Italy

Italy is one of the countries with the most varied landscapes in the world. Nature has endowed it with an exceptional number of ingredients that make it a great natural park in itself, open to man’s pleasure and curiosity.

Italy’s landscape ranges from the pink-tinged rocks of the Dolomites to the Mediterranean bays of the South and encompasses the lakes and the hills that are such a characteristic feature of the Italian landscape. It includes the central Appenine mountain range and the volcanoes uniquely spectacular in Europe. It takes us from the romantic lagoons to the stirring coastlines of Amalfi and Positano.This is the environment that civilization, long history and the input of man have embellished even in unexpected places. Over the centuries Italy has been a destination for personalities who spent their life in the pursuit of the beautiful, the unusual and the authentic: all of them charmed by the evidence of the past and the customs of their present time. And even now visitors can add to the pleasure of unique natural scenery the emotion of traditions in which they can take part, emotions that are never commonplace because they are bound by the golden thread of history and art, literature and poetry.

The roots of Italian hospitality lie deep in the historic past, as the country has been a theatre, since the fall of the Roman Empire, for invasions and settlement by different civilizations that have gradually been assimilated creating a multi-faceted artistic scenario. Over the centuries Italy has been enriched by paintings and frescos (Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio), sculptures and monuments that still today make Italy the world’s most outstanding museum. Over 50% of humanity’s artistic heritage is to be found in Italy. It is not a coincidence that in the international music lexicon, the principal modes of execution have always been expressed in Italian. And if we go to consider popular music, how could we possibly leave out that unique chapter devoted to the songs of Naples?
The traditional Italian aptitude for taste and creativity finds a natural outlet in design too, from industrial design embodied by our car industries with its Ferrari sports cars for racing tracks and city cars such as Topolino or Fiat 500 that represent a so familiar feature on the Italian scene, to architecture that originated with artists such as Bernini or Michelangelo and has become a symbol of Italy’s rich tradition of tailoring excellence and outstanding entrepreneurial skills, often exported overseas, to fashion from haute couture to ready-to-wear.We cannot forget to mention Cinema from the neo-realism of Rossellini and De Sica where the portrayal of life attained the highest level of artistic expression to the high drama of Visconti and the existential works of Antonioni, and theatre, from the Commedia dell’Arte to the great innovators of the Italian stage, and Eduardo de Filippo that occupies a special place in Neapolitan theatre, as well as Italian cuisine and wine-making tradition, a vital part of the country cultural tradition where nature and climate conditions played a part but creativity had a key role. Many of the best-known traditional dishes originated in the “poor” recipes of daily life of ordinary people yet they are dishes of a richness and variety that the world has only really begun to discover.

And last but not least science. Since the remote past a long list of Italian names has illuminated the progress of knowledge in the most varied fields of research and Italy is taking a very active role in the space sector. From Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Marconi and Fermi to the first sighting of a nova and sunspots, Italy brought the exploration of space to a new peak of achievement with the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter and the real movement of the planets and is now playing an important role in the construction of research and communication satellites. 

[from: “L’Italia si racconta”, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri]