Italy

Geography of Italy

Southern Europe Peninsula – the boot Includes islands – Sicilly, Sardinia Southern side of the Alps Surrounded by 4 seas – Adriatic, Mediterranean Population - 61,261,254  Capitol – Rome

Over 3 million people

Major Cities – Naples, Milan, Venice, Florence Active Volcanoes – Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli

Government and Economy

Republic President – Giorgio Napolitano Prime Minister – Matteo Renzi Money – Euro Main sources of economy –

Industry – machinery, iron and steel

Tourism

Agriculture – grapes, vegetables, fish

Exports – engineering products, cars

Culture Language – Italian, German, French

(Sicilian, Venetian, etc) Food – pasta, tomatoes, garlic, cheese,

prosciutto, wine Family-centric – even in business (Fiat) Holidays –

Christmas and most Christian holidays

Nov 1st – Saints Day

April 25 - Liberation Day, marking the 1945 liberation ending World War II in Italy in 1945.

Patron Saints celebrations – towns and villages

Culture Major center of the Renaissance

– arts, music, architecture Paintings and artists – Raphael,

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello

Music – opera

Architecture – Roman, Baroque, Neoclassical

Religion – Roman Catholic and Islam

Vatican City Sovereign city-state within Rome Lateran Treaty (1929) – signed by Prime

Minister Mussolini Bishop of Rome – Pope Absolute Elective Monarchy Economy - Tourism St Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Museums Pope Francis (2013) –

Born in Argentina

Pope of the poor

Less frivolous, tweets

Historical Landmarks

“Holy Shroud” in Turin Cathedral

Coliseum

Leaning tower of Pisa

Venice gondolas

Paestum

Catacombs – burial for nobles

Piece of History – Mussolini The Rise and Fall of Mussolini Italy declared its neutrality upon the outbreak of World War I on the grounds that

Germany had embarked upon an offensive war. In 1915, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies but obtained less territory than it expected in the postwar settlement. Benito (“Il Duce”) Mussolini, a former Socialist, organized discontented Italians in 1919 into the Fascist Party to “rescue Italy from Bolshevism.” He led his Black Shirts in a march on Rome and, on Oct. 28, 1922, became prime minister. He transformed Italy into a dictatorship, embarking on an expansionist foreign policy with the invasion and annexation of Ethiopia in 1935 and allying himself with Adolf Hitler in the Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936. When the Allies invaded Italy in 1943, Mussolini's dictatorship collapsed; he was executed by partisans on April 28, 1945, at Dongo on Lake Como. Following the armistice with the Allies (Sept. 3, 1943), Italy joined the war against Germany as a cobelligerent. A June 1946 plebiscite rejected monarchy and a republic was proclaimed. The peace treaty of Sept. 15, 1947, required Italian renunciation of all claims in Ethiopia and Greece and the cession of the Dodecanese islands to Greece and of five small Alpine areas to France. The Trieste area west of the new Yugoslav territory was made a free territory (until 1954, when the city and a 90-square-mile zone were transferred to Italy and the rest to Yugoslavia).

Assignment – Create a timeline or sequence of events graphic organizer AND identify 2 “cause and effect” events

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