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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. It is located on a peninsula that extends into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and two enclaves: Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in the Europe, covering an area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and third-most populous member state of the European Union, with a population of nearly 60 million. Its capital and largest city is Rome; other major urban areas include Milan, Naples, Turin, Florence, and Venice.

In antiquity, the Italian peninsula was home to numerous peoples; the Latin city of Rome, founded as a Kingdom, became a Republic that conquered the Mediterranean world and ruled it for centuries as an Empire. With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the Catholic Church and the Papacy. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy experienced the fall of the Western Roman Empire and inward migration from Germanic tribes. By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. The Italian Renaissance flourished in Florence during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, leading the European Age of Discovery. However, centuries of rivalry and infighting between city-states left the peninsula divided until the late modern period. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Italian economic importance waned significantly. (Full article...)

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Portrait by Antonio Ciseri

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (Italian pronunciation: [kaˈmillo ˈbɛnso]; 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as the Count of Cavour (/kəˈvʊər/ kə-VOOR; Italian: Conte di Cavour [ˈkonte di kaˈvur]) or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, statesman, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office and did not live to see the Roman Question solved through the complete unification of the country after the Capture of Rome in 1870.

Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont, at that time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in his earlier years and founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento. After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of centre-left and centre-right politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, managing to manoeuvre Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power. (Full article...)

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Image 1View of Piazzetta San Marco toward Grand Canal of Venice, at dawn, with Doges' Palace on the left and Biblioteca Marciana on the right.
Image 2Sellajoch, South Tyrol and Trentino (seen from Pordoi Pass), Langkofel on the left, Piz Ciavazes on the right
Image 3Youth of Moses by Sandro Botticelli, 1481-82, Sistine Chapel
Image 4A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo
Image 5Dome of Florence Cathedral
Image 6Interior of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome
Image 7The Forma Urbis Romae is a massive marble map of ancient Rome, created under the emperor Septimius Severus between 203 and 211.
Image 8Porta Soprana is the best-known gate of the ancient walls of Genoa.
Image 9South face of the Tofana di Rozes in the Parco naturale regionale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo

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...that the Italian winery Vini Lunardelli produced a controversial "historical line" of wine bottles featuring images of Che Guevara, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin on their labels?

...that Vittorio Ambrosio was an Italian general who served an instrumental role in the fall of Mussolini and the eventual Italian renunciation of its alliance with Germany?

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A collection of different pasta varieties

Pasta (UK: /ˈpæstə/, US: /ˈpɑːstə/, Italian: [ˈpasta]) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was traditionally only made with durum, although the definition has been expanded to include alternatives for a gluten-free diet, such as rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils. While Asian noodles are believed to have originated in China, pasta is believed to have independently originated in Italy and is a staple food of Italian cuisine, with evidence of Etruscans making pasta as early as 400 BCE in Italy.

Pastas are divided into two broad categories: dried (Italian: pasta secca) and fresh (Italian: pasta fresca). Most dried pasta is produced commercially via an extrusion process, although it can be produced at home. Fresh pasta is traditionally produced by hand, sometimes with the aid of simple machines. Fresh pastas available in grocery stores are produced commercially by large-scale machines. (Full article...)

List of fare/cuisine articles
Italian cuisine Pizza Ancient Roman cuisine Roman cuisine Parmigiano-Reggiano Sicilian cuisine Mozzarella Fettuccine Alfredo Acquacotta Carbonara Gelato Marron glacé Minestrone Pizza di Pasqua Chianti Food and dining in the Roman Empire Espresso Italian wine Testaroli Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale Latte

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The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Tagliatelle with ragù (from Culture of Italy)
Image 2The Sagra dell'uva in Marino, celebrating grapes (from Culture of Italy)
Image 3Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 4Royal Palace of Caserta, the largest royal residence in the world (from Culture of Italy)
Image 5The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 6Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 7Carnival of Venice (from Culture of Italy)
Image 8Roman mosaic of Virgil, the most important Latin poet of the Augustan period (from Culture of Italy)
Image 9John Florio is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England (from Culture of Italy)
Image 10The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio (from Culture of Italy)
Image 11The discovery of the New World by Christoper Columbus (from Culture of Italy)
Image 12David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy) is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 13Prada shop at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 14Gelato is Italian ice cream. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 15The Leaning Tower of Pisa (from Culture of Italy)
Image 16Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza (from Culture of Italy)
Image 17Festival of Saint Agatha (from Culture of Italy)
Image 18The Piazza dei Miracoli, with Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Pisan Romanesque style (from Culture of Italy)
Image 19Palio di Siena (from Culture of Italy)
Image 20Pietà, by Michelangelo is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 21The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics (from Culture of Italy)
Image 22The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 23Traditional pizza Margherita, whose ingredients, tomato (red), mozzarella (white) and basil (green), are inspired by the colours of the national flag of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 24The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (from Culture of Italy)
Image 25Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 26Alessandro Manzoni is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 27Palazzo Senatorio, seat of the municipality of Rome. It has been a town hall since AD 1144, making it the oldest town hall in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 28The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the distance (from Culture of Italy)
Image 29Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 30Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 31The Altare della Patria in Rome, a national symbol of Italy celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the Italian Unknown Soldier since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 32The Uffizi in Florence (from Culture of Italy)
Image 33The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art (from Culture of Italy)
Image 34The Trevi Fountain in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 35The cover of the Corriere dei Piccoli on 11 July 1911 carries a cartoon strip in the Italian style without speech bubbles. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 36Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers in the history of cinema (from Culture of Italy)
Image 37The Arch of Constantine in Rome (from Culture of Italy)
Image 38The Sistine Chapel ceiling, with frescos done by Michelangelo (from Culture of Italy)
Image 39William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 40Rai Radio 1 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 41The Creation of Adam is one of the scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo sometime between 1508 and 1512. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 42Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth (from Culture of Italy)
Image 43Italian wine and salumi (from Culture of Italy)
Image 44The Roman Empire provided an inspiration for the medieval European. Although the Holy Roman Empire rarely acquired a serious geopolitical reality, it possessed great symbolic significance. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 45Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 46Scrovegni Chapel. The chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 47Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas (from Culture of Italy)
Image 48Romulus and Remus, the Lupercal, Father Tiber, and the Palatine on a relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117) (from Culture of Italy)
Image 49The statue of Italia turrita in Reggio Calabria. Italia turrita is the national personification of Italy. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 50Clockwise from top left: Thomas Aquinas, proponent of natural theology and the Father of Thomism; Giordano Bruno, one of the major scientific figures of the Western world; Cesare Beccaria, considered the Father of criminal justice and modern criminal law; and Maria Montessori, credited with the creation of the Montessori education (from Culture of Italy)
Image 51Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 52Entrance to Cinecittà in Rome, the largest film studio in Europe (from Culture of Italy)
Image 53Castel del Monte, Apulia (from Culture of Italy)
Image 54Dario Fo, one of the most widely performed playwrights in modern theatre, received international acclaim for his highly improvisational style. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 55Giorgio Moroder, pioneer of Italo disco and electronic dance music, is known as the "Father of disco". (from Culture of Italy)
Image 56Luciano Pavarotti, considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century and the "King of the High Cs" (from Culture of Italy)
Image 57Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His epic poem The Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of world literature. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 58Folkloristic reconstruction of the Company of Death led by Alberto da Giussano who is preparing to carry out the charge during the battle of Legnano at the Palio di Legnano 2014 (from Culture of Italy)
Image 59The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan (from Culture of Italy)
Image 60The espresso comes from the Italian esprimere, which means "to express," and refers to the process by which hot water is forced under pressure through ground coffee. (from Culture of Italy)
Image 61A wooden puppet depicting the Befana (from Culture of Italy)
Image 62Italian folk dance in Molise (from Culture of Italy)
Image 63Statues of Pantalone and Harlequin, two stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte, in the Museo Teatrale alla Scala (from Culture of Italy)