Proof of human settlements on the Italian peninsula has been found, and it dates all the way back to prehistory.
The first evidence of civilization in Italy dates back to prehistory. By 500 BC, several populations of different ethnicity and origin shared Italy. Greeks settled on the southern coast and the island of Sicily. Gauls, ancestors of today’s modern French, in the north, and the great Etruscans in the center.
Between the 6th and 3rd Century BCE, the Italian city of Rome conquered Peninsular Italy and over the next few centuries dominate the Mediterranean and Western Europe. In 410 AD, Rome itself was sacked by Barbarians, and the Roman Empire collapsed by the end of the 5th AD century. For the next thousand years, Italy was divided into many small independent states often fighting each other.
In the 14th Century, when city-states such as Florence, Milan, Venice became centers of trade, prosperity returned to Italy that became Europe’s premier center of culture. It is this the great time of figures such as Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Galileo, among the many others, who revolutionized the fields of art, literature, politics, and science.
Then, when the trade routes shifted away from the Mediterranean, and the Protestant reform undermined the European centrality of Rome, Italy lost a large part of its power and prestige. The various Italian city-states became vulnerable to conquest by Spain, France, Austria, and the peninsula remained controlled by multiple European powers until the middle of the 19th Century when Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi led a popular movement that took over Italy. In 1861, Italy was finally and officially united even if Rome was only annexed in 1870.
After the Unification, Italy went through a tumultuous era that was characterized by the mass emigration of its people and the catastrophic outcomes of the two World Wars. In the last 70 years, Italy has been able to reclaim its position as a significant cultural and social player in the European Union of which the Country was among the founding States.
Nowadays Italy is one of the most visited Countries in the world and, according to the latest surveys, tourists’ number grows every year. People visit Italy for its rich culture, history, art, its beautiful coastline, beaches, mountains, and lakes, but also for what Italians call the “4 F’s”: of course food, but also fashion, furniture, and … fun (or Ferrari if you prefer), high-quality goods have made the Country famous worldwide.
| Activity There’s more to the country than pizza, pasta, and wine! Have fun learning about some significant and interesting, facts about Italy. Click here. |
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