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 16th 2008Europe » Italy » Sardinia Arrivaderci Roma and on to Napoli where the city of Pompeii lay buried for nearly a thousand years. 79AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted, spewing ash for thousands of miles. The people of Pompeii, (rather like ... [full story]
June 4th 2008Europe » Italy » Sardinia The typical Italian restaurant dinner (as I know it) starts with the antipasti - mountains of little dishes (salami, prochutto, bruschetta, suppli) - not big mountains, just lots of them - just like m ... [full story]
May 14th 2008Europe » Italy » Sardinia May 11, 12, 13, 2008
SARDINIA, Italy
Our ferry trip from the mainland was 9 hours and we arrived late evening in Porto Aranci, Sardinia. (near the north).
We spent the next 2 days exploring S ... [full story]
April 20th 2008Europe » Italy » Sardinia » Cagliari After two days at sea on the Voyager, Captain Dag came on the intercom and shared with us the problem he’d been facing since we left Athens. With oil prices at an all time high of $115 a barrel ... 10 photos[full story]
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