Portal:Italy

The Italy portal
Portale Italia

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 land borders with France to the west; Switzerland and Austria to the north; Slovenia to the east; and the two enclaves of Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with nearly 59 million inhabitants. Rome is the capital of Italy; other major cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Bari, and Venice.

The history of Italy goes back to numerous Italic peoples, notably including the ancient 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. Barbarian invasions and other factors led to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. 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 Age of Discovery. (Full article...)

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Tuscany (/ˈtʌskəni/ TUSK-ə-nee; Italian: Toscana [tosˈkaːna]) is a region of central Italy. With a population of 3,659,222 in an area of 22,987.04 square kilometres (8,875.35 square miles), it is the 9th most populous and 5th-largest region of Italy. The capital and largest city is Florence.

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the Italian language. The prestige established by Tuscans' use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini led to its adoption as the basis for elaboration of the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. Tuscany is also known for its wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano, Brunello di Montalcino, and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is sometimes considered "a nation within a nation". (Full article...)

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

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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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Ancient Rome painting depicting eggs, birds and bronze dishes found in the Roman House of Julia Felix

The cuisine of ancient Rome changed significantly over the duration of the civilization's existence. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and Roman trading with foreigners along with the empire's enormous expansion exposed Romans to many new foods, provincial culinary habits and cooking methods.

In the beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not great, but disparities developed with the empire's growth. (Full article...)

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Italian cuisine Pizza 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 Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali Latte

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

Image 1Villa La Rotonda, designed by Palladio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. He contributed to the nationwide use of the Italian language. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9The 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 10Italian wine and salumi (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 12Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, an example of modern architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Pinocchio Disney film is based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16Scrovegni 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 17The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18Espresso 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 19Linguistic 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 20The 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 21David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Dario 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 29The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31The 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 32Pietà, by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 34Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35The 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 36Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39The ingredients of traditional pizza Margherita—tomatoes (red), mozzarella (white), and basil (green)—are held by popular legend to be inspired by the colours of the national flag of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40The Antica trattoria Bagutto in Milan, the oldest restaurant in Italy and the second in Europe. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Leonardo 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 44The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45The 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 46Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Clockwise 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 50Established in 1224 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)