Top 25 Interesting Facts About Italy

I have said before I love France and Lyon and there is no place in the world now I would like to be rather then here. But I did a change and visited Italy this summer and again I was amazed & stunned & blown minded by the country. Ok, I still love France and Lyon and I am very happy here but I will not stop exploring the world around. I just simply love to discover new places, new cultures, specialities, customs, lifestyles …this is why once I came back from Italy I have created my Little List of Top 25 Interesting Facts About Italy…

I started with the idea of a little list of my top observations and further facts I read about and I have built a pretty comprehensive List of Top 25 Interesting Facts About Italy! Here you are…be surprised & learn something new today.

So This Is Italy – Boot Shaped Country. In a nutshell:

Population: 59.4 million
Population Density: 199.5 (inhabitant/km2)
Largest Cities: Rome (2.7 m), Milan (1.3 m), Naples (0.96 m), Turin (0.91 m), Palermo (0.66 m)
Area: 301,338 km²
Coastline: 7,600 km
Highest Peak: Mont Blanc: (4,748 m)

List of Top 25 Interesting Facts About Italy

Italy has two countries based within its territory. There are Vatican (the smallest country in the world) and San Marino (the 9th smallest country in the word) which operate as the separate entities.
Italy is one of the most visited countries worldwide. Each year it welcomes about 46 million foreign visitors.
There is very little new births in Italy. The country has the lowest fertility and birth rate worldwide.
“Italy” comes from Greek “italos” and stands for ‘calf’
The Rome’s Colosseum is the largest ancient building which has been used to entertain people. It is also the 2nd Roman largest amphitheatre in Italy.
The Rome’s catacombs have about 40,000 tombs and contain the oldest imagine of the Virgin Mary which comes from early 2nd century. To accommodate all those tombs, the catacombs has been built in the length of 13 km.
Italian Volcanos: the Etna, the Stromboli and the Vesuvius are among the active volcanos in Europe.
Italian Mount Etna is famous for having the most active volcano in the world.
Italy has the oldest operating university in Europe. It is University of Bologna which has been founded in 1088.
The Republic of Venice lasted for 1,100 years. It has been set up in 697 and discontinued by Napoleon in 1797. That makes it the longest lasting republic in human history.
The first ghettos have been constructed in Italy. Already in 1516, some parts of Venice have been separated and assigned to allocate Jewish people. In this way the world ‘ghèto’ (slag in Venetian) came into use and had been worldwide populated describing parts of the city which were dedicated to members of a minority group.
Rome’s Basilica of St Peter (1506-1626) is the largest Christian edifice worldwide. It has been built for 120 years
Italy has over 140 types of pasta produce internationally and also just locally. That is why you can find that there is more then 140 names of pasta existing in Italy. Many types of pasta exist only in some regions.
Pasta is more popular in the South of Italy. Polenta and Risotto is very popular at the North of Italy. Pizza is eaten everywhere in Italy.
Average Italian will eat about 25 kg pasta in a year.
The first real pizzeria in the world obviously is Italian. The Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba has been based in Naples and opened in 1830
The very popular Italian tiramisu is not that old. It has been created for the first time in the 1970’s. The Italian galeto seems to be more famous Italian dessert. For the first time we heard about them in Florence.
The name tiramisu stands for ‘pick-me-up’ which we read as “make me happy”. It is because of the fact that it contains: coffee and cocoa. Two ingredients which make most of the people (and me) happy…Italian galeto means frozen dessert.
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest festival worldwide. It started in 1932
It has been in Italy, in 1994, where the 63 year old women gave birth. She is the oldest one worldwide to give a birth.
Italian & World famous artists are: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Bernini, Titian and Raphael, among many others.
Italian Famous Inventions are: the viol, violin, cello and piano, the mechanical clock, the barometer, the thermometer, optical glasses and the telephone
Italian Famous Designers are: Gucci, Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Fendi, Valentino, Trussardi, Benetton…
Italian & World’s most prestigious sports are: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati or De Tomaso. Reference: Unsplash Gallery, a big thank you to findbyplate.com for the photo.
Italian & World’s Very Famous Italian Celebrities Who Emigrated from the country are: Rudolph Valentino (USA); Frank Sinatra (USA); Al Pacino (USA); Robert De Niro (USA) ; Sylvester Stallone (USA); John Travolta (USA);Leonardo DiCaprio (USA); Madonna (USA);Salvatore Adamo (Belgium) ; Natalie Imbruglia (Australia); Lara Fabian (Belgium); Quentin Tarantino (USA);Francis Ford Coppola (USA); Rudolph Giuliani (USA);Elio Di Rupo (Belgium) ; Sam Palmisano (USA); Carly Fiorina (USA);Richard Grasso (USA);Lee Iacocca (USA); Patricia Russo (USA); Tommy Mottola (USA); Mario Draghi (USA); Amadeo P. Giannini (USA); Bob Guccione (USA); Leonard Riggio (USA); The Jacuzzi family(USA);Dennis Tito(USA); Manuel Belgrano (Argentina); Juan Perón (Argentina); Arturo Frondizi (Argentina); Arturo Umberto Illia (Argentina); Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)

So did you like it? Did you learn something new about Italy today? I hope you can now impress anyone you want with the knowledge of Italy. This has been pretty fascinating and pretty surprising for me to find out all those Top 25 Interesting Facts About Italy. And I am open to discover new facts…do you know any that seem missing here? Please do share with me. Thanks!