102 Facts About Italy

Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in Southern Europe; it is considered part of Western Europe.

These mostly independent states served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East, often enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe; however, at the same time, part of central Italy was under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal until the 19th century, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman and other foreign conquests of the region.

The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art.

Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Trade Organization, the Group of Seven, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Latin Union, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area, and many more.

Ancient Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned by Aristotle and Thucydides.

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Nevertheless, by his time the larger concept of Oenotria and "Italy" had become synonymous, and the name applied to most of Lucania as well.

In 264 BC, Roman Italy extended from the Arno and Rubicon rivers of the centre-north to the entire south.

Excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Middle Palaeolithic period some 200, 000 years ago, while modern humans appeared about 40, 000 years ago at Riparo Mochi.

Rome, a settlement around a ford on the river Tiber in central Italy conventionally founded in 753 BC, was ruled for a period of 244 years by a monarchical system, initially with sovereigns of Latin and Sabine origin, later by Etruscan kings.

Roman Italy remained the metropole of the empire, and as the homeland of the Romans and the territory of the capital, maintained a special status which made it.

The Indo-Roman trade relations, beginning around the 1st century BCE, testify to extensive Roman trade in far away regions; many reminders of the commercial trade between the Indian subcontinent and Italy have been found, such as the ivory statuette Pompeii Lakshmi from the ruins of Pompeii.

The remaining part of the peninsula remained under the Byzantines and was divided between the exarchate of Italy, based in Ravenna, the Duchy of Rome, the Duchy of Naples, the Duchy of Calabria and Sicily, the latter directly dependent on the Emperor of Constantinople.

The wealth such business brought to Italy meant that large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned.

Italy was the birthplace and heart of the Renaissance during the 1400s and 1500s.

Italy notably avoided the collapse of the League in the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy and during the aborted invasion of Italy by the Turks.

However, the military campaign of Charles VIII of France in Italy caused the end of the Italic League and initiated the Italian Wars between the Valois and the Habsburgs.

Birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula.

Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860.

From 2 November 1899 to 7 September 1901, Italy participated as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Boxer Rebellion in China; on 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the country, and on 7 June 1902, the concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by a consul.

Italy entered into the First World War in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the First World War is considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the revolutions of 1848 with the First Italian War of Independence.

Italy, nominally allied with the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, in 1915 joined the Allies into World War I with a promise of substantial territorial gains, that included western Inner Carniola, former Austrian Littoral, Dalmatia as well as parts of the Ottoman Empire.

Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Treaty of London, so this outcome was denounced as a Mutilated victory.

Italian Fascism is based upon Italian nationalism and imperialism, and in particular seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of the unification of Italy by incorporating Italia Irredenta into the state of Italy.

Italy's body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.

Italy became a republic after the 1946 Italian institutional referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as Festa della Repubblica.

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Italy lost all of its colonial possessions, formally ending the Italian Empire.

In 1957, Italy was a founding member of the European Economic Community, which became the European Union (EU) in 1993.

Italy faced several terror attacks between 1992 and 1993 perpetrated by the Sicilian Mafia as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during the "Maxi Trial", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government.

Also in the early 1990s, Italy faced significant challenges, as voters – disenchanted with political paralysis, massive public debt and the extensive corruption system uncovered by the Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) investigation – demanded radical reforms.

The sovereign states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.

The swamps and ponds that in the past covered vast flat areas of Italy, have largely been dried up in recent centuries; the few remaining wetlands, such as the Comacchio Valleys in Emilia-Romagna or the Stagno di Cagliari in Sardinia, are protected natural environments.

Italy was the first country in the world to exploit geothermal energy to produce electricity.

Italy has one the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57, 000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna.

Italy receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, and the Middle East.

Fauna of Italy includes 4, 777 endemic animal species, which include the Sardinian long-eared bat, Sardinian red deer, spectacled salamander, brown cave salamander, Italian newt, Italian frog, Apennine yellow-bellied toad, Italian wall lizard, Aeolian wall lizard, Sicilian wall lizard, Italian Aesculapian snake, and Sicilian pond turtle.

Flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5, 500 vascular plant species.

Italy has 1, 371 endemic plant species and subspecies, which include Sicilian Fir, Barbaricina columbine, Sea marigold, Lavender cotton and Ucriana violet.

Italy is a signatory to the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and the Habitats Directive both affording protection to Italian fauna and flora.

Italy has many botanical gardens and historic gardens, some of which are known outside the country.

Climate of Italy is influenced by the large body of water of the Mediterranean Sea that surrounds Italy on every side except the north.

Italy has been a unitary parliamentary republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by a constitutional referendum.

Italy has a written democratic constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Italian Civil War.

Italy has a parliamentary government based on a mixed proportional and majoritarian voting system.

The judiciary of Italy is based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later statutes.

Italy is a founding member of the European Economic Community, now the European Union (EU), and of NATO.

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Italy is a recurrent non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, the most recently in 2017.

In 2013, Italy had 5, 296 troops deployed abroad, engaged in 33 UN and NATO missions in 25 countries of the world.

Italy deployed troops in support of UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Mozambique, and East Timor and provides support for NATO and UN operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.

Italy deployed over 2, 000 troops in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from February 2003.

Italy supported international efforts to reconstruct and stabilise Iraq, but it had withdrawn its military contingent of some 3, 200 troops by 2006, maintaining only humanitarian operators and other civilian personnel.

Italy is one of the largest financiers of the Palestinian National Authority, contributing €60 million in 2013 alone.

Italian Army, Navy, Air Force and Carabinieri collectively form the Italian Armed Forces, under the command of the High Council of Defence, presided over by the President of Italy, as established by article 87 of the Constitution of Italy.

An autonomous corps of the military, the Carabinieri are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy, policing the military and civilian population alongside Italy's other police forces.

Italy is constituted by 20 regions—five of these regions having a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on additional matters, 107 provinces (province) or metropolitan cities (citta metropolitane), and 7, 904 municipalities (comuni).

Italy has a major advanced capitalist mixed economy, ranking as the third-largest in the Eurozone and the eighth-largest in the world.

Italy is the world's sixth-largest manufacturing country, characterised by a smaller number of global multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size and many dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, notoriously clustered in several industrial districts, which are the backbone of the Italian industry.

Italy is one of the world's leading producers of pumice, pozzolana, and feldspar.

Italy is part of a monetary union, the Eurozone, and of the European single market, which represents more than 500 million consumers.

Italy introduced the common European currency, the Euro in 2002.

Italy is the world's largest wine producer, and one of the leading in olive oil, fruits, and vegetables (especially artichokes and tomatoes).

Italy was the first country in the world to build motorways, the so-called autostrade, reserved for fast traffic and for motor vehicles only.

Italy is one of the countries with the most vehicles per capita, with 690 per 1000 people in 2010.

Italy has 11 rail border crossings over the Alpine mountains with its neighbouring countries.

In 2012 there were 130 airports in Italy, including the two hubs of Malpensa International Airport in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome.

In 2005 Italy maintained a civilian air fleet of about 389, 000 units and a merchant fleet of 581 ships.

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Italy has been the final destination of the Silk Road for many centuries.

Italy was the first country in the world to exploit geothermal energy to produce electricity.

Italy is considered the "father" of observational astronomy, modern physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

Italy is considered the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb".

Italy was ranked 29th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 30th in 2019.

For Italy, this was in order to study ancient architecture, local culture and to admire the natural beauties.

Nowadays Italy is the fifth most visited country in international tourism, with a total of 52.

Factors of tourist interest in Italy are mainly culture, cuisine, history, fashion, architecture, art, religious sites and routes, naturalistic beauties, nightlife, underwater sites and spas.

Italy is the leading cruise tourism destination in the Mediterranean Sea.

Italy is the country with the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world.

Currently, about one million Romanian citizens are officially registered as living in Italy, representing the largest migrant population, followed by Albanians and Moroccans with about 500, 000 people each.

Italy has the world's fifth-largest Catholic population, and is the largest Catholic nation in Europe.

One of the longest-established minority religious faiths in Italy is Judaism, Jews having been present in Ancient Rome since before the birth of Christ.

Italy has for centuries welcomed Jews expelled from other countries, notably Spain.

Education in Italy is free and mandatory from ages six to sixteen, and consists of five stages: kindergarten, primary school (scuola primaria), lower secondary school (scuola secondaria di primo grado), upper secondary school (scuola secondaria di secondo grado) and university (universita).

Italy scored below the OECD average in reading and science, and near OECD average in mathematics.

Tertiary education in Italy is divided between public universities, private universities and the prestigious and selective superior graduate schools, such as the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

In 2018 Italy's healthcare is ranked 20th in Europe in the Euro Health Consumer Index.

Italy is considered one of the birthplaces of western civilization and a cultural superpower.

Italy has had a central role in Western culture for centuries and is still recognised for its cultural traditions and artists.

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Italy has rich collections of art, culture and literature from many periods.

Furthermore, Italy has, overall, an estimated 100, 000 monuments of any sort, and according to some estimates the nation is home to half the world's art treasures.

Marcello Piacentini, responsible for the urban transformations of several cities in Italy and remembered for the disputed Via della Conciliazione in Rome, devised a form of simplified Neoclassicism.

The time of Italy's rebirth was heralded by the poets Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, and Giacomo Leopardi.

Italy was affected by the Enlightenment, a movement which was a consequence of the Renaissance.

Italy had a renowned philosophical movement in the 1800s, with Idealism, Sensism and Empiricism.

Italy rightly maintained that Italian life and manners were susceptible of artistic treatment such as had not been given them before.

Later, Italy was at the forefront of the progressive rock and pop movement of the 1970s, with bands like PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme, Goblin, and Pooh.

Italy contributed to the development of disco and electronic music, with Italo disco, known for its futuristic sound and prominent use of synthesisers and drum machines, being one of the earliest electronic dance genres, as well as European forms of disco aside from Euro disco.

Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 28 nominations.

Italy has a long and successful tradition in individual sports as well.

Alpine skiing is a widespread sport in Italy, and the country is a popular international skiing destination, known for its ski resorts.

Italian skiers achieved good results in Winter Olympic Games, Alpine Ski World Cup, and tennis has a significant following in Italy, ranking as the fourth most practised sport in the country.

Italy has won, by far, the most MotoGP World Championships.

Italy is prominent in the field of design, notably interior design, architectural design, industrial design and urban design.

Marketing phenomenon consisting of words and images, colour combinations and geographical references for brands that are evocative of Italy to promote and market agri-food products that have nothing to do with Italian cuisine is known by the name of Italian Sounding.

Public holidays celebrated in Italy include religious, national and regional observances.