Portal:Italy
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Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.
Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.
Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures, who immigrated to the peninsula throughout history. The Latins, native of central Italy, formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering a large part of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed. (Full article...)
Selected article -
Bataille de Cérisoles, 14 avril 1544 (oil on canvas by Jean-Victor Schnetz, 1836–1837) depicts François de Bourbon at the end of the battle. |
The Battle of Ceresole ([tʃɛ.reˈso.le]; also Cérisoles) took place on 11 April 1544, during the Italian War of 1542–1546, outside the village of Ceresole d'Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy. A French army, commanded by François de Bourbon, Count of Enghien, defeated the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, commanded by Alfonso d'Avalos d'Aquino, Marquis del Vasto. Despite having inflicted substantial casualties on the Imperial troops, the French subsequently failed to exploit their victory by taking Milan.
Enghien and d'Avalos had arranged their armies along two parallel ridges; because of the topography of the battlefield, many of the individual actions of the battle were uncoordinated. The battle opened with several hours of skirmishing between opposing bands of arquebusiers and an ineffectual artillery exchange, after which d'Avalos ordered a general advance. In the center, Imperial landsknechts clashed with French and Swiss infantry, with both sides suffering terrific casualties. In the southern part of the battlefield, Italian infantry in Imperial service were harried by French cavalry attacks and withdrew after learning that the Imperial troops of the center had been defeated. In the north, meanwhile, the French infantry line crumbled, and Enghien led a series of ineffectual and costly cavalry charges against Spanish and German infantry before the latter were forced to surrender by the arrival of the victorious Swiss and French infantry from the center. (Full article...)Selected picture -
- Porta Soprana is the best-known gate of the ancient
- Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by MichelangeloA section of the
- Dome of
- Forma Urbis Romae is a massive marble map of ancient Rome, created under the emperor Septimius Severus between 203 and 211.The
- Tofana di Rozes in the Parco naturale regionale delle Dolomiti d'AmpezzoSouth face of the
- Sellajoch, South Tyrol and Trentino (seen from Pordoi Pass), Langkofel on the left, Piz Ciavazes on the right
- Santa Maria della Vittoria in RomeInterior of the
Did you know... -
- ...that Poliphilo, the main character in the Renaissance book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was said to have felt "extreme delight", "incredible joy", and "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy" when he saw the buildings depicted in the book?
- ...the famous biblical period movies Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Bruce Beresford’s King David (1985), and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) were filmed in Matera?
Selected fare or cuisine -
Mozzarella (English: /ˌmɒtsəˈrɛlə/, Italian: [mottsaˈrɛlla]; Neapolitan: muzzarella [muttsaˈrɛllə]) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method.
Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the animal's diet. Due to its high moisture content, it is traditionally served the day after it is made but can be kept in brine for up to a week or longer when sold in vacuum-sealed packages. Low-moisture mozzarella can be kept refrigerated for up to a month, though some shredded low-moisture mozzarella is sold with a shelf life of up to six months. Mozzarella is used for most types of pizza and several pasta dishes or served with sliced tomatoes and basil in Caprese salad. (Full article...)List of fare/cuisine articles
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General images -
- Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
- A
- Entrance to
- 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)
- Samantha Cristoforetti is the first Italian woman in space. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut (199 days, 16 hours). (from Culture of Italy)
- Sanremo Music Festival is the oldest music competition in the world and one of the world's longest-running television programmes. (from Culture of Italy)
- The
- Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
- The
- Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
- St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
- The
- 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)Clockwise from top left:
- Corriere dei Piccoli on 11 July 1911 carries a cartoon strip in the Italian style without speech bubbles. (from Culture of Italy)The cover of the
- The
- Giovanni Boldini. (from Culture of Italy)Giuseppe Verdi, one of Italy's greatest opera composers. Portrait by
- 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)The
- 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)
- Frecce Tricolori, with the smoke trails representing the national colours of Italy, during the celebrations of the Festa della Repubblica on 2 June 2005 (from Culture of Italy)The
- Leonardo 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)
- The
- Chiostro of the
- Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)The
- Italian language throughout the worldLinguistic map of theOfficial languageSecondary, widely spoken or understoodUnderstood by some due to former colonisation(from Culture of Italy)
- Galileo Galilei, an astronomer, physicist, engineer, and polymath, played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. He is considered the "father" of observational astronomy, modern physics, the scientific method, and modern science. (from Culture of Italy)
- Italia turrita in Reggio Calabria. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)The statue of
- Befana (from Culture of Italy)A wooden puppet depicting the
- Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from Culture of Italy)
- Venice, ranked many times as the most beautiful city in the world (from Culture of Italy)The city of
- Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the
- The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
- An
- The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
- Sergio Leone, widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
- Giosuè Carducci. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Italy)
- Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest academic institution. (from Culture of Italy)
- Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)The
- 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)
- John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
- Starting in 1909, the
- Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
- William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
- Royal Palace of Caserta, the largest royal residence in the world (from Culture of Italy)
- Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)The
- The
- The
- Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)The
- 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)
- Enrico Fermi, creator of the world's first nuclear reactor. He is considered the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". (from Culture of Italy)
- Italian diaspora in the worldMap of theItaly+ 10,000,000+ 1,000,000+ 100,000+ 10,000(from Culture of Italy)
- St Mark's Basilica in Venice, one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture (from Culture of Italy)
- The historic seat of the
- Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)The
- Pantalone and Harlequin, two stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte, in the Museo Teatrale alla Scala (from Culture of Italy)Statues of
- Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)The
- Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
- David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy) is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
- Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
- Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
- Pinocchio Disney film is based on
- Ernesto Teodoro Moneta was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1907. He adopted the motto In varietate unitas! which later inspired Motto of the European Union. (from Culture of Italy)
- Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
- Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from Culture of Italy)World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to
- The
- Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)
- 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)
- Marino, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)The Sagra dell'uva in
- Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)Folkloristic reconstruction of the
- Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
- 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)Traditional
- RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)Regional seat of
- 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)The
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