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Italy, Italy, Italy!
Whether you are discussing art, history, food, impressive monuments or picturesque sceneries you are most definitely mentioning Italy at some point. Around 50 million people every year pay a visit to this incredible country, ranking Italy fifth in top 10 most visited countries in the world. Here are some interesting and fun facts about Italy coming up.

Food
First thing first- anyone hungry? 🙂
Oh, food! The moment I recalled the taste of pizza I ate in some small Venetian restaurant couple years ago I felt kind of hungry, well, very hungry to be honest. The best thing of all? Italians have awesome cuisine and there is actually more to it than Her Majesty Pizza!
If we are talking about pizza, I must say that it is actually one of the few words universally understood in the world. Originally, pizza was just dry bread and it was perceived as food for poor people. However reputation of pizza changed due to some very lucky circumstances. While visiting regions of her country, Queen Margherita of Italy tried some of the flat bread. She loved its taste and ordered various types of it to be prepared for her. The pizza she got was made in order to resemble three colors of Italian flag with mozzarella cheese (white), tomato (red) and basil (green). It was named in her honour Pizza Margherita and soon enough it was one of her favourite foods.

The other popular food in Italy is pasta. Today there are more than 500 different types of it being eaten in Italy. Initially brought by Arabs in the 13th century they eat it with honey and sugar. Tomato sauce was added only in the 18th century. Traditionally, pasta was made by the mother of households and the recipes were passed on to their daughters. The old-fashioned way of eating pasta was with fingers, arm held high and head tilted back.
On average in Italy people eat around 25 kg of pasta per year. Pasta is more consumed in central and south part of the country whereas norhterners find their taste in polenta and risotto more.
First McDonald’s in Italy was opened in Rome in 1986 and so-called ‘food purists’ gathered around it giving away free spaghetti to remind people of their culinary heritage. In general, Italians find tradition to be very important, not only when it comes to food but other areas of life as well, as you will see later on.
And if we are mentioning Italian traditions, let’s not overlook the very important one. Italians have long, over 2800 years long, history of making wines and the average Italian consumes 98 liters of wine per year. For all the wine lovers, I am totally recommending visiting magical Tuscany. Did I forget to say Italy is one of the biggest wine-producing countries in the world?

Add to this that Italians make all kinds of delicious cheese like parmesan (originated in Parma region), gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, ricotta and many, many others and I think we already have some awesome itinerary plan for the hedonism trip.
Italians take a lot of proud in their cuisine considering themselves responsible for introducing the world to ice cream, coffee and fruit pies. And just like French and Belgians, they consider themselves as pioneers of making the first French fries as well.
Just like in any decent restaurant, I will end this part of interesting and fun facts about Italy and Italian food by serving you a dessert. Italians do have thousands and thousands desserts but one of the most famous is definitely tiramisu! Invented in the 1970s, it literally means ‘pick me up’ (metaphorically- make me happy), and it all goes to its two main ingredients-coffee and cocoa.

Art

An art lover like me? Read this:
Italy is supposedly having more masterpieces per square mile than any other country in the world.
Italy is the country with the highest number of cultural sites that are protected by UNESCO.
Italy is the mother of renaissance. (I hope we all know how much that weighs in.)
One of the most common sayings here is “Ars longa, vita brevis” it literally means “art is long, life is short” and it reflects Italian life philosophy in general.
So, are you already planning a trip to this heaven?

If so, start in Florence, as it is considered by many to be the heart of Italian art. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence was founded in 1560 for Cosimo l de’ Medici and is one of the oldest museums in the world with incredible collection of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Botticelli pieces, to name few.
Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio are known as the “Three Fountains” and they are considered to be the most famous Italian authors of all time, Dante is even considered to be the father of Italian language for his Divine Comedy.
Talking about literature, Shakespeare placed many of his plays in Italy: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Winter’s Tale and others.
Italians invented opera, with very first ones being composed in the late 16th century. The most famous composers from Italy are Puccini, Verdi and Rossini, while Monteverdi is considered to be the father of modern opera. If talking of more recent period, we all remember the great icon of classical music- Luciano Pavarotti.

It’s not just opera, Italian is language of music in general. Andante, allegro, presto, vivace, scala are just a few of many Italian musical notations. In the 1500s, the first violin appeared where else but in Italy, most probably in the Andrea Amati workshop in Cremona. One of the most famous violin-makers was Antonio Stradivari, also from Cremona.
Italians leave their mark in modern times’ cinematography as well. They have won the most Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language film in the world, 13 so far, and distinguished Venice Film Festival is actually one of the oldest film festivals in the world, founded in 1932.
Today, Italians show great interest in television as well. With 600 TV channels all across the country they are making another record on the world level.

Nature & Sightseeing

If you plan on exploring cultural monuments, Italy must be on your list, no exception! From hot beaches of Sardinia to skiing-friendly Alpes’ slopes, through the modern cities like Rome and Milan or charming towns all around the country- in Italy they do have something for everyone. And Italy holds some pretty impressive records when it comes to culturally significant monuments heritage as already mentioned.
Monte Bianco (White Mountain) at 4,810m is the highest peak in Europe and it’s in Italian part of the Alps. And under the Alps goes the world’s longest land tunnel, the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, 22 miles long railway link between Italy and Switzerland.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in 1173. The leaning started to happen due to a poorly laid foundation. Engineers who worked on reconstruction of this tower in 2008, concluded it should be stable for next 200 years at least. If you are interested more in this intriguing architectural monument, check out this cool infographic!
Everyday, people from around the world, tossing a coin and making a wish by Fountain di Trevi in Rome leave around 3,000 euros.

Around 1400 years old, Venice is founded on a collection of muddy islands in a wide and shallow lagoon. It has been sinking into mud for centuries and is plagued by flood. Not only 400 footbridges, but 122 islands are the numbers roughly describing Venice, the world’s biggest car-free residential area in the world. The Venice used to had thousands of gondolas, but now only few hundred left. There is a law actually that, in order to be a gondolier, you have to be Venetian.

People & Customs

One of the most enduring leisure activities in Italy is the pre-dinner passeggiata (evening stroll) where people go out and stroll up and down the street in order to see and be seen.
In Italy, family is the center of the world and many people live with their parents until their 30s, even if they are employed.
The Civitavecchia port is the biggest cruise port near Rome, and the city is also home to the National Archeological Museum.
So called ‘witches’, women who make health potions for local people, are very common on the Sardinian islands. Most of these ‘witches’ use a secret language in order to pass the knowledge on to their daughters.
Not sure if it can be considered as part of the ‘fun facts about Italy’ but in Rome, cats are considered a bio-cultural asset of the city. According to the new law, any person who kills a cat pays up to 10,000 euro fine and gets up to 3 years in jail. Cats are the only inhabitants allowed on the ruins and there are around 300,000 of them in Rome.

Education & Science

Italy has a long history in education as well! University of Bologna, founded in 1088, is the oldest continuously running European University. Besides, Italy has 13 universities being over 500 years old. One of the largest universities is University of Rome, with over 150,000 students. It’s called “La Sapienza” (Wisdom) and was founded in 1303 by the Catholic Church.
Many influential explorers and scientists come from Italy, just think of Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, John Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), famous scientist who started discussion on the Earth revolving around the Sun was imprisoned by the Catholic Church in his own home. Only in 1992 Church issued a formal apology.
Italian scientist invented many wide-used things, such as the barometer, the electric battery, nitroglycerin, and wireless telegraphy. Some other cool stuff were invented in Italy, I will name just few: espresso machine, scooter, eyeglasses, Eau De Cologne, typewriter.
Enrico Fermi, inventor of the nuclear reactor, was an Italian.
The automobile is one of Italy’s greatest products. In addition to the Fiat brand, Fiat owns the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Chrysler brands.

Fashion

Italians are perceived as very stylish and fashionable in general. It is not to anyone’s surprise that Italy has more fashion designers than any other country, just think of Gucci, Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Fendi, Valentino and many, many others.
Milano is the fashion hot spot of the world with its fashion week being a part of the ‘Big 4′, the world’s most influential fashion weeks.

In the 1950s Valentino and Nino Cerruti led the world with their stylish creations.
Even Carabinieri uniforms are designed by Valentino.

Sports

One of the most popular sports in Italy is football, or soccer as Americans call it. Italians, together with Germans, hold second place in number of World Cup wins, right after Brazilians. Italy won World Cup four times so far (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006). Although British introduced football to Italians in 1800s, Mussolini is the one who popularized it and brought to international level in 1930s. Football fans in Italy are called ‘tifosi’- it literally means carriers of typhus. They are mostly known for their lack of inhibition and wild behaviour.
And in Italy, not even chess is boring! In 1454 in town of Marostica, a real human chess game took place. In order to avoid bloody duel, the winner of the chess game would win the hand of the girl. Each September in even-numbered years, the same chess game is played in main piazza, in order to commemorate this event.

History

And, how it all began?
One of the most famous periods of Italian history is the Roman Empire era. Rome was founded in 753 B.C. and not much later on they started conquering the surrounding territories. At the peak of their power in A.D.117, the Empire ruled enormous territory, stretching from Portugal to Syria and from Britain to North African deserts across the Mediterranean, ruling over the population of 120 million people. Just to get the idea how things are changing, during the Middle Ages Rome had around 13,000 residents. Rome’s nickname is ‘The Eternal City’.

The Republic of Venice was founded in 697, lasting exactly 1,100 years until it was dissolved by Napoleon in 1797. It is the longest lasting republic state in history and it also represents the longest lasting uninterrupted form of government that has ever existed. In comparison, the Roman Empire lasted only about 500 years.
Although Italy has a long history, it got unified only in 1870, and Italians still have a very strong connection with their native regions or provinces. Even 150 years later, most Italians find it hard to identify with Italy as a single nation.
Currently, within Italian territory, two independent states are situated – the Republic of San Marino (25 square miles) and the Vatican City (only 108.7 acres).
San Marino is considered to be the world’s oldest republic (A.D. 301). It has around 30,000 inhabitants and holds the world’s oldest continuous constitution.
Vatican City is the only state in the world that locks its own gates at night. Although very small territory wise, Vatican City has its own radio, TV stations, money, stamps and even a phone company. The famous Swiss Guard is actually the army of the Vatican City.

Starting in the late 19th century, many Italians left the country looking for better life conditions. Majority was from the overcrowded south and estimation is that 26 million people moved out in period 1861 to 1985. Only one in four came home again.