100 facts about Italy

Do you have a talk about Italy soon? Are you looking for fun quiz questions about Italy? Or just want to impress at the next birthday party? Here's a list of 100 facts and tidbits about Italy that you probably didn't already know.

From now on you bluff everyone with your factual knowledge about Italy. Do you have any Italy facts of your own that we missed (no doubt)? Leave them in a comment below this article!

Watch these tidbits as a video:

1. Italy has three active volcanoes: Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli (and a few more small ones).

2. Italy is often called 'il bel paese', which means 'the beautiful country'.

3. Italy has the highest number of spots on the UNESCO World Heritage List: more than 40.

4. Italy has 20 regions and more than 450 Islands (including the little ones).

5. The national language is based on the Tuscan dialect, but each region still has
always her own dialect. In addition, French, German and Ladin is also spoken in some regions. In total, there are fifteen officially registered minority languages.

6. Vatican is a sovereign state located within the borders of Italy. The same applies to San Marino.

7. Pizza was invented in Naples in the 19s (although some Americans mistakenly claim it's an American invention).

8. The thermometer is an Italian invention.

9. The piano also comes from Italy.

10. With 45 million tourists annually, Italy is the fourth most visited country in the world.

11. The average Italian consumes almost 100 liters of wine (compared to 20 liters for the Dutch).

12. The typewriter is an Italian invention.

13. Italy only became a in 1861 political unity.

14. The Italian wolf is the national "animal" of Italy.

15. There are over 3.000 museums in Italy (and many more small ones).

16. The national sport of Italy is football.

17. The national dish of Italy is pasta.

18. Napoleon stayed on the Tuscan island of Elba during his first exile.

19. The famous Vespa was conceived in Italy in 1946.

20. Every day 3.000 euros disappears into the Trevi fountain. (But luckily that goes to charity.)

21. Italy has the most hotel rooms of any European country.

22. The national flower of Italy is the lily.

23. 60 percent of the world's art treasures are located in Italy.

24. Opera was conceived in Italy.

25. The bubonic plague killed a third of the Italian population in the 14th century.

26. Italy has won the FIFA World Cup four times: in 1934, in 1938, in 1982 and in 2006.

27. The average consumption of pasta per person per year is about 28 kilos. However, it is nothing compared to the 90 kilos of potatoes that the Dutchman stores.

28. The violin and cello were invented in Italy.

29. Italy has more than 7.600 kilometers of coastline.

30. Italy holds the world record for the number of lifts.

31. The national bird of Italy is the blue thrush.

32. Italy is known for its sports cars: Classic Ferrari for sale, Lamborghini, Maserati...

33. The oldest surviving European university is that of Bologna.

34. The Italians invented glasses.

35. Italy has been making wines for about 2.800 years.

36. The Venice Film Festival is the oldest in the world.

37. Italy has more famous fashion designers than any country in the world.

38. Many of Shakespeare's works take place in Italy (including Romeo and Juliet, of course)

39. The uniforms of the carabinieri were worn by Valentino designed.

40. The highest point in Italy is Mont Blanc in the Alps at 4.765 meters, but the highest mountain entirely in Italy is the Gran Paradiso (4.061 meters) in the Aosta Valley en piedmont.

41. The longest river in Italy is the Po with 652 kilometers.

42. Italy is the largest wine producing country in the world.

43. Italy has hosted the Olympic Games three times.

44. The patron saint of Italy is Saint Francis of Assisi.

45. The national airline of Italy is called Alitalia.

46. ​​The largest white truffle of the past 50 years weighed 1,5 kilos and was unearthed near Pisa. The thing brought in more than a quarter of a million euros, a world record.

47. Many of the greatest composers in history come from Italy: Vivaldi, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini.

48. The espresso machine is a Italian invention.

49. Venice has more than 400 pedestrian bridges.

50. The oldest olive tree in Italy is over 1.700 years old.

51. The name Italy means something like 'land of the calves' in ancient Greek and it has its origin in southern Italy.

52. Italy has more than 300.000 square kilometers of surface, of which 2% is water.

53. Italy has an exclave in Switzerland: Campione d’Italia. This piece of Italy was created after Tessino (Ticino) decided to join Switzerland.

54. With almost 62 million inhabitants, Italy is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Population growth is mainly due to immigration.

55. The capital of Italy is Rome, a city that dates back almost 3.000 years.

56. From 1865 to 1871 it was Florence the capital of Italy

57. The official name of Italy is the Italian Republic (la Republica Italiana).

58. The national holiday is June 2, Republic Day. This holiday came about because the Italian people said goodbye to the monarchy after the war.

59. Almost four fifths of Italy consists of hills or mountains.

60. When McDonald's opened in Rome in 1986, outside opponents handed out free spaghetti to remind people of Italy's culinary legacy.

61. San Marino is the world's oldest (301 AD) still-existing republic.

62. Vatican City is the only country in the world that can close its gates at night.

63. Most earthquakes in Europe, in Italy, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, such as the recent one in L'Aquila, which resulted in more than 300 deaths.

64. In the Middle Ages, only 15.000 people lived in Rome.

65. The Roman Empire at the height of its power was as large as two-thirds of North America.

66. From 1861 to 1985, almost 26 million Italians emigrated. A large part left for America.

67. Italy is the seventh largest economy in the world and the third economy from Europe.

68. The most common Italian surname is Russo.

69. In the XNUMXs and XNUMXs, Mussolini tried to ban foreign words from Italian. Disney characters also had to pay: Donald Duck became Paperino, Mickey Mouse became Topolini and Goofy became Pippo.

70. Tourism makes a substantial contribution of about 65% to Italy's national income.

71. In the 13th century, Arabs brought pasta to Italy.

72. At the moment in Italy more than 500 kinds of pasta ate.

73. After the reconstruction work on the Leaning Tower of Pisa a few years ago, according to the architects, it has been firmly in place for another 200 years.

74. Many Italian children continue to live at home into their thirties.

75. In 1992, the Roman Catholic Church apologized for imprisoning scientist Galileo Galilei in his own home for claiming that the Earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around.

76. Venice is one of the most special cities in the world. It was built on a number of sandbanks in a lagoon. The city is plagued by floods and sinks further and further into the mud.

77. It birth rate of Italy is the second lowest in the Western world, which is causing a significant aging of the population.

78. The first italian cookbook was written in 1474 by Bartolomeo Sacchi.

79. Football fans are called 'tifosi' in Italy which means something like typhoid fever. They are notorious for their boisterous out of control behavior.

80. 85% of Italians are Catholic (but not all of them are practicing).

81. A cloth kept in a cathedral in Turin is said to be the shroud of Jesus Christ. However, carbon dating says the cloth is no older than about 800 years.

82. Italy was one of the first EU countries (along with the Netherlands, among others) and is also part of the G8, the most important industrialized countries in the world.

83. According to a UNICEF report, Italy is the best country in terms of family ties.

84. Syracuse in Sicily was also the largest city of the ancient Greek Empire.

85. In the first century – at the height of the Roman Empire – 1,5 million people lived in Rome.

86. The oldest bank in the world still in operation is the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (since 1472).

87. The construction of St. Peter's in Vatican City took 120 years. It is the largest Christian building in the world.

88. Tiramisu, arguably the most famous Italian dessert, literally means 'lift me up'. That weather stands for: 'make me happy'.

89. Italy is estimated to have the largest black economy in Western Europe.

90. Italy is the country with the most laws of any country in the world. It has an estimated amount of 5 to 12 times as many laws as in France, Germany or the Netherlands.

91. Italy is not only a country of immigration, but also of emigration. It is estimated that at the moment at least as many Italians live outside Italy as live in Italy.

92. Romans love cats. More than 300.000 live in the city, many of whom are vagrants. They are the only visitors allowed in the Colosseum after closing time. Anyone who wants to harm a cat risks a fine of 10.000 euros and three years in prison.

93. Many famous painters of the past were Italian: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Bernini, Titian, Raphael and many others.

94. The Colosseum is the largest historic stadium in the world. The second and third amphitheaters are in Capua and Verona respectively.

95. In the mountains in Italy, in addition to wolves, brown bears also live.

96. The ice cream cone is an invention of the Italians. The ice itself originated in China.

97. 'Pizza' is one of the few words that are understood all over the world.

98. The Italian flag is inspired by that of France at the time of Napoleon.

99. Nuoro, in Sardinia is one of the five 'blue zones' in the world. These are areas where people live the oldest. Centenarians are the rule rather than the exception here.

100. You will find the letters 'SPQR' on many old buildings in Italy. These stand for the Latin 'Senatus Populusque Romanus', the Senate and People of Rome, the phrase that served as the official name of the Roman Empire.

101. In Piazza Lauro De Bosis along the Tiber is a massive obelisk with the text MUSSOLINI DUX ("Mussolini Leader").