Italy, a European country with a long Mediterranean coastline, has left a powerful mark on Western culture and cuisine. Its capital, Rome, is home to the Vatican as well as landmark art and ancient ruins.

1. ITALY
COUNTRY IN
EUROPE

2. ABOUT ITALY
Italy, a European country with a long Mediterranean
coastline, has left a powerful mark on Western culture and
cuisine. Its capital, Rome, is home to the Vatican as well as
landmark art and ancient ruins. Other major cities include
Florence, with Renaissance masterpieces such as
Michelangelo’s "David" and Brunelleschi's Duomo; Venice, the
city of canals; and Milan, Italy’s fashion capital.

3. History of Italy
The European country of Italy has been inhabited by humans since at least 850,000 years ago. Since
classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans, various Italic peoples (such as the Latins, Samnites, and Umbri),
Celts, Magna Graecia colonists, and other ancient peoples have inhabited the Italian Peninsula.
Italy was the birthplace and centre of the ancient Roman civilisation. Rome was founded as a kingdom in
753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC. The Roman Republic then unified Italy forming a confederation of
the Italic peoples and rose to dominate Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East. After the
assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean for
centuries, contributing to the development of Western culture, philosophy, science and art. With the fall of
Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would
remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871. The maritime republics, in particular Venice and
Genoa, rose to prosperity. Central Italy remained under the Papal States, while Southern Italy remained
largely feudal due to a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish, and Bourbon crowns. The Italian
Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration,
and art with the start of the modern era.

4. CAPITAL:
POPULATION:
PROVINCES:
DIALING CODE:
GOVERNMENT:
ROME
5.89 CRORES
AUTONOMOUS
PROVINCE OF BOLZANO
REPUBLIC, UNITARY
STATE, CONSTITUTIONAL
REPUBLIC,
PARLIAMENTARY
REPUBLIC

5. ROME

6. ROME is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the
Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome,
and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale.
Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third
most populous city in the European Union by population
within city limits. Rome is located in the central-western
portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium),
along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest
country in the world) is an independent country inside the
city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a
country within a city; for this reason, Rome has sometimes
been described as the capital of two states.

7. Flag of Italy
The oldest documented mention of the Italian
tricolour flag is linked to Napoleon
Bonaparte's first descent into the Italian
peninsula. The first territory to be conquered
by Napoleon was Piedmont; in the historical
archive of the Piedmontese municipality of
Cherasco is preserved a document attesting,
on 13 May 1796, on the occasion of the
Armistice of Cherasco between Napoleon and
the Austro-Piedmontese troops, the first
mention of the Italian tricolour, referring to
municipal banners hoisted on three towers in
the historic centre. On the document the
term "green" was subsequently crossed and
replaced by "blue", the colour that forms –
together with white and red – the French flag.
ITALY

8. What language is spoken in ITALY?
Italian is the official language of Italy, and 93% of population are
native Italian speakers. Around 50% of population speak a
regional dialect as mother tongue. Many dialects are mutually
unintelligible and thus considered by linguists as separate
languages, but are not officially recognised.