Culture

Italy, as a state, did not exist until the unification of the country came to a conclusion in year 1861. Due to this comparatively late unification, and the historical autonomy of the many regions that comprise the Italian Peninsula, many traditions and customs that we now recognise as distinctly Italian can be identified by their regions of origin, which further reflect the influence of the many different peoples that occupied those areas, and of the importance of religion, especially Roman Catholicism. Despite the pronounced political and social isolation of these regions that prevailed throughout Italy's history, Italy's contributions to the cultural and historical heritage of Europe remain immense. In fact, Italy is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (41) to date.

Visual Art

Italy has been a seminal place for many important artistic and intellectual movements that spread throughout Europe and beyond, including the Renaissance and Baroque. Perhaps Italy's greatest cultural achievements lie in its long artistic heritage, which is often validated through the names of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Bernini, Titian and Raphael, among many others.

Science

In science, Galileo Galilei made considerable advancements toward the scientific revolution, and Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance Man. Other notable Italian scientists and inventors include Fermi, Cassini, Volta, Lagrange, Fibonacci, Marconi and Meucci.

Music

From folk music to classical, music has always played an important role in Italian culture. Having given birth to opera, for example, Italy provides many of the very foundations of the classical music tradition. Some of the instruments that are often associated with classical music, including the piano and violin, were invented in Italy, and many of the existing classical music forms can trace their roots back to innovations of 16th and 17th century Italian music (such as the symphony, concerto, and sonata). Some of Italy's most famous composers include the Renaissance composers Palestrina and Monteverdi, the Baroque composers Corelli and Vivaldi, the Classical composers Paganini and Rossini, and the Romantic composers Verdi and Puccini. Modern Italian composers such as Berio and Nono proved significant in the development of experimental and electronic music.

Cuisine

Italian cuisine is extremely varied: the country of Italy was only officially unified in 1861, and its cuisines reflect the cultural variety of its regions and its diverse history (with culinary influences from Greek, Roman, Gaul, Germanic, Goth, Norman, Lombard, Frank, Turkish, Hebrew, Slavic, Arab and Chinese civilisations). Italian cuisine is imitated all over the world.

To a certain extent, there is really no such thing as Italian cuisine in the way that one usually understands national cuisines. Each area has its own proud specialties, primarily at regional level, but also even at provincial level. For example, pizza also varies across the country, the crusts of pizzas in Rome are thin as crackers, while Neapolitan pizza and Sicilian pizza is thicker.

More detailed information about eating and drinking in Italy may be found in Food and Drink.

Literature

Italian literature began after the founding of the Roman Empire in 773 B.C., while the first works in proper Italian date back almost ten centuries.

With the basis of the modern Italian language established through the eminent Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, whose greatest work, the Divina Commedia, is often considered the foremost literary statement produced in Europe during the Middle Ages, there is no shortage of celebrated literary figures; the writers and poets Boccaccio, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, and Petrarca, whose best known vehicle of expression, the sonnet, was invented in Italy. Prominent philosophers include Bruno, Ficino, Machiavelli, Vico. Modern literary figures and Nobel laureates are nationalist poet Giosuè Carducci in 1906, realist writer Grazia Deledda in 1926, modern theatre author Luigi Pirandello in 1936, poets Salvatore Quasimodo in 1959 and Eugenio Montale in 1975, satirist and theatre author Dario Fo in 1997.

Sports

Italians are renowned for their love of sports. Their zeal for sports events is, indeed, no less than legendary; from the Gladiatorial games of Ancient Rome, to the Stadio Olimpico of contemporary Rome, where prestigious football clubs compete regularly, the impact that sports has had on Italian culture is enduring and undeniable.

Towards the Alps, the popularity of winter sports grows, with many Italians from that region competing in international games and Olympic venues. Moving downwards the peninsula, the disparity between participation in sports becomes less regional. Despite any regional variation that may exist, the incorporation of sports in many Italian festivities like Palio, and the Gondola race (regatta) that takes place in Venice on the first Sunday of September, affirms the role sports play in everyday Italian life. Popular sports include football, cycling, rugby and auto racing (a sport which shares its renown with a staple of Italian design, Ferrari).

Cinema

The history of Italian cinema began in 1885; the first film was a few seconds long and showed Pope Leo XIII giving a blessing to the camera. The Industry was born between 1903 and 1908 with three companies: the Roman Cines, the Ambrosio of Turin and the Itala Film. Other companies soon followed in Milan and in Naples. In a short time, these first companies reached a fair producing quality and films were soon sold outside Italy. The cinema was later used by Mussolini as a form of propaganda during World War II.

After the war, Italian film was widely recognised and exported until an artistic decline around 1980. World-famous Italian film directors from this period include Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Dario Argento. Films include world cinema treasures such as 'La Dolce Vita', 'Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo' (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and 'Ladri di biciclette'.

In recent years, the Italian scene has received only occasional international attention, with films such as Oscar-winning 'La vita è bella' (Life Is Beautiful) directed by and starring Roberto Benigni and BAFTA-winning Il Postino directed by Massimo Troisi.

Theatre

Italian theatre can be traced back to Roman times, when it was heavily influenced by the Greek tradition (as with many other literary genres, Roman dramatists tended to adapt and translate from the Greek). For example, Seneca's Phaedra was based on that of Euripides, and many of the comedies of Plautus were direct translations of works by Menander.

During the 16th century and on into the 18th century, Commedia dell'arte was a form of improvisational theatre, and it is still performed today. Travelling teams of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous plays based on a repertoire of established characters with a rough storyline, called Canovaccio.