Italy Essay, Research Paper
Boat-shaped Italy, which covers 116,303 square miles, forms a bridge across
the center of the
Mediterranean sea from Europe almost to Africa. Italy is compared in size to
Georgia and Florida.
The full country name is Italian Republic. The population is 57.6 million
with the capital city of
Rome having 2.6 million people. Most Italians speak standard Italian, but
other languages include
German, French, and Solvene. The majority of Italians are of Roman Catholic
faith as many as
85%, with only about 5% Jewish and Protestant. The major industries include,
engineering,
textiles, chemicals, food processing, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear,
with tourism being the
number one industry. Dubbed the world?s `living art gallery,` Italy has
more `culture` than you
can shake a baton, paintbrush, quill or chisel at. Italy is at its best in
the spring and autumn.
During these seasons, the scenery is beautiful, the temperatures are
pleasant. Italy?s multitude of
festivals and traditional events make it a very popular tourist attraction
today.
There was little Italian emigration to the United States before 1870.
However, Italy was one of
the most overcrowed countries in Europe, and many began to consider the
possibility of l
Italy to escape low wages and high taxes. During the period 1820 and 1920
over 4,190,000
people emigrated from Italy to the United States. By the Second World War
there were more
people of Italian stock living in New York city than in Rome. An
investigation in 1978 revealed
that since 1820 over 5,294,000 people emigrated to the United States from
Italy. have found the
reasons each group emigrated in North America varied. Some Individuals
emigrated simply for
adventure or for personal reasons. But most immigrants came to escape harsh
conditions in their
homeland.
The Italians were no slouches when it came to music, a Italian invented the
piano. The piano
built by Bartolomeo Cristofori, of Florence, Italy , is generally credited
with inventing the piano.
A piano sound comes from striking a string held under tension with some form
of a hammer. The
date of Cristofori?s first piano is unclear. Italy has a centuries old
history of desserts and cakes
associated with special holidays. Panettone is among the best known examples
of this tradition.
The Panettone means simply ?big? or ?strong? bread. This sweet
wonderful bread of unusual size
with a top shaped like a church dome, has become a Italian Christmas Bread
Tradition.