Portal:Italy

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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 land borders with France to the west; Switzerland and Austria to the north; Slovenia to the east; and the two enclaves of Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with nearly 59 million inhabitants. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome; other major cities include Milan (the largest metropolitan area in the country), Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Bari, 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. Barbarian invasions and other factors led to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. 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 Age of Discovery. (Full article...)

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Southern Italy, also known as Meridione ([meriˈdjoːne]) or Mezzogiorno ([ˌmɛddzoˈdʒorno] ^ⓘ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions. In the 21st century, the term "Mezzogiorno" mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum, i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The island of Sardinia, which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy, which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the Mezzogiorno. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term "South Italy" (Italia meridionale, or just Sud, i.e. "south") to statistically identify in its reportings the six mainland regions of southern Italy without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region under the ISTAT denominated "Insular Italy" (Italia insulare, or simply Isole "Islands"). These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament. Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as "southern Italy" in most definitions of the southern Italy macroregion. (Full article...)

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Image 1Dome of Florence Cathedral
Image 2Youth of Moses by Sandro Botticelli, 1481-82, Sistine Chapel
Image 3View of Piazzetta San Marco toward Grand Canal of Venice, at dawn, with Doges' Palace on the left and Biblioteca Marciana on the right.
Image 4The Forma Urbis Romae is a massive marble map of ancient Rome, created under the emperor Septimius Severus between 203 and 211.
Image 5South face of the Tofana di Rozes in the Parco naturale regionale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo
Image 6A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo
Image 7Interior of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome
Image 8Sellajoch, South Tyrol and Trentino (seen from Pordoi Pass), Langkofel on the left, Piz Ciavazes on the right
Image 9Porta Soprana is the best-known gate of the ancient walls of Genoa.

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...that the Italian automaker Autobianchi was founded by the bicycle manufacturer Bianchi, tire giant Pirelli and Fiat?

...that Umarell [uma'rɛːlː], is an Italian slang term for sidewalk superintendent, popular in Bologna and increasingly used in other part of the country?

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A veggie pizza divided into eight slices

Pizza is an Italian dish typically consisting of a flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven.

The term pizza was first recorded in AD 997, in a Latin manuscript from the southern Italian town of Gaeta, in Lazio, on the border with Campania. Raffaele Esposito is often credited with creating the modern version of pizza in Naples at the end of the 19th century. In 2009, Neapolitan pizza was registered with the European Union as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) dish. In 2017, the art of making Neapolitan pizza was included on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8Dante Alighieri, whose works helped establish modern Italian language, is considered one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His epic poem Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10Clockwise 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 11Scrovegni 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 12Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, an example of modern architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15Cover of Corriere dei Piccoli, 11 July 1911, with a strip in the Italian style (no speech bubbles). (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16Pinocchio Disney film is based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 17Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18Leonardo 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 19Folkloristic 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 20Pisa Cathedral and the Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth, 1752 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Villa La Rotonda, designed by Palladio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29Holographic copy of 1847 of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. He contributed to the nationwide use of the Italian language. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 34The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 36Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37The ingredients of traditional pizza Margherita—tomatoes (red), mozzarella (white), and basil (green)—are held by popular legend to be inspired by the colours of the national flag of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40Dario 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 41Romulus 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 42John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 44Pietà, by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45Celebration of the 2777th Natale di Roma at the Circus Maximus (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46Commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymus Francken I, c. 1590 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48Established in 1224 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50The statue of Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 52Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 53Linguistic map of the Italian language throughout the world
  Official language

  Secondary, widely spoken or understood

  Understood by some due to former colonisation
(from Culture of Italy)
Image 54The 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 55Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 56The Antica trattoria Bagutto in Milan, the oldest restaurant in Italy and the second in Europe. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 57Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 58The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60Espresso 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 61A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 62The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63The 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 64Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 65Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 66The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 67The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 68Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 69The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 70The 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 71A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 72The 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 73Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 74Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 75Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 76The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 77The 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 78Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 79Enrico Fermi, creator of the world's first nuclear reactor (from Culture of Italy)
Image 80Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 81Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 82Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)