Italian

History
& Culture
Haley Kressel Jan 2016

Contents
History
Cultural Artifacts
My Results
Sources

Family

Arts
History & Culture

Music

Food

Architecture

Etruscans
Three phases of a single, evolving culture
Proto-Villanovan

Villanovan

Etruscan

(1200 BC - 1000 BC)

small, one-room huts
thatched roofs, rods and
twigs covered in clay form
walls,
pigs, sheep, cattle
beans, barley, and wheat
crops

(1000 BC - 750 BC)

cities and towns
cemeteries

(750 BC - 300 BC)

12 city-states
influenced by the Greek and
the Near East cultures
influenced the
achievements fo the Golden
Age of Greece to the early
Romans
conquered by Romans
around 396 BC

Villanovan comes from an

Italian town of the same name,
near Bologna, where
archaeologists first uncovered
evidence of this culture.
- Science Buzz

The Romans

ruled Italy for many centuries

boundaries advanced and retreated over years

330 AD Emperor Constantine

Became a Christian
Rebuilt the city of Byzantium
New Christian capital city for the empire and renamed Constantinople

Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals - 5th Century AD

410 - Visigoths reached Rome
452 - Attila the Hun came from northern Italy
455 - Vandals reached Rome
476 - Odoacer, German tribesmen leader, became first King of Italy
- end of Roman Empire
- Theodoric, chieftain, overthrew Odoacer
562 - whole peninsula was under Byzantine rule again

Lombards
568 - Lombards entered Italy
4 yrs. Later - Northern area completely captured
- Refugees fled to the lagoons of the Po delta (Venice)
751 - Lombards have control of the North
- Local Dukes control the South

The Papal States

Pope asked the Frankish king, Pepin III, to help overthrow the Lombards
Pepin conquered the land
- donated land to the pope
Land remained in the hands of the church until the unification of Italy in 1870

The Invaders
Changing political landscape
- Papal states were stable
- Hungarians in the north, Arabs in the south, the peninsula was open to attack from all
directions
Southern Italy
- Byzantines ~ Arabs ~ Normans ~ Germans ~ French ~ Spanish Aragonese

The City States

Wealthy northern cities of Italy - threatened by rival claims from imperial Germany to the
north and the papal states to the south
Vulnerability led threatened cities to build high, fortified walls
Venice, Milan, Genoa Pisa, Florence, Siena and many others
democratic republics to princely rule
Medici family

15th century - Italian mainland dominated by Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, and
Naples

Balance of power between each other in the interests of all

Napoleon Bonaparte

French military general

Conquered Holland, Italy, Naples, Sweden, Spain, Westphalia and many other territories
Austrian and Russian armies recaptured the territory while Bonaparte was gone

1809 - Bonaparte returned and the entire peninsula was under French control
1813 - Bonaparte defeated at Leipzig

Garibaldi and Risorgimento

Movement to unify Italy was at hand

Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi
Under sentence of death for revolutionary activities
14 years in exile

May 1860 - Uprising in Sicily

Garibaldi sailed from Genoa to Marsala
Liberated the Island from Neapolitan rule
March 1861 - Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed king of Italy

World War I
Mussolini
active revolutionary socialist
had armed thugs
Either they give us the government or we shall take it by marching on Rome.
- Mussolini 1922
Invaded and conquered Ethiopia and Albania
Fascist part overpowered Mussolini
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After the war, by popular vote, monarchy was abolished and the First Italian Republic was
established.

Family
Children are reared to remain close to the family upon
adulthood and incorporate their future family into the
larger network. -Wagner

HERITAGE.
Late 19th - Early 20th

93% Italian population speaks

Italian as a native language.

Native Italians speak mostly...

Albanian

Italian Dialects
Calabrian

Sardinian
Neapolitan

Piedmontese
Ligurian

Sicilian
Milanese is also
spoken in Milan

Languages

Venetian
Friulian

Cimbrian
German

Croatian

Catalan
Bavarian

Walser

Corsican

Slovenian
French

Greek

Holidays

Christian holidays
Christmas
Easter
Pasquetta
Saints Day
Feast Day of Patron Saints
celebrated by full towns
and villages

Roman Catholicism

Religion

~~

90%, Practicing Catholics

~~

10% Protestant, Jewish, Muslim

Basilica

NEAPOLITAN
Colosseum

CLASSICAL ROMAN
RENAISSANCE
BAROQUE

Art &
Architecture

Leaning
Tower
of
Pisa

c. 320 - New churches in Rome invite the transept

(cross-shaped building) in church architecture.

1430 - Construction begins and shows the ideals of

Renaissance architecture.

c. 1570 - Palladio publishes The Four Books of

Architecture which includes his influential designs
for villas.

Food
Each region of Italy has its own twist on Italian foods

North of Italy

fish
potatoes
rice
sausages
pork
cheeses
pastas with tomatoes
stuffed pasta
polenta
risotto

Central Italy

spaghetti
pizza

South Italy

tomatoes (fresh or
cooked into sauce)
capers
peppers
olives and olive oil
garlic
artichokes
eggplant
ricotta cheese

My Results
Cannolis

Sources
HistoryWorld Timelines. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.historyworld.net/timesearch/default.asp?
conid=2&bottomsort=2199052&direction=NEXT&keywords=Italy&timelineid=
Italy - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/globaletiquette/italy-country-profile.html
Crabben, J. (2011, April 28). Italy. Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.ancient.eu/italy/
Science Buzz. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.sciencebuzz.org/museum/object/2008_05_brooch/dead
Religion in Italy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.lifeinitaly.com/culture/religion
Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.lifeinitaly.com/culture
Zimmermann, B. (2015, January 29). Italian Culture: Facts, Customs & Traditions. Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.livescience.
com/44376-italian-culture.html
Italy. (2014, October 14). Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/countries/italy.shtml
Napoleon Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291
Thavis, J. (2016). Architecture of the Vatican - Official Catholic Directory. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from http://www.officialcatholicdirectory.
com/special-feature-article/architecture-of-the-vatican.html
Cartwright, M. (2013, October 05). Roman Architecture. Retrieved March 02, 2016, from http://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Architecture/