Italy (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana is a country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps andseveral islands surrounding it,whose territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, inSouthern Europe it is also considered part of Western Europe.A unitary parliamentary republic with Rome as its capital and largest city, the country covers a total area of 301,230 km2(116,310 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, as well as the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. With around 60 million inhabitants,Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union.
Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout what is now modern-day Italy, the most predominant being the Indo-European Italic peoples who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era, Phoenicians and Carthaginians founded colonies mostly in insular Italy,Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Grecia of Southern Italy, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively. An Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy’s law, technology,economy, art, and literature developed.
During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Barbarian Invasions, but by the 11th century numerous rival city-states and maritime republics, mainly in the northern and central regions of Italy, became prosperous through trade, commerce, and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.These mostly independent statelets served as Europe’s main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East, often enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe however, part of central Italy was under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal until the 19th century, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman,Angevin,Aragonese, and other foreign conquests of the region.The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars, artists, and polymaths. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy’s commercial and political power significantly waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean.Centuries of foreign meddling and conquest, and the rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left Italy politically fragmented, and it was further conquered and divided among multiple foreign European powers over the centuries.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861 following a war of independence, establishing the Kingdom of Italy.From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy rapidly industrialised, mainly in the north, and acquired a colonial empire,while the south remained largely impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora.Despite being one of the victorious allied powers in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of the Italian fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction, and civil war. Following the rise of theItalian Resistance and the liberation of Italy, the country abolished its monarchy, established a democratic Republic, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, and became a highlydeveloped country.
Italy has an advanced economy. The country is the eighth-largest by nominal GDP (third in the European Union), the sixth-largest by national wealth and the third-largest by central bankgold reserve. It ranks highly in life expectancy, quality of life healthcare,and education. The country is a great power and it has a significant role in regional and global economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the United Nations,NATO, the OECD, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Trade Organization, the Group of Seven, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Latin Union, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area, and many more. The source of many inventions and discoveries, the country has long been a global centre Of art, music, literature, philosophy, science and technology, and fashion, and has greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields including cinema, cuisine, sports, jurisprudence, banking, and business.As a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy has the world’s largest number of World Heritage Sites, and is the fifth-most visited country.
Hypotheses for the etymology of the name “Italia” are numerous.One is that it was borrowed via Ancient Greek from the Oscan Víteliú ‘land of calves’ Ancient Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus,mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides.According to Antiochus of Syracuse, the term Italy was used by the ancient Greeks to initially refer only to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula corresponding to the modern province of Reggio and part of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentiain southern Italy. Nevertheless, by his time the larger concept of Oenotria and “Italy” had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of LucaniaVas well. According to Strabo‘s Geographica, before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by ancient Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto, corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria. The ancient Greeks gradually came to apply the name “Italia” to a larger region In addition to the “Greek Italy” in the south, historians have suggested the existence of an “Etruscan Italy” covering variable areas of central Italy.
The borders of Roman Italy, Italia, are better established. Cato’s Origines, the first work of history composed in Latin, described Italy as the entire peninsula south of the Alps.According to Cato and several Roman authors, the Alps formed the “walls of Italy”.In 264 BC, Roman Italy extended from the Arno and Rubicon rivers of the centre-north to the entire south. The northern area of Cisalpine Gaul was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and de facto part of Italy,but remained politically and de jure separated. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Octavian as a ratification of Caesar‘s unpublished acts (Acta Caesaris).The islands of Sardinia,Corsica, Sicily and Malta were added to Italy by Diocletian in 292 AD.coinciding with the whole Italian geographical region.All its inhabitants were considered Italic and Roman.
The Latin term Italicus was used to describe “a man of Italy” as opposed to a provincial. For example, Pliny the Elder notably wrote in a letter Italicus es an provincialis? meaning “are you an Italian or a provincial?”.The adjective italianus, from which are derived the Italian (and also French and English) name of the Italians, is medieval and was used alternatively with Italicus during the early modern period.After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which was caused by the invasion of the Ostrogoths, the Kingdom of Italy was created. After the Lombard invasions, “Italia” was retained as the name for their kingdom, and for its successor kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire, which nominally lasted until 1806, although it had de facto disintegrated due to factional politics pitting the empire against the ascendant city republics in the 13th century.
Italy, whose territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region,is located in Southern Europe and it is also considered a part of western Europe,between latitudes 35° and 47° N, and longitudes 6° and 19° E. To the north, Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia and is roughly delimited by the Alpine watershed, enclosing the Po Valley and the Venetian Plain. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula and the two Mediterranean islands ,Sicily and Sardinia (the two biggest islands of the Mediterranean), in addition to many smaller islands. The sovereign states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy,while Campione d’Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.
The country’s total area is 301,230 square kilometres (116,306sqmi), of which 294,020km2(113,52sqmi) is land and 7,210km2(2,784 sq mi) is water.Including the islands, Italy has a coastline and border of 7,600 kilometres (4,722 miles) on the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian seas (740 km (460 mi)), and borders shared with France (488 km (303 mi)), Austria (430 km (267 mi)), Slovenia (232 km (144 mi)) and Switzerland (740 km (460 mi)). San Marino (39 km (24 mi)) and Vatican City (3.2 km (2.0 mi)), both enclaves, account for the remainder.Over 35% of the Italian territory is mountainous.The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula’s backbone, and the Alps form most of its northern boundary, where Italy’s highest point is located on Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) (4,810 m or 15,780 ft). Other worldwide-known mountains in Italy include the Matterhorn (Monte Cervino), Monte Rosa, Gran Paradiso in the West Alps, and Bernina, Stelvio and Dolomites along the eastern side.
The Po, Italy’s longest river (652 kilometres or 405 miles), flows from the Alps on the western border with France and crosses the Padan plain on its way to the Adriatic Sea. The Po Valley is the largest plain in Italy, with 46,000 km2 (18,000 sq mi), and it represents over 70% of the total plain area in the country.
Many elements of the Italian territory are of volcanic origin. Most of the small islands and archipelagos in the south, like Capraia,Ponza, Ischia, Eolie, Ustica and Pantelleria are volcanic islands. There are also active volcanoes Mount Etna in Sicily (the largest active volcano in Europe),Vulcano, Stromboli, and Vesuvius (the only active volcano on mainland Europe).
The five largest lakes are, in order of diminishing size:Garda (367.94 km2 or 142 sq mi),Maggiore (212.51 km2 or 82 sq mi, whose minor northern part is Switzerland), Como (145.9 km2 or 56 sq mi), Trasimeno (124.29 km2 or 48 sq mi) and Bolsena (113.55 km2 or 44 sq mi).
Although the country includes the Italian peninsula, adjacent islands, and most of the southern Alpine basin, some of Italy’s territory extends beyond the Alpine basin and some islands are located outside the Eurasian continental shelf. These territories are the comuni of Livigno, Sexten, Innichen, Toblach (in part), Chiusaforte,Tarvisio, Graun im Vinschgau (in part), which are all part of the Danube’s drainage basin, while the Val di Lei constitutes part of the Rhine‘s basin and the islands of Lampedusa and Lampione are on the African continental shelf.
Italy is the fifth most visited country in international tourism, with a total of 52.3 million international arrivals in 2016.The total contribution of travel & tourism to GDP (including wider effects from investment, the supply chain and induced income impacts) was EUR162.7bn in 2014 (10.1% of GDP) and generated 1,082,000 jobs directly in 2014 (4.8% of total employment).
People mainly visit Italy for its rich culture, cuisine, history, fashion, architecture and art.Winter and summer tourism are present in many locations in the Alps and the Apennines,while seaside tourism is widespread in coastal locations on the Mediterranean Sea.
Italy is also the country with the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world Rome is the 3rd most visited city in Europe and the 12th in the world, with 9.4 million arrivals in 2017 while Milan is the 27th worldwide with 6.8 million tourists.In addition,Venice and Florence are also among the world’s top 100 destinations.
At the beginning of 2020, Italy had 60,317,116 inhabitants.The resulting population density, at 202 inhabitants per square kilometre (520/sq mi), is higher than that of most Western European countries. However, the distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (that accounts for almost a half of the national population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Apennines highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata and the island of Sardinia, as well as much of Sicily, are sparsely populated.
The population of Italy almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven because of large-scale internal migration from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950–1960s. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they started to decline. The population rapidly aged by 2010, one in five Italians was over 65 years old, and the country currently has the fifth oldest population in the world, with a median age of 46.5 years However, in recent years Italy has experienced significant growth in birth rates.The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2008,albeit still below the replacement rate of 2.1 and considerably below the high of 5.06 children born per woman in 1883.Nevertheless, thetotal fertility rate is expected to reach 1.6–1.8 in 2030
From the late 19th century until the 1960s Italy was a country of mass emigration. Between 1898 and 1914, the peak years of Italian diaspora, approximately 750,000 Italians emigrated each year.The diaspora concerned more than 25 million Italians and it is considered the biggest mass migration of contemporary times.As a result, today more than 4.1 million Italian citizens are living abroad while at least 60 million people of full or part Italian ancestry live outside of Italy, most notably in Argentina,Brazil,Uruguay,Venezuela,the United States,Canada,Australia and France.
Rome (Italian and Latin:) is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi),Rome is the country’s most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy.Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy.Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio , along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the “Eternal City”.Rome is generally considered to be the “cradle of Western Christian culture and civilization“, and the center of the Catholic Church.
Rome’s history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe.The city’s early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines. Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and is regarded by many as the first-ever Imperial city and metropolis.It was first called The Eternal City (Latin: Urbs Aetern Italian:La Città Eterna) by the Roman poetTibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy.Rome is also called “Caput Mundi” (Capital of the World). After the fall of the Empire in the west, which marked the beginning of the Middle Ages, Rome slowly fell under the political control of the Papacy, and in the 8th century, it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. Beginning with the Renaissance, almost all popes since Nicholas V (1447–1455) pursued a coherent architectural and urban programme over four hundred years, aimed at making the city the artistic and cultural centre of the world.In this way, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Renaissance,and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors, and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, creating masterpieces throughout the city. In 1871, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, which, in 1946, became the Italian Republic.
In 2019, Rome was the 11th most visited city in the world, with 10.1 million tourists, the third most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist destination in Italy.Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.The host city for the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rome is also the seat of several specialised agencies of the United Nations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The city also hosts the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean(UfM) as well as the headquarters of many international businesses, such as Eni, Enel, TIM, Leonardo S.p.A., and national and international banks such as Unicredit and BNL. Rome’s EUR business district is the home of many oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and financial services companies. The presence of renowned international brands in the city has made Rome an important centre of fashion and design, and the Cinecittà Studios have been the set of many Academy Award–winning movies.
According to the Ancient Romans’ founding myth,the name Roma came from the city’s founder and first king, Romulus.However, it is possible that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself.As early as the 4th century, there have been alternative theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. Several hypotheses have been advanced focusing on its linguistic roots which however remain uncertain:From Rumon or Rumen, archaic name of theTiber, which in turn is supposedly related to the Greek verb ῥέω (rhéō) ‘to flow, stream’ and the Latin verb ruō ‘to hurry, rush’From the Etruscan word (ruma), whose root is *rum- “teat”, with possible reference either to the totem wolf that adopted and suckled the cognately named twins Romulus and Remus, or to the shape of the Palatine and Aventine Hills,From the Greek word ῥώμη (rhṓmē), which means strength.
Ancient Rome
Rome, a settlement around a ford on the river Tiber in central Italy conventionally founded in 753 BC, was ruled for a period of 244 years by a monarchical system, initially with sovereigns of Latin and Sabineorigin, later by Etruscan kings. The tradition handed down seven kings:Romulus,Numa Pompilius,Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus. In 509 BC, the Romans expelled the last king from their city, favouring a government of the Senate and the People and establishing an oligarchic republic.
The Italian Peninsula, named Italia, was consolidated into a single entity during the Roman expansion and conquest of new lands at the expense of the other Italic tribes, Etruscans, Celts, and Greeks. A permanent association with most of the local tribes and cities was formed, and Rome began the conquest of Western Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. In the wake of Julius Caesar‘s rise and death in the first century BC, Rome grew over the course of centuries into a massive empire stretching from Britain to the borders of Persia, and engulfing the whole Mediterranean basin, in which Greek and Roman and many other cultures merged into a unique civilisation. The long and triumphant reign of the first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity. Roman Italy remained the metropole of the empire, and as the homeland of the Romans and the territory of the capital, maintained a special status which made it Domina Provinciarum (“ruler of the provinces“, the latter being all the remaining territories outside Italy).More than two centuries of stability followed, during which Italy was referred to as the Rectrix Mundi (“governor of the world”) and Omnium Terrarum Parens (“parent of all lands”).The Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time, and it was one of the largest empires in world history. At its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres.The Roman legacy has deeply influenced Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages derived from Latin, the numerical system, the modern Western alphabet and calendar, and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion.The Indo-Roman trade relations, beginning around the 1st century BCE, testify to extensive Roman trade in far away regions; many reminders of the commercial trade between the Indian subcontinent and Italy have been found, such as the ivory statuette Pompeii Lakshmi from the ruins of Pompei.
In a slow decline since the third century AD, the Empire split in two in 395 AD. The Western Empire, under the pressure of the barbarian invasions, eventually dissolved in 476 AD when its last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic chief Odoacer. The Eastern half of the Empire survived for another thousand years.
Rome is in the Lazio region of central Italy on the Tiber (Italian: Tevere) river. The original settlement developed on hills that faced onto a ford beside the Tiber Island, the only natural ford of the river in this area. The Rome of the Kings was built on seven hills: the Aventine Hill, the Caelian Hill, the Capitoline Hill, the Esquiline Hill, the Palatine Hill, the Quirinal Hill, and the Viminal Hill. Modern Rome is also crossed by another river, the Aniene, which flows into the Tiber north of the historic centre.Although the city centre is about 24 km (15 mi) inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea, the city territory extends to the shore, where the south-western district of Ostia is located. The altitude of the central part of Rome ranges from 13 m (43 ft)above sea level(at the base of the Pantheon) to 139 m (456 ft) above sea level (the peak of Monte Mario).The Comune of Rome covers an overall area of about 1,285 km2(496sq mi), including many green areas.
Throughout the history of Rome, the urban limits of the city were considered to be the area within the city’s walls. Originally, these consisted of the Servian Wall, which was built twelve years after the Gaulish sack of the city in 390 BC. This contained most of the Esquiline and Caelian hills, as well as the whole of the other five. Rome outgrew the Servian Wall, but no more walls were constructed until almost 700 years later, when, in 270 AD, Emperor Aurelian began building the Aurelian Walls. These were almost 19 km (12mi) long, and were still the walls the troops of the Kingdom of Italy had to breach to enter the city in 1870. The city’s urban area is cut in two by its ring-road, the Grande Raccordo Anulare (“GRA”), finished in 1962, which circles the city centre at a distance of about 10 km (6 mi). Although when the ring was completed most parts of the inhabited area lay inside it (one of the few exceptions was the former village of Ostia, which lies along the Tyrrhenian coast), in the meantime quarters have been built which extend up to 20 km (12 mi) beyond it.The comune covers an area roughly three times the total area within the Raccordo and is comparable in area to the entire metropolitan cities of Milan and Naples, and to an area six times the size of the territory of these cities. It also includes considerable areas of abandoned marshland which is suitable neither for agriculture nor for urban development.As a consequence, the density of the comune is not that high, its territory being divided between highly urbanised areas and areas designated as parks, nature reserves, and for agricultural use.
The territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus (Vatican Hill), and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields, where St. Peter’s Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with various other buildings. The area was part of the Roman rione of Borgo until 1929. Being separated from the city on the west bank of the Tiber, the area was a suburb that was protected by being included within the walls of Leo IV, later expanded by the current fortification walls of Paul III, Pius IV, and Urban VIII.When the Lateran Treaty of 1929 that created the Vatican state was being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory were influenced by the fact that much of it was all but enclosed by this loop. For some parts of the border, there was no wall, but the line of certain buildings supplied part of the boundary, and for a small part a new wall was constructed.The territory includes Saint Peter’s Square, separated from the territory of Italy only by a white line along with the limit of the square, where it borders Piazza Pio XII. St. Peter’s Square is reached through the Via della Conciliazione, which runs from the Tiber to St. Peter’s. This grand approach was designed by architects Piacentini and Spaccarelli, on the instructions of Benito Mussolini and in accordance with the church, after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty. According to the Treaty, certain properties of the Holy See located in Italian territory, most notably the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial status similar to that of foreign embassies.
Florence Italian:Firenze is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era.It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center.During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond.Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions.From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). TheFlorentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.
The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site n 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments.The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.Due to Florence’s artistic and architectural heritage,Forbes has ranked it as the most beautiful city in the world of 2010.Florence plays an important role in Italian fashion,and is ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world by Global Language Monitor furthermore, it is a major national economic centre,as well as a tourist and industrial hub. It is the 4th richest Italian city.Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a long period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune, it was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. It was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe and the world from the 14th to 16th centuries.The language spoken in the city during the 14th century came to be accepted as the model for what would become the Italian language. Thanks especially to the works of the Tuscans Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, the Florentine dialect, above all the local dialects, was adopted as the basis for a national literary language.Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money in the form of the gold florin financed the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon and Hungary. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War. They similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome.
Florence was home to the Medici, one of European history’s most important noble families. Lorenzo de’ Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century:Leo X and Clement VII.Catherine de Medici married King Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de’ Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future King Louis XIII. The Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de’ Medici in 1737. Florence lies in a basin formed by the hills of Careggi,Fiesole,Settignano,Arcetri,Poggio Imperiale and Bellosguardo (Florence). The Arno river, three other minor rivers (Mugnone,Ema and Greve) and some streams flow through it.
Venice Italian:Venezia is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islandsthat are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridgesThe islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of thePo and thePiave rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile). In 2020, 258,685 people resided in the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical city of Venice (centro storico). Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice for over a millennium, from 697 to 1797. It was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as an important center of commerce especially silk, grain, and spice, and of art from the 13th century to the end of the 17th. The city-state of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center, emerging in the 9th century and reaching its greatest prominence in the 14th century.This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history.After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence.Venice has been known as “La Dominante”, “La Serenissima”, “Queen of the Adriatic“, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “City of Bridges”, “The Floating City”, and “City of Canals”. The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork.Venice is known for several important artistic movements especially during the Renaissance period and has played an important role in the history of instrumental and operatic music, and is the birthplace of Baroque composers Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi.Although the city is facing some challenges (including an excessive number of tourists and problems caused by pollution, tide peaks and cruise ships sailing too close to buildings),Venice remains a very popular tourist destination, a major cultural centre, and has been ranked many times the most beautiful city in the world.It has been described by the Times Onlineas one of Europe’s most romantic citiesand by The New York Times as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”.Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding of Venice,tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees from nearby Roman cities such as Padua, Aquileia, Treviso, Altino, and Concordia (modern Portogruaro), as well as from the undefended countryside who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions.This is further supported by the documentation on the so-called “apostolic families”, the twelve founding families of Venice who elected the first doge, who in most cases trace their lineage back to Roman families.Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen, on the islands in the original marshy lagoons, who were referred to as incolae lacunae (“lagoon dwellers”). The traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto (Rivoalto, “High Shore”)said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421 (the Feast of the Annunciation).
Beginning as early as AD 166–168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the main Roman town in the area, present-day Oderzo. This part of Roman Italy was again overrun in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, by the Huns led by Attila. The last and most enduring immigration into the north of the Italian peninsula, that of the Lombards in 568, left the Eastern Roman Empire only a small strip of coastline in the current Veneto, including Venice. The Roman/Byzantine territory was organized as the Exarchate of Ravenna, administered from that ancient port and overseen by a viceroy (the Exarch) appointed by the Emperor in Constantinople. Ravenna and Venice were connected only by sea routes, and with the Venetians’ isolation came increasing autonomy. New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores formed the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the lagoon, dating from c. 568.
The traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto (Anafestus Paulicius), was elected in 697, as written in the oldest chronicle by John, deacon of Venice c. 1008. Some modern historians claim Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually the Exarch Paul, and Paul’s successor,Marcello Tegalliano, was Paul’s magister militum (or “general”), literally “master of soldiers”. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the exarchate rose in a rebellion over the iconoclastic controversy, at the urging of Pope Gregory II. The exarch, held responsible for the acts of his master, Byzantine Emperor Leo III, was murdered, and many officials were put to flight in the chaos. At about this time, the people of the lagoon elected their own independent leader for the first time, although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear. Ursus was the first of 117 “doges” (doge is the Venetian dialectal equivalent of the Latin dux (“leader”); the corresponding word in English is duke, in standard Italian duca. Whatever his original views, Ursus supported Emperor Leo III‘s successful military expedition to recover Ravenna, sending both men and ships. In recognition of this, Venice was “granted numerous privileges and concessions” and Ursus, who had personally taken the field, was confirmed by Leo as dux.and given the added title of hypatus (from the Greek for “consul“).
In 751, the Lombard King Aistulf conquered most of the Exarchate of Ravenna, leaving Venice a lonely and increasingly autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the “duke/dux”, later “doge”), was at Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in the lagoon probably increased with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories, as refugees sought asylum in the area. In 775/6, the episcopal seat of Olivolo (San Pietro di Castello, namely Helipolis was created. During the reign of duke Agnello Particiaco (811–827) the ducal seat moved from Malamocco to the more protected Rialto, within present-day Venice. The monastery of St. Zachary and the first ducal palace and basilica of St. Mark, as well as a walled defense (civitatis murus) between Olivolo and Rialto, were subsequently built here.Charlemagne sought to subdue the city to his rule. He ordered the pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast Charlemagne’s own son Pepin of Italy, king of the Lombards, under the authority of his father, embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This, however, proved a costly failure. The siege lasted six months, with Pepin’s army ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw in 810. A few months later, Pepin himself died, apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorusin 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory, and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.
In 828 the new city’s prestige increased with the acquisition, from Alexandria, of relics claimed to be of St Mark the Evangelist these were placed in the new basilica. Winged lions visible throughout Venice are the emblem of St Mark. The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop, and as Byzantine power waned, its own autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence.Venice’s long decline started in the 15th century. Venice confronted the Ottoman Empire in the Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) and sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks in 1453. After the Fall of Constantinople Sultan Mehmed II declared the first of a series of Ottoman-Venetian wars that cost Venice much of its eastern Mediterranean possessions. Vasco da Gama‘s 1497–1499 voyage opened a sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope and destroyed Venice’s monopoly. Venice’s oared vessels were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing oceans, therefore Venice was left behind in the race for colonies.The Black Death devastated Venice in 1348 and struck again between 1575 and 1577.In three years, the plague killed some 50,000 people.In 1630, the Italian plague of 1629–31 killed a third of Venice’s 150,000 citizens.
Venice began to lose its position as a center of international trade during the later part of the Renaissance as Portugal became Europe’s principal intermediary in the trade with the East, striking at the very foundation of Venice’s great wealth. France and Spain fought for hegemony over Italy in the Italian Wars, marginalising its political influence. However, Venice remained a major exporter of agricultural products and until the mid-18th century, a significant manufacturing center.
During the 18th century, Venice became perhaps the most elegant and refined city in Europe, greatly influencing art, architecture, and literature.But the Republic lost its independence when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice on 12 May 1797 during the War of the First Coalition. Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city’s Jewish population. He removed the gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city.
Venice became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio on 12 October 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on 18 January 1798. Venice was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon’s Kingdom of Italy. It was returned to Austria following Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, when it became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. In 1848 a revolt briefly re-established theVenetian republic under Daniele Manin, but this was crushed in 1849. In 1866, after the Third Italian War of Independence, Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy.From the middle of the 18th century, Trieste and Ancona, both of which became free ports, competed with Venice more and more economically. Habsburg Trieste in particular boomed and increasingly served trade via the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869, between Asia and Central Europe, while Venice very quickly lost its competitive edge and commercial strength.
During thev Second World War, the historic city was largely free from attack, the only aggressive effort of note being Operation Bowler, a successful Royal Air Force precision strike on the German naval operations in the city in March 1945. The targets were destroyed with virtually no architectural damage inflicted on the city itself.However, the industrial areas in Mestre and Marghera and the railway lines to Padua, Trieste, and Trento were repeatedly bombed.On 29 April 1945, a force of British and New Zealand troops of the British Eighth Army, under Lieutenant General Freyberg, liberated Venice, which had been a hotbed of anti-Mussolini Italian partisan activity.
Venice sits atop alluvial silt washed into the sea by the rivers flowing eastward from the alps across the Veneto plain, with the silt being stretched into long banks, or lidi, by the action of the current flowing around the head of the Adriatic Sea from east to west.Subsidence, the gradual lowering of the surface of Venice, has contributed along with other factors to the seasonal Acqua alta (“high water”) when much of the city’s surface is occasionally covered at high tide.Those fleeing barbarian invasions who found refuge on the sandy islands of Torcello, Iesolo, and Malamocco, in this coastal lagoon, learned to build by driving closely spaced piles consisting of the trunks of alder trees, a wood noted for its water resistance, into the mud and sand,until they reached a much harder layer of compressed clay. Building foundations rested on plates of Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles.
Between autumn and early spring, the city is often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic. Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city.This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment. Additionally, the lowest part of Venice,St. Mark’s Basilica, is only 64 centimetres (25 in) above sea level, and one of the most flood-prone parts of the city.In 1604, to defray the cost of flood relief, Venice introduced what could be considered the first example of a “stamp tax“When the revenue fell short of expectations in 1608, Venice introduced paper, with the superscription “AQ” and imprinted instructions, which was to be used for “letters to officials”. At first, this was to be a temporary tax, but it remained in effect until the fall of the Republic in 1797. Shortly after the introduction of the tax, Spain produced similar paper for general taxation purposes, and the practice spread to other countries.
During the 20th century, when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to subside. It was realized that extraction of water from the aquifer was the cause. The sinking has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods—the Acqua alta, that rise to a height of several centimetres over its quays—regularly following certain tides. In many old houses, staircases once used to unload goods are now flooded, rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable.
In May 2003, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the MOSE Project (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico), an experimental model for evaluating the performance of hollow floatable gates the idea is to fix a series of 78 hollow pontoons to the sea bed across the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above 110 cm, the pontoons will be filled with air, causing them to float and block the incoming water from the Adriatic Sea.This engineering work was due to be completed by 2018.A Reuters report stated that the MOSE Project attributed the delay to “corruption scandals”.The project is not guaranteed to be successful and the cost has been very high, with as much as approximately €2 billion of the cost lost to corruption.According to a spokesman for the FAI: Mose is a pharaonic project that should have cost €800m [£675m] but will cost at least €7bn [£6bn]. If the barriers are closed at only 90 cm of high water, most of St Mark’s will be flooded anyway but if closed at very high levels only, then people will wonder at the logic of spending such sums on something that didn’t solve the problem. And pressure will come from the cruise ships to keep the gates open.On 13 November 2019, Venice was flooded when waters peaked at 1.87m (6 ft), the highest tide since 1966 (1.94 m).More than 80% of the city was covered by water, which damaged cultural heritage sites, including more than 50 churches, leading to tourists cancelling their visits.The planned flood barrier would have prevented this incident according to various sources, including Marco Piana, the head of conservation at St Mark’s Basilica.The mayor promised that work on the flood barrier would continue,and the Prime Minister announced that the government would be accelerating the project.The city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, blamed the floods on climate change. The chambers of the Regional Council of Veneto began to be flooded around 10 pm, two minutes after the council rejected a plan to combat global warming.One of the effects of climate change is sea level rise which causes an increase in frequency and magnitude of floodings in the city.A Washington Post report provided a more thorough analysis”The sea level has been rising even more rapidly in Venice than in other parts of the world. At the same time, the city is sinking, the result of tectonic plates shifting below the Italian coast. Those factors together, along with the more frequent extreme weather events associated with climate change, contribute to floods.” Henk Ovink, an expert on flooding, told CNN that, while environmental factors are part of the problem, “historic floods in Venice are not only a result of the climate crisis but poor infrastructure and mismanagement”.The government of Italy committed to providing 20 million euros in funding to help the city repair the most urgent aspects although Brugnaro’s estimate of the total damage was “hundreds of millions”to at least 1 billion euros.On 3 October 2020, the MOSE was activated for the first time in response to a predicted high tide event, preventing some of the low-lying parts of the city (in particular the Piazza San Marco) from being flooded.
San Marino, the Republic of San Marino Repubblica di San Marino, also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino is a small country (and a European microstate) in Southern Europe enclaved by Italy.Located on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains, San Marino covers a land area of just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi), and has a population of 33,562 San Marino is a landlocked country but the northeastern end is within 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of the Italian city of Rimini on the Adriatic Sea. The nearest airport is also in Italy. The country’s capital city, the City of San Marino, is located at the top of Mount Titan, while its largest settlement is Dogana within the largest municipality of Serravalle. San Marino’s official language is Italian.The country derives its name from Saint Marinus, a stonemason from the then-Roman island of Rab in present-day Croatia. Born in AD 275, Marinus participated in the rebuilding of Rimini‘s city walls after their destruction by Liburnian pirates. Marinus then went on to found an independently ruled monastic community on Mount Titan in AD 301 thus, San Marino lays claim to being the oldest extant sovereign state, as well as the oldest constitutional republic.Uniquely, San Marino’s constitution dictates that its democratically elected legislature, the Grand and General Council, must elect two heads of state every six months. Known as captains regent, the two heads of state serve concurrently and hold equal powers until their term expires after six months. The country’s economy is mainly based on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in GDP per capita, with a figure comparable to the most developed European regions.Saint Marinus left the island of Rab in present-day Croatia with his lifelong friend Leo, and went to the city of Rimini as a stonemason. After the Diocletianic Persecution following his Christian sermons, he escaped to the nearby Monte Titano, where he built a small church and thus founded what is now the city and state of San Marino.The official founding date is 3 September 301 AD. In 1320 the community of Chiesanuova chose to join the country. In 1463 San Marino was extended with the communities of Faetano, Fiorentino, Montegiardino, and Serravalle, after which the country’s borders have remained unchanged.In 1503, Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, occupied the Republic for six months until his father’s successor, Pope Julius II, intervened and restored the country’s independence.On 4 June 1543 Fabiano di Monte San Savino, nephew of the later Pope Julius III, attempted to conquer the republic, but his infantry and cavalry failed as they got lost in a dense fog, which the Sammarinese attributed to Saint Quirinus, whose feast day it was.After the Duchy of Urbino was annexed by the Papal States in 1625, San Marino became an enclave within the Papal States, something which led to its seeking the formal protection of the Papal States in 1631, but this never equalled a de facto Papal control of the republic.The country was occupied on 17 October 1739 by the legate (Papal governor) of Ravenna, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, but independence was restored by Pope Clement XII on 5 February 1740, the feast day of Saint Agatha, after which she became a patron saint of the republic.The advance of Napoleon‘s army in 1797 presented a brief threat to the independence of San Marino, but the country was saved from losing its liberty by one of its regents, Antonio Onofri, who managed to gain the respect and friendship of Napoleon. Due to Onofri’s intervention, Napoleon, in a letter delivered to Gaspard Monge, scientist and commissary of the French Government for Science and Art, promised to guarantee and protect the independence of the Republic, even offering to extend its territory according to its needs. The offer was declined by the regents, fearing future retaliation from other states’ revanchism.During the later phase of the Italian unification process in the 19th century, San Marino served as a refuge for many people persecuted because of their support for unification, including Giuseppe Garibaldi and his wife Anita.
The government of San Marino made United States President Abraham Lincoln an honorary citizen. He wrote in reply, saying that the republic proved that “government founded on republican principles is capable of being so administered as to be secure and enduring.During World War I, when Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915, San Marino remained neutral and Italy adopted a hostile view of Sammarinese neutrality, suspecting that San Marino could harbour Austrian spies who could be given access to its new radiotelegraph station. Italy tried to forcibly establish a detachment of Carabinieri in the republic and then cut the republic’s telephone lines when it did not comply. Two groups of ten volunteers joined Italian forces in the fighting on the Italian front, the first as combatants and the second as a medical corps operating a Red Cross field hospital. The existence of this hospital later caused Austria-Hungary to suspend diplomatic relations with San Marino.After the war, San Marino suffered from high rates of unemployment and inflation, leading to increased tensions between the lower and middle classes. The latter, fearing that the moderate government of San Marino would make concessions to the lower class majority, began to show support for the Sammarinese Fascist Party (Partito Fascista Sammarinese, PFS), founded in 1922 and styled largely on their Italian counterpart. PFS rule lasted from 1923 to 1943, and during this time they often sought support from Benito Mussolini‘s fascist government in Italy.During World War II, San Marino remained neutral, although it was wrongly reported in an article from The New York Times that it had declared war on the United Kingdom on 17 September 1940.The Sammarinese government later transmitted a message to the British government stating that they had not declared war on the United Kingdom.On 28 July 1943, three days after the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, PFS rule collapsed and the new government declared neutrality in the conflict. The PFS regained power on 1 April 1944 but kept neutrality intact. Despite that, on 26 June 1944, San Marino was bombed by the Royal Air Force, in the belief that San Marino had been overrun by German forces and was being used to amass stores and ammunition. The Sammarinese government declared on the same day that no military installations or equipment were located on its territory, and that no belligerent forces had been allowed to enter.San Marino accepted thousands of civilian refugees when Allied forces went over the Gothic Line.In September 1944, it was briefly occupied by German forces, who were defeated by Allied forces in the Battle of San Marino.San Marino had the world’s first democratically elected communist government a coalition between the Sammarinese Communist Party and the Sammarinese Socialist Party, which held office between 1945 and 1957.
San Marino is the world’s smallest republic, although when Nauru gained independence in 1968 it challenged that claim. Nauru’s land mass is only 21 km2\ (8.1 sq mi), but its jurisdiction over its surrounding waters covers 431,000km2 (166,000 sq mi), an area thousands of times greater than the territory of San Marino.San Marino became a member of the Council of Europe in 1988 and of the United Nations in 1992. It is not a member of the European Union, although it uses the euro as its currency (despite not legally being part of theEurozone).At the 2020 Summer Olympics, San Marino became the smallest country to earn a medal, as Alessandra Perilli won bronze in the women’s trap shooting event.
San Marino is an enclave (landlocked) surrounded by Italy in Southern Europe, on the border between the regions of Emilia Romagna and Marche and about 10 km (6.21 mi) from the Adriatic coast at Rimini. Its hilly topography, with no flat ground, is part of the Apennine mountain range. The highest point in the country, the summit of Monte Titano, is 749 m (2,457 feet) above sea level the lowest, the Ausa River, is 55 m. San Marino has no still or contained bodies of water of any significant size.
It is one of only three countries in the world to be completely enclosed by another country (the others being Vatican City, also enclosed by Italy, and Lesotho, enclosed by South Africa). It is the third smallest country in Europe, after Vatican City and Monaco, and the fifth smallest country in the world.The terrestrial ecoregion of Italian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests lies within San Marino’s territory.
