Portal:Italy

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Portale Italia

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, and some islands in the African Plate. 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 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...)

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Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in southern Italy, the best-known is its eruption in 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest and best-known in European history.

In the autumn of 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius violently spewed forth a deadly cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event gives its name to the Vesuvian type of volcanic eruption, characterised by columns of hot gases and ash reaching the stratosphere, although the event also included pyroclastic flows associated with Pelean eruptions. (Full article...)

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

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First Italian balloon flight medal

...that the first Italian public balloon flight (see medal) was organised by Count Andreani in Brugherio?

...that the Monte Viso Tunnel is the most ancient tunnel dug through a mountain in Italy?

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Clockwise from top left; some of the most popular Italian foods: pizza (Margherita), pasta (carbonara), espresso, and gelato

Italian cuisine (Italian: cucina italiana, pronounced [kuˈtʃiːna itaˈljaːna]) is a Mediterranean cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with waves of Italian diaspora. Some of these foods were imported from other cultures. Significant changes occurred with the colonization of the Americas and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, maize and sugar beet—the latter introduced in quantity in the 18th century. It is one of the best-known and most appreciated gastronomies worldwide.

Italian cuisine includes deeply rooted traditions common to the whole country, as well as all the regional gastronomies, different from each other, especially between the north, the centre and the south of Italy, which are in continuous exchange. Many dishes that were once regional have proliferated with variations throughout the country. Italian cuisine offers an abundance of taste, and is one of the most popular and copied around the world. The cuisine has influenced several other cuisines around the world, chiefly that of the United States. (Full article...)

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Pizza Ancient Roman cuisine Pasta Roman cuisine Parmigiano-Reggiano Sicilian cuisine Mozzarella Fettuccine Alfredo Acquacotta Carbonara Gelato Marron glacé Minestrone Pizza di Pasqua Chianti Food and dining in the Roman Empire Espresso Italian wine Testaroli Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale

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

Image 1Royal Palace of Caserta, the largest royal residence in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Chiostro of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4The Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5Sandro 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 6The 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 7Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Italy. (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 11Ernesto 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)
Image 12The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13The 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 14Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 17Pietà, by Michelangelo is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 19Luigi Pirandello. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22The discovery of the New World by Christoper Columbus (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24Sanremo Music Festival is the oldest music competition in the world and one of the world's longest-running television programmes. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26St Mark's Basilica in Venice, one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29Sergio Leone, widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31Olive oil and vegetables are central to the Mediterranean diet. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 34Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35The 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 36Galileo 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)
Image 37The 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)
Image 38The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39Leonardo 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 40The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Map of the Italian diaspora in the world
  Italy
  + 10,000,000
  + 1,000,000
  + 100,000
  + 10,000
(from Culture of Italy)
Image 44Statues of Pantalone and Harlequin, two stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte, in the Museo Teatrale alla Scala (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45Enrico 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)
Image 46Giosuè Carducci. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47The 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 48Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51Linguistic 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 52The 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 53Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 54The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 55An Alfa Romeo 159 vehicle of the Carabinieri corps (from Culture of Italy)
Image 56St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 57A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 58Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 61Scrovegni 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 62Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63The 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 64The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 65The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 66The statue of Italia turrita in Reggio Calabria. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 67Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 68Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 69David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy) is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 70Dante 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 71Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 72The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 73Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 74The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 75Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 76Folkloristic 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 77Giuseppe Verdi, one of Italy's greatest opera composers. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 78The Amalfi Coast is one of Italy's major tourist destinations. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 79Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 80Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 81Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 82Romulus 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 83Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 84Samantha 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)
Image 85Traditional 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 86Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 87A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 88Dario 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 89The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 90The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 91Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 92Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 93John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 94The 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 95The city of Venice, ranked many times as the most beautiful city in the world (from Culture of Italy)