Souvenir stalls in Florence

Florence and Italian Passion

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August 17th 2009
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace -- and what did they produce? The Cuckoo Clock. -Orson Welles I like this quote because to me sums up the ... read more

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

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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 establis... ... read more