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Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country in Southern and Western Europe. It is located on a peninsula that extends into the middle of the
Mediterranean Sea , with the
Alps on its northern land border, as well as 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, covering an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi), and third-most populous member state of the
European Union , with a population of nearly 60 million. Its capital and
largest city is
Rome ; other major urban areas include
Milan ,
Naples ,
Turin ,
Florence , and
Venice .
In antiquity, Italy was home to
numerous peoples ; the
Latin city of Rome, founded as a
Kingdom , became a
Republic that conquered the Mediterranean world and ruled it for centuries as an
Empire . With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the
Catholic Church and the
Papacy . During the
Early Middle Ages , Italy experienced the
fall of the Western Roman Empire and inward migration from Germanic tribes. 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 , leading the European
Age of Discovery . However, centuries of rivalry and infighting between city-states left the peninsula
divided . During the
17th and 18th centuries , Italian economic importance waned significantly. (
Full article... )
Tuscany (
TUSK -ə-nee ,
Italian : Toscana , Italian:
[toˈskaːna] ) is a
region in
central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is
Florence (Firenze ).
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on
high culture . It is regarded as the birthplace of the
Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the
Italian language . The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by
Dante Alighieri ,
Petrarch ,
Giovanni Boccaccio ,
Niccolò Machiavelli and
Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the
Uffizi and the
Palazzo Pitti . Tuscany is also known for its
wines , including
Chianti ,
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ,
Morellino di Scansano ,
Brunello di Montalcino and white
Vernaccia di San Gimignano . Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is sometimes considered "a nation within a nation". (
Full article... )
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First Italian balloon flight medal
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Monte Viso Tunnel is the most ancient tunnel dug through a mountain in Italy?
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The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 2
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 3
Royal Palace of Caserta , the largest royal residence in the world (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 4
Pietà , by
Michelangelo is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 5
Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 9 A wooden puppet depicting the
Befana (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 10
Giorgio Moroder , pioneer of
Italo disco and
electronic dance music , is known as the "Father of disco". (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 11
William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 12
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 14 Entrance to
Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in
Europe (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 15 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 19
Leonardo da Vinci 's
Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 21
David , by
Michelangelo (
Accademia di Belle Arti ,
Florence , Italy) is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 22 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 26
John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 27 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 28 The
Forum of
Pompeii with
Vesuvius in the distance (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 31
Luciano Pavarotti , considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the
High Cs " (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 32 Traditional
pizza Margherita , whose ingredients,
tomato (red),
mozzarella (white) and
basil (green), are inspired by the colours of the national
flag of Italy . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 34 The historic seat of the
Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in
Milan (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 35 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 36
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 37
Ferragosto
fireworks display in
Padua on 15 August 2010 (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 38
Teatro di San Carlo ,
Naples . It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 39
Antonio Vivaldi , in 1723. His best-known work is a series of
violin concertos known as
The Four Seasons . (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 43 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 44
Federico Fellini , considered one of the most influential and widely revered
filmmakers in the history of cinema (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 45 Regional seat of
RAI in Cosenza (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 46
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 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 52
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 53 The
Sagra dell'uva in
Marino , celebrating grapes (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 54 The
Jefferson Memorial in
Washington, D.C. , reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 55
Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 57 The
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 59
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 60 The
Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 61 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 62
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of
Italian art (from
Culture of Italy )
Image 63
Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel
The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of
world literature . (from
Culture of Italy )
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