© photographer Carsten Reisinger; agency Dreamstime.com

Italy's Geography
Bella Italia... she makes all the top 10 most visited, most desirable tourist destination lists, and is probably the most recognizable feature on Europe's map. The ever-stylish boot which is the Italian peninsula, stretches from the Alps in the north, 760 miles south to the Mediterranean.

Off the west coast of Italy lies the Tyrrhenian Sea, while the east coast is kissed by the Adriatic.

With a population over 58 million, and land mass of 300,000 square kilometers, Italy is the fourth largest country in western Europe.

Visitors to Italy have long adored vacationing along her dramatic coastlines, exploring her picturesque villages and sightseeing amid her wealth of art treasures and archeological finds. But did you know that Italy also has a great deal of stunning mountain scenery? Travelers to northern Italy fall in love with the Italian lakes: Como, Maggiore, Garda and Lugano, which lie surrounded by some of the most breathtaking landscapes of Italy's Dolomites. To see some of the stunning vacation properties avaiable in the area visit Lake Garda Villas - Italy By.Com

The Apennine Range runs north-south through the vertical length of the boot. Offering yet more beautiful scenery for your sight-seeing pleasure, the Apennines are home to several of the world's best known volcanoes - Stromboli, Vesuvius, and Etna among them.

Sicily is the island right off the south-western tip of the boot. Sardinia is the large island off the west coast, in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
 
Italian Destinations

FLORENCE MAREMMA ROME THE VATICAN TURIN TUSCANY UMBRIA VENICE Wine Regions of Italy

 
Map of Italy by Tourizm Maps © 2003

Italian History & Heritage
Archeologists tell us that the migration of early Indo-Europeans into the Italian Peninsula probably began over four thousand years ago. Greeks settled Italy's southern tip in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. while the ancient Etruscan civilization dominated the peninsula from the ninth century BC until the Romans swept through from Gaul to the Mediterranean six hundred years later.

For the next seven centuries, the history of Italy became largely the history of Rome's great empire. With its fall in the fifth century AD, the Italian Peninsula became prey to foreign invasion from many quarters and as a result, evolved into a collection of fractious states and small kingdoms.

photograph © 2003 Elaine K. Beckham

Within a few hundred years, the French, the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Emperors, had all at various times waged wars and fought battles to lay claim to Italy's territories. With the advent of global exploration in the middle ages and the ensuing surge of international trading, wealthy city-states like Venice and Genoa rose to prominence and power.

The Italian provinces were first united into one country by Napoleon, who conquered the Italian peninsula and proclaimed himself king in 1805. By 1861 Victor Emmanuel ll, formerly king of Sardinia, had taken power and Italy now included the Veneto and papal Rome.

After World War 1, Benito Mussolini organized his fascist party and in 1922 became Prime Minister. Italy was now a dictatorship with imperialist designs, invading and occupying Ethiopia in 1935 and Greece in 1940. Allied with Adolf Hitler in World War 2, Mussolini's regime was doomed and he was executed by Italian partisans in 1945. The Italian democratic Republic was founded the following year.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, Italian government and politics has been a very volatile, revolving door affair, fraught with corruption scandals and patronage, and despite best efforts it remains so in many ways today. In 2003 the Italian parliament passed a law conferring immunity from prosecution on high ranking government officials while in office. As is the case in many capitalist systems, government positions are still handed out as political favors, and big corporations buy lucrative government contracts with their financial support.

photograph © 2003 Elaine K. Beckham

The Renaissance
...was born in Italy and for three hundred years, from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries, Italian artists, architects, writers, scientists, engineers and thinkers, broke out of the formerly narrow confines of the European medieval mind and changed the world with their ideas and their phenomenal creations. A parade of extraordinary masters like Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante and Michelangelo propelled not just Italy but western civilization forward into a new, undreamed of age of artistic, literary and scientific excellence.

Classical Music
Italians populate the pantheon of classical music history... Monteverdi is credited with creating the first opera ever written, and despite the modern advances of contemporary opera into the atonal range, the cornerstones of any opera company's repertoire today remain the works of Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini.

Antonio Vivaldi invented the concerto in its present form and Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano. In the seventeenth century, prolific instrument maker Stradivari was making harps, guitars, violas, and cellos, and incidentally, set the benchmark for violin makers for over 250 years to come. Many of the twentieth century's most famous opera singers hailed from Italy... Enrico Caruso, Tito Gobbi, Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Giuseppe di Stefano, Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti, to name very few.

Italian Cuisine
Italian food is one of life's great pleasures wherever in the western world one may be, but ask any traveler, Italian food eaten in Italy is a gastronomic high. As you tour Italy you will discover that every region has its specialties, from creamy risotto alla Milanese, authentic Neapolitan pizza, to the famous pesto Genovese... basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, pine nuts and extra virgin olive oil ground into an exquisite fragrant paste to toss on your pasta. Relax and forget the diet while you are on vacation. There will be time enough for the treadmill... Italy's local and regional culinary delights await you.

You will find it's not just available ingredients which are different, but ethnic Italian cooking styles vary with geographical influences. In Italy's northwest, Valle d'Aosta, Piedmonte and the western edge of Liguria border France. Consequently French influence like the use of butter instead of olive oil, is common.

If your trip includes a visit to Italy's northeast, however, the proximity of Austrian-Slavic influences to the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, have led to Italian cuisine which is flavored with caraway, vinegar, paprika and cumin. Sausage, sauerkraut and goulash are common on the menu here.

In Italy's northern grain growing areas they favor the fat-grained arborio rice for irresisible risottos and polenta dishes over pasta. In the south where it's hotter, Mama's Italian kitchen will feature an abundant use of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

© photographer Lidian Neeleman; agency Dreamstime.com

Italy's Environmental Challenges
The Italian government came late to environmental concerns and there are parts of the more industrialized north, mainly big cities, where air pollution is a problem. They are making improvements year by year, with tougher regulations in place thanks to EU requirements.

Many native Italian species of animals and birds have become extinct in the last century, in part, due to un-regulated hunting. Many more are still endangered and conservationists are working hard to re-establish dwindling populations.

Italy has little in the way of natural resources, so most raw materials needed by industry, including more than three quarters of the country's energy consumption, are imported. Tourism and travel are a major source of Italy's income. Traditional industry provides about 35 percent of the country's economic base with the the manufacture of iron, steel, textiles and plastics.

Agriculture has become generally less dominant than in the past, but grain, livestock, dairy, fruit and olive orchards are still prominent, as of course is viticulture, the production of Italy's most famous export, wine.

photograph © 2003 Elaine K. Beckham

What To Expect When You Visit Italy

Italy has tremendous variety to offer the visitor. This country embodies temptation in many forms whichever way you turn. There's the excitement and energy of Elegant Italy... the big city centers like Milan, Torino, Bologna and Rome. Grand squares, impressive buildings, cafes and local haunts for ultra stylish, savvy, fashion-conscious sophisticates. Here you can enjoy world class theater and opera, chic shopping and gourmet dining. Visit Milan - Book your flight+hotel and save!

Float in wonder and awe through Renaissance Italy... Rome, Florence, Venice and Ravenna... places where baroque churches and palladian palaces, priceless art collections and historical treasures are so thick on the ground you can't walk a block without tripping over another must-see.

When your mind and heart are on complete overload, there's the Italian Countryside to soothe your senses... charming Tuscan hilltowns like Siena, San Giminiano or Montepulciano. Perugia and Orvieto in Umbria. Beautiful vineyards and old medieval town centers to explore at a leisurely pace. Try the rural and rustic Bed & Breakfast establishments which are also working farms, known as agriturismi, where you become not just a paying guest but part of an Italian family for the duration of your stay.
 

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