European country. It comprises the Italian Peninsula, the Po River valley, and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, and shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. The country also shares a sea border with Croatia, Slovenia and France. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory. It is shaped like a boot, and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo stivale (Italian for the boot).

Italy was home to many well-known and influential European civilizations, including the Etruscans, Greeks and the Romans. For more than 3,000 years Italy experienced migrations and invasions from Germanic, Celtic, Frankish, Byzantine Greek, Saracen, Norman, and the French Angevin, and Lombard peoples, and was divided into many independent states until 1861 when Italy became a nation-state.

Italy is called "il Belpaese" (Italian for beautiful country) by its inhabitants, due to the beauty and variety of its landscapes and for having the world's largest artistic patrimony; the country is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (41 as of July 13 2006).

Today, Italy is a highly developed country with the 7th highest GDP in 2006, a member of the G8 and a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

Inhabitants of Italy are referred to as Italians (Italian: Italiani or poetically Italici).

History

The word Italy derives from the Homeric (Aeolic) word ιταλός [1], which means "bull". Excavations throughout Italy have found proof of people in Italy dating back to the Paleolithic period (the "Old Stone Age") some 200,000 years ago. The first Greek settlers, who arrived in Italy from Euboea island the 8th century BC, possibly named their new land "land of bulls".

Italy has influenced the cultural and social development of the whole Mediterranean area, deeply influencing European culture as well. As a result, it has also influenced other important cultures. Such cultures and civilizations have existed there since prehistoric times. After Magna Graecia, the Etruscan civilization and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European science and art during the Renaissance.

Modern Italy became nation-state belatedly �" on March 17 1861, when most of the states of the peninsula were united under king Victor Emmanuel II of the Savoy dynasty, which ruled over Sardinia and Piedmont. The architects of Italian unification were Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the Chief Minister of Victor Emmanuel, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and national hero. Rome itself remained for a little less than a decade under the Papacy, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy only on September 20 1870. The Vatican is now an independent enclave surrounded by Rome. Italy is currently a republic. The Italian Republic was created by popular referendum in 1946 after World War II and the fall of Mussolini's fascist regime.

Politics

Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic elected on May 10, 2006.

Romano Prodi is the Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri ("President of the Ministers Council"), the equivalent of Prime Minister of the Italian Government.

The 1948 Constitution of Italy established a bicameral parliament (Parlamento), consisting of a Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) and a Senate (Senato della Repubblica), a separate judiciary, and an executive branch composed of a Council of Ministers (cabinet) (Consiglio dei ministri), headed by the prime minister (Presidente del consiglio dei ministri).

The President of the Republic (Presidente della Repubblica) is elected for seven years by the parliament sitting jointly with a small number of regional delegates. The president nominates the prime minister, who proposes the other ministers (formally named by the president). The Council of Ministers must retain the support (fiducia) of both houses.

The houses of parliament are popularly and directly elected through a proportional representation system.The Chamber of Deputies has 630 members, the Senate 315 elected senators; in addition, the Senate includes former presidents and other persons (no more than five) appointed senators for life by the President of the Republic according to special constitutional provisions. As of 15 May 2006, there are seven life senators (of which three are former Presidents). Both houses are elected for a maximum of five years, but both may be dissolved before the expiration of their normal term. Legislative bills may originate in either house and must be passed by a majority in both. The Italian judicial system is based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later statutes. A constitutional court, the Corte Costituzionale, passes on the constitutionality of laws, and is a post-World War II innovation.

All Italian citizens older than 18 can vote. However, to vote for the senate, the voter must be at least 25 or older.

See also: Foreign relations of Italy, List of Foreign Ministers of Italy, List of Prime Ministers of Italy

Administrative divisions

Administrative divisions.

Italy is subdivided into 20 regions (regioni, singular regione). Five of these regions enjoy a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on some of their specific local matters, and are marked by an *:#Abruzzo (with capital L'Aquila)#Basilicata (Potenza)#Calabria (Catanzaro)#Campania (Naples, Napoli)#Emilia-Romagna (Bologna)#Friuli-Venezia Giulia* (Trieste)#Latium, Lazio (Rome, Roma)#Liguria (Genoa, Genova)#Lombardy, Lombardia (Milan, Milano)#Marches, Marche (Ancona)#Molise (Campobasso)#Piedmont, Piemonte (Turin, Torino)#Apulia, Puglia (Bari)#Sardinia*, Sardegna (Cagliari)#Aosta Valley*, Valle d'Aosta / Vallée d'Aoste (Aosta, Aoste)#Tuscany, Toscana (Florence, Firenze)#Trentino-South Tyrol*, Trentino-Alto Adige / Trentino-Südtirol (Trento, Bolzano-Bozen)#Umbria (Perugia)#Sicily*, Sicilia (Palermo)#Veneto (Venice, Venezia)

All regions except the Aosta Valley are further subdivided into two or more provinces.

Geography

Italy consists predominantly of a large peninsula (the Italian Peninsula) with a distinctive boot shape that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, where together with its two main islands Sicily and Sardinia it creates distinct bodies of water, such as the Adriatic Sea to the north-east, the Ionian Sea to the south-east, the Tyrrhenian Sea to the south-west and finally the Ligurian Sea to the north-west.

Satellite image of Italy.

The Apennine mountains form the backbone of this peninsula, leading north-west to where they join the Alps, the mountain range that then forms an arc enclosing Italy from the north.Here is also found a large alluvial plain, the Po-Venetian plain, drained by the Po River �" which is Italy's biggest river with 652 km �" and its many tributaries flowing down from the Alps (Dora Baltea, 160 km, Sesia, 138 km, Ticino, 248 km, Adda, 313 km, Oglio, 280 km, Mincio), 194 km, and Apennines (Tanaro, 276 km, Trebbia, 115 km, Taro, 115 km, Secchia, 172 km, Panaro, 148 km).

Other well-known or importants rivers include the Tiber (Tevere) (405 km), Adige (410 km), Arno (241 km), Piave (220 km), Reno (212 km), Volturno (175 km), Tagliamento (170 km), Liri-Garigliano (158 km), Isonzo (136 km).

Its highest point is Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) at 4,810 metres (15,781 feet). Italy is more typically associated with two famous volcanoes: the currently dormant Vesuvius near Naples and the very active Etna on Sicily.

Sicily and Sardinia are the two major islands of Italy (comprehensive list).

Climate

The climate of the coastal areas is very different from that of the interior, particularly during the winter months. The higher areas are cold, wet, and often snowy. The coastal regions, where most of the large towns are located, have a typical Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot and generally dry summers. The length and intensity of the summer dry season increases southwards (compare the tables for Rome, Naples, and Brindisi).

There is no great difference in the temperatures at sea level from north to south. The east coast of the peninsula is not as wet as the west coast. The east coast north of Pescara is occasionally affected by the cold bora winds in winter and spring, but the wind is less strong here than around Trieste.

Italy is subject to highly diverse weather conditions in autumn, winter, and spring, but is mostly sunny during the summer months. Erratic weather can continue into late May and may commence any time after early September. Throughout the winter, however, cloudy rainy days alternate with spells of mild, sunny weather.

The least number of rainy days and the highest number of hours of sunshine occur in the extreme south of the mainland and in Sicily and Sardinia. Here sunshine averages from four to five hours a day in winter and up to ten or eleven hours in summer.

Generally, the hottest month is July (where temperatures can reach 32°C/34°C); the coldest month is January; the wettest month is November, with an average rainfall of 129mm; while the driest month is July, with an average rainfall of 15mm.

Demographics

Italy is largely homogeneous in language and religion but is diverse culturally, economically, and politically. The country has the fifth-highest population density in Europe at 193 persons per square kilometre (499/sq. mi). For a country of 58.7 million people, Italy has a smaller number of immigrants than France and Germany.

Since the beginning of Roman civilization, important ethnic groups like Greek settlers, Germanic and Celtic invaders and plunderers, and Norman French colonisers have all left important impressions on the people today.

The number of immigrants or foreign residents in Italy has steadily increased to reach 2,402,157, according to the latest figures (1/2005) of ISTAT. They currently make up a little more than 4% of the official total population. The majority of immigrants in Italy come from other surrounding European nations, and they number 1,122,276, and chiefly come from Albania, Romania, the Ukraine, and Poland. French nationals living in Italy, according to ISTAT figures, are more commonly women than men. The next largest group consists of North African Arab groups, and they number some 447,310 chiefly from Morocco, and Tunisia. Smaller groups consists of Asians, South Americans, and sub-saharan Africans.Top 5 largest foreign minorities are Albanian (316,659), Moroccan (294,945), Romanian (248,849), Chinese (111,712), and Ukrainian (93,441).

Italian City Provinces, Urban Areas and Metropolitan Areas
*Milan (Milano, Lombardia): 3,869,037 - 4.240.000 - 7.500.000
*Rome (Roma, Lazio}: 3,831,959 - 3,831,959 - 3,831,959.
*Naples (Napoli, Campania): 3,086,622 - 3.800.000 - 5.000.000
*Turin (Torino, Piemonte): 2,242,775 - 2,242,775 - 2,242,775

Religion

Roman Catholicism is by far the most popular religion in the country. Although the Catholic church has been separated from the state, it still plays a role in the nation's political affairs partly due to Holy See's location in Rome. Some 90%[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/it.html#People] of Italians are Roman Catholic of which one-third are active members. Other Christian groups in Italy include Jehovah's Witnesses 400,000[2] and the Waldensians (35,000).

In the past two decades, Italy has been receiving many waves of immigrants from all over the world especially eastern Europe and North Africa. As a result, some 825,000[3] Muslims (1.4%) live in Italy, although other estimates indicate that there are up to one million Muslims [4] as well as, 75,000 Hindus [5], 60,000 Buddhists, and a historical community of 30,000 Jewish members.
*Islam in Italy

Economy

According to GDP calculations, as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), Italy is ranked as the seventh largest economy in the world in 2006, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, China, UK, and France, and the fourth largest in Europe. According to the OECD, in 2004 Italy was the world's sixth-largest exporter of manufactured goods. This capitalistic economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less developed agricultural south.

Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75% of energy requirements are imported. Over the past decade, Italy has pursued a tight fiscal policy in order to meet the requirements of the Economic and Monetary Union and has benefited from lower interest and inflation rates. Italy joined the Euro from its conception in 1999.

Italy's economic performance has at times lagged behind that of its EU partners, and the current government has enacted numerous short-term reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and long-term growth. It has moved slowly, however, on implementing certain structural reforms favoured by economists, such as lightening the high tax burden and overhauling Italy's rigid labour market and expensive pension system, because of the current economic slowdown and opposition from labour unions.

Italy has been less successful in terms of developing world class multinational corporations. Instead, the country's main economic strength has been its large base of small and medium size companies. These companies typically manufacture products that are technologically moderately advanced and therefore increasingly face crushing competition from China and other emerging Asian economies. Meanwhile, a base of corporations able to compete in markets for advanced goods and services is underdeveloped or lacking entirely. It is not obvious how Italy will overcome this significant structural weakness in the short run, and Italy has therefore been referred to as the new "sick man of Europe".[6]
*List of Italian companies

Culture

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Italy, as a state, did not exist until the unification of its city states, the Risorgimento, came to a conclusion around the year 1861. Due to this comparatively late unification, and the historical autonomy of the many regions that comprise the Italian Peninsula, many traditions and customs that we now recognize as distinctly Italian can be identified by their regions of origin, which further reflect the influence of the many different peoples that occupied those areas, and of the importance of religion, especially Roman Catholicism. Despite the pronounced political and social isolation of these regions that prevailed throughout Italy's history, Italy's contributions to the cultural and historical heritage of Europe remain immense.

Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

Italy has been a seminal place for many artistic and intellectual movements that spread throughout Europe and beyond, including the Renaissance and Baroque. Perhaps Italy's greatest cultural achievements lie in its long artistic heritage, which is often validated through the names of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Bernini, Titian and Raphael, among many others. Beyond art, Italy's contributions to the realms of literature, science and music cannot be overlooked.

With the basis of the modern Italian language established through the eminent Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, whose greatest work, the Divina Commedia is often considered the foremost literary statement produced in Europe during the Middle Ages, there is no shortage of celebrated literary figures; Boccaccio, Castiglione and Pirandello, and the poets Tasso, Ariosto, Leopardi, and Petrarca, whose best known vehicle of expression, the sonnet, was invented in Italy. Prominent philosophers include Bruno, Ficino, Machiavelli, Vico, Gentile, and Eco.

In science, Galileo Galilei made considerable advancements toward the scientific revolution, and Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance Man. Other notable Italian scientists and inventors include Fermi, Cassini, Volta, Lagrange, Fibonacci, Marconi, and Meucci.

From folk music to classical, music has always played an important role in Italian culture. Having given birth to opera, for example, Italy provides many of the very foundations of the classical music tradition. Some of the instruments that are often associated with classical music, including the piano and violin, were invented in Italy, and many of the existing classical music forms can trace their roots back to innovations of 16th and 17th century Italian music (such as the symphony, concerto, and sonata). Some of Italy's most famous composers include the Renaissance composers Palestrina and Monteverdi, the Baroque composers Corelli and Vivaldi, the Classical composers Paganini and Rossini, and the Romantic composers Verdi and Puccini. Modern Italian composers such as Berio and Nono proved significant in the development of experimental and electronic music.

Football (calcio) is a popular spectator and participation sport. The Italian national team has won the World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006) and is the current titleholder, while major Italian clubs frequently compete at a high level of European competitions.
* Cuisine of Italy
* Music of Italy
* Cinema of Italy
* Art of Italy
* Italian Literature
* List of Italians

Languages

The official language of Italy is Standard Italian, descendant of Tuscan dialect and a direct descendant of Latin. (Some 75% of Italian words are of Latin origin.) However, when Italy was unified, in 1861, Italian existed mainly as a literary language, and was spoken by less than 3% of the population. Different languages were spoken throughout Italian peninsula, many of which were Romance languages which had developed in every region, due to political fragmentation of Italy. Indeed, each historical region of Italy had its own so-called ‘dialetto' (with ‘dialect' usually meaning, improperly, a non-Italian Romance language), with variants existing at the township-level.

Venice

Cinque terre in Liguria.

Massimo d'Azeglio, one of Cavour's ministers, is said to have stated, following Italian unification, that having created Italy, all that remained was to create Italians. Given the high number of languages spoken throughout the peninsula, it was quickly established that 'proper' or 'standard' Italian would be based on the Florentine dialect spoken in most of Tuscany (given that it was the first region to produce authors such as Dante Alighieri, who between 1308 and 1321 wrote the Divina Commedia). A national education system was established - leading to a decrease in variation in the languages spoken throughout the country over time. But it was not until the 1960s, when economic growth enabled widespread access to the television programmes of the state television broadcaster, RAI, that Italian truly became broadly-known and quite standardised.

Today, despite regional variations in the form of accents and vowel emphasis, Italian is fully comprehensible to most throughout the country. Nevertheless certain dialects have become cherished beacons of regional variation�"the Neapolitan dialect which is extensively used for the singing of popular folk-songs, for instance�"and in recent years many people have developed a particular pride in their dialects.

In addition to the various regional variations and dialects of standard Italian, a number of truly separate languages are spoken:
*In the north, the province of South Tyrol (Südtirol in German, Alto Adige in Italian) is almost entirely German-speaking; the area was awarded to Italy following the First World War and her defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Pockets of German speakers also persist in other north-eastern Italian regions—a remnant of the old Austrian influence on this area of Italy. In total some 300,000 or so Italians speak German as their first language and indeed many identify themselves as ethnic Austrian Germans.
*Some 120,000 or so people live in the Aosta Valley region, where a dialect of Franco-Provençal is spoken that is similar to patois dialects spoken in France. About 1,400 people living in two isolated towns in Foggia speak another dialect of Franco-Provençal.
*About 80,000 Slovene-speakers live in the north-eastern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia near the border with Slovenia.
*In the Dolomite mountains of Trentino-South Tyrol and Veneto there are some 40,000 speakers of the Rhaetian language Ladin.
*A very large community of some 700,000 people in Friuli speak Friulian—another Rhaetian language.
*In the Molise region of central-south Italy some 4,000 people speak Serbo-Croatian. These are the Molise Croats, descendants of a group of people who migrated from the Balkans in the Middle Ages.
*Scattered across southern Italy (Salento and Calabria) are a number of some 30,000 Greek-speakers—considered to be the last surviving traces of the region's Greek heritage. (Ancient Greek colonists reached southern Italy and Sicily about 1500 BC.) They speak a Greek dialect, Griko.
*Some 15,000 Catalan speakers reside around the area of Alghero in the north-west corner of Sardinia—believed to be the result of a migration of a large group of Catalans from Barcelona in ages past.
*The Arbëreshë, of whom there are around 100,000 in southern Italy and in central Sicily�"the result of past migrations�"are speakers of the Arbëresh dialect of Albanian.
*Finally, the largest group of non-Italian speakers, some 1.6 million people, are those who speak Sardinian, a Romance language which retains many pre-Latin words.

Notes

References

External links

Official sites

* Presidenza della Repubblica - Official site of the President of the Republic of Italy (in Italian)
* Parlamento - Official site of the Italian Parliament (Senate in Italian only)
* The Chamber of Deputies - First Parliament Branch (few languages)
* The Senate of The Italian Republic - Second Parliament Branch (in Italian)
* Italia.gov.it - Main institutional portal (in Italian)
* The Italian Government - Official site of the President of the Council of Ministries
* Corte Costituzionale - Italian Constitutional Court
* Corte Suprema di Cassazione - Italian Supreme Court of Cassation
* Corte dei Conti - Italian Court of Accounts
* Ministero degli Affari Esteri - Italian Foreign Office
* Ministero dell'interno - Ministry of Interior (in Italian)
* Ministero dell'Istruzione, Università e Ricerca - Ministry of Education, University and Research
* Study in Italy - International changes - Ministry of Education
* Ministero della Salute - Ministry of Health
* Ministero della Difesa - Ministry of Defense
* Ministero per gli Italiani nel Mondo - Foreign-Italian Ministry
* Ministero del lavoro - Ministry of Welfare
* Ministero delle Attività Produttive - Ministry of Industry
* Ministero dell'Agricoltura - Ministry of Agriculture
* Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia - Ministry of Justice
* Istituto nazionale di statistica - National Statistics Office (in Italian)

Others

* Webcams in Italy
* History of Italy: Primary Documents
* Encyclopaedia Britannica's Italy country page
* Italian Railways
* ENIT - Italian State Tourism Board
* Italian Parks - National and regional parks and protected areas
* List and maps of archaeological sites in Italy
*WWW-VL: History: Italy at IUE

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