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Italy is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. With 60.2 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world. The land known as Italy today has been the cradle of European cultures and peoples, such as the Romans. Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the political centre of Western civilization, as the capital of the Roman Empire. Through much of its post-Roman history, Italy was fragmented into numerous kingdoms and city-states, but was unified in 1861. Italy was a founding member of the European Community (EC) in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993.
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The Palazzo Pitti (sometimes called the Pitti Palace) is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker. It was bought by the Medici family in 1539 as the official residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
In the 19th century, the palazzo, by then a great treasure house, was used as a power base by Napoleon, and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly-united Italy. In the early 20th century, the palazzo together with its contents was given to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III; subsequently its doors were opened to the public as one of Florence's largest art galleries. Today, housing several minor additions in addition to those of the Medici family, it is fully open to the public.
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Did you know
- ...that the most ancient anthropomorphic sculptures of the Mediterranean area, after the Egyptian statues, preceding the kouroi of ancient Greece, are the Giants of Monte Prama?
- ...the famous biblical period movies Pier Paolo Pasolini’s "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (1964), Bruce Beresford’s "King David" (1985) and Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" (2004) were filmed in Matera?
- ...that the first Prime Minister of Italy, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, was also one of the first Italian landowners to use chemical fertilizers?
- ...that Italy's 1957 Eurovision entry, "Corde Della Mia Chitarra", was so long that it resulted in the introduction of length restrictions for competing songs?
- ...that Poliphilo, the main character in the Renaissance book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was said to have felt "extreme delight," "incredible joy," and "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy" when he saw the buildings depicted in the book?
- ...that the Italian automaker Autobianchi was founded by the bicycle manufacturer Bianchi, tire giant Pirelli and Fiat?
- ...that within a tomb in the town of Bergamo, Italy there is a statue dedicated to the life of Enrico Rastelli, the world's greatest juggler?
People
Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour (or Camillo di Cavour; August 10, 1810 – June 6, 1861) was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He became the first Prime Minister of the new Kingdom of Italy.
Olympics
The XX Olympic Winter Games were held in Turin, Italy from February 10 to 26 in 2006. This was the second time that Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, as it had hosted the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956, and the third time overall that Italy hosted an Olympic Games, as it had also staged the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome in 1960.
Literature
Invisible Cities (Italian: Le città invisibili) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore.
The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by the narrator, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of Polo's descriptions (1-3 pages each) of the 55 cities. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics including linguistics and human nature.
Italy News
- February 2011: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is indicted for allegedly hiring an under-age prostitute.
- January 2011: Fiat workers approve a new employment contract proposed by CEO Sergio Marchionne.
- December 2010: Silvio Berlusconi narrowly wins a no confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies.
- June 2010: The national football team are eliminated in the first round of the 2010 World Cup after winning the 2006 tournament.
- May 2010: Veronica Lario files for divorce from Silvio Berlusconi.
- April 2009: An earthquake in L'Aquila, Abruzzo kills 308 people, injures 15,000, and renders over 60,000 homeless.
- April 2008: Former premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party leads a centre-right coalition to win a majority in Parliament, making Berlusconi Prime Minister for a third time.
Categories
Paintings
Amedeo Modigliani
(1915), Oil on canvas
Brera Gallery, Milan
Cinema
1900 (also called Novecento) is a 1976 epic film starring Robert de Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Alida Valli and Burt Lancaster, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils that took place in Italy in the first half on the 20th century.
Alfredo Berlinghieri (de Niro) and Olmo Dalco (Depardieu) are born on the same day in 1900, but belong to opposite ends of the social spectrum. Alfredo is the son of a rich landowner, while Olmo is a misbegotten peasant son. As Alfredo is somewhat rebellious and despises the falseness of his family, in particular his father, he befriends Olmo, who is brought up as a socialist.
After World War I, their friendship continues, but slowly the rise of the fascists as embodied by the sadistic Attila (Donald Sutherland) separates them. Alfredo chooses the side of Fascism, while Olmo fights for the communists.
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