Description
Italy is a republic since June, 2nd 1946, and it is a capitalist economy with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capital and developed infrastructure.
It has the fifth-highest population density in Europe - about 200 people per square kilometer (490 per square mile). Minority groups are present in the country, the largest is the German-speaking community of the Province of Bolzano and the Slovenes near to Trieste. There are also small communities of Albanian, Greek, Ladino and French origins. The country joined the European Monetary Union in 1998.
Did You know that...
- Italy has its constitution since January,1st 1948?
- Italy is subdivided into 110 provinces and 20 regions?
- Italy was a founding member of the European Community?
- Italy hosts two independent states: the Vatican City and the Republic of San Marino?
- There have been nineteen Italian Nobel Prize winners?
- Italy is called il Belpaese, (thebeautiful country) by its inhabitants because of the beauty and variety of its landscapes and because it has the largest artistic heritage in the world?
- The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers discovered the medium when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing a camera?