Italy (Italia), officially the Italian Republic, is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.
Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the movement of the Renaissance, that began in Tuscany and spread all over Europe. Italy's capital Rome has been for centuries the center of Western civilization, and is the seat of the Catholic Church.
Today, Italy is a democratic republic, and a developed country. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union (having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957), and also a member of the G8, NATO, OECD, the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Beginning January 1, 2007 Italy became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The flag of Italy is a tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical bands of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side. Some have tried to attribute some particular values to the colors and a common interpretation is that the green represents the country's plains and the hills; white, the snowy Alps; and red, the blood spilt in the Italian Independence wars. A more religious interpretation is that the green represents hope; the white represents faith and the red represents charity. This interpretation references the three theological virtues.
No comments:
Post a Comment