1.The name
Italy comes from the word italia, meaning “calf land,” perhaps
because the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribes.
.jpg "Italian National Flag")
6. Italy is said to have more masterpieces per square mile than any other country in the world. Almost four-fifths of Italy is either mountainous or hilly.
7. In 2007, a dog named Rocco discovered a truffle in Tuscany that weighed 3.3 pounds. It sold at auction for $333,000 (USD), a world record for a truffle.
8. The Italian wolf is Italy’s unofficial
national animal and plays a large role in the legend of the founding of Rome.
9. The author of “Pinocchio” (“pine nut”),
Carlo Collodi (1826-1890), was Italian.
10. When McDonald's opened in 1986 in Rome, food purists outside the restaurant gave away free spaghetti to remind
11. 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.
12. The University of Rome is one of the world’s oldest universities and was founded by the Catholic Church in A.D. 1303. Often called La Sapienza (“knowledge”), the University of Rome is also Europe’s largest university with 150,000 students.
13. There are two independent states within Italy: the Republic of San Marino (25 square miles) and the Vatican City (just 108.7 acres).
14. Italy’s San Marino is the world’s oldest republic (A.D. 301), has fewer than 30,000 citizens, and holds the world’s oldest continuous constitution. Its citizens are called the Sammarinese.
15. 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.
16. Most of Italy’s natural flora and fauna has disappeared due to centuries of cultivation. Most of its natural wildlife has also disappeared due to over-hunting.a
17. Italians suffer more earthquakes than any other Europeans. In 1693, an estimated 100,000 people died in an earthquake in Sicily. The most deadly recent quake in Italy occurred in Naples in 1980, killing 3,000 people.
18. 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.
Source
19. 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.
20. At its height in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire stretched from Portugal in the West to Syria in the east, and from Britain in the North to the North African deserts across the Mediterranean. It covered 2.3 million miles (two-thirds the size of the U.S.) and had a population of 120 million people. During the Middle Ages, Rome had perhaps no more than 13,000 residents.
21. 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..jpg "Leaning tower of Pisa")
22. 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 (1668-1774), a philosopher, rhetorician, and historian who is often thought to have ushered in a modern philosophy of history.fFrom 1861 to 1985, more than 26
23. The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco (White Mountain) is 15,771 feet high and is part of the Alps.
24. From 1861 to 1985, more than 26 million people left Italy (mostly from the overcrowded south) to seek a better life. Only one in four came home again.
25. The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco
2.Italy is
approximately 116,400 square miles (including Sicily and Sardinia), which is
slightly larger than Arizona.
3. Italy is
one of the most crowded nations in Europe. Its population is estimated to
reach 58,126,212 by July 2009. The population of United States is estimated to
reach 307,212,123 by that same date.
.jpg "Italian National Flag")
4. 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.
5. The
official name of Italy is the Italian Republic (Repubblica Italiana).
6. Italy is said to have more masterpieces per square mile than any other country in the world. Almost four-fifths of Italy is either mountainous or hilly.
7. In 2007, a dog named Rocco discovered a truffle in Tuscany that weighed 3.3 pounds. It sold at auction for $333,000 (USD), a world record for a truffle.
8. The Italian wolf is Italy’s unofficial
national animal and plays a large role in the legend of the founding of Rome.
9. The author of “Pinocchio” (“pine nut”),
Carlo Collodi (1826-1890), was Italian.
10. When McDonald's opened in 1986 in Rome, food purists outside the restaurant gave away free spaghetti to remind
people of their culinary heritage.
| Source |
11. 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.
12. The University of Rome is one of the world’s oldest universities and was founded by the Catholic Church in A.D. 1303. Often called La Sapienza (“knowledge”), the University of Rome is also Europe’s largest university with 150,000 students.
13. There are two independent states within Italy: the Republic of San Marino (25 square miles) and the Vatican City (just 108.7 acres).
14. Italy’s San Marino is the world’s oldest republic (A.D. 301), has fewer than 30,000 citizens, and holds the world’s oldest continuous constitution. Its citizens are called the Sammarinese.
15. 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.
16. Most of Italy’s natural flora and fauna has disappeared due to centuries of cultivation. Most of its natural wildlife has also disappeared due to over-hunting.a
17. Italians suffer more earthquakes than any other Europeans. In 1693, an estimated 100,000 people died in an earthquake in Sicily. The most deadly recent quake in Italy occurred in Naples in 1980, killing 3,000 people.
18. 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.
Source
19. 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.
20. At its height in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire stretched from Portugal in the West to Syria in the east, and from Britain in the North to the North African deserts across the Mediterranean. It covered 2.3 million miles (two-thirds the size of the U.S.) and had a population of 120 million people. During the Middle Ages, Rome had perhaps no more than 13,000 residents.
21. 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.
.jpg "Leaning tower of Pisa")
22. 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 (1668-1774), a philosopher, rhetorician, and historian who is often thought to have ushered in a modern philosophy of history.fFrom 1861 to 1985, more than 26
million people left Italy (mostly from the overcrowded south) to
seek
a better life. Only one in four came home again.
23. The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco (White Mountain) is 15,771 feet high and is part of the Alps.
24. From 1861 to 1985, more than 26 million people left Italy (mostly from the overcrowded south) to seek a better life. Only one in four came home again.
25. The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco
(White Mountain) is 15,771
feet high and is part of the Alps.
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