Italy

**History**
There is evidence of human habitation in Italy dating back 200,000 years, but one of the most remarkable things happened in the 8th century B.C. - the founding of ancient Rome. At first a small agricultural community, the Roman Empire expanded over the centuries to encompass the entire Mediterranean Sea, and all that bordered it. Rome made numerous technological and societal advances which still affect the world today - in fact, Roman culture is the foundation of western civilization, and almost all european languages can trace their roots to Latin, the language spoken by the Romans. But, since the late 4th century A.D., Rome was in a slow decline and, in 395 A.D., split in two parts. The western half soon collapsed under pressure from many eastern european peoples, such as the Huns, leaving the legacy of Rome to its eastern half. However, Byzantium - as the eastern Roman Empire was called - soon collapsed, leaving Italy in the control of competing city-states. After this event, nothing of import to the surrounding world happened in Italy until 1861, when Italy was once again unified. Italy then dropped in importance until World War 2, at which point it joined the Axis with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. Italy was not that important afterwards.



**The Italian Flag**
The flag's three colors are taken to represent different things depending on who you ask. To some people, it means this: Green = the country's plains and hills, White = the snow-capped Alps, and Red = the blood spilt during the Italian wars of independence.

Most, if not all, of Italy's historical conflicts seem to have been long forgiven, so they don't seem to have any rivalries with other nations. Italy's history is so important because of Rome, without which western civilization would not exist, at least not in the form that it does now.

**Geography**


Italy's geography is considered to be very beautiful, and so it attracts a large amount of tourists to see the sights. Italy also has very fertile farmland, and some of the world's best wines come from there.

**Economy**
Italy is the world's largest wine producer, and is well known in automobile, industrial, appliance, and fashion design. Italy also has a massive amount of tourism, and is the fifth most visited county in the world with around 43.6 million international tourist arrivals in 2010 alone, and is also the highest tourism earner in the world. Unfortunately, Italy has little in the ways of raw materials and energy resources, and thus the country has the second highest debt of any nation in the entire world, with public debt at 116% of Italy's GDP, ranking only behind Greece (126.8%). Italy uses the euro as its currency, and the euro's exchange rate to the U.S. dollar is 1 euro to 1.3883 dollars. Italy's economy is... unpredictable, to say the least. Italy went from a recession to a period of rapid economic growth, and then back to a recession.

**Culture**
Italy has around 60 million inhabitants, most of which are of the Italian ethnicity (...Obviously). The official language of Italy is Italian (...). Around 92% of Italians are christian, which is to be expected considering Italy is where the Vatican is located (though it is officially not under Italian jurisdiction). Italy has a very good education system, and one of the world's best (//the// best, depending on who you ask) universities is located in Italy. Pronunciations: Yes: Si (Pronounced like see) No: No Thank You: Grazie (Ponounced Graa-che) Hello: Ciao (Chow)

Italy has been a world crossroads for over 2,000 years, and still continues to be. In addition, almost every european country's culture is based off a culture that developed in Italy: Rome. Italy is the center of the Catholic church, and one of the most religiously important locations in the world. Italy seems relatively homogeneous at first glance, but it is actually fairly diverse when you compare say, Sicily and mainland Italy.

All information provided by Wikipedia, which is actually a reliable source as there are more people there who want to put up the truth than those that want to screw around. People who screw around with the pages usually get banned.