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Italy is the land of sapori(taste) and saperi(knowledge). This is truly the land that engages all the traveler's senses. Whether you are a history buff, a wine connoiseur, an amateur chef, enthralled by the arts, captured by fashion, a beach bum, a dewy eyed romantic or a combination of the above, be prepare to be dazzled by this country that is overflowing with choices galore.
And the choices are enchanting. Italy's cities are living museums with their perfectly preserved monuments and beautifully proportioned squares; their museums a veritable feast for your eyes where you can devour the works of Raffaello, Michelangelo, Tiziano, Caravaggio, Botticelli and Tintoretto among others, their operas ringing with the works of Verdi and Puccini; the landscape littered with two thirds of UNESCO's world heritage sites that include rock drawings in Valcamonica, the Dolomites, the entire Amalfi Coast, the famed Villa d'Este in Tivoli, the Baroque towns of Sicily and the mosaics of Ravenna, among myriad others; and finally, their ristoranti, pizzeria and trattoria offer gastronomical delights that range from aromatic espressos, frothy cappuccinos to a range of antipasto (starters), traditional slices of pizza and sinful dolce (desserts) or gelato (ice-cream) while their vineyards pour out heady glasses of Chianti, Marsala, Muscato and for the brave worshipper of Bacchus, Grappa!
During your tour, you will experience the very heart of Italy. Choose from the various cultural capitals of the country, each with its unique blend of art, history and particular destiny. Whether it is absorbing the amazing art of Renaissance Florencia, detangling 2800 years of history of the World Heritage Site of Napoli, walking through the Eternal City of Roma, sampling the famed ham and cheese of Parma, being serenaded by the gondoliers of Venezia, journeying to the cliff-hugging villages of the Cinque Terre, walking the pedestrian-friendly streets of Lucca, embracing the hill town ambiance of Tuscany, or soaking some sun on the celebrity-rich island of Capri, your tour will be crafted with a finesse that will allow you to enjoy Italy's most distinctive arts, wines and cuisine.
| Area: |
301,318 sq km |
| Population: |
59.13m |
| Capital city: |
Rome (population: 2.7m) |
| People: |
Mostly Italian, with small populations of German, French and Slovene Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south. |
| Life expectancy: |
men (78.3), women (84) |
| Language: |
Italian. However, German is the predominant language in the South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige); French is predominant in the Valle d'Aosta region on the Swiss/French border and Slovene on the Slovene border. |
| Religion: |
83% Roman Catholic; remainder Jewish and Protestant and a growing Muslim immigrant community - an estimated 825,000 of which between 140,00-160,000 are Italian born. |
| Currency: |
euro |
| Parliament: |
Italy has a bicameral system composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Both are directly elected and are of equal authority. |
History
The "Risorgimento"
Italian unity was achieved in an intense and dramatic struggle, known as the Risorgimento (Revival), between 1848 and 1870 under the House of Savoy and was essentially the conquest of the Italian peninsula by the Kingdom of Sardinia in the north ruled by the Savoy dynasty from Turin. The first part of this process ended in 1861 with the declaration of the Kingdom of Italy, comprising the northern provinces, Sicily, Sardinia and the south. Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour were the epic figures who led the unification of Italy, which was completed in 1871 when the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II (formerly the King of Piedmont and Sardinia), entered Rome, the capital of the Papal States, expelled the French troops defending papal authority and declared it the capital of Italy. The conquest of the Papal States ended the temporal power of the papacy. However, the Church refused to recognise the new state and excommunicated its monarch, the Pope remaining confined within the small enclave of the Vatican. The "Roman Question", or the territorial status of Rome, and the question of Church/state relations were not settled until 1929 when the Lateran Pact was concluded between the Vatican and Mussolini.
Recent History
The General Election of 13 May 2001 was won by Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-right House of Liberties coalition. It became the longest serving post-war Italian government and the only one to survive the five-year legislative period.
The General Election of 9/10 April 2006 was won by Romano Prodi and his centre-left 'Unione' coalition, with a majority of 67 seats in the Chamber of Deputies but only a 2 seat majority in the Senate. The majority in the Senate had been reduced to zero by the time Prodi lost a vote of confidence in the Senate in January 2008. New General elections were scheduled for 13/14 April.
The Italian political landscape underwent a seismic shift in the 1990s when the "Clean Hands" operation exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and big business. Several former prime ministers were implicated and thousands of businessmen and politicians were investigated.
Italy was one of the six countries which signed the 1951 Paris Treaty setting Europe off on the path to integration. It has been staunchly at the heart of Europe ever since, although in the early 2000s the government of Silvio Berlusconi adopted a more Eurosceptic stance.
Mr Berlusconi sought to align Italy more closely to the US, breaking ranks with the country's traditional allies, France and Germany, in his support for the US-led campaign in Iraq.
The Europhile Romano Prodi, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2008, pulled the Italian troops out of Iraq and set about restoring good relations with other EU member states.
Italy is the fourth largest European economy and for long enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe, despite the decline in traditional industries such as textiles and car manufacturing as a result of globalisation.
But it became one of the first eurozone victims of the global financial crisis of 2008. By the autumn, the economy was declared to have fallen into its fourth recession in less than a decade.
There is concern over Italy's birth rate - the lowest in Europe - and the economic implications of an ageing population. With the population forecast to fall significantly over the next 50 years, the late Pope, John Paul II, instructed Italians to "rediscover the culture of life and love and... their mission as parents".
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