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...)
The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus. One week later an Italian man repatriated to Italy from the city of Wuhan, China, was hospitalized and confirmed as the third case in Italy. Clusters of cases were later detected in Lombardy and Veneto on 21 February, with the first deaths on 22 February. By the beginning of March, there had been confirmed cases in all regions of Italy. (Full article...)
The denomination is attributed by each regional government, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies. (Full article...)
Image 8World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27The 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 61The 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 62The 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 63The 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 71Samantha 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 85Palazzo 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 89Espresso 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)