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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 its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and two enclaves: Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and third-most populous member state of the European Union, with a population of nearly 60 million. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome; other major urban areas include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

The history of Italy goes back to numerous ancient Italian peoples, notably including the 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. Between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Italy experienced the arrival of Germanic tribes and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. 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 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...)

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The siege of Nice by a Franco-Ottoman fleet in 1543 (drawing by Toselli, after an engraving by Aeneas Vico)

The Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars, pitting Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The course of the war saw extensive fighting in Italy, France, and the Low Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England. The conflict was inconclusive and ruinously expensive for the major participants.

The war arose from the failure of the Truce of Nice, which ended the Italian War of 1536–1538, to resolve the long-standing conflict between Charles and Francis—particularly their conflicting claims to the Duchy of Milan. Having found a suitable pretext, Francis once again declared war against his perpetual enemy in 1542. Fighting began at once throughout the Low Countries; the following year saw the Franco-Ottoman alliance's attack on Nice, as well as a series of maneuvers in Northern Italy which culminated in the bloody Battle of Ceresole. Charles and Henry then proceeded to invade France, but the long sieges of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Dizier prevented a decisive offensive against the French. (Full article...)

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

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...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?

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Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Roman times and later spread around the world together with waves of Italian diaspora. 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 widely appreciated gastronomies worldwide.

Italian cuisine includes deeply rooted traditions common throughout the country, as well as all the diverse 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. Italian cuisine has left a significant influence on several other cuisines around the world, particularly in that of the United States in the form of Italian-American cuisine. (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 Latte

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

Image 1The Piazza dei Miracoli, with Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Pisan Romanesque style (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5The 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 6Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8Samantha 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 9Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 11Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 12Pietà, by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus leads an expedition to the New World, 1492. His voyages are celebrated as the discovery of the Americas from a European perspective, and they opened a new era in the history of humankind and sustained contact between the two worlds. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16Linguistic 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 17The 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 18Castel del Monte, Apulia (from Culture of Italy)
Image 19A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21Clockwise 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 22David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25Holographic copy of 1847 of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26The 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 27Enrico 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 28Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29Palazzo 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 30Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31Galileo 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 32Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33The 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 34Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from Culture of Italy)
Image 36Sandro 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 37Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38Map of the Italian diaspora in the world
  Italy
  + 10,000,000
  + 1,000,000
  + 100,000
  + 10,000
(from Culture of Italy)
Image 39Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41Ernesto 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 42John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Chiostro of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (from Culture of Italy)
Image 44Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46Traditional 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 47Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 52Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 53Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (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 55Dante 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 56Folkloristic 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 57Espresso 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 58Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60Giosuè Carducci. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 61Romulus 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 62Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 64The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 65William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 66Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 67The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 68The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 69Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 70An Alfa Romeo 159 vehicle of the Carabinieri corps (from Culture of Italy)
Image 71St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 72Commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymus Francken I, c. 1590 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 73Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal residence in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 74Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 75The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 76The statue of Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 77Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 78The 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 79Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 80Leonardo 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 81Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 82The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 83The 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 84Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 85The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 86The Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 87The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 88The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 89Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 90The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 91Scrovegni 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 92Dario 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 93The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)