20 fun facts about Italy
Italy’s Best Fun Fact File
Some interesting and even surprising fun facts about Italy for your amusement. So test your knowledge with your fellow travelling companions over an aperitivo on Italian trivia, just for fun!
1) Italians truly love Art, and have more masterpieces per square mile than any other country.
2) The money tossed into The Trevi Fountain is collected and given to aid Romes people in need, which amounts to around €3,000 per day. The fountain is over eighty six feet high and comes from an aqueduct originally built in 19 B.C.
3) Prosecco is a wine from the Veneto region, and the most exported of all wines from Italy. It does not ferment in the bottle, and unlike Champagne, grows stale with time. Italy is also the largest exporter of wine in the world.
4) Gelato originates from Sicily, and typically contains more flavouring and less air than any other frozen desert. It must also contain a minimum of 3.5% butterfat by Italian law.
5) Italy is the fourth most populated place in Europe with approximately 320 people living in each square mile.
6) On average more than 50 million tourists visit Italy every year, and it is the fourth most visited country in the world.
7) The most popular sport in Italy is Football, and Italians are very passionate about it as their favourite national pastime.
8) There are more than 500 varieties of pasta in Italy.
9) The University of Rome is one of the world’s oldest as well as largest Universities in the world. It was founded in 1303 by the Catholic Church, and has 150,000 students.
10) The Vatican City is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night. And the smallest country in the world.
11) Julius Ceasar added the month of July to the calender, to celebrate..well, himself, and, what a great month it is.
12) Italy has more UNESCO sites than anywhere else in the world, with a whopping 50.
13) The first Thermometer was made in 1612 by Italian inventor Santorio Santorio.
14) Did you know that the Margherita pizza was named after Queen Margherita?
15) The national flower of Italy, is a Lily. And the national animal of Italy is a Wolf.
16) The first battery was invented by an Italian in Italy in the 1800’s named Alessandro Volta.
17) During the Middle Ages, Rome’s population was only about 13,000 people. While the Roman Empire at it’s height in A.D.117 covered 2.3 million miles with a population of about 60 million.
18) Pinocchio began as a cartoon by Carlo Collodi from Pecia (1826-1890) for children, written as a serial in comic form 1881-1882, then as a novel ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ in 1883. And is the most translated non religious book in the world translated into 260 different languages.
19) According to statistics Italy on Coffee Consumption, fourteen billion espresso coffees are consumed each year in Italy, with over 270,364 people working as baristas in Italy.
20) Gucci is the biggest selling Italian brand.
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