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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 MrPlanet
July 23rd 2009

La Toscane Europe » Italy » Tuscany

Florence et son Duomo
Ariane avant d'etre malade!!

La Toscane Nous voici maintenant en Toscane, région des tournesols. Apres 6H de voyagement par train, on se tape la visite de la ville de Florence. Le Duomo blanc vert et rose est grandiose et le Ponte Vecchio est "pas pire pan toute" aussi (voyez vous, je suis à la veille de manquer de qualificatifs pour tous les sites spectaculaires que l'on voit :-) ). Quoi dire de la vraie statue de David, identique à celle que mère a sur son bureau au chalet depuis 30 ans. J'y suis peut-etre allé un peut fort sur le tempo des visites... Ariane tombe [View Full Entry]

By TeesaRo
July 22nd 2009

Epic Meals and Museum Karma Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Lovely Lady
One of the Etruscan hotties at Chiusi.

A weekend of epic length (we got Monday off) of course gave ample opportunity to do epic things. And epic things I've done. Saturday was a trip to Chiusi to view me some urns (which I hope to focus upon for my dissertation), and the trip started off right with a nice bout of carsickness on twisty Italian roads. The museum was great, but we ended up having to pay full entry price (even though some of us are students), the lighting was not so great, and they didn't have a ton on view. Nevertheless, the things they had out were [View Full Entry]

By Hawks1972
July 21st 2009

Florence Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

Firenze So we travelled by train from Roma to Firenze nice 3 hr train ride , we decided to use it as a base to see other stuff in and around the area. The hostel we stayed at was huge with 2 bars aqnd a pool suana etc not bad for 20 euros a night actually because it was my birthday they gave us one free nights accomodation which was pretty cool, we laid low that night before hitting it the next day. we arrived on my birthday and Jo gave me my present which she had been carrying in her [View Full Entry]

By Travellin J
July 16th 2009

Florence, Cinque Terra, Pisa, Tuscany Tour Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

So Florence, another very touristy town and has plenty to offer the hard core, see everything to see. After trekking down 1 road - with 3 names, from the train station we came onto our hostel and home for the next 4 nights and the most institutionalised one yet, but very comfortable. Being Jay’s birthday I decided to take him out for dinner and a taste of some traditional food. Well after we found the restaurant we were inundated with food. Good wholesome, filling food and served without restraint. The meals were huge and I was full after the pasta [View Full Entry]

By Julie Ierubino
July 15th 2009

Rome, Florence, Venice! Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

Photo 1

We arrived around 9 am in Rome. By the time we went to the bathroom to change and brush our teeth after our night train from Switzerland, found an ATM, got lost in the strange mall/train station, realized we couldn’t find even the right exit from the station that was our first step in the directions to our hostel, and then took a taxi a mere 7 blocks to our hostel, it was already 11:30 am! We checked in and dropped our bags off, and immediately fled to the streets of Roma! First we checked out the Coliseum and the Roman [View Full Entry]

By Char and Chels
July 14th 2009

Time for a little exploration! Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca

Hi Everyone! We now have been on our second farm for a little over a week and are happy to say that things have been going very well in comparision to our last place! We are a little bit tired of getting up at 5:30am in order to throw on some clothes and shovel some cold leftover pasta (our spectaclar breakfast) down our throats before heading out to the vinyards. The work isnt very hard and each new vinyard is differnt and beautiful so there is a change of scenary at least =) Other than that our work days have been [View Full Entry]

By artaris
July 14th 2009

Day 1. Destination: Greve. Distance: 40km. Highest elevation: 650m. Europe » Italy » Tuscany

fields of golden

In science, its called inertia. Starting out is always the hardest. But as the saying goes, "a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step". The first day of riding was tailored to be less strenuous, so as to progressively get our bodies to get used the strain we are about to put on it! We were gonna cover 40km. Is 40km a long distance? Distances dont mean anything unless they are put in perspective. A car travelling down a highway would be able to cover it in around 25 minutes. Walking would probably take under 10 hours, with [View Full Entry]

By Shiggidy
July 10th 2009

5 days of Florence wrapped up in 1 blog entry and 18 photos [:D]. Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

P1050899

Florence was well…OK. Having a sinus infection has not helped the trip to Florence be enjoyable, but I think the city it self would have been just alright anyway. It is the most tourist packed city I have been to yet, almost every street you were walking shoulder to shoulder with tourists. The architecture in the city as per all of Europe was beautiful, the weather while I have been here has been amazing except there was a serious thunder storm for an hour or so one day . I only went in to Florence city twice, I have had 3 [View Full Entry]

By artaris
July 10th 2009

the pedalling begins, under the tuscan sun.. Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

Photo 1

The bikes and us were trained down on 3 connecting regional trains. Our plans were delayed a day when we realized that all italian train workers were on strike that day. Maybe thats why foreigners like the PAP so much.. Vicenza and Florence is at most 3 hours apart from each other on train, but because we needed to be on trains that have bike-approved carriages, we had to transfer thrice just to get to Florence. A slight confusion also led to me missing one of the connecting trains, but lets not go into that. Very little disabled fascilities meant that [View Full Entry]

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]

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