Portal:Italy

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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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The concerto delle donne (lit. 'consort of ladies') was an ensemble of professional female singers of late Renaissance music in Italy. The term usually refers to the first and most influential group in Ferrara, which existed between 1580 and 1597. Renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity, the Ferrarese group's core members were the sopranos Laura Peverara, Livia d'Arco and Anna Guarini.

The Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d'Este, founded a group of mostly female singers for his chamber music series, musica secreta (lit. 'secret music'). These singers were exclusively noble women, such as Lucrezia and Isabella Bendidio. In 1580, Alfonso formally established the concerto delle donne for both his wife Margherita Gonzaga d'Este and reasons of prestige. The new group included professional singers of upper-class, but not noble, backgrounds, under the direction of the composers Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Ippolito Fiorini. Their signature style of florid, highly ornamented singing brought prestige to Ferrara and inspired composers of the time such as Lodovico Agostini, Carlo Gesualdo, and Claudio Monteverdi. (Full article...)

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

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...that the first Prime Minister of Italy, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was also one of the first landowners in Italy to use chemical fertilizers?

... that the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS were thought to have committed war crimes against Italians during World War II in retaliation for Italy's surrender?

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Carbonara (Italian: [karboˈnaːra]) is a pasta dish made with cured pork, hard cheese, eggs, salt, and black pepper. It is typical of the Lazio region of Italy. The dish took its modern form and name in the middle of the 20th century.

The cheese used is usually pecorino romano. Some variations use Parmesan, Grana Padano, or a combination of cheeses. Spaghetti is the most common pasta, but bucatini or rigatoni are also used. While guanciale, a cured pork jowl, is traditional, some variations use pancetta, and lardons of smoked bacon are a common substitute outside Italy. (Full article...)

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

Image 1The statue of Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Dante Alighieri, whose works helped establish modern Italian language, is considered one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His epic poem Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4The 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 5Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 11William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 12John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16The 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 17Linguistic 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 18Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 19The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22Villa La Rotonda, designed by Palladio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Pinocchio Disney film is based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24The 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 25Commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymus Francken I, c. 1590 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26The Antica trattoria Bagutto in Milan, the oldest restaurant in Italy and the second in Europe. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33The 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 34Clockwise 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 35Leonardo 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 36The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37Holographic copy of 1847 of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Alessandro 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 44Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Espresso 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 50David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)