Italy

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WordNet

1. a republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD (同)Italian Republic, Italia
2. of or pertaining to or characteristic of Italy or its people or culture or language; "Italian cooking"
3. a native or inhabitant of Italy
4. the Romance language spoken in Italy

PrepTutorEJDIC

1. 『イタリア』(地中海に臨む共和国;首都はRome)
2. 〈C〉『イタリア人』 / 〈U〉『イタリア語』 / イタリアの;イタリア人の;イタリア語の

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2016/06/26 06:46:11」(JST)

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イタリア共和国

Repubblica Italiana

（国旗）	（国章）

国の標語：なし

国歌：
マメーリの賛歌

公用語	イタリア語
首都	ローマ
最大の都市	ローマ
政府 共和国大統領 セルジョ・マッタレッラ 閣僚評議会議長（首相） マッテオ・レンツィ 面積 総計 301,230km2（69位） 水面積率 2.4% 人口 総計（2008年） 59,870,000人（23位） 人口密度 193人/km2 GDP（自国通貨表示） 合計（2008年） 1兆5,722億ユーロ (€) GDP (MER) 合計（2008年） 2兆3,138億ドル（7位） GDP (PPP) 合計（2008年） 1兆8,145億ドル（10位） 1人あたり 30,580ドル 成立 イタリア統一運動によるイタリア王国の建国 1861年3月17日 共和制移行 1946年6月2日
通貨	ユーロ (€) (EUR)
時間帯	UTC +1（DST：+2）
ISO 3166-1	IT / ITA
ccTLD	.it
国際電話番号	39

イタリア共和国（イタリアきょうわこく, IPA: [iˈtaːlja] ( 聞く), イタリア語: Repubblica Italiana）、通称イタリアは、ヨーロッパにおける単一国家、議会制共和国である。総面積は301,338km²で、イタリアではlo Stivale（ブーツ）と称される形状の国土をしており、国土の大部分は温帯に属する。人口は6,100万人でヨーロッパ第5位である。イタリアは非常に高度な先進国であり、ユーロ圏では第3位、世界では第8位の経済大国である。

古典古代以来、現在のイタリアに相当する地域には、エトルリア人、マグナ・グラエキア人及びその他文化が栄え、何世紀にもわたって西洋文明の主要な政治及び宗教の中心地、すなわちローマ帝国及びキリスト教の首都であり続けた古代ローマにより最終的に併合された。暗黒時代、イタリア半島は未開民族による悲惨な侵略に直面したが、11世紀初頭頃、多数のイタリアの都市国家が、海運業、商業、銀行業で大いなる繁栄を得た。実際に、現代の資本主義は中世イタリアを起源とする。特にルネサンス期、レオナルド・ダ・ヴィンチ、ガリレオ、ミケランジェロ、マキャヴェッリのような、学者、芸術家、博学者を生み出し、イタリアの文化は繁栄した。ポーロ、コロンブス、ヴェスプッチ、ヴェラッツァーノのような探検家は、極東及び新世界への新航路を発見し、ヨーロッパの大航海時代における先導に一役買った。それにもかかわらず、中世後半にイタリアは多くの戦争国家に分裂し、後にフランス、スペイン、オーストリアのようなヨーロッパ列強の犠牲になった。それ故、イタリアは19世紀中頃まで続く長い衰退期に突入した。

失敗に終わった各種試みの後第二次及び第三次、イタリア独立戦争により、1859年から1866年までの間に現在のイタリアの大部分の統一がもたらされた。19世紀後半から20世紀前半まで、新たなイタリア王国は急速に工業化し、植民地帝国を獲得して列強になった。しかしながら、イタリア南部及び農村部の大部分が工業化から除外され、大規模かつ影響力の大きな離散を巻き起こした。第一次世界大戦での勝利にもかかわらず、イタリアは1922年のファシスト独裁の設立に好都合な経済危機及び社会的混乱に突入した。後の第二次世界大戦への枢軸国側での参加は、軍事的敗北、経済的破壊、内戦に終わった。その後の数年間で、イタリアは君主制を撤廃し、民主主義を回復し、長期に及ぶ好景気を享受したことにより、1990年までに世界で最も発展を遂げた国の1つになり、世界第5位の経済大国になった。

イタリアは世界的な軍事、文化、外交において大きな役割を果たし、主要な地域大国であると考えられている。欧州連合の原加盟国及び指導国であり、国連、NATO、OECD、OSCE、DAC、WTO、G4、G6、G7、G8、G10、G20、地中海連合、ラテン連合、欧州評議会、中欧イニシアティブ、アジア欧州会合、コンセンサス連合を含む多くの国際機関の加盟国である。

国名

正式名称は、Repubblica Italiana （イタリア語: レプッブリカ・イタリアーナ）。通称は、Italia [iˈt̪aː.l̺i̯a] ( 聞く)（イターリア）。

公式の英語表記は、Italian Republic（イタリャン・リパブリク）。通称は、Italy [ˈɪtəli] ( 聞く)（イタリ）。

日本語の表記は、イタリア共和国。通称はイタリアであるが、イタリヤと表記されることもある。古くはイタリーとも表記された（発音は英語のItaly、フランス語のItalieに近い）。また、漢字による当て字で、伊太利亜、伊太利、以太利などと表記することもあり、伊と略されることもある。

イタリアという名の由来に定説はない。確かなことは、イタリアという単語は元々、半島の南端部の狭い地域の名だったということである。由来についての有力な説は、古ラテン語の vitulus （ウィトゥルス、雄の子牛）から転じたという説である。また、古代ローマの歴史家・ハリカルナッソスのディオニュシオスによれば、ギリシャ人が現在のカラブリアに上陸した時、初めて接触した民族がイタロス人（Ἰταλός）だったため、その地域が「イタリア」と呼ばれるようになったという。この伝説についてはアリストテレスやトゥキディデスも言及している。

歴史

詳細は「イタリアの歴史」を参照

ローマ以前-ローマ期

ピサ

ローマ帝政期に造られた円形闘技場、コロッセオ

Palazzo della consulta

ジュゼッペ・ガリバルディ

ベニート・ムッソリーニ

ギリシア時代から都市国家が成立。なお、伝説では紀元前753年にローマ建国 エトルリア人も12の都市国家による都市連合の王政を築いていた。

伝承によれば、紀元前509年にローマ人パトリキ（貴族）がエトルリア人の王を追放し共和制を開始した。サムニウム戦争（紀元前343年 - 紀元前290年）などにより紀元前272年にイタリア半島を制圧。

フェニキア人の植民国家カルタゴとの戦争（ポエニ戦争）（紀元前264年 - 紀元前146年）によりシチリア島を獲得。地中海の覇権を握る。

その後もイタリアはローマ帝国の中心地域として栄えたが、395年に帝国の統治機構及び皇帝位を東西に分割し、イタリアが所属する西ローマ帝国は476年に滅びる。西ローマ帝国を滅ぼしたオドアケルはイタリア王となり、これが国号としてのイタリアの走りとなった。

ローマ帝国分割以降

493年にはオドアケルが滅ぼされ東ゴート王国が成立、さらに553年には東ローマ帝国が全土を掌握し、イタリアは80年ぶりにローマ帝国領として奪還された。しかし、帝国にとってもはやイタリアは1属州に過ぎず、さらにランゴバルド人の侵入により、ローマのイタリアに対する支配力は大きく低下した。なお、イタリアに常駐した最後のローマ皇帝は7世紀のコンスタンス2世である。彼は南イタリアとアフリカを中心に帝国を再編成しようと意図したが、失敗に終わった。8世紀には、東ローマ帝国の勢力はイタリア半島の南端部にまで後退した。

その後は南端部の東ローマ帝国、シチリア島のイスラム教徒、ローマを中心としたローマ教皇領、北部には神聖ローマ皇帝といった勢力が割拠した。この他多数の都市国家が発展、11世紀になると東ローマに代わりノルマン人が侵入した。これらの中にはイタリアの統一を試みる者もいたが、ローマ教皇庁の思惑もあって分裂状態が続く。

18世紀末にイタリアに侵攻したフランスのナポレオン・ボナパルトは全イタリアを手中に納めたが、1815年に、ナポレオンが失脚するとヴェネツィアとジェノヴァの共和国を除きほぼ元の分裂状態に戻った。

イタリア王国

1861年2月に、ジュゼッペ・ガリバルディらの協力を受けたサルデーニャ王ヴィットーリオ・エマヌエーレ2世が統一に成功し、1861年3月17日にイタリア王国を樹立した。

(なお、1873年に日本の岩倉使節団がイタリアのフィレンツェ、ローマ、ヴェネツィアを歴訪しており、当時の様子が「米欧回覧実記」に一部イラスト付きで詳しく記されている。)

1922年には、ファシスト党のベニート・ムッソリーニが首相となる。その後ムッソリーニは権力の集中を進め、1929年にはローマ教皇庁との間にラテラノ条約を結び、関係を修復する。

ムッソリーニ首相とヴィットーリオ・エマヌエーレ3世国王の指導の下、政治経済の回復に成功し各国からの称賛を得たものの、その後1935年にはエチオピアを再度植民地化すべく第二次エチオピア戦争によりエチオピアへ侵攻するなど拡張政策を取る。

さらに1937年には日本とドイツと共に日独伊防共協定を結び、1939年9月に勃発した第二次世界大戦には、1940年6月に参戦し同年9月には日独伊三国同盟を締結、1941年12月にはドイツと共に対米宣戦布告を行った。 1943年後半には敗色が濃い中ムッソリーニが失脚し連合国側に鞍替え参戦する。同時に、救出されたムッソリーニを首班としたドイツの傀儡政権であるサロ政権が北イタリアを支配する状況になる。しかし、1945年5月8日にドイツが敗北したことにより同政権は崩壊した。

イタリア共和国

大戦終結後の1946年6月2日に行なわれた共和制への移行を問う国民投票では、僅差で共和制移行が決定し、ウンベルト2世は廃位され、サヴォイア家による君主制は廃止され、現在のイタリア共和国が成立した。

1948年に、初代大統領にエンリコ・デ・ニコラが就任。その後の冷戦では、社会主義勢力の影響を受けながらも、アメリカ合衆国や西ドイツなどとともに西側諸国の1国として東側諸国と対峙した。主要国首脳会議の参加国であり、現在も政治や経済だけでなく、文化的な側面においても世界的に重要な位置を占める。

政治

詳細は「イタリアの政治」、「イタリアの政党」、および「イタリアの首相」を参照

「イタリアの国際関係」も参照

セルジョ・マッタレッラ大統領

マッテオ・レンツィ首相

行政

国家元首は共和国大統領。選出方法は間接選挙制で、条件は50歳以上、任期は7年となる。通常は内閣や議会の決定に基づく形式的な権限を行使するにすぎないが、首相任命権や議会解散権などを通じて実権を発動する可能性を秘めている。行政は首相と内閣が統轄する。首相は、大統領が指名し、議会が承認する。各省の大臣は、首相の指名に基づき、大統領が任命する。議院内閣制を採用しており、内閣は議会の信任を得なければならない。 かつては「おはよう、今日の総理は誰?」というジョークが広められたほど、首相の交代が頻繁な国として名高く、今もその傾向はおさまっていないが、1990年1月-2013年4月現在の間での首相は9人（延べ13人）と、日本の15人（延べ16人）に抜かれている。ちなみに、同じく首相が政権を代表する議会内閣制の先進国での同期間における首相在任者は、ドイツが3人、イギリス、カナダが各5人である。

立法

イタリア議会は元老院（上院）と代議院（下院）で構成される両院制（二院制）である。元老院は、任期5年の民選議員（315議席）、および終身議員（現在8名）とで構成される。大統領経験者は本人が拒絶しない限り、終身議員たる資格がある他、科学や芸術などの分野で国の名誉を高めた功労者の中から大統領が指名した者が終身議員となる。一方、代議院は全630議席で、任期5年の民選議員によって構成される。また日本では衆議院の優越が認められているが、イタリアでは両院の権能は完全対等、双方とも大統領によって解散されうる。

憲法改革案を否決

2006年6月25-26日、憲法改革案を問う国民投票が行われ、開票の結果、60%を超す反対で否決された。改革案は、退陣したベルルスコーニ右派連立政権が2005年末、野党・中道左派勢力の反対を押し切って議会を通過させたもの。改革案の中味は、議会の解散権を大統領から首相に移し、保健や教育、警察などの権限を国から州 (regione) に委譲するというもの。開票結果は、反対が61.7%。そのうち、南部で74.8%、中部で67.7%、北部で52.6%の多数を占めた。投票率は53.6%であった。

緊急財政法案可決

2010年7月15日、上院は、ベルルスコーニ政権が提出していた緊急財政法案を賛成170、反対136、棄権0で可決した。政府は、月内にも下院を通過させて法案の成立を目指す。しかし、最大野党の民主党は、16、17日の両日、全国規模の抗議行動を計画している。本法案は5月に提案され、公務員給与増の凍結、省庁予算の削減、地方自治体への交付金削減などの実行によって、今後2年間に財政赤字比率を国内総生産（GDP）比3％以内に下げる発表している。

司法

　イタリアの刑事司法は市民6人と裁判官2人が一緒に審理する参審裁判と裁判官だけによる裁判がある。参審裁判は殺人など重大事件が対象で、重罪院で審理される。重罪院の控訴審は重罪控訴院で、参審裁判による。上告審は日本の最高裁に当たる破棄院が担当するが、憲法判断が必要なケースは、憲法裁判所に移送される。参審員はイタリア語で「市民裁判官」と呼ばれ、35歳以上60歳以下で一審は中卒以上、控訴審は高卒以上。くじで選んだ市民に希望者を加えた名簿から、3ヶ月ごとに再びくじで選出し、その期間中に起訴された事件を担当する。

警察

詳細は「イタリアの警察」を参照

イタリアにおける法執行機関・警察機構は、複合であり、国家レベルの組織のみでも5つある。その他に、地方自治体の警察組織として、県レベルの地方警察 (Polizia Provinciale)、コムーネレベルの自治体警察 (Polizia Municipale) がある。国家レベルの警察組織は以下のものである。

• カラビニエリ (Carabinieri) - 国家憲兵。国防省所属、警察業務は内務省の指揮を受ける。主に重大事件などの警察業務を扱う。
• 国家警察 (Polizia di Stato) - 内務省所属。主に軽犯罪や交通事案を取り扱う。
• 財務警察 (Guardia di Finanza) - 経済財務省所属。経済犯罪、脱税事案、知的財産権事案、組織犯罪、税関任務、国境警備、不法移民事案を行う。国境警備隊・沿岸警備隊としての側面もあり、準軍事組織となっている。
• 刑務警察 (Polizia penitenziaria) - 司法省所属。刑務所の警備・管理・運営。
• 森林警備隊 (Corpo forestale dello Stato) - 農業食料森林省所属。国立公園を中心とする環境・野生生物保護、山火事消火などの防災任務を行う。

このほか、イタリア沿岸警備隊がイタリア海軍の傘下にあり、海上交通整理、捜索救難、漁業監視、不法移民に対する海上監視などを行っている。

情報機関

• SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare) - 情報・軍事保安庁
• SISDE (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica) - 情報・民主主義保安庁

軍事

ISAFとしてアフガニスタンに従軍する陸軍部隊（アルピーニ兵）。イタリア陸軍は西部地区の軍指揮も委ねられている。

カヴール級空母

イタリア空軍のフレッチェ・トリコローリ

カラビニエリ

詳細は「イタリア軍」を参照

• 2004年末に徴兵制が廃止され、2005年より志願制。任期は、1年から4年の期限付と終身の2種。
  • 最年少の兵士は、18歳。

• 軍事費は、202億ドル。GDP比は、1.64%。

• フィアットやアエルマッキなどの軍事企業が国産の戦闘機や戦闘車両を生産し、中近東やアジア諸国に輸出している。

• 独自の核戦力は保持していないがアメリカとニュークリア・シェアリングを行っているので核抑止を可能としている。

陸軍

詳細は「イタリア陸軍」を参照

2007年現在現役兵約110,000人、予備役約33,500人が所属。

海軍

詳細は「イタリア海軍」を参照

冷戦期においてはソ連黒海艦隊との戦闘を仮想目標とし、大きな海軍戦力を擁していた。今日でも海軍重視の傾向は変わらず、法改正によって保有が可能となった軽空母ジュゼッペ・ガリバルディ級に次いでカヴール級空母が戦列に加わるなど、予算削減で新型戦車の配備が滞りがちな陸軍に比べて一層の強化が進められている。日本の海上自衛隊とは装備面でも共通点が多く、海軍国としての役割も類似している。イタリア空軍の保有するKC-767などのように、世界でイタリアと日本のみが保有する機種もあり、組織間交流も盛んである。また海軍旗艦カヴールと入れ替わる形で旧式化しつつあった軽空母ガリバルディの改修が開始された。

空軍

詳細は「イタリア空軍」を参照

4万5879名の要員からなり、F-16・タイフーンなど一線級の空軍機を保有している。航空機の国産化にも熱心で、アエリタリア（旧フィアット社航空機部門）が開発したG.91軽戦闘機は戦後復興から間も無い時期（1956年）でありながら高い性能を誇り、同じく国産に拘るイギリスやフランスは拒んだものの、ドイツ空軍やポルトガル空軍への採用が決定し、「ジーナ」の愛称で20年程前まで長らく愛用されていた。

近年はタイフーンに見られるような欧米での共同開発機に意欲を見せ、空母を増産した海軍の意向もあってか、オランダと共にF-35の開発計画でイギリスに次ぐ協力を示している。

カラビニエリ

詳細は「カラビニエリ」を参照

「イタリアの警察」も参照

正式名称はカラビニエリ (Carabinieri) で、国家憲兵である。日本では、そのままカラビニエリと称するほか、「国家憲兵」、「憲兵隊」、「国家警察」、「国防省警察」、「軍警察」など様々に訳されている。

平時は各種の警察活動として、警備や事件・事故対応、マフィアや反政府グループなどの犯罪組織の摘発などを担当しており、戦時には戦地での警察・憲兵活動を行う。またテロ対策・要人警護・人質救出などを担当する独自の特殊部隊（国家憲兵隊特殊介入部隊）を保持していて、同部隊はイラク戦争など海外戦争においても戦歴を重ねている。

地方行政区分

詳細は「イタリアの地方行政区画」、「イタリアの県の一覧」、「コムーネ一覧」、および「イタリアの郵便番号」を参照

イタリアの地方行政区分の最上単位は、20の州 (regione) である。各州はさらに、110の県 (provincia) に分かれる。各県にはさらに、コムーネ(comune)（市町村と似た行政区分）が存在する。ローマにはさらに、ローマのムニチーピオが存在する。

イタリアの州

名称	人口(人)	州都/主府/本部	備考
ピエモンテ州 Piemonte	4,214,677	トリノ（トリノ県） Torino	1
ヴァッレ・ダオスタ州（特別自治州） Valle d'Aosta	119,548	アオスタ（州と県が同じ） Aosta	2
リグーリア州 Liguria	1,571,783	ジェノヴァ（ジェノヴァ県） Genova	3
ロンバルディア州 Lombardia	9,032,554	ミラノ（ミラノ県） Milano	4
トレンティーノ＝アルト・アディジェ州（特別自治州） Trentino-Alto Adige	940,016	トレント（トレント自治県） Trento	5
ヴェネト州 Veneto	4,527,694	ヴェネツィア（ヴェネツィア県） Venezia	6
フリウリ＝ヴェネツィア・ジュリア州（特別自治州） Friuli-Venezia Giulia	1,165,761	トリエステ（トリエステ県） Trieste	7
エミリア＝ロマーニャ州 Emilia-Romagna	3,983,346	ボローニャ（ボローニャ県） Bologna	8
トスカーナ州 Toscana	3,497,806	フィレンツェ（フィレンツェ県） Firenze	9
ウンブリア州 Umbria	825,826	ペルージャ（ペルージャ県） Perugia	10
マルケ州 Marche	1,470,581	アンコーナ（アンコーナ県） Ancona	11
ラツィオ州 Lazio	5,112,403	ローマ（ローマ県） Roma	12
アブルッツォ州 Abruzzo	1,262,392	ラクイラ（ラクイラ県） L'Aquila	13
モリーゼ州 Molise	320,601	カンポバッソ（カンポバッソ県） Campobasso	14
カンパニア州 Campania	5,701,931	ナポリ（ナポリ県） Napoli	15
プッリャ州 Puglia	4,020,707	バーリ（バーリ県） Bari	16
バジリカータ州 Basilicata	597,768	ポテンツァ（ポテンツァ県） Potenza	17
カラブリア州 Calabria	2,011,466	カタンザーロ（カタンザーロ県） Catanzaro	18
シチリア州（特別自治州） Sicilia	4,968,996	パレルモ（パレルモ県） Palermo	19
サルデーニャ州（特別自治州） Sardegna	1,631,880	カリャリ（カリャリ県） Cagliari	20

主要都市

詳細は「イタリアの都市の一覧」を参照

	都市	行政区分	人口		都市	行政区分	人口
1	ローマ（ローマ県）	ラツィオ州	2,718,768	11	ヴェネツィア（ヴェネツィア県）	ヴェネト州	268,993
2	ミラノ（ミラノ県）	ロンバルディア州	1,299,633	12	ヴェローナ（ヴェローナ県）	ヴェネト州	264,191
3	ナポリ（ナポリ県）	カンパニア州	973,132	13	メッシーナ（メッシーナ県）	シチリア州	243,997
4	トリノ（トリノ県）	ピエモンテ州	908,263	14	パドヴァ（パドヴァ県）	ヴェネト州	210,173
5	パレルモ（パレルモ県）	シチリア州	663,173	15	トリエステ（トリエステ県）	フリウリ＝ヴェネツィア・ジュリア州	205,356
6	ジェノヴァ（ジェノヴァ県）	リグーリア州	610,887	16	ターラント（ターラント県）	プッリャ州	195,130
7	ボローニャ（ボローニャ県）	エミリア＝ロマーニャ州	372,256	17	ブレシア（ブレシア県）	ロンバルディア州	189,742
8	フィレンツェ（フィレンツェ県）	トスカーナ州	364,710	18	プラート（プラート県）	トスカーナ州	185,603
9	バーリ（バーリ県）	プッリャ州	322,511	19	レッジョ・ディ・カラブリア（レッジョ・カラブリア県）	カラブリア州	185,577
10	カターニア（カターニア県）	シチリア州	298,957	20	モデナ（モデナ県）	エミリア＝ロマーニャ州	179,937
2007年国勢調査

地理

詳細は「イタリアの地理」を参照

イタリア上空からの衛星画像

ヴァッレ・ダオスタ州 国立公園 (Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso)

イタリアは地中海に突き出した長靴型イタリア半島、および周辺の島（サルデーニャ島、シチリア島など。コルシカ島はフランス領）から構成されている。東はアドリア海、西でティレニア海とリグリア海、南でイオニア海と地中海に面している。国境を接する国としては、大陸部では西側をフランス、北側をスイスとオーストリア、東側をスロヴェニア。アドリア海を挟んで、クロアチア、アルバニア、ギリシアなどとも地理、歴史的に結びつきが強い。キリスト教・カトリック教会の治めるバチカン市国があるが、これはイタリアの首都ローマが周囲を囲んでいる。他にもアドリア海近くのサンマリノ共和国を包み込むように接する。さらに、スイス領内には飛び地として面積1.7km²ほどのカンピョーネ・ディターリアを持つ。

領土内北部ではアルプス山脈が東西に弧を描き、国境を成している。国境にはマッターホルンや、モンテローザ、モンブランのような高峰があり、イタリアの最高点はフランスとの国境線上のモンブラン頂上付近にある。アルプスは北西部で分岐し、イタリア半島を縦断するアペニン山脈を形成する。アペニン山脈はイタリア半島の気候をアドリア海側とティレニア海側とで非常に異なったものにする役割を果たしている。特にアドリア海側は寒冷であり、海岸部ではときにボラ（冬の北東季節風）の影響が及んで冷たい潮風が吹きつける。また火山国でもあり、とくに南部ではしばしば地震が起こる。エトナ山、ヴェスヴィオ山等が有名で、エトナ山はヨーロッパ最大の活火山であり、ほとんど常に噴火している。時には大きな噴火を起こすこともあるが、特別に危険な火山とは見なされておらず数千人が斜面と麓に居住している。イタリアには多くの川があるが、ポー川、アディジェ川、テヴェレ川が上位三位の長さを持つ。テヴェレ川はアルノ川源流近くに源を発し、ローマ市内を抜けて流れることで有名である。

経済

詳細は「イタリアの経済」を参照

イタリアは欧州連合 (EU) 加盟国であり、その単一市場の構成国である。

イタリア議会 (Parlamento Italiano)

IMFによると、2013年のイタリアのGDPは2兆719億ドルである。世界9位であり、EU加盟国ではドイツ、フランス、イギリスに次ぐ4位である。また、同年の一人当たりのGDPは34,714ドルである。

第二次世界大戦前のイタリアは農業国だったが、戦後は北部に多様な産業基盤が整備され、国の経済発展に大いに貢献している。現在のイタリア経済は民間企業を基盤としているが、以前は石油工業や交通輸送、電信電話をはじめ多くの商社やメーカーに対して国家が支配権をにぎっていた。だが、1990年代半ばに多くの企業が政府の管理からはなれ民間企業へと転換した。

1958年から1963年にかけてイタリアはGDP年率+6.3%の目覚しい経済発展を遂げ、1959年5月25日イギリスの日刊紙がイタリアの経済復興の目覚しさをさして、「奇跡の経済」と名付けた。1980年代初頭にはバブル経済を経験し、GDPでECの牽引役を担う存在であり、巨大な植民地大国だったイギリスを抜き世界第5位となったものの、1990年にはまた戻っている。以後政府は輸出を活性化させ、研究開発の促進よりも為替相場をリラ安に誘導することを選択した。

1960年代後半から圧迫されてきた膨大な財政赤字をたてなおし、EMU（経済通貨統合）への第1陣参加を実現するため、1993年から政府は大規模な歳出削減策を継続して実施した。その結果、財政赤字のGDP比は94年の9.5%から99年には1.9%にまで改善され、目標としていたEUの財政基準（3.0%以内）を達成することができた。

2010年欧州ソブリン危機により、EU各国は財政赤字を対GDP比3.0％以内に抑える基準の達成を迫られた。2014年5月、イタリアは財政赤字のGDP比率が低下させる裏技として、麻薬取引や売春、密輸などの地下経済に着目し、これらを2015年からGDP統計に加算と発表した。2011年のイタリア銀行による推計では、イタリアの地下経済の規模はGDPの10.9％を占める規模とされている。

金融

10000 Lire紙幣

法定通貨として長年「リラ」が使われて来たが、2002年1月1日からEUの単一通貨ユーロ（EURO、エウロ）の紙幣や硬貨が流通し、リラは2月末をもって法的効力を失った。1998年12月31日に1ユーロ=1936.27リラという交換レートが固定された。中央銀行であるイタリア銀行は各県都に支店をもち、預金高を通じて都市銀行を統制する。ヨーロッパ域内の自由な資本の移動と通貨統合をめざすヨーロッパ共同体（現、EU）の動きにあわせて、1990年イタリアの銀行制度は大幅に変更され、公営銀行の削減、外国資本に対する規制緩和がおこなわれた。ミラノとローマが金融の中心である。主要銀行としてはEU圏1位の資本を持つウニクレディトなどがある。

貿易

1970-80年代にヨーロッパ共同体（現、EU）加盟国との貿易が増加したが、イタリアは石炭、石油などの原材料を輸入に依存しているため、貿易赤字がつづいていた。しかし、90年代初頭、リラ切り下げで、外国市場にとってイタリア製品の価格が低下したため、輸出が増加した。貿易相手国の5分の3近くはEU加盟国で、おもな輸出相手国はドイツ、フランス、アメリカ合衆国、イギリス、スペイン、輸入相手国はドイツ、フランス、オランダ、イギリス、アメリカ合衆国、スペインなどである。イタリアはヨーロッパの輸出大国の中で、ドイツに伍して輸出が成長している唯一の国である。2008年より過去7年間、ドイツは7.8%、イタリアは7.6%の割合で輸出が成長している。輸出先で成長著しいのは、南アメリカ (+79.3%)、トルコ (+35%)、OPEC諸国、ロシア、中国である。

エネルギー

イタリアはエネルギー資源の輸入国であり、ガス、石炭、石油の大部分を外国に依存している。イタリアの発電量の82%は、石油、天然ガス、石炭、亜炭をもちいた火力発電が生みだしており、13%が水力発電によるもの。イタリアは1950年代後半から原子力発電の研究開発を開始し、当時の世界原子力技術で最先端であり、1965年時点には3カ所の原子力発電所が稼動していた。しかしながらチェルノブイリ原発事故などがきっかけとなり、1987年の国民投票で原発の全面停止を決定。運転を停止する。1990年には停止中の原子力発電所の運転を再開しないことが決まった。

石油・ガス会社のEni (Eni S.p.A.) はイタリアで最も売り上げと利益の多い企業であり、スーパーメジャーの一角を占めている。もとは公営電力会社であったENELはヨーロッパ有数の規模を誇る電力会社で、地熱発電技術では100年の経験蓄積がある。

南北格差

イタリア北部の世界都市ミラノは経済的に非常に豊かである。

詳細は「:en:Economy of Italy#North–South divide」を参照

イタリア経済が依然としてかかえる課題は、南部の工業化の遅れである。ミラノやトリノなどの北部は工業化が進んでいるが、南部やサルデーニャなどの島嶼部は農業や観光業や軽工業中心なので南北格差が大きい。中心工業地帯はジェノヴァなどで、工業化が遅れている南部のターラントには半官半民の製鉄所があり、第三のイタリアが新たな経済の牽引役となっている。政府による工業化育成の努力も、労働力の問題や、多くの産業がマフィアとの結びつきによって成り立っているため大企業の南部進出がはばまれるといった複雑な現実に直面している。多くの労働者が職をもとめて南部から北部へ移住しており、南北の格差はいまだに大きい。

産業

「イタリアの企業一覧」も参照

農業

気候、土壌、高度が変化にとんでいるため、さまざまな農作物の栽培が可能である。イタリアは世界有数のワイン生産国であり、オリーブとオリーブ・オイルの生産量も多い。酪農も主要な産業であり、ゴルゴンゾーラ、パルミジャーノ・レッジャーノをはじめ約50種類のチーズが生産される。イタリアの森林業資源はとぼしく、木材の多くを輸入にたよっている。森林はまず古代ローマ人によって、その後19世紀に大部分が伐採されてしまった。その結果土壌の浸食がすすみ、林業の発展の障害となってはいたが、近年は状況の好転がみられる。

工業

第二次世界大戦以降、工業が急速に発展し、イタリア製品は世界的な人気をえている。重要な工業に、繊維工業と、硫酸、アンモニア、水酸化ナトリウムの製造などの化学工業がある。そのほか自動車、鉄鋼、ゴム、重機械や電気機器とくに家電製品、パスタなどの食料品の製造業が盛ん。工業の中心地はジェノヴァ、ミラノ、ローマ、トリノである。

自動車

フィアット・パンダ

「イタリア車」も参照

イタリアの経済に占める自動車産業の割合は、国内総生産の8.5%で、国内ではコンパクト・カー、エコノミー・カーが上位を占めている。エコロジカルな自動車の売れ行きが伸びている。輸出車では売上高800億ユーロ（約10兆4000億円）規模で、クライスラー、ゼネラルモーターズと提携したフィアットが知られている。 北部の都市モデナにはフェラーリやランボルギーニ、アルファロメオがある。なお、フィアット・パンダは欧州における新車登録台数3万3593台（2009年3月）でEUトップとなっている。2位はフォルクスワーゲン・ポロ。

ファッション

ジョルジオ・アルマーニ

19世紀頃から近代服飾・装飾産業が発展し、20世紀から現在にかけては、服飾ブランドのベネトンやプラダ、グッチ、ジョルジオ・アルマーニやジャンニ・ヴェルサーチ、ジャンフランコ・フェレ、バレンチノ、靴のサルヴァトーレ・フェラガモやトッズ、宝飾品のブルガリなどが世界各国に輸出されており、大きな外貨獲得源となっている。

工芸

イタリアは幼稚園の先端的教育方法でアトリエリスタと呼ばれる芸術的、工芸的活動の専門家を配置し、人間を育成している。バイオリンなどの楽器。ガラス細工や工芸美術品も主な産業となっている。

その他の産業

他にも伝統的に映画産業や観光産業が盛んであり、イタリア映画のみならず、イタリアを舞台にした映画が世界中で作られ公開されており、それらの映画が観光産業を後押ししていると評価されている。

マフィア

詳細は「マフィア」を参照

マフィアはイタリア経済と社会に多大な影響力をおよぼしている。もともと中世後期にシチリアで生まれた秘密結社で、親族組織からなり、冷酷な暴力とオメルタというきびしい掟で知られる。19世紀後半にはシチリアの田園地帯を支配し、地方当局への介入、ゆすり、市民に対するテロ活動をおこなっていた。1920年代から第二次世界大戦終結まではベニート・ムッソリーニによって弾圧される。この時代をのぞいて、マフィアはイタリアの南部を中心に、合法・非合法活動によって影響力を拡大しつづけた。また、マフィア勢力は移民とともに海外とくにアメリカにわたり、70年代までに世界のヘロイン取り引きの大部分がマフィアの支配下に入った。Confesercentiの報告書で、マフィアの総売上高は900億ユーロに相当するという。

この他、マフィア類似の犯罪組織として、コルシカ島のユニオン・コルス（コルシカ・ユニオン）に代表される「ミリュー」、ナポリの「カモッラ (Camorra)」、カラブリアの「ンドランゲタ (Ndrangheta)」、プッリャの「サクラ・コロンナ・ウニータ (it:Sacra Corona Unita)」、ローマの「シカーリ」などがある。

1980年代半ばに新政権がマフィアの大物たちの犯罪を告発しはじめたこと、多くの政治家とマフィアをつなぐ一連の政治スキャンダルの発覚によって、イタリアにおけるマフィアの影響力もおとろえる日がくるだろうという観測が生まれている。政府は2008年12月17日、一斉検挙で99人を逮捕した。その他、近年マフィア撲滅運動が加速しており、マフィアの重要な特徴であった頂上組織（縦割りの権力集中）が崩壊の危機にある事がベルナルド・プロヴェンツァーノの逮捕により発覚した。

交通

詳細は「イタリアの交通」を参照

道路

「アウトストラーダ一覧」も参照

アッピア街道。

アウトストラーダ（イタリアの高速道路）の図。

古くから地中海域の交通の要衝として栄え、古代ローマの頃には歴代執政官によって街道が整備され、それはアッピア街道のように史跡として残っているのみならず『執政官街道』と呼ばれ、現在も使用されている。ローマ帝国時代のローマは、「全ての道はローマに通ず」とさえ呼ばれた。

その後の20世紀前半のムッソリーニ時代よりアウトストラーダ (Autostrada) と呼ばれる有料高速道路網が整備されはじめた他、フィアット社のバックアップもあり高速道路網が全土に敷き詰められている。

鉄道

詳細は「イタリアの鉄道」を参照

ユーロスター・イタリア。

フェッロヴィーエ・デッロ・スタートのグループ会社であるトレニタリアと呼ばれる旧国鉄 (Ferrovie dello Stato) の業務を引き継ぐ民営鉄道会社が全土を網羅し、ローマ-フィレンツェ間の高速新線（ディレティッシマ）を中心にユーロスター・イタリアと呼ばれる高速列車も多数運転されている。旧国鉄以外ではヌオーヴォ・トラスポルト・ヴィアッジャトーリ（NTV）、チルクムヴェスヴィアーナ鉄道やスッド・エスト鉄道などがある。

また、ローマ、ミラノ、ナポリなどの主要都市には地下鉄が整備されている。一部の都市では路面電車やケーブルカーが走っており、市民の足となっている。

海運

ローマ帝国時代前から地中海海域の海運の要所として重要な地であったこともあり、海運が古くから盛んである。現在も地中海クルーズの拠点とされることも多く、有名な港としてはナポリやヴェネツィア、ジェノヴァ、ブリンディジなどがある。

空運

「イタリアの空港の一覧」も参照

アリタリア航空のA319-111型機。

政府が主要株主のアリタリア航空が、イタリアのフラッグキャリアとして国内線と域内及び中長距離国際線を運航する他、イタリアを本拠地として運航を行う航空会社として、メリディアーナ航空やエアワン、エア・ドロミティなどの航空会社があり、それぞれが国内線や域内国際線を運航している。

現在、日本との間にはアリタリア航空が東京（成田国際空港）と大阪（関西国際空港）とローマとミラノの間に直行便を運航させている。

また、パリやアムステルダム、チューリヒなどのヨーロッパの主要都市や、バンコクや香港、ドバイなどのアジアの主要都市経由で行くこともできる。

国民

詳細は「イタリアの人口統計」を参照

少子高齢化が進み、1人の高齢者を2.9人で支える高齢社会に突入しており（2012年）、OECD各国では日本、ドイツの次に少子高齢化が進行している。

民族構成

詳細は「イタリアの移民」を参照

民族構成（イタリア）
イタリア人			93%
その他			7%

イタリアの人口ピラミッド

ラテン系を中心に、ケルト系、ゲルマン系、ギリシャ系などの混成民族であるイタリア人が大半であるが、長年にわたって多くの都市国家が分かれていたせいもあり、イタリア統一後も未だに各都市の国民であるという意識が残っている。またかつては都市国家同士が幾度も戦争を行っており、南北問題の遠因となっている（直接の原因は南北の経済格差）。

少数民族としては南チロルのチロル人（ドイツ系イタリア人）、南部のアルバニア人などが挙げられる。

また一般に地中海に面した側に住んでいるヨーロッパ人は、ヨーロッパ人と呼ばれるよりも、地中海人（メディテッラーネオ）と呼ばれることを好む。ヨーロッパ人と地中海人は物事に対する考え方、性格的に基本的な違いがあると考えられている。俗にイタリア人の男性はスケベでナンパ好きであるとマスコミなどに取り上げられる。

近年は、ヨーロッパにおける有数の移民受入国となっており、失業や貧困、治安問題、生活習慣や宗教上の軋轢など大きな社会問題を引き起こしている。2009年における、外国人人口は389万人を数え人口の 6.5%を占めている。

特に、アラブの春で中東が混乱してからは、リビアから海路でイタリアに不法上陸する者が急増した。2013年10月には、ソマリア人とエリトリア人を主に載せた船が沈没、368人が死亡する事件があり、それ以降、イタリア海軍は不法移民を救助する活動に力を入れている。

言語

詳細は「イタリアの言語」を参照

公用語はイタリア語。そして、等語線のラ・スペツィア＝リミニ線があり、この線の北西の北イタリア（西ロマニアの側）と、南東にあたる中南部のイタリア（東ロマニアの側）では言葉が異なる。東ロマニアに分類される中部イタリアのトスカーナ州の言葉を中心に標準語が形成されている。北イタリアではフランス語などに近い西ロマニアの言葉であるガロ・イタリア語を使用する。この中でもロンバルディア州の言葉はロンバルド語という。

一部の特別自治州、ヴァッレ・ダオスタ州でフランス語、トレンティーノ＝アルト・アディジェ州ではドイツ語も使用する。フリウリ地方ではフリウリ語、南ティロルではラディン語という、イタリア語よりラテン語に近いレト・ロマンス語系の言葉を母語とする住民もいる。また、最南部のカラブリア州には東ローマ帝国統治下（マグナ・グラエキア）の影響を残すギリシャ語系のグリコ語の話者も存在する。 さらに、オスマン帝国時代のアルバニアからイタリア南部に定着した人々の子孫はアルバニア語の方言を母語とする。サルデーニャ島では、イタリア語系のサルデーニャ語（イタリア語の一方言とする説もある）が話される。アルゲーロではスペイン支配の影響からカタルーニャ語の方言が話される。

イタリアは歴史的に別の国に分れていた期間が長いため方言の差が激しいとされているが、そもそも言語成立の過程にも複雑な事情が絡んでいる。古代ローマで話されていた言葉（ラテン語）の俗語形である「俗ラテン語」が、ローマ消滅以降にかつての統治領（イタリア・フランス・スペインなど）ごとに統一性を失って方言化した際、イタリア各地のラテン語方言がイタリア地方特有の変化を遂げたと判断した人々が、近世になってこれらを一つの言語体系（イタリア語）と定めた事に起因する。

言語と言語の違いを研究する作業は古くから言語学の分野で行われていたが、どの程度の類似性をもって「同じ系統の言語」（方言）とするのか、或いは「異なる系統の言語」とするのかの客観的判断は殆ど不可能で、結局は個々人の価値観に頼るしかなく、民族問題や領土主張との兼ね合いもあって政治的判断が下されるケースが多い（「言語とは軍に守られし方言である」という皮肉も存在する）。よってイタリア語も方言の集合体とするか、無数の独立言語とするかは政治的に決定され、当時の民族主義政策に基づいて方言であるとされた。近年はEU統合の流れから欧州各国で方言を地域言語と認める動きが芽生え始めており、イタリアでも方言を地域言語として承認するべきかどうか盛んに意見が重ねられている。

こうした現象はイタリアだけでなく、同じ経緯を持つ他のロマンス諸語でも発生している他、ゲルマン語派のドイツ語でも方言の尊重と権利拡大が進められている。

言語の一覧

現在、エスノローグはイタリア共和国内に以下の言語の存在を認めている。

• イタリア語（国家公用語）
• ガロ・イタリア語（ヴェネト州以外の北イタリア）
• ヴェネト語（ヴェネト州）
• ナポリ・カラブリア語（南イタリア）
• シチリア語（シチリア州と南部の一部）
• サルデーニャ語（サルデーニャ州）

宗教

バチカン市国南東端にあるカトリック教会の総本山、サン・ピエトロ大聖堂。

詳細は「イタリアの宗教」を参照

2014年の推定では、キリスト教のカトリック教会が75.2%と最大で、残りの大半が無宗教または無神論者で、数%のムスリムの他、その他宗教が１%未満となっていた。

4分の3と最大多数のカトリックであるが、信条はリベラルであり、カトリック教会の教義に反して同棲・離婚・妊娠中絶などについては大多数が肯定的であるとの報告も出ている。

プロテスタントは少数で、アラブ系移民の増加により、イスラム教は近年増加傾向にある。

保健

詳細は「イタリアの医療」および「イタリアの福祉」を参照

イタリアの医療は、1978年より税金を原資とするユニバーサルヘルスケアが施行されており、公営・民営の混合制度となっている。公営制度はServizio Sanitario Nazionaleと呼ばれる公費負担医療であり、保健省が方針を定め、現場は地方自治体が運営している。保健支出は2008年にはGDPの9.0%ほどであり、OECD各国平均の8.9%より若干上であった。2000年にはWHOより、医療制度の効率性は世界2位、市民の保健状態については世界3位と評されている。

平均余命は82.7歳、2013年には世界8位であった。健康上のリスクとしては、イタリアは他の西欧各国と同様に肥満者が増えており、人口の34.2%が太りすぎと自己申告、また9.8%が肥満だと自己申告している。日常的な喫煙者は2008年では人口の22%であり、2005年からは公共のバー、レストラン、ナイトクラブにおいては隔離された喫煙室が設けられるようになった。

文化

詳細は「イタリアの文化」を参照

北イタリアのトスカーナ地方はルネサンス発祥の地であり、また、その中心地でもあった。この影響下で数多くの芸術家が輩出され、同時に作品も制作された。詳しくはルネサンスの項を参照されたい。

また、ジュゼッペ・ヴェルディの『アイーダ』などオペラや音楽なども多く知られる。民衆音楽ではカンツォーネと呼ばれるナポリの歌謡曲が有名である。バレエも発祥の地とされる。現代においてもノーベル賞作家を輩出。映画においても絶えず世界的な作品を送り出している。

食文化

エスプレッソ

詳細は「イタリア料理」を参照

主にパスタやパンを主食とし、北部のポー川流域では米をよく食べる。北部の一部地域にはパンの代用としてトウモロコシの粉でできたポレンタを食べる地域もある。イタリア料理は地方色が強く各地方料理の集合体のようなものであり、北部はバターやチーズを多く使い、南部はトマトやオリーブオイルを多用する傾向がある。また沿岸部は魚を食べるが、内陸部はほとんど食べない、シチリア島はマグリブの食文化の影響があり、北東部はオーストリア料理やハンガリー料理など中欧に近い食文化があるなど地域色豊かである。食事にワインを合わせる習慣があり、基本的にその土地のワインを飲む。また、サラミ、ハムなどの肉製品、チーズの種類の豊富なことも特徴である。コーヒーの消費も多く、イタリア式のいれ方にはエスプレッソ、カプチーノ、カフェ・ラッテが有名。また、ヨーロッパとしては珍しくタコも食べる。イタリア料理のピザなどもある。

文学

詳細は「イタリア文学」を参照

ダンテ・アリギエーリ

サンドロ・ボッティチェッリ作

近代イタリア語の基礎はフィレンツェの詩人ダンテ・アリギエーリによって創設され、彼の偉大な作品『神曲』は中世ヨーロッパで最高の文学作品だと考えられている。イタリアはそれ以外にも祝福された文学者に不足しなかった。例を挙げるならジョヴァンニ・ボッカチオ、ジャコモ・レオパルディ、アレッサンドロ・マンゾーニ、トルクァート・タッソ、ルドヴィーコ・アリオスト、フランチェスコ・ペトラルカのような人物の名が挙げられ、彼等の最も知られた表現の媒体は彼等がイタリアで生んだソネットだった。近代の文学者であり、ノーベル文学賞受賞者には、1906年受賞の国民主義詩人ジョズエ・カルドゥッチ、1926年受賞の写実主義作家のグラツィア・デレッダ、1934年受賞の近代劇作家ルイージ・ピランデッロ、1959年受賞の詩人サルヴァトーレ・クァジモド、1975年受賞のエウジェーニオ・モンターレ、1997年受賞の風刺家かつ劇作家ダリオ・フォの名が挙げられる。

哲学

詳細は「イタリア哲学」を参照

「イタリア現代思想」も参照

ルネサンスの時代には、ジョルダーノ・ブルーノやマルシリオ・フィチーノ、ニッコロ・マキャベリ、ジャンバティスタ・ヴィコのような傑出した哲学者が現れた。

20世紀の前半において、イタリアではベネデット・クローチェやジョヴァンニ・ジェンティーレによって新ヘーゲル主義が新観念論に昇華した。ジェンティーレの哲学はファシズムの理論的支柱となった。その他にも特筆されるべき哲学者として、マルクス主義の新たな読み方を発見し、サバルタンやヘゲモニーといった概念に繋がる思想を生み出したアントニオ・グラムシや、市民社会論的にヘーゲルを読み直したジョエーレ・ソラーリが挙げられる。

20世紀後半においてはマルチチュードを新たな概念として昇華したマルチチュード学派のアントニオ・ネグリや、ホモ・サケル論で知られるジョルジョ・アガンベンなどが活躍している。

音楽

詳細は「イタリアの音楽」を参照

現在も世界で用いられる音楽用語の多数がイタリア語であることから推察できるように、イタリアはルネサンス期以来、もっとも長い期間、西洋音楽をリードし続けた。18世紀後半のウィーン古典派の台頭、続くバッハの復権などによって主導権はドイツ圏に移ったが、ことオペラに関してのみはヴェルディ、プッチーニらの大作曲家を輩出したイタリアがなお大勢力を保ち続け、古典派まではドイツ人作曲家も大部分のオペラをイタリア語で作曲したこともあり、今なおオペラといえばイタリアというイメージは強い(ただし、長年の財政難からカンパニーを維持できない歌劇場が多く、現在では上演数に関してはドイツに三倍の差をつけられてしまった。首都のローマ歌劇場すら今世紀に入って管弦楽団と合唱団の全員解雇が宣告されたことがある)。一方で交響曲など器楽曲分野では他国にやや見劣りがする感は否めない。また、北イタリアが長くオーストリアの支配を受けたこともあって、イタリア音楽とドイツ音楽をともに得意とする演奏家が伝統的に多く育っており(逆にイタリア音楽を得意とするドイツ系演奏家はカラヤンなどごく少数である)、世界の演奏市場で重要な役割を果たしている。

美術

詳細は「イタリアの芸術」を参照

映画

詳細は「イタリア映画」を参照

フェデリコ・フェリーニ

イタリア映画の歴史はリュミエール兄弟が活動写真の公開を始めてからわずか数カ月後に始まった。最初のイタリア映画は、教皇レオ13世がカメラに祝福して見せた数秒間のものだった。イタリアの映画産業は1903年から1908年の間に3つの映画会社と共に生まれた。ローマのチネス、トリノのアンブロシオ、イタラ・フィルム社がそれである。他の会社はすぐにミラノやナポリに設立された。間もなくこれら最初の会社は公正な制作力に達し、作品はすぐに外国に売られていった。映画は後にベニート・ムッソリーニによって第二次世界大戦までプロパガンダのために使われた。

戦後、イタリアの映画は広く認知され、1980年頃の芸術的な凋落まで輸出された。この時期の世界的に有名なイタリアの映画監督としては、ヴィットリオ・デ・シーカ、フェデリコ・フェリーニ、セルジオ・レオーネ、ルキノ・ヴィスコンティ、ピエル・パオロ・パゾリーニ、ミケランジェロ・アントニオーニ、ダリオ・アルジェントなどの名が挙げられる。ネオレアリスモと呼ばれる重厚な現実主義から出発し、次第に奔放華麗な前衛性を獲得、さらに残酷味を前面に出したマカロニウェスタンからホラーへと展開する娯楽映画など、その幅は驚くほど広い。お国柄を生かした歴史劇や、日本での紹介は少ないが喜劇の伝統も厚い。世界の映画史に残る作品としては、『甘い生活』、『続・夕陽のガンマン』、『自転車泥棒』などが挙げられる。

イタリアに関する芸術作品

音楽

• J.S.バッハ作曲 『イタリア協奏曲』
• メンデルスゾーン作曲 交響曲第4番 イ長調『イタリア』
• チャイコフスキー作曲 『イタリア奇想曲』
• ベルリオーズ作曲 交響曲『イタリアのハロルド』
• レスピーギ作曲 交響詩『ローマの噴水』『ローマの松』『ローマの祭』

文学

• ゲーテ著 『イタリア紀行』
• ハンス・クリスチャン・アンデルセン著 『即興詩人』

映画

• ルキノ・ヴィスコンティ 『白夜』
• フェデリコ・フェリーニ 『甘い生活』
• ヴィットリオ・デ・シーカ 『昨日・今日・明日』
• 宮崎駿 『紅の豚』
• オードリー・ウェルズ 『トスカーナの休日』

漫画

• 天野こずえ　『アクア (ARIA)』『ARIA (漫画)』
• 荒木飛呂彦　『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 Part5 黄金の風』
• 相田裕　『GUNSLINGER GIRL』
• 天野明　『家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN！』
• 大河原遁『王様の仕立て屋～サルト・フィニート～』

世界遺産

詳細は「イタリアの世界遺産」を参照

イタリア国内には、ユネスコの世界遺産リストに登録された文化遺産が45件、自然遺産が4件存在している（2013年現在）。 2014年時点で、世界遺産が最も多い国である。

結婚

婚姻の際には基本的には夫婦別姓で、結合姓も認められている。子の姓に関しては、伝統的には父親の姓としていたが、父親の姓としなければならない、という法律は存在しない、との理由で、母親の姓を子の姓としてよいことが裁判を通し2012年に認められた。

イタリアは極めて離婚が少ない国として知られている。

祝祭日

イタリアの祝祭日

日付	日本語表記	イタリア語表記	備考
1月1日	元日	Capodanno
1月6日	主の公現	Epifania	Befana
移動祭日	復活祭	Pasqua
移動祭日	復活祭後の月曜	Lunedì dell'Angelo	Lunedì di Pasqua, Pasquetta
4月25日	解放記念日	Festa della Liberazione	1945年
5月1日	労働祭	Festa dei lavoratori
6月2日	共和国祭	Festa della Repubblica	1946年
8月15日	聖母被昇天祭	Ferragosto	Assunzione
11月1日	諸聖人の日	Ognissanti
12月8日	聖母の無原罪の御宿りの祭日	Immacolata Concezione
12月25日	クリスマス	Natale
12月26日	聖ステファノの祝日	Santo Stefano

スポーツ

詳細は「イタリアのスポーツ」を参照

伝統的にサッカー（カルチョ）とF1やミッレミリアなどのモータースポーツ、自転車競技やマリンスポーツ、バレーボールが特に盛んで、他にも北部山岳地域にコルティーナ・ダンペッツォなどのスキーリゾートが多数あることから、スキーなどのウィンタースポーツも盛んである。また、中部にはアペニン山脈があり、登山も盛ん。バスケットボール、野球というアメリカ発祥のスポーツもプロリーグもあるなど他の欧州諸国に比べて盛んで、代表チームは国際大会の常連にもなっている。最近ではシックス・ネイションズに加わってラグビーも人気が高まっている。

競馬は古代ローマ帝国時代の伝統を受け継ぐ繋駕速歩競走が盛ん。近年では2001年世界的に活躍したヴァレンヌが大きな人気を博した。一方イギリス発祥の平地競走は英仏に対し低いレベルとみられており、人気・賞金水準共に低い。ただし突出した2頭のサラブレッド、リボー、ネアルコは競馬史に影響を与えるほどの名馬であり、競馬関係者の間では世界的に知られている。2014年には賞金不払い問題でEPCから追放され、全競走の国際格付けが剥奪されることが決定された（詳細についてはイタリアの競馬を参照）。

サッカー

詳細は「イタリアのサッカー」および「イタリアのサッカー選手一覧」を参照

ミラノのサン・シーロスタジアム

カルチョと呼ばれるフィレンツェ古代サッカー発祥の地として知られ、イングランドフットボールと双璧の存在となっている。

イタリアはサッカーで今まで多くのスタープレイヤーを輩出してきた。FIFAランキング（2014年2月発表）は第8位。W杯にはこれまで全18回中16回出場しており、そのうち優勝4度（5度のブラジルに次いで2番目に多い）、準優勝に2度輝いている。

イタリア代表はユニフォームの青い色からアズーリと呼ばれる。カテナチオ（「鍵をかける」という意味）と呼ばれる鉄壁の守備を軸として現在に至る。近年は攻撃陣のタレントも豊富で、かつての守備だけのチームではなく、伝統の堅い守備からの素早い攻撃をするチームになりつつある。また各国からはそのプレーを「サッカーをしているというより、仕事をしている」とまで言われる。また、伝統的に綿密な戦術を重んじる傾向があり現代サッカーのフォーメーションを数々考案してきた（アリゴ・サッキ、ジョバンニ・トラパットーニ他）。

イタリアの国内リーグであるセリエAは世界最高峰を争う程のレベルにあり、世界中のスター選手を集めている。また、コッパ・イタリアと呼ばれるカップ戦も行われる。主なクラブチームはACミラン、SSラツィオ、インテル・ミラノ、ユヴェントス、ASローマなど。これらはチャンピオンズリーグの常連でもある。2009-2010シーズンのチャンピオンズリーグではインテル・ミラノが優勝を果たした。

バスケットボール

イタリアのバスケットボール選手を参照

国内には欧州屈指の強豪リーグの一つ、セリエAと呼ばれるプロバスケットボールリーグを持つ。外国人としては史上2人目、ヨーロッパ人選手としては史上初のNBAドラフト1位指名をされた、アンドレア・バルニャーニが最も有名。代表はこれまでにオリンピック出場12回、世界選手権出場6回を誇る。2004年アテネオリンピックではアメリカの銅メダルを上回る銀メダルを獲得。バスケットボール欧州選手権（通称『ユーロバスケット』）では、1997年に銀メダル、1999年に金メダル、2003年に銅メダル獲得。近年、NBA選手を続々と輩出して今後も躍進が期待される。代表チームのニックネームは「Gli Azzurri」。

モータースポーツ

「Category:イタリアのF1ドライバー」も参照

フェラーリF1マシン

モータースポーツの創成期から多くのレーシングドライバーを輩出してきた。近年はF1のワールドチャンピオンを獲得するドライバーこそ少ないものの、常にトップクラスのドライバーが存在している。

2輪ロードレースの世界ではヴァレンティーノ・ロッシがMotoGPにおいて5年連続最高峰クラスワールドチャンピオンとなり、現在でもMOTOGPトップライダーの一人である。

自転車

世界三大ツールの一つ、ジロ・デ・イタリアを開催する、最も自転車ロードレースの盛んな国の一つである。

登山

北にはアルプス山脈、半島にはアペニノ山脈、その他エトナ山などイタリアは様々な山岳地域に恵まれているので登山も盛んである。南チロルやアオスタ、トスカーナなど、上記の山脈に近い地域では山スキーのメッカである。

野球

ヨーロッパ野球選手権大会優勝10回、準優勝15回と長年にわたって欧州内ではオランダのライバルとして君臨。オリンピックにもこれまで4回の出場経験がある。WBCではイタリア系アメリカ人メジャーリーガーと国内プロリーグイタリアンベースボールリーグの選手で構成される。 2012年の第32回ヨーロッパ野球選手権大会では、2011年のワールドカップで優勝、2013 ワールド・ベースボール・クラシックでベスト４に進出したオランダを2度破るなど、無敗の完全優勝で1989年、1991年大会以来の連覇を達成した。

2013年の2013 ワールド・ベースボール・クラシックでは、1次ラウンドでメキシコとカナダに勝利し、初の2次ラウンド進出を果たした。カナダにはコールド勝利をおさめた。2次ラウンドでは、ドミニカ共和国とプエルトリコに2連敗して2次ラウンドで敗退した。

なお、2014年11月時点でのWBSC世界野球ランキングが11位のため、2015年11月に日本と台湾で初開催される2015 WBSCプレミア12に出場する。

またイタリアンベースボールリーグには日本野球機構にかつて在籍していたレベルの高い外国人選手や日本人選手などが数多く在籍している。

観光

• 世界観光機関・2013年国際観光客到着数：5位
• 世界経済フォーラム・2015年旅行・観光競争力レポート：141カ国中8位

イタリア出身の人物

詳細は「イタリア人の一覧」を参照

脚注

参考文献

• OECD Society at a glance 2014 (Report). OECD. (2014). doi:10.1787/soc_glance-2014-en. 
• パンフィロ・ジェンティーレ/野上素一訳『イタリア現代史』世界思想社、1967年。

関連項目

• イタリア関係記事の一覧
• イタリアの世界遺産
• イタリア式庭園
• オペラ
• イタリアの企業
• イタリア百科事典
• イタリアの都市リスト
• イタリアーノ

外部リンク

政府

• イタリア共和国政府 （イタリア語）
• イタリア大統領府 （イタリア語）（英語）
• イタリア首相府 （イタリア語）
• 在日イタリア大使館 （日本語）

日本政府

• 日本外務省 - イタリア （日本語）
• 在イタリア日本国大使館 （日本語）

観光

• イタリア政府観光局 東京支局 （日本語）
• イタリア写真 （イタリア語）

その他

• Italy BetterLife Index - OECD
• JETRO - イタリア
• 2015年ミラノ国際博覧会
• イタリアのウィキメディア地図 （英語）
• オープンストリートマップには、イタリアに関連する地理データがあります。

wiki en

[Wiki en表示]

This article is about the republic. For other uses, see Italy (disambiguation).

"Italia" and "Italian Republic" redirect here. For the short-lived 19th-century state, see Italian Republic (Napoleonic). For other uses, see Italia (disambiguation).

Italian Republic Repubblica Italiana  (Italian)
Flag Emblem
Anthem: Il Canto degli Italiani  (Italian) "The Song of the Italians"
Location of  Italy  (dark green) – in Europe  (light green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (light green)  –  [Legend]
Capital and largest city		Rome 41°54′N 12°29′E
Official languages		Italiana
Demonym		Italian
Government		Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic
•	President	Sergio Mattarella
•	Prime Minister	Matteo Renzi
•	President of the Senate of the Republic	Pietro Grasso
•	President of the Chamber of Deputies	Laura Boldrini
Legislature		Parliament
•	Upper house	Senate of the Republic
•	Lower house	Chamber of Deputies
Formation
•	Unification	17 March 1861
•	Republic	2 June 1946
•	Founded the EEC (now the European Union)	1 January 1958
Area
•	Total	301,338 km2 (72nd) 116,347 sq mi
•	Water (%)	2.4
Population
•	2015 estimate	60,674,003 (23rd)
•	2011 census	59,433,744 (23rd)
•	Density	201.3/km2 (63rd) 521.5/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2015 estimate
•	Total	$2.174 trillion (12th)
•	Per capita	$35,665 (32nd)
GDP (nominal)		2016 estimate
•	Total	$1.848 trillion (8th)
•	Per capita	$30,231 (27th)
Gini (2014)		32.7 medium
HDI (2014)		0.873 very high · 27th
Currency		Euro (€)b (EUR)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
•	Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the		right
Calling code		+39c
ISO 3166 code		IT
Internet TLD		.itd
a.	French is co-official in the Aosta Valley; Slovene is co-official in the province of Trieste and the province of Gorizia; German and Ladin are co-official in South Tyrol.
b.	Before 2002, the Italian Lira. The euro is accepted in Campione d'Italia, but the official currency there is the Swiss Franc.
c.	To call Campione d'Italia, it is necessary to use the Swiss code +41.
d.	The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Italy covers an area of 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate; due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as lo Stivale (the Boot). With 61 million inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous EU member state. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City.

Since classical times, ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts have inhabited the south, centre and north of the Italian Peninsula respectively, with various Italic peoples dispersed throughout Italy alongside other ancient Italian tribes and Greek, Carthaginian, and Phoenician colonies. The Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually spread throughout Italy, assimilating and conquering other nearby civilizations and forming the Roman Republic. Rome ultimately emerged as the dominant power, conquering much of the ancient world and becoming the leading cultural, political, and religious centre of Western civilisation. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the global distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity and the Latin script.

During the Dark Ages, Italy suffered sociopolitical collapse amid calamitous barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics rose to great prosperity through shipping, commerce, and banking, and even laid the groundwork for capitalism. These independent city-states and regional republics, acting as Europe's main port of entry for Asian and Near Eastern imported goods, often enjoyed a greater degree of democracy in comparison to the monarchies and feudal states found throughout Europe at the time, though much of central Italy remained under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish, and Bourbon conquests of the region.

During the Renaissance, a period of renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration and art, Italy and the rest of Europe entered the modern era. The Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists, and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy's importance as a commercial and political power significantly waned with the opening of trade routes from the New World, as New World imports and trade routes became more influential in Europe and bypassed the East Asian and Mediterranean trade routes that the Italian city-states had dominated. Furthermore, the Italian city-states constantly engaged one another in bloody warfare, with this tension and violent rivalry culminating in the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, a series of wars and foreign invasions that left the Italian states vulnerable to annexation by neighboring European powers. Italy would remain politically fragmented and fall prey to occupation, colonization, conquest, and general foreign domination by European powers such as France, Spain, and later Austria, subsequently entering a long period of decline.

By the mid-19th century, a rising movement in support of Italian nationalism and Italian independence from foreign control lead to a period of revolutionary political upheaval known as the Risorgimento, which sought to bring about a rebirth of Italian cultural and economic prominence by liberating and consolidating the Italian peninsula and insular Italy into an independent and unified nation-state. After various unsuccessful attempts, the Italian Wars of Independence, the Expedition of the Thousand and the capture of Rome resulted in the eventual unification of the country, now a great power after centuries of foreign domination and political division. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the new Kingdom of Italy rapidly industrialized, especially in the so-called Industrial Triangle of Milan, Turin and Genoa in the North , and soon acquired a colonial empire. However, the southern areas of the country remained largely excluded from industrialization, fueling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading the way to the rise of a Fascist dictatorship in 1922. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and civil war. In the years that followed, Italy abolished the Italian monarchy, reinstated democracy, and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, thus becoming one of the world's most developed nations.

Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and the eighth largest economy in the world. It has a very high level of human development and enjoys the highest life expectancy in the EU. Italy plays a prominent role in regional and global military, cultural and diplomatic affairs and is often defined by analysts as an "intermittent great power" or "the least of the great powers". Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7/G8, G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, and many more. As a reflection of its vast cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is one of the most visited countries.

Etymology

Main article: Name of Italy

The assumptions on the etymology of the name "Italia" are very numerous and the corpus of the solutions proposed by historians and linguists is very wide. According to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin: Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning "land of young cattle" (cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf"). The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides.

The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria: province of Reggio, and part of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia). But by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region, but it was during the reign of Emperor Augustus (end of the 1st century BC) that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula until the Alps.

History

Main article: History of Italy

Prehistory and antiquity

Main articles: Prehistoric Italy, Nuragic civilization, Etruscan civilization, Magna Graecia, Roman Italy, Ancient Rome, Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire

The Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering of ancient history.

Excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Paleolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. The Ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy – such as the Umbrians, the Latins (from which the Romans emerged), Volsci, Oscans, Samnites, Sabines, the Celts, the Ligures, and many others – were Indo-European peoples; the main historic peoples of possible non-Indo-European heritage include the Etruscans, the Elymians and Sicani in Sicily and the prehistoric Sardinians, which includes the Nuragic civilization. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible non-Indo-European origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni, known for their rock carvings.

Between the 17th and the 11th centuries BC Mycenaean Greeks established contacts with Italy and in the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula became known as Magna Graecia. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily.

Rome, a settlement around a ford on the river Tiber conventionally founded in 753 BC, grew over the course of centuries into a massive empire, stretching from Britain to the borders of Persia, and engulfing the whole Mediterranean basin, in which Greek and Roman and many other cultures merged into a unique civilisation. The Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world. In a slow decline since the third century AD, the Empire split in two in 395 AD. The Western Empire, under the pressure of the barbarian invasions, eventually dissolved in 476 AD, when its last Emperor was deposed by the Germanic chief Odoacer, while the Eastern half of the Empire survived for another thousand years.

Middle Ages

Main article: Italy in the Middle Ages

The Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the Kings of Italy.

Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor Frederick II, UNESCO World Heritage site

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy was seized by the Ostrogoths, followed in the 6th century by a brief reconquest under Byzantine Emperor Justinian. The invasion of another Germanic tribe, the Lombards, late in the same century, reduced the Byzantine presence to a rump realm (the Exarchate of Ravenna) and started the end of political unity of the peninsula for the next 1,300 years. The Lombard kingdom was subsequently absorbed into the Frankish Empire by Charlemagne in the late 8th century. The Franks also helped the formation of the Papal States in central Italy. Until the 13th century, Italian politics was dominated by the relations between the Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy, with most of the Italian city-states siding for the former (Ghibellines) or for the latter (Guelphs) from momentary convenience.

It was during this chaotic era that Italian towns saw the rise of a peculiar institution, the medieval commune. Given the power vacuum caused by extreme territorial fragmentation and the struggle between the Empire and the Holy See, local communities sought autonomous ways to maintain law and order. In 1176 a league of city-states, the Lombard League, defeated the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano, thus ensuring effective independence for most of northern and central Italian cities. In coastal and southern areas, the maritime republics, the most notable being Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, heavily involved in the Crusades, grew to eventually dominate the Mediterranean and monopolise trade routes to the Orient.

In the south, Sicily had become an Islamic emirate in the 9th century, thriving until the Italo-Normans conquered it in the late 11th century together with most of the Lombard and Byzantine principalities of southern Italy. Through a complex series of events, southern Italy developed as a unified kingdom, first under the House of Hohenstaufen, then under the Capetian House of Anjou and, from the 15th century, the House of Aragon. In Sardinia, the former Byzantine provinces became independent states known as Giudicati, although some parts of the island were under Genoese or Pisan control until the Aragonese conquered it in the 15th century. The Black Death pandemic of 1348 left its mark on Italy by killing perhaps one third of the population. However, the recovery from the plague led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy which allowed the bloom of Humanism and Renaissance, that later spread in Europe.

Early Modern

Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance man (self portrait, c. 1512).

In the 14th and 15th centuries, northern-central Italy was divided into a number of warring city-states, the rest of the peninsula being occupied by the larger Papal States and the Kingdom of Sicily, referred to here as Naples. Though many of these city-states were often formally subordinate to foreign rulers, as in the case of the Duchy of Milan, which was officially a constituent state of the mainly Germanic Holy Roman Empire, the city-states generally managed to maintain de facto independence from the foreign sovereigns that had seized Italian lands following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The strongest among these city-states gradually absorbed the surrounding territories giving birth to the Signorie, regional states often led by merchant families which founded local dynasties. War between the city-states was endemic, and primarily fought by armies of mercenaries known as condottieri, bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland, led largely by Italian captains. Decades of fighting eventually saw Florence, Milan and Venice emerged as the dominant players that agreed to the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which saw relative calm brought to the region for the first time in centuries. This peace would hold for the next forty years.

The Renaissance, a period of vigorous revival of the arts and culture, originated in Italy thanks to a number of factors, as the great wealth accumulated by merchant cities, the patronage of its dominant families like the Medici of Florence, and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Conquest of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the mid-16th century as foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars. The ideas and ideals of the Renaissance soon spread into Northern Europe, France, England and much of Europe. In the meantime, the discovery of the Americas, the new routes to Asia discovered by the Portuguese and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, all factors which eroded the traditional Italian dominance in trade with the East, caused a long economic decline in the peninsula.

Following the Italian Wars (1494 to 1559), ignited by the rivalry between France and Spain, the city-states gradually lost their independence and came under foreign domination, first under Spain (1559 to 1713) and then Austria (1713 to 1796). In 1629–1631, a new outburst of plague claimed about 14% of Italy's population. In addition, as the Spanish Empire started to decline in the 17th century, so did its possessions in Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Milan. In particular, Southern Italy was impoverished and cut off from the mainstream of events in Europe. In the 18th century, as a result of the War of Spanish Succession, Austria replaced Spain as the dominant foreign power, while the House of Savoy emerged as a regional power expanding to Piedmont and Sardinia. In the same century, the two-century long decline was interrupted by the economic and state reforms pursued in several states by the ruling élites. During the Napoleonic Wars, northern-central Italy was invaded and reorganised as a new Kingdom of Italy, a client state of the French Empire, while the southern half of the peninsula was administered by Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who was crowned as King of Naples. The 1814 Congress of Vienna restored the situation of the late 18th century, but the ideals of the French Revolution could not be eradicated, and soon re-surfaced during the political upheavals that characterised the first part of the 19th century.

Italian unification

Main articles: Italian unification, Kingdom of Italy and Military history of Italy during World War I

Victor Emmanuel meets Giuseppe Garibaldi near Teano.

The Altare della Patria in Rome, resting place of the Unknown Soldier. More than 650,000 Italian soldiers died on the battlefields of World War I.

The birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula. In the context of the 1848 liberal revolutions that swept through Europe, an unsuccessful war was declared on Austria. The Kingdom of Sardinia again attacked the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of France, resulting in liberating Lombardy.

In 1860–61, general Giuseppe Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily, allowing the Sardinian government led by the Count of Cavour to declare a united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861. In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II allied with Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War, waging the Third Italian War of Independence which allowed Italy to annex Venetia. Finally, as France during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870 abandoned its garrisons in Rome, the Italians rushed to fill the power gap by taking over the Papal States.

The Piedmontese Albertine Statute of 1848, extended to the whole Kingdom of Italy in 1861, provided for basic freedoms, but electoral laws excluded the non-propertied and uneducated classes from voting. The government of the new kingdom took place in a framework of parliamentary constitutional monarchy dominated by liberal forces. In 1913, male universal suffrage was adopted. As Northern Italy quickly industrialised, the South and rural areas of North remained underdeveloped and overpopulated, forcing millions of people to migrate abroad, while the Italian Socialist Party constantly increased in strength, challenging the traditional liberal and conservative establishment. Starting from the last two decades of the 19th century, Italy developed into a colonial power by forcing Somalia, Eritrea and later Libya and the Dodecanese under its rule.

Italy, nominally allied with the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, in 1915 joined the Allies into the war with a promise of substantial territorial gains, that included western Inner Carniola, former Austrian Littoral, Dalmatia as well as parts of the Ottoman Empire. The war was initially inconclusive, as the Italian army get struck in a long attrition war in the Alps, making little progress and suffering very heavy losses. Eventually, in October 1918, the Italians launched a massive offensive, culminating in the victory of Vittorio Veneto. The Italian victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was chiefly instrumental in ending the First World War less than two weeks later.

During the war, more than 650,000 Italian soldiers and as many civilians died and the kingdom went to the brink of bankruptcy. Under the Peace Treaties of Saint-Germain, Rapallo and Rome, Italy obtained most of the promised territories, but not Dalmatia (except Zara), allowing nationalists to define the victory as "mutilated". Moreover, Italy annexed the Hungarian harbour of Fiume, that was not part of territories promised at London but had been occupied after the end of the war by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Fascist Regime

Main articles: Italian Fascism and Military history of Italy during World War II

Benito Mussolini, Duce of Fascist Italy.

The socialist agitations that followed the devastation of the Great War, inspired by the Russian Revolution, led to counter-revolution and repression throughout Italy. The liberal establishment, fearing a Soviet-style revolution, started to endorse the small National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini. In October 1922 the Blackshirts of the National Fascist Party attempted a coup (the "March on Rome") which failed but at the last minute, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to proclaim a state of siege and appointed Mussolini prime minister. Over the next few years, Mussolini banned all political parties and curtailed personal liberties, thus forming a dictatorship. These actions attracted international attention and eventually inspired similar dictatorships such as Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain.

In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, resulting in an international alienation and leading to Italy's withdrawal from the League of Nations; Italy allied with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan and strongly supported Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war. In 1939, Italy annexed Albania, a de facto protectorate for decades. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. After initially advancing in British Somaliland and Egypt, the Italians were defeated in East Africa, Greece, Russia and North Africa.

After the attack on Yugoslavia by Germany and Italy, suppression of the Yugoslav Partisans resistance and attempts to Italianization resulted in the Italian war crimes and deportation of about 25,000 people to the Italian concentration camps, such as Rab, Gonars, Monigo, Renicci di Anghiari and elsewhere. After the war, due to the Cold war, a long period of censorship, disinterest and denial occurred about the Italian war crimes and the Yugoslav's foibe killings. Meanwhile, about 250,000 Italians and anti-communist Slavs fled to Italy in the Istrian exodus.

An Allied invasion of Sicily began in July 1943, leading to the collapse of the Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini on 25 July. On 8 September, Italy surrendered. The Germans shortly succeeded in taking control of northern and central Italy. The country remained a battlefield for the rest of the war, as the Allies were slowly moving up from the south.

In the north, the Germans set up the Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi puppet state with Mussolini installed as leader. The post-armistice period saw the rise of a large anti-fascist resistance movement, the Resistenza. Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945, when the German forces in Italy surrendered. Nearly half a million Italians (including civilians) died in the conflict, and the Italian economy had been all but destroyed; per capita income in 1944 was at its lowest point since the beginning of the 20th century.

Republican Italy

Main article: History of the Italian Republic

Alcide De Gasperi, first republican Prime Minister of Italy and one of the Founding Fathers of the European Union.

Italy became a republic after a referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as Republic Day. This was also the first time that Italian women were entitled to vote. Victor Emmanuel III's son, Umberto II, was forced to abdicate and exiled. The Republican Constitution was approved on 1 January 1948. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy of 1947, most of Julian March was lost to Yugoslavia and, later, the Free Territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all its colonial possessions, formally ending the Italian Empire.

Fears in the Italian electorate of a possible Communist takeover proved crucial for the first universal suffrage electoral outcome on 18 April 1948, when the Christian Democrats, under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi, obtained a landslide victory. Consequently, in 1949 Italy became a member of NATO. The Marshall Plan helped to revive the Italian economy which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the "Economic Miracle". In 1957, Italy was a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC), which became the European Union (EU) in 1993.

From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, the country experienced the Years of Lead, a period characterised by economic crisis (especially after the 1973 oil crisis), widespread social conflicts and terrorist massacres carried out by opposing extremist groups, with the alleged involvement of US and Soviet intelligence. The Years of Lead culminated in the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 and the Bologna railway station massacre in 1980, where 85 people died.

In the 1980s, for the first time since 1945, two governments were led by non-Christian-Democrat premiers: one liberal (Giovanni Spadolini) and one socialist (Bettino Craxi); the Christian Democrats remained, however, the main government party. During Craxi's government, the economy recovered and Italy became the world's fifth largest industrial nation, gaining entry into the G7 Group. However, as a result of his spending policies, the Italian national debt skyrocketed during the Craxi era, soon passing 100% of the GDP.

In the early 1990s, Italy faced significant challenges, as voters – disenchanted with political paralysis, massive public debt and the extensive corruption system (known as Tangentopoli) uncovered by the 'Clean Hands' investigation – demanded radical reforms. The scandals involved all major parties, but especially those in the government coalition: the Christian Democrats, who ruled for almost 50 years, underwent a severe crisis and eventually disbanded, splitting up into several factions. The Communists reorganised as a social-democratic force. During the 1990s and the 2000s (decade), center-right (dominated by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi) and center-left coalitions (led by university professor Romano Prodi) alternatively governed the country.

In the late 2000s, Italy was severely hit by the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2015, the country suffered 42 months of GDP recession. The economic crisis was one of the main problems that forced Berlusconi to resign in 2011. The government of the conservative Prime Minister was replaced by the technocratic cabinet of Mario Monti. Following the 2013 general election, the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta formed a new government at the head of a right-left Grand coalition. In 2014, challenged by the new Secretary of the PD Matteo Renzi, Letta resigned and was replaced by Renzi. The new government started important constitutional reforms such as the abolition of the Senate and a new electoral law.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Italy

Topographic map of Italy

Italy is located in Southern Europe, between latitudes 35° and 47° N, and longitudes 6° and 19° E. To the north, Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia, and is roughly delimited by the Alpine watershed, enclosing the Po Valley and the Venetian Plain. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula and the two Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to many smaller islands. The sovereign states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.

The country's total area is 301,230 square kilometres (116,306 sq mi), of which 294,020 km² (113,522 sq mi) is land and 7,210 km² (2,784 sq mi) is water. Including the islands, Italy has a coastline and border of 7,600 kilometres (4,722 miles) on the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian seas (740 km (460 mi)), and borders shared with France (488 km (303 mi)), Austria (430 km (267 mi)), Slovenia (232 km (144 mi)) and Switzerland (740 km (460 mi)). San Marino (39 km (24 mi)) and Vatican City (3.2 km (2.0 mi)), both enclaves, account for the remainder.

The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula's backbone and the Alps form most of its northern boundary, where Italy's highest point is located on Monte Bianco (4,810 m/15,782 ft). The Po, Italy's longest river (652 km/405 mi), flows from the Alps on the western border with France and crosses the Padan plain on its way to the Adriatic Sea. The five largest lakes are, in order of diminishing size: Garda (367.94 km² or 142 sq mi), Maggiore (212.51 km² or 82 sq mi, shared with Switzerland), Como (145.9 km² or 56 sq mi), Trasimeno (124.29 km² or 48 sq mi) and Bolsena (113.55 km² or 44 sq mi).

Monte Bianco, on the Franco-Italian border is the highest point in the European Union.

The country is situated at the meeting point of the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate, leading to considerable seismic and volcanic activity. There are 14 volcanoes in Italy, four of which are active: Etna (the traditional site of Vulcan’s smithy), Stromboli, Vulcano and Vesuvius. Vesuvius is the only active volcano in mainland Europe and is most famous for the destruction of Pompeii and Herculanum. Several islands and hills have been created by volcanic activity, and there is still a large active caldera, the Campi Flegrei north-west of Naples.

Although the country comprises the Italian peninsula and most of the southern Alpine basin, some of Italy's territory extends beyond the Alpine basin and some islands are located outside the Eurasian continental shelf. These territories are the comuni of: Livigno, Sexten, Innichen, Toblach (in part), Chiusaforte, Tarvisio, Graun im Vinschgau (in part), which are all part of the Danube's drainage basin, while the Val di Lei constitutes part of the Rhine's basin and the islands of Lampedusa and Lampione are on the African continental shelf.

Environment

See also: List of national parks of Italy and List of regional parks of Italy

See also: Category:Environment of Italy.

National (green) and regional (orange) parks in Italy.

After its quick industrial growth, Italy took a long time to confront its environmental problems. After several improvements, it now ranks 84th in the world for ecological sustainability. National parks cover about five percent of the country. In the last decade, Italy has become one of the world's leading producers of renewable energy, ranking as the world’s fourth largest holder of installed solar energy capacity and the sixth largest holder of wind power capacity in 2010. Renewable energies now make up about 12% of the total primary and final energy consumption in Italy, with a future target share set at 17% for the year 2020.

Hilly landscape with vineyards in Tuscany.

However, air pollution remains a severe problem, especially in the industrialised north, reaching the tenth highest level worldwide of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s. Italy is the twelfth largest carbon dioxide producer. Extensive traffic and congestion in the largest metropolitan areas continue to cause severe environmental and health issues, even if smog levels have decreased dramatically since the 1970s and 1980s, and the presence of smog is becoming an increasingly rarer phenomenon and levels of sulphur dioxide are decreasing.

Many watercourses and coastal stretches have also been contaminated by industrial and agricultural activity, while because of rising water levels, Venice has been regularly flooded throughout recent years. Waste from industrial activity is not always disposed of by legal means and has led to permanent health effects on inhabitants of affected areas, as in the case of the Seveso disaster. The country has also operated several nuclear reactors between 1963 and 1990 but, after the Chernobyl disaster and a referendum on the issue the nuclear program was terminated, a decision that was overturned by the government in 2008, planning to build up to four nuclear power plants with French technology. This was in turn struck down by a referendum following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Deforestation, illegal building developments and poor land-management policies have led to significant erosion all over Italy's mountainous regions, leading to major ecological disasters like the 1963 Vajont Dam flood, the 1998 Sarno and 2009 Messina mudslides.

Climate

Southern Italy has a Mediterranean climate.

Main article: Climate of Italy

Thanks to the great longitudinal extension of the peninsula and the mostly mountainous internal conformation, the climate of Italy is highly diverse. In most of the inland northern and central regions, the climate ranges from humid subtropical to humid continental and oceanic. In particular, the climate of the Po valley geographical region is mostly continental, with harsh winters and hot summers.

The coastal areas of Liguria, Tuscany and most of the South generally fit the Mediterranean climate stereotype (Köppen climate classification Csa). Conditions on peninsular coastal areas can be very different from the interior's higher ground and valleys, particularly during the winter months when the higher altitudes tend to be cold, wet, and often snowy. The coastal regions have mild winters and warm and generally dry summers, although lowland valleys can be quite hot in summer. Average winter temperatures vary from 0 °C (32 °F) on the Alps to 12 °C (54 °F) in Sicily, like so the average summer temperatures range from 20 °C (68 °F) to over 30 °C (86 °F).

Politics

Main article: Politics of Italy

Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister since 2014.

Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic since 2015.

Italy has been a unitary parliamentary republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by a constitutional referendum. The President of Italy (Presidente della Repubblica), currently Sergio Mattarella since 2015, is Italy's head of state. The President is elected for a single seven years mandate by the Parliament of Italy in joint session. Italy has a written democratic constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Civil War.

Government

Italy has a parliamentary government based on a proportional voting system. The parliament is perfectly bicameral: the two houses, the Chamber of Deputies (that meets in Palazzo Montecitorio) and the Senate of the Republic (that meets in Palazzo Madama), have the same powers. The Prime Minister, officially President of the Council of Ministers (Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is Italy's head of government. The Prime Minister and the cabinet are appointed by the President of the Republic, but must pass a vote of confidence in Parliament to come into office. The incumbent Prime Minister is Matteo Renzi of the Democratic Party.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies in plenary section.

The prime minister is the President of the Council of Ministers—which holds effective executive power— and he must receive a vote of approval from it to execute most political activities. The office is similar to those in most other parliamentary systems, but the leader of the Italian government is not authorized to request the dissolution of the Parliament of Italy.

Another difference with similar offices is that the overall political responsibility for intelligence is vested in the President of the Council of Ministers. By virtue of that, the Prime Minister has exclusive power to: Coordinate intelligence policies, determining the financial resources and strengthening national cyber security; Apply and protect State secrets; Authorize agents to carry out operations, in Italy or abroad, in violation of the law.

A peculiarity of the Italian Parliament is the representation given to Italian citizens permanently living abroad: 12 Deputies and 6 Senators elected in four distinct overseas constituencies. In addition, the Italian Senate is characterised also by a small number of senators for life, appointed by the President "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field". Former Presidents of the Republic are ex officio life senators.

Italy's three major political parties are the Democratic Party, Forza Italia and the Five Stars Movement. During the 2013 general election these three parties won 579 out of 630 seats available in the Chamber of Deputies and 294 out of 315 in the Senate. Most of the remaining seats were won by a short-lived electoral bloc formed to support the outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, the far left party Left, Ecology, Freedom or by parties that contest elections only in one part of Italy: the Northern League, the South Tyrolean People's Party, Vallée d'Aoste and Great South. On 15 November 2013, 58 splinter MPs from Forza Italia founded New Centre-Right.

Law and criminal justice

Main articles: Law of Italy, Judiciary of Italy and Organized crime in Italy

The Supreme Court of Cassation.

The Italian judicial system is based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later statutes. The Supreme Court of Cassation is the highest court in Italy for both criminal and civil appeal cases. The Constitutional Court of Italy (Corte Costituzionale) rules on the conformity of laws with the constitution and is a post–World War II innovation. Since their appearance in the middle of the 19th century, Italian organised crime and criminal organisations have infiltrated the social and economic life of many regions in Southern Italy, the most notorious of which being the Sicilian Mafia, which would later expand into some foreign countries including the United States. The Mafia receipts may reach 9% of Italy's GDP.

A 2009 report identified 610 comuni which have a strong Mafia presence, where 13 million Italians live and 14.6% of the Italian GDP is produced. The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, nowadays probably the most powerful crime syndicate of Italy, accounts alone for 3% of the country's GDP. However, at 0.013 per 1,000 people, Italy has only the 47th highest murder rate (in a group of 62 countries) and the 43rd highest number of rapes per 1,000 people in the world (in a group of 65 countries), relatively low figures among developed countries.

Law enforcement

Main article: Law enforcement in Italy

A Lamborghini Gallardo provided to the Polizia di Stato.

Law enforcement in Italy is provided by multiple police forces, five of which are national, Italian agencies. The Polizia di Stato (State Police) is the civil national police of Italy. Along with patrolling, investigative and law enforcement duties, it patrols the Autostrada (Italy's Express Highway network), and oversees the security of railways, bridges and waterways. The Carabinieri is the common name for the Arma dei Carabinieri, a Gendarmerie-like military corps with police duties. They also serve as the military police for the Italian armed forces. The Guardia di Finanza, (English: Financial Guard) is a corps under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance, with a role as police force. The Corps is in charge of financial, economic, judiciary and public safety. The Corpo Forestale dello Stato (National Forestry Department) is responsible for law enforcement in Italian national parks and forests. Their duties include enforcing poaching laws, safeguarding protected animal species and preventing forest fires.

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Italy

The European Parliament. Italy is one of the 28 EU members.

Italy is a founding member of the European Community, now the European Union (EU), and of NATO. Italy was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, and it is a member and strong supporter of a wide number of international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, and the Central European Initiative. Its recent turns in the rotating presidency of international organisations include the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), the forerunner of the OSCE, in 1994; G8; and the EU in 2009 and from July to December 2003.

Italy strongly supports multilateral international politics, endorsing the United Nations and its international security activities. As of 2013, Italy was deploying 5,296 troops abroad, engaged in 33 UN and NATO missions in 25 countries of the world. Italy deployed troops in support of UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Mozambique, and East Timor and provides support for NATO and UN operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania. Italy deployed over 2,000 troops in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) from February 2003. Italy still supports international efforts to reconstruct and stabilise Iraq, but it had withdrawn its military contingent of some 3,200 troops by November 2006, maintaining only humanitarian operators and other civilian personnel. In August 2006 Italy deployed about 2,450 troops in Lebanon for the United Nations' peacekeeping mission UNIFIL. Italy is one of the largest financiers of the Palestinian National Authority, contributing €60 million in 2013 alone.

Military

Main article: Italian Armed Forces

The aircraft carrier MM Cavour.

The Italian Army, Navy, Air Force and Carabinieri collectively form the Italian Armed Forces, under the command of the Supreme Defence Council, presided over by the President of Italy. From 2005, military service is entirely voluntary. In 2010, the Italian military had 293,202 personnel on active duty, of which 114,778 are Carabinieri. Total Italian military spending in 2010 ranked tenth in the world, standing at $35.8 billion, equal to 1.7% of national GDP. As part of NATO's nuclear sharing strategy Italy also hosts 90 United States nuclear bombs, located in the Ghedi and Aviano air bases.

The Italian Army is the national ground defence force, numbering 109,703 in 2008. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, recently deployed in UN missions. It also has at its disposal a large number of Leopard 1 and M113 armoured vehicles.

A Eurofighter Typhoon operated by the Italian Air Force.

The Italian Navy in 2008 had 35,200 active personnel with 85 commissioned ships and 123 aircraft. It is now equipping itself with a bigger aircraft carrier (the Cavour), new destroyers, submarines and multipurpose frigates. In modern times the Italian Navy, being a member of the NATO, has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations around the world.

The Italian Air Force in 2008 had a strength of 43,882 and operated 585 aircraft, including 219 combat jets and 114 helicopters. As a stopgap and as replacement for leased Tornado ADV interceptors, the AMI has leased 30 F-16A Block 15 ADF and four F-16B Block 10 Fighting Falcons, with an option for more. The coming years will also see the introduction of 121 EF2000 Eurofighter Typhoons, replacing the leased F-16 Fighting Falcons. Further updates are foreseen in the Tornado IDS/IDT and AMX fleets. A transport capability is guaranteed by a fleet of 22 C-130Js and Aeritalia G.222s of which 12 are being replaced with the newly developed G.222 variant called the C-27J Spartan.

An autonomous corps of the military, the Carabinieri are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy, policing the military and civilian population alongside Italy's other police forces. While the different branches of the Carabinieri report to separate ministries for each of their individual functions, the corps reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs when maintaining public order and security.

Administrative divisions

Main articles: Regions of Italy, Metropolitan cities of Italy, Provinces of Italy and Municipalities of Italy

Italy is subdivided into 20 regions (regioni), five of these regions having a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on some of their local matters. The country is further divided into 14 metropolitan cities (città metropolitane) and 96 provinces (province), which in turn are subdivided in 8,047 municipalities (comuni).

Apulia

Basilicata

Calabria

Sicily

Molise

Campania

Abruzzo

Lazio

Umbria

Marche

Tuscany

Sardinia

Emilia-Romagna

Liguria

Piedmont

Friuli
Venezia Giulia

Aosta
Valley

South Tyrol

Trentino

Veneto

Lombardy

Adriatic Sea

Ionian Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Tyrrhenian Sea

Ligurian Sea

Region	Capital	Area (km²)	Area (sq mi)	Population
Abruzzo	L'Aquila	10,763	4,156	1,331,574
Aosta Valley	Aosta	3,263	1,260	128,298
Apulia	Bari	19,358	7,474	4,090,105
Basilicata	Potenza	9,995	3,859	576,619
Calabria	Catanzaro	15,080	5,822	1,976,631
Campania	Naples	13,590	5,247	5,861,529
Emilia-Romagna	Bologna	22,446	8,666	4,450,508
Friuli-Venezia Giulia	Trieste	7,858	3,034	1,227,122
Lazio	Rome	17,236	6,655	5,892,425
Liguria	Genoa	5,422	2,093	1,583,263
Lombardy	Milan	23,844	9,206	10,002,615
Marche	Ancona	9,366	3,616	1,550,796
Molise	Campobasso	4,438	1,713	313,348
Piedmont	Turin	25,402	9,808	4,424,467
Sardinia	Cagliari	24,090	9,301	1,663,286
Sicily	Palermo	25,711	9,927	5,092,080
Tuscany	Florence	22,993	8,878	3,752,654
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol	Trento	13,607	5,254	1,055,934
Umbria	Perugia	8,456	3,265	894,762
Veneto	Venice	18,399	7,104	4,927,596

Economy

Main article: Economy of Italy

A Ferrari 488. Italy maintains an innovative automotive industry, and is one of the world's largest exporters of manufactured goods.

Italy has a capitalist mixed economy, ranking as the third-largest in the Eurozone and the eighth-largest in the world. The country is a founding member of the G7, G8, the Eurozone and the OECD.

Italy is regarded as one of the world's most industrialised nations and a leading country in world trade and exports. It is a highly developed country, with the world's 8th highest quality of life and the 25th Human Development Index. The country is well known for its creative and innovative business, a large and competitive agricultural sector (Italy is the world's largest wine producer), and for its influential and high-quality automobile, machinery, food, design and fashion industry.

Vineyards in the Chianti region. The Italian food industry is well known for the high quality and variety of its products.

Italy is the world's sixth largest manufacturing country, characterised by a smaller number of global multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size and a large number of dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, notoriously clustered in several industrial districts, which are the backbone of the Italian industry. This has produced a manufacturing sector often focused on the export of niche market and luxury products, that if on one side is less capable to compete on the quantity, on the other side is more capable of facing the competition from China and other emerging Asian economies based on lower labour costs, with higher quality products.

The country was the world's 7th largest exporter in 2009. Italy's closest trade ties are with the other countries of the European Union, with whom it conducts about 59% of its total trade. Its largest EU trade partners, in order of market share, are Germany (12.9%), France (11.4%), and Spain (7.4%). Finally, tourism is one of the fastest growing and profitable sectors of the national economy: with 48.6 million international tourist arrivals and total receipts estimated at $45.5 billion in 2014, Italy was the fifth most visited country and the sixth highest tourism earner in the world.

Italy is part of a monetary union, the Eurozone (dark blue), and of the EU single market.

Italy is part of the European single market which represents more than 500 million consumers. Several domestic commercial policies are determined by agreements among European Union (EU) members and by EU legislation. Italy introduced the common European currency, the Euro in 2002. It is a member of the Eurozone which represents around 330 million citizens. Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank.

Italy has been hit very hard by the Great Recession and the subsequent European sovereign-debt crisis, that exacerbated the country's structural problems. Effectively, after a strong GDP growth of 5–6% per year from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and a progressive slowdown in the 1980-90s, the country virtually stagnated in the 2000s. The political efforts to revive growth with massive government spending eventually produced a severe rise in public debt, that stood at over 135% of GDP in 2014, ranking second in the EU only after the Greek one (at 174%). For all that, the largest chunk of Italian public debt is owned by national subjects, a major difference between Italy and Greece, and the level of household debt is much lower than the OECD average.

A gaping North–South divide is a major factor of socio-economic weakness. It can be noted by the huge difference in statistical income between the northern and southern regions and municipalities. The richest region, Lombardy, earns 127% of the national GDP per capita, while the poorest, Calabria, only 61% The unemployment rate (11.9%) stands slightly above the Eurozone average, however the average figure is 7.9% in the North and 20.2% in the South.

Infrastructure

Main article: Transport in Italy

FS' Frecciarossa 1000 high speed train, with a maximum speed of 400 km/h (249 mph), is the fastest train in Italy and Europe.

In 2004 the transport sector in Italy generated a turnover of about 119.4 billion euros, employing 935,700 persons in 153,700 enterprises. Regarding the national road network, in 2002 there were 668,721 km (415,524 mi) of serviceable roads in Italy, including 6,487 km (4,031 mi) of motorways, state-owned but privately operated by Atlantia. In 2005, about 34,667,000 passenger cars (590 cars per 1,000 people) and 4,015,000 goods vehicles circulated on the national road network.

The national railway network, state-owned and operated by Ferrovie dello Stato, in 2008 totalled 16,529 km (10,271 mi) of which 11,727 km (7,287 mi) is electrified, and on which 4,802 locomotives and railcars run.

The national inland waterways network comprised 1,477 km (918 mi) of navigable rivers and channels in 2002. In 2004 there were approximately 30 main airports (including the two hubs of Malpensa International in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci International in Rome) and 43 major seaports (including the seaport of Genoa, the country's largest and second largest in the Mediterranean Sea). In 2005 Italy maintained a civilian air fleet of about 389,000 units and a merchant fleet of 581 ships.

Italy needs to import about 80% of its energy requirements.

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Italy

Italy does not invest enough to maintain its drinking water supply and sanitation infrastructure, while water and sanitation tariffs are among the lowest in the European Union. The Galli Law, passed in 1993, aimed at raising the level of investment and to improve service quality by consolidating service providers, making them more efficient and increasing the level of cost recovery through tariff revenues. Despite these reforms, investment levels have declined and remain far from sufficient.

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in Italy

Galileo is recognized as the Father of modern science, physics and observational astronomy.

Through the centuries, Italy has fostered the scientific community that produced many major discoveries in physics and the other sciences. During the Renaissance Italian polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72) made important contributions to a variety of fields, including biology, architecture, and engineering. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), a physicist, mathematician and astronomer, played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include key improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and ultimately the triumph of Copernicanism over the Ptolemaic model.
Other astronomers suchs as Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712) and Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835–1910) made many important discoveries about the Solar System. In mathematics, Joseph Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia, 1736–1813) was active before leaving Italy. Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1250), and Gerolamo Cardano (1501–76) made fundamental advances in mathematics. Luca Pacioli established accounting to the world. Physicist Enrico Fermi (1901–54), a Nobel prize laureate, led the team in Chicago that developed the first nuclear reactor and is also noted for his many other contributions to physics, including the co-development of the quantum theory and was one of the key figures in the creation of the nuclear weapon. He, Emilio G. Segrè, and a number of Italian physicists were forced to leave Italy in the 1930s by Fascist laws against Jews, including Emilio G. Segrè (1905–89) (who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton), and Bruno Rossi (1905–93), a pioneer in Cosmic Rays and X-ray astronomy.

Other prominent physicists include: Amedeo Avogadro (most noted for his contributions to molecular theory, in particular the Avogadro's law and the Avogadro constant), Evangelista Torricelli (inventor of barometer), Alessandro Volta (inventor of electric battery), Guglielmo Marconi (inventor of radio), Ettore Majorana (who discovered the Majorana fermions), Carlo Rubbia (1984 Nobel Prize in Physics for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN). In biology, Francesco Redi has been the first to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies and he described 180 parasites in details and Marcello Malpighi founded microscopic anatomy, Lazzaro Spallanzani conducted important research in bodily functions, animal reproduction, and cellular theory, Camillo Golgi, whose many achievements include the discovery of the Golgi complex, paved the way to the acceptance of the Neuron doctrine, Rita Levi-Montalcini discovered the nerve growth factor (awarded 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine). In chemistry, Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 for his work on high polymers. Giuseppe Occhialini received the Wolf Prize in Physics for the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay in 1947. Ennio de Giorgi, a Wolf Prize in Mathematics recipient in 1990, solved Bernstein's problem about minimal surfaces and the 19th Hilbert problem on the regularity of solutions of Elliptic partial differential equations.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Italy

Map of population density in Italy as at the 2011 census.

At the end of 2013, Italy had 60,782,668 inhabitants. The resulting population density, at 202 inhabitants per square kilometre (520/sq mi), is higher than that of most Western European countries. However, the distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (that accounts for almost a half of the national population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Apennines highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata and the island of Sardinia are very sparsely populated.

The population of Italy almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven because of large-scale internal migration from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950–1960s. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they start to dramatically decline, leading to rapid population ageing. At the end of the 2000s (decade), one in five Italians was over 65 years old. However, in recent years Italy experienced a significant growth in birth rates. The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2008. The TFR is expected to reach 1.6–1.8 in 2030.

From the late 19th century until the 1960s Italy was a country of mass emigration. Between 1898 and 1914, the peak years of Italian diaspora, approximately 750,000 Italians emigrated each year. The diaspora concerned more than 25 million Italians and it is considered the biggest mass migration of contemporary times. As a result, today more than 4.1 million Italian citizens are living abroad, while at least 60 million people of full or part Italian ancestry live outside of Italy, most notably in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, the United States, Canada, Australia, and France.

Metropolitan cities

Metropolitan City	Area (km²)	Population 30 September 2014
Rome	5,352	4,336,915
Milan	1,575	3,190,340
Naples	1,171	3,128,702
Turin	6,829	2,293,340
Palermo	5,009	1,276,525
Bari	3,821	1,251,004
Catania	3,574	1,116,168
Florence	3,514	1,007,435
Bologna	3,702	1,003,027
Genoa	1,839	864,008
Venice	2,462	858,455
Messina	3,266	647,477
Reggio Calabria (planned)	3,183	558,959
Cagliari	1,248	430,413

Ethnic groups

Main article: Immigration to Italy

Italy is home to a large population of migrants from Eastern Europe and North Africa.

In 2014, Italy had about 4.9 million foreign residents, making up some 8.1% of the total population. The figures include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals—second generation immigrants, but exclude foreign nationals who have subsequently acquired Italian nationality; this applies to about 130,000 people a year. The official figures also exclude illegal immigrants, that were estimated in 2008 to number at least 670,000.

Starting from the early 1980s, until then a linguistically and culturally homogeneous society, Italy begun to attract substantial flows of foreign immigrants. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and, more recently, the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union, large waves of migration originated from the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe (especially Romania, Albania, Ukraine and Poland). An equally important source of immigration is neighbouring North Africa (in particular, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia), with soaring arrivals as a consequence of the Arab Spring. Furthermore, in recent years, growing migration fluxes from the Far East (notably, China and the Philippines) and Latin America (mainly from Peru and Ecuador) have been recorded.

Currently, about one million Romanian citizens (around one tenth of them being Roma) are officially registered as living in Italy, representing thus the most important individual country of origin, followed by Albanians and Moroccans with about 500,000 people each. The number of unregistered Romanians is difficult to estimate, but the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network suggested in 2007 that there might have been half a million or more. Overall, at the end of the 2000s (decade) the foreign born population of Italy was from: Europe (54%), Africa (22%), Asia (16%), the Americas (8%) and Oceania (0.06%). The distribution of immigrants is largely uneven in Italy: 87% of immigrants live in the northern and central parts of the country (the most economically developed areas), while only 13% live in the southern half of the peninsula.

Languages

Main articles: Languages of Italy and Italian language

Geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world:

  native language

  secondary or non-official language

  Italophone minorities

Italy's official language is Italian. It is estimated that there are about 64 million native Italian speakers while the total number of Italian speakers, including those who use it as a second language, is about 85 million. Italy has numerous regional dialects, however, the establishment of a national education system has led to decrease in variation in the languages spoken across the country during the 20th century. Standardisation was further expanded in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to economic growth and the rise of mass media and television (the state broadcaster RAI helped set a standard Italian).

Twelve historical minority languages are legally recognised: Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian (Law number 482 of 15 December 1999). French is co-official in the Valle d’Aosta—although in fact Franco-Provencal is more commonly spoken there. German has the same status in South Tyrol as, in some parts of that province and in parts of the neighbouring Trentino, does Ladin. Slovene is officially recognised in the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine.

Because of significant recent immigration, Italy has sizeable populations whose native language is not Italian. According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, Romanian is the most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy: almost 800,000 people speak Romanian as their first language (21.9% of the foreign residents aged 6 and over). Other prevalent mother tongues are Arabic (spoken by over 475,000 people; 13.1% of foreign residents), Albanian (380,000 people) and Spanish (255,000 people). Other languages spoken in Italy are Ukrainian, Hindi, Polish, and Tamil amongst others.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Italy

St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church of Christendom.

Roman Catholicism is, by far, the largest religion in the country, although Catholicism is no longer officially the state religion. In 2010, the proportion of Italians that identify themselves as Roman Catholic was 81.2%.

The Holy See, the episcopal jurisdiction of Rome, contains the central government of the entire Roman Catholic Church, including various agencies essential to administration. Diplomatically, it is recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, who is also the Bishop of Rome, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. Often incorrectly referred to as "the Vatican", the Holy See is not the same entity as the Vatican City State, which came into existence only in 1929; the Holy See dates back to early Christian times. Ambassadors are officially accredited not to the Vatican City State but to "the Holy See", and papal representatives to states and international organisations are recognised as representing the Holy See, not the Vatican City State.

Minority Christian faiths in Italy include Eastern Orthodox, Waldensians and Protestant communities. In 2011, there were an estimated 1.5 million Orthodox Christians in Italy, or 2.5% of the population; 0.5 million Pentecostals and Evangelicals (of whom 0.4 million are members of the Assemblies of God), 235,685 Jehovah's Witnesses, 30,000 Waldensians, 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 22,000 Latter-day Saints, 15,000 Baptists (plus some 5,000 Free Baptists), 7,000 Lutherans, 4,000 Methodists (affiliated with the Waldensian Church).

One of the longest-established minority religious faiths in Italy is Judaism, Jews having been present in Ancient Rome since before the birth of Christ. Italy has for centuries welcomed Jews expelled from other countries, notably Spain. However, as a result of the Holocaust, about 20% of Italian Jews lost their lives. This, together with the emigration that preceded and followed World War II, has left only a small community of around 28,400 Jews in Italy.

Soaring immigration in the last two decades has been accompanied by an increase in non-Christian faiths. In 2010, there were 1.6 million Muslims in Italy, forming 2.6 percent of population. In addition, there are more than 200,000 followers of faiths originating in the Indian subcontinent with some 70,000 Sikhs with 22 gurdwaras across the country, 70,000 Hindus, and 50,000 Buddhists. There were an estimated 4,900 Bahá'ís in Italy in 2005.

The Italian state, as a measure to protect religious freedom, devolves shares of income tax to recognised religious communities, under a regime known as Eight per thousand (Otto per mille). Donations are allowed to Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu communities; however, Islam remains excluded, since no Muslim communities have yet signed a concordat with the Italian state. Taxpayers who do not wish to fund a religion contribute their share to the state welfare system.

Education

Main article: Education in Italy

Bologna University is the oldest academic institution of the world, founded in AD 1088.

Education in Italy is free and mandatory from ages six to sixteen, and consists of five stages: kindergarten (scuola dell'infanzia), primary school (scuola primaria), lower secondary school (scuola secondaria di primo grado), upper secondary school (scuola secondaria di secondo grado) and university (università).

Primary education lasts eight years. The students are given a basic education in Italian, English, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, social studies, physical education and visual and musical arts. Secondary education lasts for five years and includes three traditional types of schools focused on different academic levels: the liceo prepares students for university studies with a classical or scientific curriculum, while the istituto tecnico and the Istituto professionale prepare pupils for vocational education. In 2012, the Italian secondary education has been evalued as slightly below the OECD average, with a strong and steady improvement in science and mathematics results since 2003; however, a wide gap exists between northern schools, which performed significantly better than the national average (among the best in the world in some subjects), and schools in the South, that had much poorer results.

Tertiary education in Italy is divided between public universities, private universities and the prestigious and selective superior graduate schools, such as the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The university system in Italy is generally regarded as poor for a world cultural powerhouse, with no universities ranked among the 100 world best and only 20 among the top 500. However, the current government has scheduled major reforms and investments in order to improve the overall internationalisation and quality of the system.

In 2013, UNESCO added the Mediterranean diet to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of Italy (promoter), Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia.

Health

Main article: Healthcare in Italy

The Italian state runs a universal public healthcare system since 1978. However, healthcare is provided to all citizens and residents by a mixed public-private system. The public part is the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, which is organised under the Ministry of Health and administered on a devolved regional basis. Healthcare spending in Italy accounted for 9.2% of the national GDP in 2012, very close the OECD countries' average of 9.3%.

Italy in 2000 ranked as having the world's 2nd best healthcare system, and the world's 2nd best healthcare performance. Life expectancy in Italy is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 6th in the world for life expectancy. In comparison to other Western countries, Italy has a relatively low rate of adult obesity (below 10%), probably thanks to the health benefits of the mediterranean diet. The proportion of daily smokers was 22% in 2012, down from 24.4% in 2000 but still slightly above the OECD average. Smoking in public places including bars, restaurants, night clubs and offices has been restricted to specially ventilated rooms since 2005.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Italy

The city of Venice, built on 117 islands.

The Leaning Tower and the Duomo of Pisa.

The Royal Palace of Caserta.

For centuries divided by politics and geography until its eventual unification in 1861, Italy has developed a unique culture, shaped by a multitude of regional customs and local centres of power and patronage. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a number of magnificent courts competed for attracting the best architects, artistis and scholars, thus producing an immense legacy of monuments, paintings, music and literature.

Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites (51) than any other country in the world, and has rich collections of art, culture and literature from many different periods. The country has had a broad cultural influence worldwide, also because numerous Italians emigrated to other places during the Italian diaspora. Furthermore, the nation has, overall, an estimated 100,000 monuments of any sort (museums, palaces, buildings, statues, churches, art galleries, villas, fountains, historic houses and archaeological remains).

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Italy

Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period, but also by region, because of Italy's division into several regional states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs.

Italy is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of arches, domes and similar structures during ancient Rome, the founding of the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th centuries, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world, notably in the UK, Australia and the US during the late 17th to early 20th centuries. Several of the finest works in Western architecture, such as the Colosseum, the Milan Cathedral and Florence cathedral, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the building designs of Venice are found in Italy.

Italian architecture has also widely influenced the architecture of the world. British architect Inigo Jones, inspired by the designs of Italian buildings and cities, brought back the ideas of Italian Renaissance architecture to 17th-century England, being inspired by Andrea Palladio. Additionally, Italianate architecture, popular abroad since the 19th century, was used to describe foreign architecture which was built in an Italian style, especially modelled on Renaissance architecture.

Visual art

Main article: Art of Italy

The Last Supper (1494–1499) by Leonardo da Vinci. Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

The history of Italian visual art is part of Western painting history. Roman art was influenced by Greece and can in part be taken as a descendant of ancient Greek painting. However, Roman painting does have important unique characteristics. The only surviving Roman paintings are wall paintings, many from villas in Campania, in Southern Italy. Such painting can be grouped into 4 main "styles" or periods and may contain the first examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape.

Panel painting becomes more common during the Romanesque period, under the heavy influence of Byzantine icons. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more realistic, with the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective in Italy with Cimabue and then his pupil Giotto. From Giotto on, the treatment of composition by the best painters also became much more free and innovative. They are considered to be the two great medieval masters of painting in western culture.

Michelangelo's David (1501–1504), Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence.

The Italian Renaissance is said by many to be the golden age of painting; roughly spanning the 14th through the mid-17th centuries with a significant influence also out of the borders of modern Italy. In Italy artists like Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian took painting to a higher level through the use of perspective, the study of human anatomy and proportion, and through their development of an unprecedented refinement in drawing and painting techniques. Michelangelo was an active sculptor from about 1500 to 1520, and his great masterpieces including his David, Pietà, Moses. Other prominent Renaissance sculptors include Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca Della Robbia, Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi, Andrea del Verrocchio.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the High Renaissance gave rise to a stylised art known as Mannerism. In place of the balanced compositions and rational approach to perspective that characterised art at the dawn of the 16th century, the Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt. The unperturbed faces and gestures of Piero della Francesca and the calm Virgins of Raphael are replaced by the troubled expressions of Pontormo and the emotional intensity of El Greco. In the 17th century, among the greatest painters of Italian Baroque are Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Mattia Preti, Carlo Saraceni and Bartolomeo Manfredi. Subsequently, in the 18th century, Italian Rococo was mainly inspired by French Rococo, since France was the founding nation of that particular style, with artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Canaletto. Italian Neoclassical sculpture focused, with Antonio Canova's nudes, on the idealist aspect of the movement.

In the 19th century, major Italian Romantic painters were Francesco Hayez, Giuseppe Bezzuoli and Francesco Podesti. Impressionism was brought from France to Italy by the Macchiaioli, led by Giovanni Fattori, and Giovanni Boldini; Realism by Gioacchino Toma and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. In the 20th century, with Futurism, primarily through the works of Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla, Italy rose again as a seminal country for artistic evolution in painting and sculpture. Futurism was succeeded by the metaphysical paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, who exerted a strong influence on the Surrealists and generations of artists to follow.

Literature and theatre

Main article: Literature of Italy

Dante, poised between the mountain of Purgatory and the city of Florence, displays the famous incipit Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita in a detail of Domenico di Michelino's painting, 1465.

The basis of the modern Italian language was established by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, whose greatest work, the Divine Comedy, is considered among the foremost literary statements produced in Europe during the Middle Ages. There is no shortage of celebrated literary figures in Italy: Giovanni Boccaccio, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Torquato Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, and Petrarch, whose best-known vehicle of expression, the sonnet, was created in Italy.

Prominent philosophers include Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Giambattista Vico. Modern literary figures and Nobel laureates are nationalist poet Giosuè Carducci in 1906, realist writer Grazia Deledda in 1926, modern theatre author Luigi Pirandello in 1936, poets Salvatore Quasimodo in 1959 and Eugenio Montale in 1975, satirist and theatre author Dario Fo in 1997.

Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the most celebrated children's classic by an Italian author.

Italian theatre can be traced back to the Roman tradition which was heavily influenced by the Greek; as with many other literary genres, Roman dramatists tended to adapt and translate from the Greek. For example, Seneca's Phaedra was based on that of Euripides, and many of the comedies of Plautus were direct translations of works by Menander. During the 16th century and on into the 18th century, Commedia dell'arte was a form of improvisational theatre, and it is still performed today. Travelling troupes of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous plays based on a repertoire of established characters with a rough storyline, called canovaccio.

Music

Main article: Music of Italy

Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently worldwide performed in the standard repertoire.

From folk music to classical, music has always played an important role in Italian culture. Instruments associated with classical music, including the piano and violin, were invented in Italy, and many of the prevailing classical music forms, such as the symphony, concerto, and sonata, can trace their roots back to innovations of 16th- and 17th-century Italian music.

Italy's most famous composers include the Renaissance composers Palestrina and Monteverdi, the Baroque composers Scarlatti, Corelli and Vivaldi, the Classical composers Paganini and Rossini, and the Romantic composers Verdi and Puccini. Modern Italian composers such as Berio and Nono proved significant in the development of experimental and electronic music. While the classical music tradition still holds strong in Italy, as evidenced by the fame of its innumerable opera houses, such as La Scala of Milan and San Carlo of Naples, and performers such as the pianist Maurizio Pollini and the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Italians have been no less appreciative of their thriving contemporary music scene.

Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most influential tenors of all time.

Italy is widely known for being the birthplace of opera. Italian opera was believed to have been founded in the early 17th century, in Italian cities such as Mantua and Venice. Later, works and pieces composed by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, are among the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world. La Scala operahouse in Milan is also renowned as one of the best in the world. Famous Italian opera singers include Enrico Caruso and Alessandro Bonci.

Introduced in the early 1920s, jazz took a particularly strong foothold in Italy, and remained popular despite the xenophobic cultural policies of the Fascist regime. Today, the most notable centres of jazz music in Italy include Milan, Rome, and Sicily. Later, Italy was at the forefront of the progressive rock movement of the 1970s, with bands like PFM and Goblin. Italy was also an important country in the development of disco and electronic music, with Italo disco, known for its futuristic sound and prominent usage of synthesizers and drum machines, being one of the earliest electronic dance genres, as well as European forms of disco aside from Euro disco (which later went on to influence several genres such as Eurodance and Nu-disco).

Producers/songwriters such as Giorgio Moroder, who won three Academy Awards for his music, were highly influential in the development of EDM (electronic dance music). Today, Italian pop music is represented annually with the Sanremo Music Festival, which served as inspiration for the Eurovision song contest, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Singers such as pop diva Mina, classical crossover artist Andrea Bocelli, Grammy winner Laura Pausini, and European chart-topper Eros Ramazzotti have attained international acclaim.

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of Italy

A Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious and publicised film festivals.

The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian film was a few seconds, showing Pope Leo XIII giving a blessing to the camera. The Italian film industry was born between 1903 and 1908 with three companies: the Società Italiana Cines, the Ambrosio Film and the Itala Film. Other companies soon followed in Milan and in Naples. In a short time these first companies reached a fair producing quality, and films were soon sold outside Italy. Cinema was later used by Benito Mussolini, who founded Rome's renowned Cinecittà studio for the production of Fascist propaganda until World War II.

After the war, Italian film was widely recognised and exported until an artistic decline around the 1980s. Notable Italian film directors from this period include Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni and Dario Argento. Movies include world cinema treasures such as La dolce vita, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Bicycle Thieves. The mid-1940s to the early 1950s was the heyday of neorealist films, reflecting the poor condition of post-war Italy.

As the country grew wealthier in the 1950s, a form of neorealism known as pink neorealism succeeded, and other film genres, such as sword-and-sandal followed as spaghetti westerns, were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, the Italian scene has received only occasional international attention, with movies like Life Is Beautiful directed by Roberto Benigni, Il Postino: The Postman with Massimo Troisi and The Great Beauty directed by Paolo Sorrentino.

Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations.

Sport

Main article: Sport in Italy

The Azzurri at the 1982 FIFA World Cup (one of the four won by Italy).

The most popular sport in Italy is, by far, football. Italy's national football team (nicknamed Gli Azzurri – "the Blues") is one of the world's most successful team as it has won four FIFA World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006). Italian clubs have won 48 major European trophies, making Italy the second most successful country in European football. Italy's top-flight club football league, Serie A, ranks as the fourth best in Europe and is followed by millions of fans around the world.

Other popular team sports in Italy include volleyball, basketball and rugby. Italy's male and female national teams are often featured among the world's best. The Italian national basketball team's best results were gold at Eurobasket 1983 and EuroBasket 1999, as well as silver at the Olympics in 2004. Lega Basket Serie A is widely considered one of the most competitive in Europe. Rugby union enjoys a good level of popularity, especially in the north of the country. Italy's national team competes in the Six Nations Championship, and is a regular at the Rugby World Cup. Italy ranks as a tier-one nation by World Rugby.

Italy has a long and successful tradition in individual sports as well. Bicycle racing is a very familiar sport in the country. Italians have won the UCI World Championships more than any other country, except Belgium. The Giro d'Italia is a cycling race held every May, and constitutes one of the three Grand Tours, along with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, each of which last approximately three weeks. Alpine skiing is also a very widespread sport in Italy, and the country is a popular international skiing destination, known for its ski resorts. Italian skiers achieved good results in Winter Olympic Games, Alpine Ski World Cup, and World Championship. Tennis has a significant following in Italy, ranking as the fourth most practised sport in the country. The Rome Masters, founded in 1930, is one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. Italian professional tennis players won the Davis Cup in 1976 and the Fed Cup in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013. Motorsports are also extremely popular in Italy. Italy has won, by far, the most MotoGP World Championships. Italian Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest surviving team in Grand Prix racing, having competed since 1948, and statistically the most successful Formula One team in history with a record of 224 wins.

Historically, Italy has been successful in the Olympic Games, taking part from the first Olympiad and in 47 Games out of 48. Italian sportsmen have won 522 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 106 at the Winter Olympic Games, for a combined total of 628 medals with 235 golds, which makes them the fifth most successful nation in Olympic history for total medals. The country hosted two Winter Olympics (in 1956 and 2006), and one Summer games (in 1960).

Fashion and design

Main articles: Italian fashion and Italian design

Prada shop in Hong Kong.

Italian fashion has a long tradition, and is regarded as one most important in the world. Milan, Florence and Rome are Italy's main fashion capitals. According to Top Global Fashion Capital Rankings 2013 by Global Language Monitor, Rome ranked sixth worldwide when Milan was twelfth. Major Italian fashion labels, such as Gucci, Armani, Prada, Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Fendi, Moschino, Max Mara, Trussardi, and Ferragamo, to name a few, are regarded as among the finest fashion houses in the world. Also, the fashion magazine Vogue Italia, is considered one of the most prestigious fashion magazines in the world.

Italy is also prominent in the field of design, notably interior design, architectural design, industrial design and urban design. The country has produced some well-known furniture designers, such as Gio Ponti and Ettore Sottsass, and Italian phrases such as "Bel Disegno" and "Linea Italiana" have entered the vocabulary of furniture design. Examples of classic pieces of Italian white goods and pieces of furniture include Zanussi's washing machines and fridges, the "New Tone" sofas by Atrium, and the post-modern bookcase by Ettore Sottsass, inspired by Bob Dylan's song "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again".

Today, Milan and Turin are the nation's leaders in architectural design and industrial design. The city of Milan hosts Fiera Milano, Europe's largest design fair. Milan also hosts major design and architecture-related events and venues, such as the "Fuori Salone" and the Salone del Mobile, and has been home to the designers Bruno Munari, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni.

Cuisine

Main article: Italian cuisine

Some of the most popular Italian foods: pizza, pasta, gelato and espresso.

Modern Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BC. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, and Jewish. Significant changes occurred with the discovery of the New World with the introduction of items such as potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and maize, now central to the cuisine but not introduced in quantity until the 18th century. Italian cuisine is noted for its regional diversity, abundance of difference in taste, and is known to be one of the most popular in the world, wielding strong influence abroad.

The Mediterranean diet forms the basis of Italian cuisine, rich in pasta, fish, fruits and vegetables and characterised by its extreme simplicity and variety, with many dishes having only four to eight ingredients. Italian cooks rely chiefly on the quality of the ingredients rather than on elaborate preparation. Dishes and recipes are often derivatives from local and familial tradition rather than created by chefs, so many recipes are ideally suited for home cooking, this being one of the main reasons behind the ever increasing worldwide popularity of Italian cuisine, from America to Asia. Ingredients and dishes vary widely by region.

A key factor in the success of Italian cuisine is its heavy reliance on traditional products; Italy has the most traditional specialities protected under EU law. Cheese, cold cuts and wine are a major part of Italian cuisine, with many regional declinations and Protected Designation of Origin or Protected Geographical Indication labels, and along with coffee (especially espresso) make up a very important part of the Italian gastronomic culture. Desserts have a long tradition of merging local flavours such as citrus fruits, pistachio and almonds with sweet cheeses like mascarpone and ricotta or exotic tastes as cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon. Gelato, tiramisù and cassata are among the most famous examples of Italian desserts, cakes and patisserie.

See also

• Index of Italy-related articles
• List of English exonyms for Italian toponyms
• Outline of Italy

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Hacken, Richard. "History of Italy: Primary Documents". EuroDocs: Harold B. Lee Library: Brigham Young University. Retrieved 6 March 2010. 
• "FastiOnline: A database of archaeological excavations since the year 2000". International Association of Classical Archaeology (AIAC). 2004–2007. Retrieved 6 March 2010. 
• Hibberd, Matthew. The media in Italy (McGraw-Hill International, 2007)
• Sarti, Roland, ed. Italy: A reference guide from the Renaissance to the present (2004)
• Sassoon, Donald. Contemporary Italy: politics, economy and society since 1945 (Routledge, 2014)
• "Italy History – Italian History Index" (in Italian and English). European University Institute, The World Wide Web Virtual Library. 1995–2010. Retrieved 6 March 2010. 

External links

• Online resources about Italy at UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Italy at DMOZ
• Wikimedia Atlas of Italy
• Geographic data related to Italy at OpenStreetMap
• Italian Higher Education for International Students
• Italian National and Regional parks
• Italian tourism official website

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• Food chemistry.Food Chem.2016 Feb 15;193:128-33. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.01.051. Epub 2015 Jan 20.
• Dietary fiber (DF) contributes to the energy value of foods and including it in the calculation of total food energy has been recommended for food composition databases. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of including energy provided by the DF fermentation in the calculation of food e
• PMID 26433298

• ePlantLIBRA: A composition and biological activity database for bioactive compounds in plant food supplements.

• Plumb J1, Lyons J2, Nørby K3, Thomas M4, Nørby E5, Poms R6, Bucchini L7, Restani P8, Kiely M2, Finglas P9; PlantLIBRA Consortia.
• Food chemistry.Food Chem.2016 Feb 15;193:121-7. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.03.126. Epub 2015 Apr 13.
• The newly developed ePlantLIBRA database is a comprehensive and searchable database, with up-to-date coherent and validated scientific information on plant food supplement (PFS) bioactive compounds, with putative health benefits as well as adverse effects, and contaminants and residues. It is the on
• PMID 26433297

• Report on the development of the FAO/INFOODS user database for fish and shellfish (uFiSh) - Challenges and possible solutions.

• Rittenschober D1, Stadlmayr B1, Nowak V1, Du J1, Charrondiere UR2.
• Food chemistry.Food Chem.2016 Feb 15;193:112-20. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.08.055. Epub 2014 Sep 6.
• Reliable food composition data are required for virtually all nutrition-related programs and policies. In many food composition tables, fish are included to a limited extent. Therefore, FAO/INFOODS decided to compile and publish a user databases for fish and shellfish (uFiSh), considering the follow
• PMID 26433296

Japanese Journal

• Optical Characterization of Industrial Slurries

• KONA Powder and Particle Journal advpub(0), 2016
• NAID 130005102528

• Mechanical Properties of Agglomerates Produced by the Mechanical Vibration of Cohesive Powders

• KONA Powder and Particle Journal advpub(0), 2016
• NAID 130005094450

• イタリア憲法改正と州の自治権 : 立法権分割と上院改革を素材として

• 自治総研 41(11), 1-21, 2015-11
• NAID 40020661977

• イタリア社会的農業の研究 : 新法案と州法整備状況から見る進化と現状 (論文特集号)

• 農村計画学会誌 34(Special issue), 321-326, 2015-11
• NAID 40020654180

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