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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.

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By Char and Chels
July 8th 2009

Lucca... our second farm! Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca

Ciao a Tutti! We left our first farm last sunday (the 5th) and took a beautiful train ride to a little town in the Tuscany area called Lucca. The train was a great experience and it made for an easy day. When we arrived at the Lucca train station we still could not get in contact with our second farm and had high hopes that they would just be there waiting for us (we had sent emails and called several times...) but we were not so lucky... but with a bit of luck there was an internet cafe open on a [View Full Entry]

By amyandmike
July 7th 2009

Is this a vacation or an Ironman Competition?!?!?!? Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

So we have made it to the second location in Italy! Florence is beautiful. Very nice city so far. We walked around last night and saw lot of churches, statues, and beautiful veiws of the city. Today, whenever the boys wake up, we are going to see some of the art. I must first comment on the Ironman Competition we seem to be on... So our first stop in Italy was a place called Chinque a terra(spelling is probably all wrong but I cant spell in English, how am I suppose to spell in Italian too). It means 5 cities. So [View Full Entry]

By Av1
July 6th 2009

they lied about the duomo Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

roberta and family
our wonderful hosts in milan

Ciao everyone! Yesterday we arrived in Florence, the city of renaissance. Checked into the appropriately named emerald palace. Watched the end of the sunset from across the river over the city, verrry nice. Under a good friends specific instructions, we searched the city for the gato e la volpe, apparently the best italian restaurant in the city, and enjoyed tortellini, ravioli, and a bottle of chianti. Did a little exploring with some new friends, to begin our quest to try every gelato flavor in italy. Approve of; pistachio, tiramisu, hazelnut, and berry. Today we awoke bright and earl [View Full Entry]

By chrisso
July 6th 2009

yes yes yahhh Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

Sooo, habe mich endlich mal wieder dazu durchgerungen den Blog ein bisschen weiter zu schreiben ;) Wie erwähnt, war Mittwoch dann frei, irgendein Feiertag! An dem gab es ein historischen Fußballspiel Calcio historico.... Habe mich mehr oder weniger von Christoph überreden lassen eine Karte zu kaufen.... 21€ WAS FÜR EIN FEHLER.... Das war wohl das langweiligste, was ich je gesehen habe.... Irgendwie gibt es da keine Regeln, die Prügeln sich nur alle und laufen in Köstümen übers Feld.... Der Flyer hat wesentlich besseres versprochen... Immerhin schien die Sonne und die hatten so eine Art St [View Full Entry]

By ChelseaandRebecka
July 6th 2009

Day Trip Pisa Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Pisa

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I always find it fasinating to learn how different people experience the world because each person lives such different realities, kind of like the blid men and the elephant. On the train ride to Pisa I sat with 2 girls from Sweden. They were backpacking across Europe as a high school graduation gift to themselves and to avoid the question "What are you going to do with the rest of youre life". After talking with they for a while I learned that they each knew 4 languages fluently and that they considered North Americans to be ill educated. Apartently their school [View Full Entry]

By TeesaRo
July 5th 2009

The Motopompa and 4th of July Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Vescovado Morning
Day of epic fog made for good photo ops.

Greetings all! Big week at Scavi! We've had serious rain problems nearly the entire time we've been here, and all the trenches in the main excavation area have been absolutely flooded, as in 60 cm of standing water. Bucket brigades have helped, but it's been taking way too much time, only to be thwarted the next day by more rain. In comes the motopompa. Our architect went to an interesting (read: scary) industrial supply store and conducted a transaction without much Italian on his part and no English on the store's part. He purchased a gas-powered siphon, we tested it in [View Full Entry]

By ChelseaandRebecka
July 5th 2009

Florence day 2 Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

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So I desided to give Florence another try and instead of going to Volterra I stayed in Florence on Sunday and walked around. The thing about Florence is that you have got to be willing to get lost because it the only way to fined something really cool in the city. Sound weired? It did to me too until I got to talking to other people in the hostel and found out that it was not just me. The signs really are incorrect but thats OK. Its really not that bad when you have all the time in the world and [View Full Entry]

By Shiggidy
July 5th 2009

My very long journey ended with being in ITALY!!! Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

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My breath was taken away when I got in to Italy first thing I noticed about Pisa on my bus trip to Florence was SUN FLOWERS, fields and fields of sun flowers. Then there was also the mountains, the buildings and the crazy Italian drivers. When I got to Florence main station I then jumped on another bus to go to my hostel. This was the scariest bus ride I had ever been on. The driver was driving extremely fast through these tiny streets that couldn’t have another car coming the other way, although the scenery helped calm me as we [View Full Entry]

By ChelseaandRebecka
July 4th 2009

First day in Florence Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

My first impressions of Forence have not been good. I was warned that in Italy it was organized chaous and it is but some how it always works out. For example, there are very few traffic light and no four way stops so cars people just go when they find an opening and it seems to work at lest it did in Turin. In Forence there is very little street signs and the map that the tourist office made me paid 1 euro for was crappy. I walked around in a big circle with a hugh pack on my back in [View Full Entry]

By TeesaRo
July 2nd 2009

Palio Day Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Greetings from Vescovado. Today is Palio day (the crazy awesome horserace in Siena), and I opted to stay in Vescovado, watch the race on TV from the commy bar, then go to dinner in the next town over after the race. We've had a few torrential rainstorms the past week or so, along with an epic one last night, so much of excavation has consisted of bailing the trenches out from all the rain water. Digging through mud = not fun. Short entry this time, but it's to share a very important link. Our photographer, Tom Lingner, is putting photos of [View Full Entry]

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