This document provides comparisons between cultural aspects of Italy and Slovakia across several areas: - Education systems: Italy has kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and university levels while Slovakia has kindergarten, primary school, gymnasium or vocational secondary schools, and university. - Cuisine: Italian cuisine has influences from ancient Rome and Greece while Slovak cuisine focuses on milk, potatoes and cabbage in dishes like bryndzové halušky. - Traditions: Both countries celebrate Christmas markets and Eve dinner, and have Palm Sunday traditions of blessing branches in church.

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the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
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3.  Slovakia is a country of
Central Europe. It was part
of Czechoslovakia until
1992; now Slovakia and
Czech Republic are two
independent States.
 Slovakia is bordered by
the Czech Republic to
the North-West and
Poland to the North,
Austria to the South-
West, Hungary to the
South and Ukraine to
the East.

4.  The Slovak landscape is
mainly mountainous. The
Carpathian Mountains
extending across most of the
northern half of the country.
Between these are
distinguished the Tatra
Mountains (the High Tatras
and Low Tatras) to which
belong the highest peaks.
Particularly, the highest
summit of Slovakia is
Gerlachovský štít at 2,655
metres above sea level, and the
highest symbolic mountain of
Slovakia is the Kriváň. This
country is landlocked.
 Gerlach South face.
 Kriváň peak.

5.  Bratislava is the capital,
and is also the largest
city, while the second
city (to the surface) is
Košice.
Košice, St. Elisabeth Cathedral. The Danube running through Bratislava.
Presidential Palace in Bratislava.

6.  Climate:
The territory can be divided into three main areas according
to the type of climate:
- Plains, the average temperature of the hottest month is
about 20°C and that of the coldest month is greater than -
3°C;
- Basins, in the hottest month the temperature is about 19°C,
while that of the coldest month is less than -3°C;
- Mountains, the average temperature of the hottest month
is less than 15°C, while in the coldest month is below -5°C.

7.  Caves
Slovakia has hundreds of caves
and caverns under its
mountains, out of which 15 are
open to the public and five
caves are UNESCO's World
Heritage Site.
 Domica cave (Slovak Karst National Park).
Demänovská ice cave (Low Tatras).

8.  Rivers and lakes
Some important rivers in Slovakia are
the Danube (passing through and
touches the border of Austria, Slovakia,
Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Serbia,
Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and
Ukraine), the Myjrava, Hronjava, Nitra,
Orava, Hron etc. The longest river in
Slovakia is the Váh (403 kilometres and
250 mi).
There are around 175 naturally formed
tarns in High Tatras. With an area of 20
ha and its depth of 53 metres, Veľké
Hincovo pleso is the largest and the
deepest tarn in Slovakia.
Donaueschingen, Germany.
In this point two small
rivers
-the Brigach and Breg-
meet
and the river is called
“Danube”.
Váh River.
Veľké Hincovo pleso

9.  The Italian education system start
with basic education that includes
the three-year kindergarten and
primary school (elementary), five-
year term; the secondary education,
which includes the secondary school
level for three years (middle school),
the secondary school grade five-year
(high schools and professional
schools) that do not require an
admission test but a test of maturity
to after that they need to be able to
access the university faculties.
 The Slovak education system
begins with materská skola (the
kindergarten), frequented by six
years for a period of nine years.
After primary school, students
follow the gymnázium (general
secondary school), the stredné
odborné ucilistie (secondary
vocational school) or stredná
odborná skola (Secondary
School of specialization), in
most cases after passing an
entrance examination.
- School system:

10.  Italian cuisine has been
influenced by the cuisine of
ancient Greece, ancient
Rome, Byzantine, Jewish,
Arab and Norman. And 'it is
known for its regional
diversity, abundance of tastes
and seasonings and is
considered the most famous
in the world. Tomatoes,
Parmesan cheese, extra virgin
olive oil, wine, coffee ... There
are so many elements that
characterize it. The most
famous Italian dish in the
world is pizza;
 The Slovak cuisine has strong
rural roots, with high-calorie
dishes to support once the
hard work of the fields. The
three basic ingredients are
always milk, potatoes and
cabbage and a combination of
these three components we
can get different dishes like
bryndzové halušky -the
national flat-, the bryndzové
pirohy, the zemiakove placky,
lángos, cigánska pečienka,
various types soups, the
Medovníky etc.
Bryndzové halušky.
Pizza Margherita. Medovníky.
- gastronomy:

11. Often, it was made a comparison
between the English and the
Italian, judging much more
difficult the Italian for its variety
of tenses, prepositions ... In
English with one word, often, you
can express a concept that is
expressed in Italian with a period.
As Italians, we always heard too
meticulous - grammatically - don’t
worry! The Slovaks are more of us,
with a grammar -the only in the
world- that has seven different
cases: nominative, genitive, dative,
accusative, local, instrumental,
vocative.
Beds in Slovakia don’t have the
sheets, there’s only the duvet which
is used throughout the year for
their cold temperatures (hopefully
they have at least one spare! XD)
But… Why it’s so short that can’t it
be stuck under the mattress? A
serious problem that will have
every italian who stayed in
Slovakia;
- grammar:
Italian beds are layered: mattress
cover, 2 pairs of sheets, duvet and
bedspread. Result? Every morning
to make the bed decent takes from
three minutes up.
- curiosity

12.  Slovaks don’t carry umbrellas, to the sight of Italians would be a really weird
thing, but if on a rainy day in Slovakia attempt to open the umbrella, this
will be overturned, broken and perhaps turned into shreds, and you'll be
soaking wet. Slovaks pull up the hood of his jacket, and for years they have
given up the umbrella.
 money
Euro
 traditions
Some Christmas traditions such as the Christmas markets, and dinner
on December 24, New Year's Eve, the traditional Palm Sunday:

13.  Kvetná Nedela ( a Florid
Sunday) is used to bring
green twigs and branches
called "bahniatka" to the
church, where the priest gives
the blessing with water and
prayers. Returning from
church have twigs and green
branches behind the
paintings hanging in homes
or on the attic structure;
 (in Italy) Catholics go to church
or take the olive branches to
church and the priest gives the
blessing. In some Italian regions,
the members carry even
garlands with dead branches,
olive branches and flowers to be
exchanged among the faithful as
a sign of peace to the faithful sell
close to the churches. Returning
from church, at lunch, the
householder with a twig blessed
and holy water also blesses the
table and the diners and is then
hung on the paintings hanging
in homes;
Bahniatka. Olive branches.

14.  Slovaks as well as Italians
love to celebrate: to the work
are celebrated all name days
and all important birthdays.
For 50 years they do a party
that never ends, complete
with a commemorative glass
and solemn speech;
 The restaurants serve food at
any time of day -and so far so
good- but if in Italy regarding
the portions works
"freewheeling", in Slovak
restaurants slices of bread
that you eat you will be
counted and reported on the
bill.
The important role of the family and of the Catholic
religion (common among Slovaks and Italians especially
in Southern Slovakia and Southern Italy), the children
leave the parental home fairly late and the most
important moments of people's lives are celebrated
around a very laid table;

15.  Some Slovaks add a seat at the
table -at dinner on 24
December- to allow an
unexpected visitor to dinner
with them, it's really a beautiful
thing!
 Even with one meter of snow
girls wear high heels and people
do jogging. Chapeau, because
with the ice I have problems
even just to walk, but I guess
that in the DNA of Slovaks there
is a kind of antifreeze substance
that prevents them from falling.
Southern Italians (because we
are accustomed to the sun)
despair when it rains a bit 'more.
 Slovaks remove their shoes when
they enter in the house, to avoid
soiling the floor, especially in
winter when there is a lot of
snow and your shoes are wet so
too do many people in northern
Italy. In the south instead, even
on rainy days crawling shoe soles
on our beautiful coconut
doormats, bringing any residues
inside the house, the slippers to
put them up later, at the cost of
washing the floor several times a
day. The solution would be
rather simple!

16.  Slovaks are historically accustomed to queues, like all the
inhabitants of the former socialist countries. But the way
to wait their turn in the queue is quite extraordinary and
very upset Italians: how do you make the queue without
shoving and trying to finish first?
 But joking aside, we have much to learn
from each other, but the first step to
good relations is the integration, we
must break down the walls of
intolerance, any kind of prejudice and
make every opportunity of discussion a
source of personal enrichment. All this
you get traveling.

17. ‘I’m not going
to spend my
life being
a color’.