Miracles are common in Italy: country boasts dizzying array of natural wonders, historical attractions and culinary delights Italy is a programme: ‘We’re off to Italy!’ is uttering the most mouth-watering phrase unless the listener either finds Italian food intolerable or has recently been there. Italy, for the inadequate word is jampacked full of history, natural beauty and gorgeous food. It is, without a doubt, one of the most extreme countries in the world. But even if you know all of that, or at least think you do, there’s much more worth knowing about Italy. Here, in no particular order, are fun and surprising facts about Italy that will astound anyone. Enjoy! 1. Italy is the world’s most mountainous country. 2. Watch your step inside churches as 25,000 people each year fall into them. 3. The world’s smallest republic, the minuscule fortress-island of San Marino, sits above Italy’s Adriatic coastline. 4. The shortest national anthem on Earth soundtracks Italy. 5. Lasts a minute, possibly less. 6. And has just seven notes! 7. While Venice’s canals are world-famous, Italy has two other similarly remarkable cities: Naples and Florence. 8. 2,000 years ago, the westernmost point of Italy was on the Philippines. 9. Another small island looms off the mainland: Sicily, Europe’s largest, only just managing to qualify as a mere ‘large island’. 10. Decidedly not large – though wonderful – are Italy’s ‘Baby Islands’ (Baby Sicily, Pantelleria). 11. Italy has its own version of Stonehenge, the stunning stone circle of Menhir of Carona. 12. Italian women have a fantastic track record as painters. 13. Italian truffles – there are about 50 strains – are the most expensive ingredient in the world. 14. It’s generally tasty, but Italian spaghetti is not universally accepted by historians. 15. One of the Bourbons did once crowns a king outside Pompeii. 16. Exactly how it became a democracy remains ‘still a mystery’. 17. Did you know that Pontius Pilate was actually from Italy? Pontius Pilate, who was born in the 1st century near what’s now Tuscany, had the same name, roman name, and fairly similar date of birth as Pontius Pilatus. 18. There’s a lot more to Italy than the story of the Roman Empire raising the colourful hats and peeing globes of oriental potentates..
1. Italy: The Land of Volcanoes
If you think of Italy, you might picture ancient ruins or wonderful cities. But how many volcanoes do you picture? The country has more than any other in Europe: Mount Vesuvius, a deadly protuberance that lies just south of Naples and in 79AD devastated the city of Pompeii; Mount Etna, cloaked in snow on Sicily’s northern flank. And so on.
Italy’s volcanism has also produced thermal spas where visitors enjoy soaking in hot mineral waters. Ancient visitors to the spa waters of Tuscany discovered that they found them healing, and modern spa tourism similarly provides relaxation and tranquility to an international clientele.
2. Vatican City: The Smallest Country in the World
Nestled within the city of Rome, Vatican City holds the prestigious title of being the smallest independent country in the world. Spanning just over 44 hectares, this sovereign city-state is the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite its small size, Vatican City is home to some of the most iconic landmarks, including St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, adorned with Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the ceiling frescoes.
It’s an ideal place to spend, if you want to live in a fantastic world with an eclectic mix of art and history, religion. For anyone who is in Rome, where the art history is amazing, Vatican City is a most beautiful place in world. The art and architecture in Vatican is awesome, so many people travel from other parts of word to this place, Vatican City. People do visit Vatican to make some lifelong memories to cherish.
3. Italy: The Birthplace of Renaissance Masters
Italy was the dominant force in the Renaissance – a period of cultural and intellectual expansion in art, literature and philosophy (science), which made Europe the Centre of the known world in the middle of the second millennium.
Vinci, a small town in Tuscany, added another outstanding product to its name – Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance all-round genius, known for his paintings such as the Mona Lisa, or two of my personal favourites, The Last Supper and the Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo was undeniably a genius. Or was he really a genius? Likewise, Michelangelo, another Italian Renaissance genius, gave the world his sculptures such as the David and the Pieta.
Galileo Galilei, in the 17th century, gave the first ideas of the modern universe, revolutionising the views of people towards dimensions of the Universe and the laws that govern him. His discoveries of the laws that explain the motions of falling bodies and the basic facts of the behavior of planetary motions, led to the birth of modern physics.
Their works are a legacy still in place in Italy and their vision remains a captivating and inspiring presence to this day.
4. Fashion and Design: Italy’s Creative Prowess
Italy also offers an important history of style, elegance and innovation in fashion and design: from catwalks to streets, from Milan to Rome, Italian fashion has been conquering the world for years.
Names such as Gucci, Prada and Versace immediately bring to mind a certain brand of Italian excellence. From the rich history of the brands, the materials used and the details incorporated into the products to the classy artistic runway shows, Italian fashion has always had an aura of luxury around it.
And Italian design is all-encompassing, not just in the world of fashion but in furniture and cars, too, brilliant, beautiful objects created for daily use, in which style is not just skin deep.
5. The Land of Delicious Delights: Italian Cuisine
However, we can´t talk about Italy without mentioning its delicious cuisine! Italian food is undoubtedly one of the best known and most appreciated food types in the world for its originality and typicality, for its genuine flavours, always obtained by using fresh and simple ingredients. Our country is full of food products, from region to region, determined mainly by the richest local ingredients, always linked to the territory and tradition.
The classics – spaghetti carbonara, lasagne or pizza from Naples – have become synonymous with delicious dishes that showcase the fresh produce and careful technique Italians have been passing down for generations. Savour some decadent gelato, eat some rich risotto, or drink one (or two) of the great wines of the nation.
You can’t just describe Italian meals as food: it’s also a banquet for the senses. The same passion and love for food that Italians put in their dishes will also be felt by whoever eats them. Thanks to this, Italian dining becomes an experience you will never forget.
6. Italy’s Remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Sites
With 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Italy has perhaps more than any other country in the world. The reason is probably self-evident, since our cultural and historical heritage is indeed precious, whether it is archaeologically relevant, such as Pompeii, or a striking natural landscape, such as the Dolomites. But world heritage sites are in another way our message back to ourselves, of the knowledge and abilities bestowed upon humans.
Take the Colosseum in Rome, or the historic centre with the campanile (Duomo) and Renaissance works in Florence, both symbols of the architecture of the Roman Empire and of Tuscan culture.
It is a landscape of staggering beauty, those steep cliffs falling to the sea shimmer their own sapphire, and – Venice, my dear! – those labyrinthine waterways, gondolas toting lovers into eternity.
7. Italy’s Diverse Regional Cultures
Italy is a unified country, even if it is made up of multiple discrete regions, each with its own lingua, dialects, traditions and even food. In bustling Naples, and Tuscan rolling hills and beyond.
Though this island giant is spurred on by its neighbours to the north – which include France and Switzerland – family and community strength still rule in the south, where the pace of life is decidedly more Mediterranean
Getting to know Italy’s regions is like taking a voyage through past and present; head for Umbria’s medieval hill towns, or the ancient ruins of Sicily, or the world heritage-listed Ligurian coast. And a discovery awaits everywhere.
8. Italy: The Land of Festivals
Italians cannot live without festivities, as each celebration becomes part of their identity, from Catholic festive celebrations and religious processions to mundane and colourful carnivals.
Perhaps the most well-known of such festivals is Carnevale (literally ‘flesh-eating day’), which is held annually in Venice and various cities around the country. Streets are crowded, masks are worn, and celebrators run amok to the beat of music in a collective outburst of colour, glitter, food, drinks and fun in the days before the onset of Lent and the obligatory fasting for 40 days that follows.
Another of its most famous festivals is the Palio di Siena, a bareback horse race that takes place in the Middle Ages and is held twice a year within the historic city of Siena. Each white horse represents one of the 17 contrade (district) of the visitor and local.
Ranging from the traditional jousts known as the Calcio Storico, which kept generations of Florentines active on the city’s main piazza, to the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, which spills onto the streets in a burst of colour each year, Italy’s rolling carousel of fiestas is a microcosm of the nation’s zest for life and its enduring traditions.
9. Italy’s Love Affair with Coffee
Where I come from in Italy, we love coffee and its preparation is almost a religious act but even more than the quality of the coffee, what identifies an Italian coffee-lover is the ritual aspects of the consumption of the drink.
If you ask for a coffee in an Italian bar, there are four or five different variations to choose from. You can have the powerful and short espresso or the frothy cappuccino. The Italians are masters of getting the maximum flavour out of the bean.
Bars are where Italians spend their time, with friends and over espresso coffee. In Italy, the coffee shop, called a bar, is an essential part of social life. People meet, talk and enjoy life over an espresso. To Italian culture, it is time well spent. Next time you visit Italy, steep yourself in Italian coffee culture.
10. Italy’s Passion for Football
Football or ‘soccer’ is not just a sport in Italy, but part of the nations’ shared passion. Italian loves football and the actual match is above all a moment of intense participation for the fans and an occasion of crucial demonstration.
Serie A, the premier professional football league of Italy, which includes teams such as Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, features teams that draw mad crowds to their clubs, and the chanting and cheering of fans for their team in the stadium pulses with a sense of camaraderie.
Each summer, the flag-ridden streets – together with public viewings – turn major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship into communal moments. Football is Italy’s lifestyle, its philosophy. It permeates every corner of this country and filters into so many other areas of life.
And whether it’s brooding volcanoes, cultural treasures, gastronomic delights, secluded and breathtaking landscapes, or a global art and cultural heritage, Italy is guaranteed to surprise and captivate any traveller, history fan, foodie or art lover. The light of Italy will forever illuminate your heart and mind. Go ‘Dolce far niente’: slow down to the Italian pace of life and embrace the Italian way!
