Italy

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Republic of Italy
Flag Coat of arms
Official flag Official Coat of Arms

National information
National motto:
National anthem: "Fratelli d'Italia"

About the people
Official languages: Italian, German, French
Population:
(# of people)
  • Total: 58.751.711 ab. (2005)
    (ranked #22°)
  • Density: n/a per km²

Geography / Places
country map
Here is the country on a map of the world.
Capital city: Rome
Largest city: Rome
Area
  • Total: 301.323 km²
    (ranked #69°)
  • Water: n/a km² (n/a%)

Politics / Government
Established: March 17, 1861
Leaders: President: Giorgio Napolitano

Economy / Money
Currency:
(Name of money)
Euro

International information
Time zone: +1
Telephone dialing code: +39
Internet domain: .it

Italy is a country in western Europe and a member of the European Union. Its official name is The Italian Republic.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Italy is a peninsula, meaning it is surrounded by the sea on all sides apart from one (its north side). Northern Italy is separated from France, Switzerland, and Austria by the Alps, a chain of mountains. Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian), the tallest mountain in Europe, belongs to this chain. The second important chain of mountains in Italy is the Apennines (Appennini in Italian), which are in central and southern Italy.

The capital of Italy is Rome. Other important cities in Italy are Milan, Turin, Florence, Naples, and Venice.

The country includes a number of islands, the biggest of which are Sicily and Sardinia, which are reached by ship or aircraft.

Northern Italy has some of the biggest lakes in the country, such as Lake Garda, Lake of Como, Lake Maggiore and Lake Iseo. Because it is surrounded by the sea, Italy has many kilometers of coast, which brings tourists from around the world. Tourists also come to see Italy's many historical places.

Italy includes in its territories two very small independent states, San Marino and the Vatican City.

[edit] People and culture

A famous Italian, Monica Bellucci
Enlarge
A famous Italian, Monica Bellucci

People from Italy are called Italians. Most Italians are Christian, and most of the Christians are Roman Catholics.

The population of Italy is about 58.5 million. About 2.5 million of these live in Rome, and 1 million in Milan.

The official language of Italy is Italian, though in the border areas there are also other languages used, such as French and German. People also speak languages such as Sicilian and Sardinian, which are similar to Italian, but are different languages.

The people of Italy are the children of the ancient Romans.

Latin was one of the first languages of Italy.

Italian women are known for their great beauty.

After the United States Italy has the largest illegal alien problem in the world.

Italy is home to more World Heritage sites than any other nation in the world. [[1]] These sites are properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

Italy makes more wine than any other country.

Italy is famous for there Italian Wine, fettucini, pasta, linguini, pepperoni, salami, varieties of cheese and Spaghetti.

[edit] Regions

Italy is divided into 20 Regions (Regioni in Italian) and every Region is divided into Provinces.

There are 20 Regions:

[edit] Politics

Italian Police drive Italian cars.
Enlarge
Italian Police drive Italian cars.

The Head of State is Giorgio Napolitano, whose task began in May 2006 and will end in May 2013 (the President of the Republic remains for 7 years). Napolitano is the eleventh President of the Italian Republic and he was preceded by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

The Head of Government is Romano Prodi, leader of a left-wing coalition, since 2006, when he defeated the right-wing former President Silvio Berlusconi by only a few votes. Prodi earned a very small majority in both Chambers of the Italian Parliament: he gained only 24,000 preferences more than Berlusconi at the Camera dei Deputati (one of the two Chambers) and only 4 Senators more than the other coalition.

Italy was one of the first members of the European Union and in 2002, along with 11 other European countries, it changed to using the euro as its official currency. Before this, the Italian Lira had been used, from 1881.

[edit] History

Before 1861, Italy did not exist as a state, because its territory was divided into several independent states, often under foreign domination (by countries such as Austria, France, and Spain). From the 1850s, in Piedmont, a free Italian state, the Earl of Cavour had the idea of defeating the Austrian domination in Lombardy and Veneto to create a Nothern Italian state. This happened, but other Central and Southern Italian states also decided to join Piedmont to create a bigger state. Particularly, in 1861, Garibaldi's mission in Southern Italy succeeded in conquering the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Italy was created. Vittorio Emanuele II was crowned King of Italy. But in 1861, Latium and Veneto were still not part of Italy, because they were under the power of the Pope and of the Austrian Emperor. Veneto was added to Italy in 1866, after a war against Austria, and Latium along with Rome was conquered by the Italian troops in 1870, when they entered the Pontifical State and declared the end of the temporal power of the Pope. The Pope, angry at this usurpation, declared himself prisoner in the Italian State, preventing Catholic people from participating in political life. Finally, in 1870, the Italian state was complete. Italy participated in World War I as an ally of Great Britain, France, and Russia against the Central Powers. The war was wholly fought on the Eastern border, near Austria. After the 'Caporetto defeat', it seemed that the war would be lost, but in 1918 the Central Powers surrendered, and Italy gained the Trentino-South Tyrol, which once belonged to Austria, though inhabited by Italian people.

1922 saw the rise of a new Italian movement, led by Benito Mussolini, leader of Fascism in Italy. He became Head of Government and dictator, calling himself 'duce'. He began a friendship with the German dictator Hitler and followed him into World War II. Italy entered war only in 1940 as an ally of Germany against France, Great Britain and Russia. On July 25, 1943, Mussolini was deposed by the Great Council of Fascism and on September 8, 1943, Badoglio declared that the war as an ally of Germany was ended. Italy started fighting as an ally of France and the UK, but Italian troops, due to the confusion deriving from the change, did not know who to shoot at. In Northern Italy a movement called Resistenza started to fight against the German invaders. Mussolini tried to create another Nothern Italian fascist state, the Republic of Salò, but it had no success. On April 25, 1945, Italy became free. The state became a republic on June 2, 1946, after a referendum in which for the first time women could vote. Italian people decided to put down the Savoia dynasty, who had been reigning since the beginning the state, in favour of a republican government.

[edit] See also

  • Italian cloth
  • Italian cuisine
  • Italian dressing
  • Italian iron
  • Italian politics

[edit] External links

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Regions of Italy
Abruzzo - Basilicata - Calabria - Campania - Emilia-Romagna - Friuli-Venezia Giulia - Latium - Liguria - Lombardy - Marche - Molise - Piedmont - Apulia - Sardinia - Sicily - Tuscany - Trentino-South Tyrol - Umbria - Aosta Valley - Veneto
Countries and territories of Europe
Albania - Andorra - Austria - Azerbaijan1 - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Cyprus2 - Czech Republic - Denmark - Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Georgia1 - Greece - Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Liechtenstein - Lithuania - Luxembourg - Malta - Moldova - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Republic of Macedonia - Romania - Russia1 - San Marino - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey1 - Ukraine - United Kingdom - Vatican City
Dependencies: Akrotiri and Dhekelia2 - Faroe Islands - Gibraltar - Guernsey - Jan Mayen - Jersey - Isle of Man - Svalbard
Unrecognised countries: Abkhazia | Nagorno-Karabakh2 | South Ossetia | Transnistria | Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus2
1. Country partly in Asia. 2. Geographically in Asia, but often counted as part of Europe for cultural and historical reasons.


Members of the European Union (EU) Flag of the European Union
Austria - Belgium - Cyprus - Czech Republic - Denmark - Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Lithuania - Luxembourg - Malta - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - United Kingdom


G8
Canada · France · Germany · Japan · Italy · United Kingdom · Russia · United States