Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and an archipelago in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi), with a population of nearly 60 million; it is the tenth-largest country by land area in the European continent and the third-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Rome.
Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 million people (2022), Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, and is the primary language of Vatican City. It has official minority status in Croatia and in some areas of Slovenian Istria.
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family.
The Italy national football team has represented Italy in men's international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.
Caffè corretto, is an Italian caffeinated alcoholic drink, consisting of a shot of espresso with a small amount of liquor, usually grappa, and sometimes sambuca or brandy. It is also known as an "espresso corretto". It is ordered as "un caffè corretto alla grappa", "... alla sambuca", "... al cognac", or "corretto di Spadino", depending on the desired liquor.
Piedmontese is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian dialect. It is linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy, which would make it part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan. It is spoken in the core of Piedmont, in northwestern Liguria, and in Lombardy.
Neapolitan is a Romance language of the Italo-Romance group spoken in Naples and most of continental Southern Italy. It is named after the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area, since the city of Naples was its capital. On 14 October 2008, a law by the Region of Campania stated that Neapolitan was to be protected.
Purismo was an Italian cultural movement which began in the 1820s. The group intended to restore and preserve language through the study of medieval authors, and such study extended to the visual arts.
Piazza Venezia is a central hub of Rome, Italy, in which several thoroughfares intersect, including the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via del Corso. It takes its name from the Palazzo Venezia, built by the Venetian Cardinal, Pietro Barbo alongside the church of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The Palazzo Venezia served as the embassy of the Republic of Venice in Rome.
The Battle of Saranda took place in southern Albania between the Greeks and the Italians in December 1940, during the Greco-Italian War in World War II.
Pantelleria Airport is a regional airport on the Italian island of Pantelleria. It is located 5 km from the town centre and features both regular and charter flights from and to Sicily and mainland Italy. It was a military airport until 2016 when it became a state owned civilian airport, although an Air Force detachment remained operational.
Claudia Serpieri is a world record-holding Italian technical diver and instructor, with Finnish mather. She was co-founder with Stefano Di Cagno of the team BioHazard, the extreme dive team of DDR Org. Deep Diving Research Organization, which has partnerships with space agencies, hyperbaric researchers, universities and the Navy, and chief editor of Captain Nemo magazine for five year. She was the first using a closed circuit rebreather in a deep dive, in the 2002, with 105 m./344,5 ft. in the lake of Bracciano, Italy. She is actually a PADI Staff Instructor, PTA Instructor Trainer, and lives and works in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt at MHM Blue World Diving Center.
The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna, commonly known as AISI, is the security agency of Italy. The AISI is the successor of the Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (SISDE) which was disbanded, and replaced by Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza, after the Act of August 3, 2007 No 124 which restructured the Italian intelligence community. Article 6 of this act clearly prohibits the agency from conducting operations outside Italy.
The Associazione Radioamatori Italiani is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in Italy.
Arrow Special Parts is an Italian motorcycle exhaust system manufacturer founded in 1985.
The Segugio dell'Appennino or Piccolo Lepraiolo Italiano is an Italian breed of small scenthound, bred specifically to hunt hare. It may be either smooth-haired or wire-haired. It is one of four Italian breeds of scenthound, the others being the Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte, the Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso and the Segugio Maremmano. It received full recognition from the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana in 2010; it is not recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale.
The Segugio Maremmano is an Italian breed of scent hound from the coastal plains of the Maremma, in Tuscany. It is mainly used for hunting wild boar, but may also be used to hunt hare and other mammals. They may be either smooth-haired or rough-haired.
Marocchino is a coffee drink created in Alessandria, Italy.
The Battle of Korytsa was fought during the Greco-Italian War of 1940–41 in the town of Korçë in southern Albania between the defending Italian 9th Army and the attacking Greek III Army Corps.
