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62 Interesting Facts About . . .

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Italy
The name Italy comes from the word italia, meaning calf land, perhaps because
the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribeS.
Italy is approximately 116,400 square miles (including Sicily and Sardinia), which is
slightly larger than Arizona.
Italy is one of the most crowded nations in Europe.( Its population is estimated to
reach 58,126,212 by July 2009.)
The capital of Italy is Rome (also known as the Eternal City) and is almost 3,000
years old. It has been the capital since 1871 and is home to the Dome of St. Peter's,
the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and the famous Trevi Fountain.
The official name of Italy is the Italian Republic (Repubblica Italiana).
Nearly 80% of Italy is either mountainous or hilly
The Italian wolf is Italys unofficial national animal and plays a large role in the
legend of the founding of Rome.
The author of Pinocchio (pine nut), Carlo Collodi (1826-1890), was Italian.
Parmesan cheese originated in the area around Parma, Italy. Italians also created
many other cheeses, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and ricotta. No
one knows when the pizza was invented, but the people of Naples made it popular.
The University of Rome is one of the worlds oldest universities and was founded by
the Catholic Church in A.D. 1303. Often called La Sapienza (knowledge), the
University of Rome is also Europes largest university with 150,000 students.g
There are two independent states within Italy: the Republic of San Marino (25 square
miles) and the Vatican City (just 108.7 acres).d
Italys San Marino is the worlds oldest republic (A.D. 301), has fewer than 30,000
citizens, and holds the worlds oldest continuous constitution. Its citizens are called
the Sammarinese.
Vatican City is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night. It
has its own phone company, radio, T.V. stations, money, and stamps. It even has its
own army, the historic Swiss Guard.

No other country in Europe has as many volcanoes as Italy. This is because the
Italian peninsula stands on a fault line. Three major volcanoes (Etna, Stromboli, and
Vesuvius) have erupted in the last hundred years.
By the year 2000 B.C., Italic tribes (Oscans, Umbrians, Latins) had established
themselves in Italy. They were followed by the Etruscans in 800 B.C. and the Greeks,
who established colonies known as Magna Graeca in southern Italy (present-day
Apulia). Rome was founded in 753 B.C., and soon thereafter the Romans began
conquering the peninsula.
Like most of Europe, Italy was ravaged in the middle of the fourteenth century by
the Black Death, a combination of plagues (chiefly the bubonic) that were carried to
Genoa by Italian merchants returning from the Middle East. The recovery stimulated
growth and helped spawn humanism and the Renaissance.
Two Italians in particular contributed to the eighteenth-century's Enlightenment:
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), whose essays on Crime and Punishment led to broad
reforms in the treatment of prisoners and criminals, and Giambattista Vico (16681774), a philosopher, rhetorician, and historian who is often thought to have
ushered in a modern philosophy of history.
The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco (White Mountain) is 15,771 feet
high and is part of the Alps.
In northern Italy, last names tend to end in i, while those from the south often end
in o. The most common Italian surname is Russo.
Italian is a Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin, the dialect spoken by
the people living during the last years of the Roman Empire. Italian has more Latin
words than any other Romance languages, and its grammatical system remains
similar to Latin. Latin is still the official language of the Vatican City in Rome.
In the 1930s and 40s, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) tried to eliminate
foreign words from Italian. In soccer, goal became meta and Donald Duck
became Paperino. Mickey Mouse became Topolino and Goofy became Pippo.
While the ban was not permanent, the Italian names remain common.
Over 50 million tourists a year visit Italy. Tourism is vital to Italys economy and
provides nearly 63% of Italys national income.
Known as the Three Fountains, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarch
(1304-1374), and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) are arguably the three most
famous Italian authors of all time. Dantes Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia) had
tremendous influence on Italian literature, and he is considered the father of the
Italian language.

The pre-dinner passeggiata (evening stroll) is one of Italys most enduring leisure
activities where Italians stroll about the streets to see and be seen.
Begun in 1560 for Cosimo l de Medici, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is one of the
oldest museums in the world and contains famous works by Michelangelo, Botticelli,
and da Vinci.
Approximately 85% of Italians are Roman Catholics, with Protestants, Jews, and a
growing Muslim community making up the minority
Italians claim to have taught the rest of Europe how to cook. Italy is responsible for
introducing the world to ice cream (via the Chinese), coffee, and fruit pies. In
addition to Belgium and France, Italy also claims to have made the first French fries.
The first Italian cookbook was written in 1474 by Bartolomeo Sicci.
Italys birthrate is the second lowest in the Western world. Both political and church
leaders have expressed concern and have offered rewards to couples who have
more than one child.
The first violin appeared in Italy in the 1500s, probably from the workshop of Andrea
Amati (1505-1578) in Cremona. The city later became the home of Antonio
Stradivari (1644-1737), the most famous of violin-makers.
The worlds longest land tunnel is the Ltschberg Base Tunnel, which proves a 22mile railway link between Switzerland and Italy.

The Italian flag was heavily influenced by the French flag

Influenced in part by the French flag, the Italian flag has evolved over several
hundred years. The flag is vertically divided into three equal sections of green,
white, and red, representing hope, faith, and charity. Another interpretation is that
the green represents the Italian landscape, white represents the snow-capped Alps,
and red represents the bloodshed that brought about the independence of Italy.

Venice, Italy, is one of the world's most beautiful and unusual cities. It was founded
over 1,400 years ago on a collection of muddy islands in a wide and shallow lagoon.
It has been sinking into the mud for centuries and is plagued by floods.
The Sardinian islands are famous for their witches who make health potions for
local people. The witches are usually women and they use a secret language that
they pass on to their daughters.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in 1173 and began to lean soon after, probably
due to a poorly laid foundation. During WWII, the Nazis used it as a watch tower.
After reconstruction efforts in 2008, engineers declared the tower would be stable
for at least another 200 years.

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