Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ( listen); Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 70 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. In addition, it is spoken by an additional 120 to 150 million people as a non-native language. Most native speakers are native bilinguals of both: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 70 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. In addition, it is spoken by an additional 120 to 150 million people as a non-native language. Most native speakers are native bilinguals of both: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands. Notably, in British English usage, the term means Europe excluding the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Ireland and Iceland and partly on the Italian Peninsula The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe (the other two being the Iberian Peninsula and Balkan Peninsula), spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale (The Boot). Three smaller in Southern Europe The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical geographical, phytogeographic or climatic and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate, Sicily Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, comprising an autonomous region of Italy. Minor islands around it, such as the Aeolian Islands, are part of Sicily. Its official name is Regione Autonoma Siciliana (English:Sicilian Autonomous Region) and Sardinia Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and before Cyprus). It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands. Italy shares its northern, Alpine The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west boundary with France France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th, Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to, Austria Austria /ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and and Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on. The independent states of San Marino San Marino, officially the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (pronounced /ˌsan maˈriːno/ SAN-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a country situated on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) with an estimated and the Vatican City Vatican City /ˈvætɪkən ˈsɪti/ or Vatican City State, officially Stato della Città del Vaticano (pronounced [ˈsta(ː)to delːa tʃiˈtːa del vatiˈka(ː)no]), which translates literally as "State of the City of the Vatican", is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, are enclaves In political geography, an enclave is a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d'Italia Campione d'Italia is an Italian comune of the Province of Como in the Lombardy region, occupying an enclave within the Swiss canton of Ticino, separated from the rest of Italy by Lake Lugano and mountains. The enclave is less than 1 km at the shortest point from the rest of Italy, but the hilly terrain requires a journey by road of over 14 km to is an Italian exclave In political geography, an enclave is a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers 301,338 km² and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold. But in continental areas, such as central North America the variations between summer and winter can be extreme. In regions traditionally. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third This is a list of countries by population. The list includes independent countries and inhabited dependent territories based on the ISO standard ISO 3166-1. Also given, as a percentage, is each country's population compared to the population of the world, which is currently 6,820,800,000 most populous in the world.
Italy's capital, Rome Rome (English pronunciation: /ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi). While the population of the urban area was estimated by Eurostat to have been 3.46, was for centuries the political centre of Western civilisation The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical, as the capital of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus. After its decline The decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom. The English historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire made this concept part of the framework of the English language, but he was not the first to speculate on why, Italy would endure numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages, which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The descendants of these peoples became, and in many areas contributed to, the ethnic groups of North such as the Lombards The Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Lombard Kingdom, later named Kingdom of Italy, which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks. Their influence on Italian political and Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths (old norse meaning = east gothi/ ostrgoth) were a branch of the Goths (the other branch being the Visigoths), an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in political events of the last decades of the Roman Empire, to the Normans The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity emerged initially in the first half of the tenth century, and gradually evolved over succeeding centuries. The name & and later, the Byzantines Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire, centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the large urban centres of the Near East and Northern Egypt. While called Greeks by, among others. Centuries later, Italy would become the birthplace of the Renaissance The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The term renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the,[7] an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
Through much of its post-Roman history, Italy was fragmented into numerous kingdoms and city-states (such as the Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica was a kingdom created by the proclamation of Pope Boniface VIII in 1297, as a consequence of the Treaty of Anagni, that included the island of Sardinia, and initially the island of Corsica. The Kingdom of Sardinia began its life in 1324 when the Aragonese, after several battles against the Republic of Pisa,, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , commonly known as the Two Sicilies, was the largest and wealthiest of the Italian states before Italian unification. It lasted until 1860, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, which changed its name to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies had its capital in Naples and was and the Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan was a state in northern Italy from 1395 to 1797. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire, by then a decentralised entity, and was ruled by several dynasties, most of them major powers from outside Italy. Although the Duchy's territory varied over the centuries, it generally covered much of Lombardy, including both Milan and Pavia,), but was unified Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end in 1861,[8] following a tumultuous period in history known as the "Risorgimento Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end". In the late 19th century, through World War I World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were, and to World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland ·, Italy possessed a colonial empire The Italian colonial empire, created after the Kingdom of Italy, joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved out large empires over several, which extended its rule to Libya Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībiyā pronunciation ; Libyan vernacular: Lībya pronunciation (help·info); Amazigh: ), officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ( Arabic: الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الإشتراكية العظمى Al-Jamāhīriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Š, Eritrea Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the North East of Africa. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago, Somalia Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under communist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of, Ethiopia Ethiopia (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā) is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km2. The capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is, Albania Albania ( /ælˈbeɪniə/ al-BAY-nee-ə, Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria, Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia/Shqypnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, pronounced [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːs]), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo[a] to the northeast,, Rhodes Rhodes is a Greek island approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the homonymous capital city of the island, the Dodecanese The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete. They have a rich history, and many of even the smallest inhabited islands boast dozens of Byzantine churches and medieval castles and a concession in Tianjin The Concessions in Tianjin were concession territories ceded by the Chinese imperial Qing Dynasty to the European imperial powers in Tianjin , China, China.[9]
Modern Italy is a democratic republic. It has been ranked the world's eighteenth most-developed country[5] and its Quality-of-Life Index The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries. The index was calculated in 2005 and includes data from 111 countries and territories has been ranked in the top ten in the world.[10] Italy enjoys a very high standard of living This is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report released on October 5, 2009, compiled on the basis of data from 2007. It covers 180 UN member states , along with Hong Kong (SAR of China) and the Palestinian territories. Twelve UN member states are not, and has a high nominal GDP per capita This article includes three lists of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product per capita at nominal values, the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year, converted at market exchange rates to current U.S. dollars, divided by the average population for the same year.[11][12] It is a founding member of what is now the European Union The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Italy is also a member of the G7, G8 and G20. It has the world's seventh-largest nominal GDP, tenth highest GDP (PPP)[13] and the sixth highest government budget in the world.[14] It is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe, the Western European Union and the United Nations. Italy has the world's ninth-largest defence budget and shares NATO's nuclear weapons.
Italy plays a prominent role in European and global military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, and it is affiliated with worldwide organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Glocal Forum,[15] and the NATO Defence College, which are headquartered in Rome. The country's European political, social and economic influence make it a major regional power, alongside the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia.[16][17][18][19][20] The country has a high public education level, high labour force,[21] and it's a highly globalised nation.[22]
Etymology
The origin of the term Italia, from Latin: Italia,[23] came from the ancient tribe name Itali.[24] According to one of the more common explanations, the term was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning "land of young cattle" (cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf").[25] The bull was a symbol of the southern Italian tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Samnite Wars.
The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy—according to Antiochus of Syracuse, the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria). But by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region, but it was not until the time of the Roman conquests that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula.[26]
History
Main article: History of Italy See also: Historical states of Italy
|
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:02:39 GMT+00:00
; See the Photo! TheImproper.com By TheImproper, September 2nd, 2010 Actress Julianne Moore really turned it on for a sexy Bulgari ad campaign maybe a little too much, ... 'Inappropriate' Julianne Moore Billboard Banned in Venice, Italy Right TV Naked Julianne Moore Too Sexy for Italy Hollyscoop Italy Deems Julianne Moore Ads Indecent Chic Dish Celebrity Mania - OverTheLimit.info (blog) - AHN | All Headline News
317px x 480px | 49.60kB
[source page]
candy But how good does that diet in Egypt look All those leafy greens yummy I was also taken aback at how little people get by on in some countries Food for thought all of it Italy The Manzo family of Sicily Food expenditure for one week 214 36 Euros or $260 11
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:53:20 PST
POMPEII On August 24th in 79 AD a massive volcanic eruption destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii when millions of tons of lava instantly petrified ... amazon.com.
Sport7.co.uk
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:43:00 GM
Italy. were awful at the 2010 World Cup, exiting at the group stages and being roundly criticised both at home and abroad. They weren't much better in their first match under new coach Cesare Prandelli, losing 1-0 to the Ivory Coast in a ...
