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.
July 12th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Ravenna The journey north from Ceccano in southern Italy to Ravenna was long but unbelievably beautiful. The countryside is very distinctly Italian, bearing more resemblance to Spain than the rest of Europe. ... 16 photos[full story]
July 5th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Ravenna So I realize the majority of my blogs usually have food as the highlight, so I'm taking the occasion to have one entire entry dedicated to an amazing meal that I had this past weekend. All along the E ... 8 photos[full story]
June 17th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Ferrara After waking up, shuttling a luggage over to Fabio's place on the back of my bike (mind you tied on with the strap from Dad's bag), and having some breakfast, we finally set out on foot in Ferrara. We ... 14 photos[full story]
July 7th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Parma Wow, let’s see, where to begin with this one…? We finished the first leg of our ex-Yugoslav adventure with a show in Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is a beautiful city - plenty of upscale area ... 17 photos[full story]
June 16th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Ferrara The time had come... my parents finally made it to Ferrara to see what I've actually been up to for over half a year now... They showed up in the Bologna airport, with Fabio and I anxiously awaiting t ... 4 photos[full story]
June 29th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Ferrara Rimini, which was our stop prior to this one, was nice, but a tad bit too hot for our blood since it was situated right on the coast. With this proximity to the ocean the city was extremely humid. We ... [full story]
June 19th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Bologna Hot and hungry we headed off on a bus into Bologna to find ourselves a bolognese, forgetting that restaurants close between 3 and 7. We tried in vain to find ourselves some food, grumpily i followed c ... [full story]
June 22nd 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Rimini It turned out we were fortunate to have had to get the 10:30 pm ferry as, by the time we left Igoumenitsa (right on time) the 20:30 Superfast ferry had not yet arrived. The Anek lines ferry was OK. ... 4 photos[full story]
June 19th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Bologna Decided to check out Bologna on my way to Rome as I didn't see it last time I was in Italy.. Quite a nice town.. worth a days mooch, not as manic as some of the bigger Italian towns.. lots of history ... 4 photos[full story]
June 16th 2008Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Modena We had been in Italy less than three hours before we ran foul of the ticket inspector for not validating our train tickets. Having asked specifically for tickets for a particular train and whether sea ... [full story]
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