Weather Overview
Italy's climate varies from north to south and from lowland to mountain top. Temperatures at sea-level tend to be similar around the country, with altitudes creating steep changes between summer and winter. Winters are long and severe in the Alps, with snow falling as early as mid-September. Storms develop in spring and tend to last to autumn, making summer the wettest season. The northern regions experience chilly winters, hot summers and regular even rain distribution, while conditions become milder as you head south. The sirocco, the hot and humid African wind that affects regions south of Rome, produces at least a couple of stiflingly hot weeks in summer
Architecture
Dubbed the world's 'living art gallery', Italy has more culture than you can shake a paintbrush at. Whether it's a broken pillar rising up through the linoleum floor of a train station or a baroque church overlooking a cracked antique pediment in the Forum, history and culture surround you. Outside there are Etruscan tombs, Greek temples, cat-infested Roman ruins, and statue-filled Renaissance fountains to gawp at; inside, you can swoon to Roman sculptures, Byzantine mosaics, beatific Madonnas from Giotto to Titian, gargantuan rococo tombs and trompe l'oeil ceilings.
Cinema
Cinema would not be the same without Italy's Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Magnani, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren or directors Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Frederico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Bernardo Bertolucci.
Music
The Italians were no slouches when it came to music; they invented both the piano and our system of musical notation, as well as producing Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Verdi, Puccini, Bellini and Rossini.
Literature
Writers from Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Livy and Cicero to Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino, Mirandola and Manzoni all sprang from Italian loins. Modern literary Italian appeared in the 13th and 14th centuries, developing out of its Latin heritage, the country's many dialects and the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, who wrote chiefly in the Florentine dialect.
Food
Italy's many regional cucine, while remaining distinctive to their regions of origin, have undergone a pan-Italian fusion in the hands of chefs, evolving into a unique cuisine that is justifiably world famous. Cooking styles vary notably, from the rich and creamy dishes of the north to the hot and spicy specialities of the south. Northern Emilia-Romagna has produced the best-known dishes - spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and tortellini - and is also home to the best prosciutto and mortadella - not to mention parmesan. Liguria is the home of pesto, that mainstay of trattorie worldwide. Spectacular vegetable and pasta dishes feature just as predominantly as seafood and exotic meats - anyone for frog rissotto, donkey steak or entrail pudding? Desserts - cassata, cannoli, zabaglione, granita and marzipan - come into their own in Sicily, while Sardinia is famous for its spit-roasted piglet. Coffee and wine are of course magnificent countrywide.
Modern History
Economic crisis and fickle politics dogged the new nation in the ensuing decades, as Italy muddled through WWI and became riddled with industrial unrest in the early 1920s. In a memorably unwise employment decision, the king asked one Benito Mussolini to take the reins of government under the auspices of his Fascist Party. Il Duce soon became head of state, outlawed the opposition, controlled the press and trade unions and cut franchise by two-thirds. His relationship with Hitler soured after a series of military disasters during WWII and Italian capitulation in 1943, eventually culminating in a fatal dose of rough justice at the hands of partisans in April 1945.The postwar years were coloured by extremism: the extreme violence of terrorists such as the Brigatte Rosse (Red Brigades), extreme centre-right politics, extreme economic boom and economic crisis, extreme corruption and bribery in extremely high places - and an extremely cynical and fatigued public.
Recent History
Italy's parliament has a reputation for scandal and resignation, and at times it has left Italy virtually ungoverned and utterly chaotic. The explosion of corruption cases in the Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) and Tangentopoli (Bribesville) cases in the 1990s threw the traditional political parties into chaos and eventually led to Italy's richest man, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi, becoming prime minister in alliance with the former Fascist party and northern Italian secessionists in 2001. Berlusconi, plagued by fraud and other charges, spent much of his term concocting laws to suit his private and business interests. His most lasting legacy was probably the nationwide ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces in early 2005. With his coalition looking brittle and many Italians desperately disillusioned with his cavalier approach to politics, the ever disunited left wing snatched power in a neck-and-neck election in 2006. Romano Prodi was named the new Prime Minister. |
