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 leaving

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.