Our country
Hello guys! We live in Italy. Our country is a parliamentary republic, it’ s a founding member of UE and the official language is Italian but there are some secondary languages, spoken only in a few regions, for example French in Valle D’ Aosta( Vallée d’ Aoste) and German in Trentino Alto Adige( Südtirol). Every Italian region has its own dialect. Italy is located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea and borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Vatican City and San Marino. The capital is Rome and it’ s a very beautiful city! It’ s the biggest Italian city situated in the centre and it’ s rich of monuments, for example the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Capitol, the Pantheon, The Quirinal and a lot of other monuments. Inside Rome, there is Vatican city, which is the Pope’ s seat. Other main cities are Milan, Turin, Florence, Genoa and Palermo.
Milan is situated in the north of Italy and here you can find the Cathedral, the Palace of the Bank of Italy, Castello Sforzesco and the Arch of Peace. In Milan, there is the most important Italian theatre: Scala theatre. Furthermore, Milan is a major financial and economic center, it’ s home of major universities and it’ s important worldwide for Italian fashion.
Turin was the first capital of Italy for four years, from 1861 to 1865 and now it’ s an important city for the production of Martini, for the espresso and more. The most important monuments are the Mole Antonelliana and the cathedral. There are also some big outdoor markets, like Porta palazzo and Balon. Turin is also the headquarters of FIAT, the main automotive company in Italy.
Florence is the most populous city in Tuscany. It’ s known as the birthplace of Renaissance. Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871 and now it has a big influence on international fashion trends. The main sights in this city are the Palazzo Vecchio, the cathedral of the city“ Santa Maria del Fiore”, the Campanile, the Ponte Vecchio, which spans the Arno river, and Palazzo Pitti, and here you can find the Uffizi Gallery. Futhermore, this city is the birthplace of Dante Alighieri, a major Italian poet. The historic centre of Florence was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Genoa, which forms the corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle, is one of the country’ s major economic centers. It’ s a seaside town and in fact it is famous for his aquarium but there are other important monuments like Palazzo Ducale and San Lorenzo’ s cathedral.
Palermo is located in Sicily, the southern Italian island and it’ s rich of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO like Palazzo dei Normanni, which is Sicilian parliamentary seat, the cathedral and Cappella Palatina. However, Palermo is rich of other monuments, mostly religious architectures, like Basilica di San Francesco D’ Assisi, Basilica La Magione and Chiesa di San Domenico, civil architectures, like Muqarnas, Palazzo Pretorio and Palazzo Abatellis, archaeological sites, like Castellammare archeological park. There are falso very beautiful squares, like Piazza Pretoria, Piazza Indipendenza and Piazza della Memoria.