Portal:Italy

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. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome; other major cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, 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...)

Clockwise from top:

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
A view of Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance
The Doge's palace in Venice
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the most renowned work of architecture of the Renaissance
Galileo Galilei, Tuscan scientist and father of the experimental method, Portrait by Justus Sustermans, 1636
Machiavelli, author of The Prince Portrait by Santi di Tito, c. 1550–1600
Christopher Columbus, Genoese explorer and colonizer whose voyages for Spain initiated the European colonization of the New World, Posthumous portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519
Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

The Italian Renaissance (Italian: Rinascimento [rinaʃʃiˈmento]) was a period in Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. Proponents of a "long Renaissance" argue that it started around the year 1300 and lasted until about 1600. In some fields, a Proto-Renaissance, beginning around 1250, is typically accepted. The French word renaissance (corresponding to rinascimento in Italian) means 'rebirth', and defines the period as one of cultural revival and renewed interest in classical antiquity after the centuries during what Renaissance humanists labelled as the "Dark Ages". The Italian Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari used the term rinascita ('rebirth') in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in 1550, but the concept became widespread only in the 19th century, after the work of scholars such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt.

The Renaissance began in Tuscany in Central Italy and centred in the city of Florence. The Florentine Republic, one of the several city-states of the peninsula, rose to economic and political prominence by providing credit for European monarchs and by laying down the groundwork for developments in capitalism and in banking. Renaissance culture later spread to Venice, the heart of a Mediterranean empire and in control of the trade routes with the east since its participation in the Crusades and following the journeys of Marco Polo between 1271 and 1295. Thus Italy renewed contact with the remains of ancient Greek culture, which provided humanist scholars with new texts. Finally the Renaissance had a significant effect on the Papal States and on Rome, largely rebuilt by humanist and Renaissance popes, such as Julius II and Leo X, who frequently became involved in Italian politics, in arbitrating disputes between competing colonial powers and in opposing the Protestant Reformation, which started c. 1517. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

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

...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?

...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?

Parmesan (Italian: Parmigiano Reggiano, pronounced [parmiˈdʒaːno redˈdʒaːno]) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a grana-type cheese, along with Grana Padano, the historic Granone Lodigiano, and others.

The term Parmesan may refer to either Parmigiano Reggiano or, when outside the European Union and Lisbon Agreement countries, a locally produced imitation. (Full article...)

List of fare/cuisine articles
Italian cuisine Pizza Ancient Roman cuisine Pasta Roman cuisine Sicilian cuisine Mozzarella Fettuccine Alfredo Acquacotta Carbonara Gelato Marron glacé Minestrone Pizza di Pasqua Chianti Food and dining in the Roman Empire Espresso Italian wine Testaroli Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali Latte

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

Image 1Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, an example of modern architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5Celebration of the 2777th Natale di Roma at the Circus Maximus (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8The statue of Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 11Scrovegni Chapel. The chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 12Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15Holographic copy of 1847 of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16The 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 17A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 19Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22Romulus and Remus, the Lupercal, Father Tiber, and the Palatine on a relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117) (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Clockwise 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 24Established in 1224 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26Espresso 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 27Folkloristic reconstruction of the Company of Death led by Alberto da Giussano who is preparing to carry out the charge during the battle of Legnano at the Palio di Legnano 2014 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Enrico Fermi, creator of the world's first nuclear reactor. He is considered the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29The president of Italy Sergio Mattarella during his entry into the Sala del Tricolore on the occasion of the Tricolour Day on 7 January 2017 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33Linguistic 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 34Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35Alessandro 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 36William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37The 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 38The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39The 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 40Commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymus Francken I, c. 1590 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41Cover of Corriere dei Piccoli, 11 July 1911, with a strip in the Italian style (no speech bubbles). (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 44Pietà, by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48The Altare della Patria in Rome, a national symbol of Italy celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the Italian Unknown Soldier since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Villa La Rotonda, designed by Palladio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 52Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 53Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 54Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 55The 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 56Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth (from Culture of Italy)
Image 57Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 58St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59The Antica trattoria Bagutto in Milan, the oldest restaurant in Italy and the second in Europe. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 61Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 62Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 64Pisa Cathedral and the Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 65The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 66Dante 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 67Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 68The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 69Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 70The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 71The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 72Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 73Leonardo 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 74Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 75Dario Fo, one of the most widely performed playwrights in modern theatre, received international acclaim for his highly improvisational style. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 76Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 77Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 78The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 79Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 80The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 81David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 82Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)

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[1] Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.