Background: Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.
May 7th 2007Europe » Italy » Campania » Capri Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...and Gondolas, and Tour Buses, and taxis, and Mini-vans, and speed boats, and mopeds.... » » By
May 7th 2007 We spent today traveling A LOT. W ... 73 photos[full story]
May 8th 2007Europe » Italy » Campania » Capri Little bit of history on this tiny island. This was once the home of Roman Emporer Tiberius. The monastery next to our hotel was founded in 1371 -- the site where Tiberius once ruled Rome. The monast ... 62 photos[full story]
May 10th 2007Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi » » By
May 10th 2007 This morning we packed our many bags and caught a high speed boat to Positano. Along the way, we stopped at the Blue Grotto, known as the swimming pool o ... 135 photos[full story]
May 11th 2007Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi Italy By
May 11th 2007 Our tour guide for the day gave us the creeps, but we got to see some gorgeous vista points along the coast of Positano.
Our guide Luigi kept trying to talk us into goin ... 130 photos[full story]
May 12th 2007Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi Europe » By
May 12th 2007 So far, we've run into Frank Copolla, Captain Jack Sparrow, the Old Man in the Sea, Sylvester Stallone, & Valerie Bertinelli, to name a few. We signed a confiden ... 20 photos[full story]
November 10th 2009Europe » Italy » Campania » Salerno Day 21 Naples to Salerno
We spent our last day in Napoli visiting the Archeology Museum, a somewhat frustrating and quite expensive experience.
The night before, we had a a big thunderstorm, w ... 22 photos[full story]
October 24th 2009Europe » Italy » Campania » Naples From Marja:
In Naples we have strong focus on freedom of feelings and freedom of movement. What you see is chaos and disorder but that really is the result of our expression of we feel for our cit ... [full story]
October 15th 2009Europe » Italy » Campania » Sorrento Thursday 15th October
A day doing nothing
Sorry,but there is not a lot to report worthwhile today as we planned to do nothing and that is the way it worked out.
Apart from a day in Santorini and an ... 1 photos[full story]
October 14th 2009Europe » Italy » Campania » Pompei Wednesday 14th October
Pompei - A city excavated
It is not such a beautifully fine morning but it is still dry and we hold out hope that the partly overcast sky will clear for our trip to Pompei.
A ... 12 photos[full story]