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.
June 24th 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo Tuesday, June 24th
We started our day with a delicious buffet of homemade cornflake cookies, ricotta cheese made from local sheep’s milk, prosciutto, yogurt, apricots and juice. Grace discov ... 3 photos[full story]
June 23rd 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo Monday, June 23
Today we woke up "early" (8 a.m.) to get the Rome apartment ready for checkout. We turned over the keys at 10:00, then caught a ride from the apartment rental agency to pick up our ... 4 photos[full story]
March 21st 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo It rained all day today! It was cold, windy, and dark. I stayed in and played some board games with Genevieve and Eric. Genevieve is Julia’s daughter, from Great Britain, and Eric is half Swedis ... 3 photos[full story]
March 20th 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo Today was a pretty good day. The night before I ran into Mark and Oksana and after a few glasses of wine we decided that the three of us would go driving around to look for some historic sites. We lef ... 39 photos[full story]
March 18th 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo Piove Oggi! Quanto triste.
Thats right. It rained all day. The morning started off cloudy and cold even though the forecast printed on our daily hotel journal indicated otherwise. I guess these Ita ... 5 photos[full story]
March 16th 2008Europe » Italy » Lazio » Viterbo What started as a cloudy, melancholy day turned out to be incredibly relaxing and beneficial. The jet lag hit me like a bag of bricks and I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to function proper ... 17 photos[full story]
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