Italy is often referred to as "Bel Paese", which means "beautiful country".
Italy is associated with dolce vita and amore, pizza, spaghetti/pasta and wine,
cappuccino and gelato, haute couture and mafia, sun and sea, cheerful, hospitable
and restless Italians. This amazing place, as if created for creativity, gave the world
great architects, artists and sculptors, directors, actors, singers and composers,
writers and inventors.
Italy occupies the Apennine and a small part of the Balkan Peninsula, the
Padana lowland and the southern slopes of the Alps, the highest and longest
mountain range in Western Europe. It includes several islands, the largest of which
are the independent regions of Sicily and Sardinia. The borders of Italy are
surrounded by two independent enclave states of San Marino and the Vatican, the
latter being located inside Rome and having 13 extraterritorial sites in the city and
Castel Gandolfo (the summer residence of the Pope).
2. Italy is washed by five seas - Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Mediterranean, Ionian
and Adriatic.
3. Italy is one of the five most visited countries in the world with more than 60
million tourists a year. The most popular destinations are Rome, Venice, Milan,
Florence and the largest Italian resort on the Adriatic coast - Rimini. The Eternal
City accounts for almost half of the travelers (about 80 thousand people a day), and
Rimini, with a population of 150,000, receives 7.5 million guests, mainly during
the bathing season. The first tourist guide of Italy is considered to be a manuscript
for pilgrims of the 12th century. "Wonders of the City of Rome."
Italians own a number of important discoveries and inventions. The generator
of technical ideas was Leonardo da Vinci, the founder of experimental physics was
Galileo Galilei. The piano (in Italian, pianoforte) was invented by Bartolomeo
Cristofori, the telephone by Antonio Meucci, and the beginning of radiotelegraphy
was laid by Guglielmo Marconi, who managed to send the first wireless signal.
The creators of the internal combustion engine are the Tuscans Eugenio Barsanti
and Felice Matteucci, and the forerunner of electric batteries - a galvanic cell - was
created by a native of Como, Alessandro Volta.
