Dante Alighieri, widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 364,073 inhabitants in 2024, and 990,527 in its metropolitan area.
Kabir Bedi is an Indian actor. His career has spanned three continents covering India, the United States and especially Italy among other Western countries in three media: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story and the villainous Sanjay Verma in the 1980s blockbuster Khoon Bhari Maang. He is best known in Italy and Europe for playing the pirate Sandokan in the popular Italian TV miniseries and for his role as the villainous Gobinda in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. Bedi is based in India and lives in Mumbai.
Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion in June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino and also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, is the oldest existing representative republic and the European state with the smallest population, apart from Vatican City. It is surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains, it is the fifth-smallest country in the world, with a land area of just over 61 km2 and a population of 33,642, as of 2023.
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 126 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 472 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2020, around 258,685 people resided in greater Venice or the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 51,000 live in the historical island city of Venice and the rest on the mainland (terraferma). Together with the cities of Padua and Treviso, Venice is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its collapse in 476, after which it served as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom and then the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna.
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such as Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948). He is also known for his films starring Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli (1950), Europe '51 (1952), Journey to Italy (1954), Fear (1954) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954).
Roberto Remigio Benigni is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film Life Is Beautiful (1997), for which he received the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best International Feature Film. Benigni was the first actor to win the Best Actor Academy Award for a non–English language performance.
Nice is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million on an area of 744 km2 (287 sq mi). Located on the French Riviera, the southeastern coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the French Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille. Nice is approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) from the principality of Monaco and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the French–Italian border. Nice's airport serves as a gateway to the region.
Victor Emmanuel II was King of Sardinia from 23 March 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of an independent, united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of Father of the Fatherland.
Paolo Cesare Maldini is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back or as a centre-back for AC Milan and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time. As the Milan and Italy captain for many years, he was nicknamed "Il Capitano". Maldini held the record for appearances in Serie A (647), until he was surpassed by Gianluigi Buffon in 2020. He also holds the joint-record for most European Cup/UEFA Champions League final appearances (8) alongside Paco Gento. He was recently a technical director for Milan and is a co-owner of USL Championship club Miami FC.
Stanley Tucci Jr. is an American actor. Known as a character actor, he has played a wide variety of roles ranging from menacing to sophisticated. Tucci has earned numerous accolades, including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Tony Award.
Roberto Mancini is an Italian football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of the Saudi Arabia national team.
Nicola "Nicky" Pietrangeli is an Italian former tennis player. He won two singles titles at the French Championships and is considered by many to be one of Italy's greatest tennis champions.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922, until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until his summary execution in 1945. As a dictator and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired the international spread of fascist movements during the interwar period.
Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its metropolitan area is home to more than 1,000,000 people. Bologna is most famous for being the home to the oldest university in continuous operation, the University of Bologna, established in AD 1088.
Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. He contributed to Italian unification (Risorgimento) and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. He is considered to be one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland", along with Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and Giuseppe Mazzini. Garibaldi is also known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.
Jannik Sinner is an Italian professional tennis player. He is ranked as world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the first Italian to reach the top ranking. Sinner has won 18 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including two majors at the 2024 Australian Open and the 2024 US Open, as well as four Masters 1000 titles and the 2024 ATP Finals. He has also led Italy to the 2023 and 2024 Davis Cup crowns.
Damiano David is an Italian singer and songwriter. He is the frontman of the rock band Måneskin, which won the Sanremo Music Festival 2021 and subsequently the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 representing Italy with the song "Zitti e buoni". In 2024, David started his solo musical career with the singles "Silverlines" and "Born with a Broken Heart".
