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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. It consists of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as nearly 800 islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and two enclaves—Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with a population of nearly 60 million. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome; other major urban areas include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

The history of Italy goes back to numerous Italic peoples, notably including the ancient Romans, who conquered the Mediterranean world during the Roman Republic and ruled it for centuries during the Roman Empire. With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the Catholic Church and the Papacy. Between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Italy experienced the arrival of Germanic tribes and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. The Italian Renaissance flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, contributing significantly to the European Age of Discovery. (Full article...)

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Bataille de Cérisoles, 14 avril 1544 (oil on canvas by Jean-Victor Schnetz, 1836–1837) depicts François de Bourbon at the end of the battle.

The Battle of Ceresole ([tʃereˈzɔːle]; also Cérisoles) took place on 14 April 1544, during the Italian War of 1542–1546, outside the village of Ceresole d'Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy. A French army, commanded by François de Bourbon, Count of Enghien, defeated the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, commanded by Alfonso d'Avalos d'Aquino, Marquis del Vasto. Despite having inflicted substantial casualties on the Imperial troops, the French subsequently failed to exploit their victory by taking Milan.

Enghien and d'Avalos had arranged their armies along two parallel ridges; because of the topography of the battlefield, many of the individual actions of the battle were uncoordinated. The battle opened with several hours of skirmishing between opposing bands of arquebusiers and an ineffectual artillery exchange, after which d'Avalos ordered a general advance. In the center, Imperial landsknechts clashed with French and Swiss infantry, with both sides suffering terrific casualties. In the southern part of the battlefield, Italian infantry in Imperial service were harried by French cavalry attacks and withdrew after learning that the Imperial troops of the center had been defeated. In the north, meanwhile, the French infantry line crumbled, and Enghien led a series of ineffectual and costly cavalry charges against Spanish and German infantry before the latter were forced to surrender by the arrival of the victorious Swiss and French infantry from the center. (Full article...)

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Image 1A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo
Image 2Sellajoch, South Tyrol and Trentino (seen from Pordoi Pass), Langkofel on the left, Piz Ciavazes on the right
Image 3Porta Soprana is the best-known gate of the ancient walls of Genoa.
Image 4South face of the Tofana di Rozes in the Parco naturale regionale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo
Image 5Dome of Florence Cathedral
Image 6View of Piazzetta San Marco toward Grand Canal of Venice, at dawn, with Doges' Palace on the left and Biblioteca Marciana on the right.
Image 7Interior of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome
Image 8The Forma Urbis Romae is a massive marble map of ancient Rome, created under the emperor Septimius Severus between 203 and 211.
Image 9Youth of Moses by Sandro Botticelli, 1481-82, Sistine Chapel

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Carlo Orelli

...that Carlo Orelli (pictured) was the last surviving Italian veteran to see service on Italy's entry into World War I?

...that wine made from the Italian grape Schioppettino was served at weddings in 1282 and the grape is still being grown today?

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Fettuccine Alfredo (Italian: [fettut'tʃiːne alˈfreːdo]) is a pasta dish consisting of fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese, which melt and emulsify to form a rich cheese sauce coating the pasta. Originating in Rome in the early 20th century, the recipe is now popular in the United States and other countries. Outside of Italy, cream is sometimes used to thicken the sauce, and ingredients such as chicken, shrimp, salmon or broccoli may also be added when it is served as a main course.

The dish is named after Alfredo Di Lelio, a Roman restaurateur who is credited with its invention and popularisation. Di Lelio's tableside service was an integral part of the recipe's success. Fettuccine Alfredo is a variant of standard Italian fettuccine al burro ('fettuccine with butter') or pasta burro e parmigiano ('pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese'). It is a kind of pasta in bianco, that is, without added sauce. Italian recipes do not include cream and are not topped with other ingredients, nor is the dish generally called "Alfredo" in Italy. (Full article...)

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Italian cuisine Pizza Ancient Roman cuisine Pasta Roman cuisine Parmigiano-Reggiano Sicilian cuisine Mozzarella Acquacotta Carbonara Gelato Marron glacé Minestrone Pizza di Pasqua Chianti Food and dining in the Roman Empire Espresso Italian wine Testaroli Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali Latte

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The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2Leonardo da Vinci, a polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10The Azzurri in 2012. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 11Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 12Starting in 1909, the Giro d'Italia is the Grands Tours' second oldest. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Enrico Fermi, creator of the world's first nuclear reactor. He is considered the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14The ingredients of traditional pizza Margherita—tomatoes (red), mozzarella (white), and basil (green)—are inspired by the colours of the national flag of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15The Creation of Adam is one of the scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo sometime between 1508 and 1512. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus leads an expedition to the New World, 1492. His voyages are celebrated as the discovery of the Americas from a European perspective, and they opened a new era in the history of humankind and sustained contact between the two worlds. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 17Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18Map of the Italian diaspora in the world
  Italy
  + 10,000,000
  + 1,000,000
  + 100,000
  + 10,000
(from Culture of Italy)
Image 19Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21The Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22Scrovegni Chapel. The chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Valle dei Templi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25Dario Fo, one of the most widely performed playwrights in modern theatre, received international acclaim for his highly improvisational style. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26An Alfa Romeo 159 vehicle of the Carabinieri corps (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27Giosuè Carducci. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His epic poem The Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30The Frecce Tricolori, with the smoke trail representing the national colours of Italy, above the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome during the celebrations of the Festa della Repubblica on 2 June 2022 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31Samantha Cristoforetti is the first Italian woman in space. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut (199 days, 16 hours). (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33The statue of Italia turrita in Naples. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 34A Ferrari SF21 by Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35Ernesto Teodoro Moneta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1907. He adopted the motto In varietate unitas! which later inspired Motto of the European Union. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 36Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38Pietà, by Michelangelo, is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy), is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Galileo Galilei, an astronomer, physicist, engineer, and polymath, played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. He is considered the "father" of observational astronomy, modern physics, the scientific method, and modern science. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 44Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46Bologna University, established in AD 1088, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51The Altare della Patria in Rome, a national symbol of Italy celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the Italian Unknown Soldier since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 52Antonio Meucci, inventor of the first telephone (from Culture of Italy)
Image 53Linguistic map of the Italian language throughout the world
  Official language

  Secondary, widely spoken or understood

  Understood by some due to former colonisation
(from Culture of Italy)
Image 54Espresso is a coffee brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans. The term espresso comes from the Italian esprimere, which means 'to express', and refers to the process by which hot water is forced under pressure through ground coffee. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 55Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 56John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 57Folkloristic reconstruction of the Company of Death led by Alberto da Giussano who is preparing to carry out the charge during the battle of Legnano at the Palio di Legnano 2014 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 58The Roman Empire provided an inspiration for the medieval European. Although the Holy Roman Empire rarely acquired a serious geopolitical reality, it possessed great symbolic significance. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60The cover of the Corriere dei Piccoli on 11 July 1911 carries a cartoon strip in the Italian style, without speech bubbles. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 61Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 62Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 64The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, Lazio, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 65Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 66The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 67Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 68Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth (from Culture of Italy)
Image 69Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 70World map of first level subdivisions (states, counties, provinces, etc.) that are home to Little Italys or Italian neighbourhoods (from Culture of Italy)
Image 71The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 72The president of Italy Sergio Mattarella during his entry into the Sala del Tricolore on the occasion of the Tricolour Day on 7 January 2017 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 73Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 74Celebration of the 2777th Natale di Roma at the Circus Maximus (from Culture of Italy)
Image 75Florence Cathedral, which has the biggest brick dome in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 76Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (from Culture of Italy)
Image 77Commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymus Francken I, c. 1590 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 78Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal residence in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 79William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 80Established in 1224 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 81The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 82St. Peter's Basilica, a representation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture (from Culture of Italy)
Image 83Clockwise from top left: Thomas Aquinas, proponent of natural theology and the Father of Thomism; Giordano Bruno, one of the major scientific figures of the Western world; Cesare Beccaria, considered the Father of criminal justice and modern criminal law; and Maria Montessori, credited with the creation of the Montessori education (from Culture of Italy)
Image 84Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 85The Piazza dei Miracoli, with Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Pisan Romanesque style (from Culture of Italy)
Image 86Castel del Monte, Apulia (from Culture of Italy)
Image 87The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 88Romulus and Remus, the Lupercal, Father Tiber, and the Palatine on a relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117) (from Culture of Italy)
Image 89Holographic copy of 1847 of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the Italian national anthem since 1946 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 90The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 91The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 92Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 93The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 94Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 95Palazzo Senatorio, seat of the municipality of Rome. It has been a town hall since AD 1144, making it the oldest town hall in the world. (from Culture of Italy)