What makes Italy so unique? Where is it located? What is the weather like? And what are its regions? What is the government structure and the food culture? What is a brief history of Italy? What are some cultural norms and some tips and tricks for tourists to know when traveling to Italy? We'll dive into these questions and many more in today's Know Before You Go episode, a Brief Intro to Italy. Welcome to Wiser World,
a podcast for busy people who need a refresher on all things world. Here we explore different regions of the globe, giving you the facts and context you need to think historically about current events. I truly believe that the more we learn about the world, the more we embrace our shared humanity. I'm your host, Alli Roper. Thanks for being here. We'll be back with another episode of Wiser World by Alli Roper.
We'll be back with another episode of Wiser World by Alli Roper. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Let's get into Italy. It's always good to start with locations. Italy is a country in southern Europe. The mainland of Italy sticks right into the Mediterranean Sea. The way I was taught that works for me is that it's shaped like a long boot with a heel that's kicking a rock.
The rock is the large island of Sicily, which is an autonomous region of Italy. Yes, Sicilians are Italians, but Sicily has its own culture and dialect and is very distinct. Several other islands in the Mediterranean Sea are also part of Italy. Another big one is Sardinia, which is also an autonomous region of Italy.
Italy is essentially a peninsula and islands. It has a lot of coastline, but when many people don't know is that Italy's geography is really quite diverse. About 40% of Italy is mountainous.
The Alps are in the north of Italy and the Apennine Mountains run down the peninsula. There are also valleys and coastal areas too. Like I said, the southern and central parts of Italy on the peninsula itself have a more Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers, mild wet winters, vineyards tend to thrive in these areas, which is one reason why Italy is famous for wine and olives, regions like Tuscany.
The Po Valley, which is more flat and in the northeastern part of the country, has more of a humid subtropical climate with hot humid summers, cool winters even get some snow in the winter. In the north, we have the Alpine climate, so cool summers, cold winters, lots of snowfall in those areas. So Italy is really quite diverse.
And Italy's neighbors are France and the West, Switzerland and Austria and the North and Slovenia in the Northeast. There are also two completely independent nation states that are surrounded by Italy, the Vatican city, which is within the city of Rome and San Marino, which is in north central Italy.
The biggest cities in Italy are Milan in the north, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Tourine, Venice and Naples. And Rome is the capital of Italy and is found about halfway down the leg of the boot near the West Coast.
And you're looking at the whole metropolitan area of Rome, you're looking at around 4.3 million people and it's known for being more of a sprawling city that takes up quite a bit of space and is less, you know, a little less compact than Paris or Barcelona for looking for some comparisons.
And we're going to divide it up into 20 regions and five of them are special autonomous regions. Now a special autonomous region is like a state, but they have a bit more self governance than other states or regions do, but they're still under the unified Italian government.
And it has multiple provinces, which are like counties, each province has different municipalities or different cities. The most well known region would probably be Tuscany because it's known for its countryside, it's France, it's art, it's well Florence.
Italy is pretty homogenous, roughly 92% of people living in Italy are native Italians. The rest are Romanian, Arabic, Albanian, Han Chinese or Ukrainian, plus many more. And it does have a growing immigrant population, we will talk about more, we'll talk more about that at the end of this episode. Naturally, the national language is Italian, which evolved from Latin after the Roman Empire fell. And now there are many regional dialects of Italian and nearly 30 indigenous languages too.
So let's talk a little bit about Italy's economy because this is pretty fascinating to me. Italy is part of the EU, the European Union, which is a group of 27 European nation states that essentially work together on different things, particularly economic interests, because of this, the euro is the currency of Italy.
Italy has the third largest economy in the EU and has a mixed economy, so not full on capitalism, not full on socialism. If you don't know what that means, I recommend episode 25 where I talk about economic ideologies in a pretty simple way. Essentially, there are parts of Italy's economy that are run by the private sector, the free public market, and there are parts that are controlled by the government that have social policies, social welfare.
When it comes to international trade, Italy has a relatively open economy and trades with most EU countries, pretty heavily. Italy's economy is very centered in services, so finance, tourism, retail, those are all big in Italy, about one in every eight Italians has a job in tourism. Manufacturing, especially high quality consumer goods, it's also big, and I was surprised to learn that agriculture is only 2% of the GDP. I really didn't expect that. I thought that would be much higher.
The primary issue that Italy is dealing with economically is slow growth. The economy isn't growing quickly, and it has high public debt, and unemployment is averaging about 10%, which isn't ideal for context, most mature economies like the US France, Germany, UK. They tend to average between 4% to 7%. Again, just a point of comparison. So it's a little bit high in Italy.
For government, Italy is a parliamentary representative, democratic republic. That's a mouthful. If you don't know what any of those words mean, go listen to episode 26. I talk about governmental systems, again, in a simple, high school level way. Basically, what this means is that Italy has a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches, and they do have elections.
While there's a president, the real power does lie in the prime minister. Sometimes that person is called the president of the council of ministers. Basically, this person leads the government and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the country. The prime minister is usually the leader of the majority party coalition in the Italian parliament, which is made up of two houses. The parliament has a chamber of deputies and has a senate.
We'll talk more about why this is, why they structured their government this way in the history section. But Italy's political structure really was adopted after 1948. It's pretty new. It was deliberately structured to avoid authoritarian regimes.
This explains why Italy's government system is highly decentralized. Different regions have quite a lot of power. When it comes to healthcare, education, transportation, there are a lot of political parties represented in parliament, which also means there are frequent changes. This has its pros and it also has its cons. When it comes to religion, Roman Catholicism has long been the biggest religion in Italy. About 70 to 75% of Italians call themselves Catholics or claim Catholicism.
And whether they actually practice that faith, like going to mass regularly or following the teachings of the church, that percentage is going to go down somewhere between 30 and 50%. But since Italy doesn't have official numbers on religion, we really can't be sure. It's estimated that the rest of the population are either non-religious, from other Christian denominations, or Muslim, and most of those come from immigrant populations.
Roman Catholicism has shaped Italy's religious landscape, obviously. But also the politics and the culture. When Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine, the church both grew spiritually, but also in political power. And the papacy governed much of central Italy from the 700s until the 1800s. The papacy is the office and jurisdiction of the Pope, Il Papa, in Italian. Papa is Pope.
And he is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, so the papacy is essentially the government of the church. So beginning in 1870 and into the 1900s, the political power of the papacy changed, and the relationship between the church and the Italian state grew more tense. Finally, in 1929, so less than 100 years ago, the Vatican city was created as an independent state that is under the full control of the Pope, and then the rest of Italy is under the Italian government.
And we'll talk more about why that is in the history section. When it comes to food, Italy is world renowned. It is known for its pasta, its pizza, its wine. Those are probably the most famous, but there are also so many other incredible foods that Italy is famous for. What makes Italian food and Italian food culture unique is its focus on fresh and local ingredients. While Italian food really varies from region to region, what stays the same is the focus on making the simple ingredients shine.
And sometimes that means that the food is really simple, but it's practiced to such an extent that it's become this honed craft, and that's what makes the food so good. Like a classic, famous Neapolitan pizza, which originates from Naples, it doesn't have to be ultra complicated.
It's dough, tomatoes, cheese, olive oil, basil, salt, but it's the craft of taking those ingredients and combining them to perfection that Italy is so well known for. And one thing that Daniela taught me was that pizza is actually a more recent phenomenon.
He told me that his grandfather who was raised in the northern part of Italy never actually ate a pizza. And he said that he doesn't necessarily eat pizza all that much. So it just goes to show that food does vary throughout region to region, but one thing that does bind all of Italy is a love of pasta.
And Italians are known for taking time to enjoy their meals. They see food as a way to connect to talk to really slow down and savor. And they typically do not eat on the go. In fact, one of my friends said, don't be walking around and eating. Sit and eat and enjoy your meal.
I really liked that when it comes to food typically breakfast is going to be sweet. If you go to a pastry shop, you'll often eat one or two pastries, a cappuccino for breakfast. And sometimes often you'll pay after you eat for lunch. People often go to a sit down option. They or they go to a bar and they get cured meats and sandwiches pizza eating at a bar, even with children is pretty common.
There are also high quality bakeries that you can always hit for lunch. And for dinner, they make the food fresh. So the advice that my time friends gave me was to be patient and enjoy the time to eat. They also don't serve tap water. You got to order a bottle. If you want it and there's no ice and there's no free refills.
They also recommended dressing well for dinner. So don't go to the gym and then go out to dinner. That's not really done in Italy. Dress up a little, enjoy it and know that it's often eaten later in the evenings, starting at seven or seven 30 in the north and sometimes in the south dinner can be started even later than that.
If a restaurant's open earlier than seven or seven 30, that's a pretty good sign that it's catering to tourists. So you're not going to get the best high quality Italian food and also tipping is not expected in Italy. Restaurants are often closed on Mondays and saying thank you and being polite really goes a long way in Italy. In my Patreon, I'm going to be sharing some resources on Italian food for those of you who like me really love to eat.
And I hope the check it out patreon.com slash wise a world podcast Italy celebrates lots of traditions and festivals pretty much all of the big ones have their roots in Roman Catholicism. So Christianity.
For example, the Christmas season celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ last from December 8th all the way to January 6th and going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve having a big Christmas feast all of those things are very common. January 6th marks the end of the Christmas season. It's called the epiphany and it's a major holiday in Italy because according to tradition, La Bethana, which is kind of like a witch like figure.
She delivers gifts to children on the night of January 5th. So it's kind of similar to Santa Claus and other cultures. Easter is also a big deal in Italy. A few other Italian holidays that people might not know much about are Federgosto in August. This is a religious and cultural holiday and it celebrates the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven.
But it also marks the peak of Italy's summer holiday season. Many Italians take vacations during this time ahead of the beach they go to the mountains. April 25th is liberation day that celebrates Italy's liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule during World War 2.
It's a national holiday that is commemorated with parades and speeches and memorial events across the country. Also in June we have Republic Day that celebrates the day in 1946 when Italy voted to abolish a monarchy and become a republic. Also all Saints Day is in November and that celebrates the Catholic Saints is a time to visit cemeteries and honor deceased relatives and loved ones.
And of course we cannot forget Carnivali which I talk about in episode 21 if you're interested. This leads up to the season of Lent which is the season of fasting and it's known for mass, synchostumes and lots of parties. Of course there are a ton more things that Italians love to celebrate but this is a basic gloss over of some of the major holidays in Italy.
And now it's time to get into the history. At the end of this episode I'm going to give some tourist advice. Some of my friends are from Venice and I called them up and they gave us some great tips for traveling around Italy, some things they wish everybody knew. So I'm saving that till the end but let's get into the history. Alright let's pause for a second to hear from this episode sponsors. Crowds, palaces and Leswealth, royalty sounds pretty sweet but what if it cost you everything?
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I'll write you guys. Italy's written history is robust. So while there's a lot that we don't know, there's also a lot that we do know about Italy. So I've broken it down from the ancient period to the modern era, but I focused more on the last 150ish years because I think that's what most people who listen to my podcast are interested in.
Just know that there's so, so much I don't cover. Please don't let this be your only source for Italian history because I have the sneaky feeling that a scholar of the Roman Empire is going to listen to this and just scoff. How quickly I plow through that history. I don't want any hate mail. I'm very aware that this is a high level overview of Italian history and I leave a lot out. But it's so good. And what I'm going to share with you is still very meaty.
So let's go back to the ancient time around 800 BC. We see a group of people called the Atrustkins. They begin to settle in central and northern Italy. They become a really complex society. Meanwhile, we have the Greeks in the south. And then we also have various Latin tribes that developed small hilltop villages in the central part of Italy. And this includes what would become Rome.
So according to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus, who was a demigod who killed his brother Remus in order to rule. So Romulus Rome. Initially, these societies were ruled by kings. But in time, Roman society kind of evolved. And by 509 BC, the Roman people were sick of tyrannical leaders. And they were like, we're never going to give a single person not much power ever again.
So they reorganized Rome to be a republic. Again, this is 509 BC. Now, if you don't remember from episode 26, when I talk about governmental systems, the very, very basic concept of democracy is that people should get a say in what happens in government.
And the way that Rome set this up is that there were two consuls. And they were elected every year as the highest official. They could veto each other. So in other words, they could check each other's power. There was also a senate. They were elected. They were the main governors. And there were also assemblies that voted on things like war. They elected men to important offices. And these roles were typically held by noblemen, rich people.
So it wasn't a true democracy in the sense that anyone from any class could hold these positions. Typically voting was done in groups. So there'd be a single vote that was cast to show the majority of the opinions of that group. But in time, they did create something called the Tribune of the Plebes. And this was a assembly, an assembly that represented the plebeians who were the common everyday people.
So it was always, you know, kind of an unequal system, but you can see how many modern democracies got a lot of their ideas from the first Roman Republic. And it's a big moment. It's a big moment in history. And it lasted a little less than 500 years.
During this time, Rome expanded greatly through long wars, like the Punic Wars with North Africa and became the dominant power in the Western Mediterranean. But in time, as we see from our societies today, there are social conflicts and political tensions and economic inequality between the upper class and the lower class.
And that's essentially what happened here too. We humans really seem to recycle our issues. Anyway, Rome had a lot of ground to manage now. It was a lot bigger than when it started. And different leaders led different armies and they began to have conflicts.
The Roman Republic transitioned to an empire with a supreme leader kind of over time. But one main character was Julius Caesar. And while he had two other consuls who led with him, he took them out, started a civil war named himself dictator. He ended up being assassinated, but what essentially happened is that it sparked more power struggles within the Senate with other groups. And in time, Octavian, who was later called Octavian Augustus, took power and became the first Roman emperor by 26 BC.
So happened over time, but supreme authority was at the helm again. And this is the beginning of the Roman Empire. And it was during this period that Rome's influence peaked at its height. It controlled nearly all of the Middle East, Northern Africa, all of southern Europe, and even stretched up into parts of modern day England.
It was huge, nearly two million miles of land, about 20% of the world's population at the time was ruled by Rome. So it was a force when it came to anything cultural, political, military, economic. And eventually Christianity spread throughout Rome and became a major religion. The beliefs that were formed and actions that occurred during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire really still shape our modern societies.
I feel like I could do an entire episode on this alone, but some of the major contributions that Rome gave us are legal systems, architectural advancements like the arch, the dome, infrastructure like roads, aqueducts, sewers that set a standard for city planning, as well as art and sculpture and literature and philosophy that would be foundational for a lot of Western philosophy.
They also military strategy, the calendaring system, not to mention language, Latin, which is the parent of tons of languages, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian, a couple more, right? So the Roman Empire is a big deal. And it lasted from 27 BC and eventually split up into parts since it was so massive. They had to split up governance because it was just too big to govern all at once.
So the Western half of the empire didn't fall until 476 AD. So that lasted about 500-ish years. And the Eastern half continued until 1453 when it fell to the Ottomans. So that side, the Eastern side of the Roman Empire lasted nearly 1500 years. That's a really long time. And this is why the Roman Empire is the most studied civilization in history because it really had longevity that is pretty unheard of.
The Western half, which is where Italy is located. So that's what we're going to focus on. It fell to barbarian invaders after years of social and economic challenges. The term barbarian is interesting to me. It originates from Greek and Roman civilizations that viewed themselves as more civilized than other tribes outside of their region. So barbarian essentially means outsiders, most of them from Germany.
So when the Western half fell to these barbarians, we begin what is called the medieval period. So Italy saw a lot of different invasions from different groups and power changed hands many times during this. Throughout the medieval period, the Pope, who is again the head of the Roman Catholic Church, began to be much more of an authority figure throughout the land. And the papacy again is the term for the office and jurisdiction of the Pope.
A group of territories in central Italy came together to make what is called the papal states. These were ruled over by the Pope, both spiritually and temporally. And the papal states lasted from 756 to 1870. That's over a thousand years. And they shaped Italian politics and social culture for centuries during the medieval era, other regions of Italy fractured into different city states like Venice or Florence and each kind of held their own autonomy and their own wealth.
Over time, Italy went from being more politically unified to being quite fragmented, kind of a peninsula of fragmented city states. And the Catholic Church continued to have a lot of power over religion as well as culture and politics.
But it was in the 1300s that we see a huge moment in history begin in Italy that spread throughout Europe. And that is the Renaissance. So the city states remember we talked about the fractured city states of Italy, especially northern and central Italy. They were the center of the Renaissance.
And there was a lot of trade going on between these areas as well as to the outside world, which meant that people were more wealthy. They had more downtime. And they began to support the arts and learning. And next 300 years, there was this cultural rebirth of sorts that emphasized classical learning, art, science, humanism. And when Greek classical texts made their way to Italy in the 1400s, the Renaissance really, really had its peak.
Now, the philosophical movement of humanism was again at the center of it all. And that emphasized how much potential humans have that we all have inherent dignity and worth and emphasize reason and critical thinking and making the most of your life now, which was a switch from the medieval era when the Catholic Church heavily emphasized the afterlife and focusing your life on religion and what will happen to you after you die.
So this led to kind of an explosion of new ideas and inventions that came from Italy and nearby areas that were influenced by this idea that we have inherent worth and that the now really matters. For example, the printing press was also invented in 1440.
So now they could start spreading their ideas without monks painstakingly handwriting everything ever, which of course changed everything significantly. And the Renaissance set the stage for the reformation, which was when people began challenging the Roman Catholic Church, which again had substantial power for hundreds and hundreds of years. And so new Christian churches, Protestant sects began to form.
Now the Pope in Italy, he responded to this by having what's called the Council of Trent. And this council was basically a group of church leaders led by the Pope meeting over different periods of time to respond to the Protestant grievances with the Catholic Church and Catholic doctrine. Now if we're looking just at Italy, which is again what we're doing here, the Council of Trent strengthened the Catholic Church in Italy. And since this was a time when Italy was politically fragmented, it brought a lot of people to the Catholic Church.
It brought a lot more religious uniformity and control to the Italian states. And this is often called the counter reformation. Now if we look ahead to the 1700s, we see the American and French revolutions going on in other parts of the world, but Italy remained divided. And it wasn't until 26 year old Napoleon invaded in 1796 that there was some unity, meaning that Napoleon united certain parts of Italy.
And so there was some parts of Italy under French control, but the people states stayed under the Pope's control and it still wasn't fully united. And one tragic part about the Napoleonic era was that the French looted much of the art and wealth in Italy. So that was a major bummer.
While Napoleon's rule did weaken aristocratic and church power, he was defeated in 1815 by a group of European countries. And then Italy was divided again once more, the Austrians and then papal influence ended up restoring local rulers. But the enlightenment era ideas that had sparked the American revolution, the French revolution, those had made their way to Italy. And so Italy was ripe for unrest, especially after having an occupation by Napoleon.
So for the next 50 years, from 1815 to 1861, leaders throughout Italy began calling for a unified Italy, because it wasn't like they were unified called Italy at the time. Remember, they were all separate states and they were either under foreign rule or they were under local rule. So there was this growing feeling of national consciousness, this idea of Italian unity was starting to take hold and people began pushing for a kingdom of Italy, one nation, not separate states.
This concept of Italian unification is called resorgimento, resorgimento. It was a long and complex process that took decades to fully accomplish different methods were used, some used diplomacy, others used revolts and uprisings and violence. There was even a moment in 1849 when the Pope fled Rome, and a Roman republic was established that abolished his power and drafted a constitution and created a triumvirate or a three-pronged leadership system.
This didn't last because the Catholic powers of France, Austria, Spain, other countries nearby, sent troops into Rome to restore the Pope's rule. However, the groundwork was laid for a larger, more organized push for unification. Some of the main figures in the resorgimento or the unification are Giuseppe Matsini, who spread unification ideas, Count Camilo de Cavor, the prime minister of Piedmont, Sardinia, who worked the diplomacy angle, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was a military leader.
Now, Cavor used masterful diplomacy and aligned with France to push Austrian forces out of Northern Italy, and Garibaldi led volunteer troops in the south, famously conquering Sicily and Naples in 1860, and by 1861 Italy was declared a unified kingdom under King Victor Emanuel II.
But there were still key regions that remained outside of the new kingdom, like Venetia, for instance, was still controlled by Austria, and Rome remained under the influence of the Pope and was protected by French troops. So, Venetia wouldn't join Italy until 1866, after the Third Italian War of Independence, but Rome was still a problem. The Pope refused to recognize the new kingdom of Italy, and France continued to defend the papal states with its army.
It wasn't until 1870, when France withdrew its troops to deal with another war, that Italy finally moved in and conquered, captured Rome, and with this, the unification process was fully complete, and Rome was declared the capital of Italy.
So again, this resorgimento really took some time, and it was officially united under King with a constitutional monarchy, meaning there was a king who was the head of state, but he was expected to work within the framework of the constitution, and there was a prime minister who ran the day-to-day affairs of the government, as well as a parliament, who helped make laws.
But the thing is that this didn't solve all of Italy's problems, it actually created new challenges, and I feel like this is kind of a theme in life, in history, right when you think you've solved one problem, another one crops up, right?
Bringing together a very diverse and often deeply divided regions of Italy, this was a huge hurdle. The North was more industrialized, and the South was more rural farmland, so their economies were very different, not to mention their cultures and political traditions.
At the time, there was quite a divide between the two, the North and the South, and sometimes this is called the Southern question, which basically means that the country struggled to integrate the less developed poorer regions of the South into the rest of the country, and many in the South were unhappy with the new government.
This was a draw that was dominated by Northern elites, and there were even instances of revolts and resistance to the new government. This led to the famous saying by an Italian politician, quote, we have made Italy, now we must make Italians, end of quote.
The emphasizes that while the political unification was technically complete, the cultural and social unification was going to take a lot longer, and one of the biggest hurdles to unification was the Pope's opposition to the new Italian state.
The capture of Rome in 1870 was a pretty major blow to the Pope's temporal power, and he refused to recognize the new kingdom of Italy. For the next 60 years, different popes lived in self-imposed isolation in the Vatican, considering themselves prisoners of the Italian state.
The standoff is known as the Roman question, and it didn't get sorted out until 1929 with the later end treaties of 1929. These treaties established the Vatican city as an independent sovereign state, where the Pope had full sovereignty within this tiny little enclave in Rome.
This makes the Vatican the smallest independent state in the world. It's about 0.17 square miles, or about 1 eighth the size of Central Park in New York City. It's teeny tiny, but it's really packed with religious landmarks.
It was both sides had to learn to coexist with boundaries and mutual recognition. The treaty marked a formal reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Italian government. Until then, the Pope's opposition really created a significant rift between the Catholic Church and the Italian state, and many devout Catholics felt torn between the two.
The treaty made it so that the Pope could have spiritual authority, but he did not have temporal claims over the papal states anymore. That was now the Italian government's jurisdiction. During this period of unification, Italy really struggled economically, and there were challenges between the industrialized north and the agrarian south, and there were frequent changes in government, and tensions rose between political groups.
Now, the kingdom of Italy lasted from 1861 until 1946, and there were four kings, all from a powerful family called the House of Savoy. One major force that developed starting in the mid 1800s, so during this time, and has continued until today, is organized crime. The idea that the Pope was going to come up here is where it comes up. Mid 1800s, Italy became home to some of the world's most notorious and powerful criminal organizations, probably the most famous being the Mafia.
In Sicily, that's the rock that the boot is kicking, right? The Mafia started off as a loose network that protected rural landlords and businesses, but quickly turned into a criminal syndicate that uses violence and intimidation for profit and power. In a minute, but they started around this time, the mid 1800s. When World War I broke out in 1914, Italy initially stayed neutral, but in 1915 it joined with the allies. That's France, the UK, Russia, later the United States.
This was largely because they wanted to gain territory from Austria, Hungary, who was the enemy. Millions of Italians fought in World War I and hundreds of thousands died, and it caused severe strain on Italy's economy and people. Even though the allies won the war, Italy didn't get all of the territory that it wanted from the final treaties, and it led to pretty widespread dissatisfaction.
And honestly, people were disillusioned, many of them felt betrayed, like they fought for a war and didn't get what they wanted in the end. So we have a society with high unemployment, inflation, strikes, basically economic issues, that's going to equal social unrest. And if we've learned anything from history, this is the breeding ground for political instability. And here is where Benito Mussolini hits the scene.
Mussolini had been raised a socialist, but when World War I broke out, he began advocating for Italian nationalism. Now, the way I see it, and some may disagree with this, but this is the way I see it. Patriotism is a love and appreciation for your country, its values, its people, its having pride in your cultural heritage, respect for your fellow citizens, a desire to improve your nation, right?
Patriotic people support their country, but they also acknowledge its flaws, their open to constructive criticism. Nationalism, however, goes beyond love for country, it advocates for superiority of your country over others, and it usually comes with more of an us versus them mindset, it has a more competition, a more exclusive intensity to it.
It's kind of like Patriotism on steroids, and Mussolini was an Italian nationalist, he attracted ex-soldiers from World War I, young unemployed people, and he promoted a platform of strength, the focused, actually on the Roman Empire, it was this idea that Italy used to be great, and they could restore Italy back to that level again. So while the fascists were anti-communist, they were pro-authoritarianism, they wanted a single strong leader more than they wanted democratic principles.
So Mussolini used organized violence, propaganda, a lot of fear-mongering to tell the people that the fascist party, his party, was going to restore order, and they were going to restore national pride and restore Italy back to its former glory.
And in 1922, they staged something called the March on Rome, and this is where his more militant supporters, they called them black shirts, they gathered in cities across Italy, and they converged on Rome with the goal of intimidating the government, which again was a king at the time, right? The king decided to not actually fight back to this, he feared that there would be a revolution, and so instead he invited Mussolini to Rome and gave him the job of Prime Minister.
And Mussolini immediately worked toward dismantling the democratic institutions and the governments. Within three years or so, he consolidated power and established a dictatorship, he made himself the main leader, and put fascism as the ideology of the Italian state.
And again, the fascist party wanted to create this powerful centralized state to have a strong economy and become a major European power again, and they did this by creating a strict social order that controlled nearly every aspect of public life. So the goal was to mold Italians into a unified loyal group that was ready for war and imperial conquest.
Now, how did they do this? Well, if you've listened to any of the 101's that talk about communist revolutions, a lot of the same things apply to the fascists. It's just a different brand of authoritarianism. But really, when we talk about the political spectrum, it's not really a full line in my personal opinion. It's more like a horseshoe.
The communist revolutions and a fascist revolution actually look, they look a lot in practice the same, even though they have different ideologies that, you know, that start them, they end up in practice looking quite similar.
So for example, they started with youth indoctrination and in schools requiring teachers to only teach from state approved textbooks and teaching fascist principles, military skills, obedience to the state. They controlled newspapers and radios and film and art to glorify nationalism and militarism.
All media had to align with the fascist way of thinking. They also wanted the Italian population to grow because a large population is good for military power. So they started financially incentivizing women to have large families. And in the 1930s, Mussolini aligned himself with Hitler and the Nazis and also began implementing more anti-Semitic laws that restricted Jewish Italian rights.
They also believed in racial superiority and wanted a pure Italian identity. So to strengthen the state and reduce unemployment, they launched ambitious infrastructure projects, many of which that have benefited Italy. And they also criminalized political dissent, banned all political parties other than the fascist party. They killed many people who disagreed with them, even hanging their bodies upside down in public squares to make an example.
And of course, people had to be devoted to Mussolini as the Luce, the leader. He had a cult of personality. He was always portrayed as a near mythical leader that was the only one who could restore Italy to its former greatness. And if you listen to my North Korea 101 episodes, this is probably ringing bells and for a good reason. Was this thing 10,000 years old? Were there serial killers in ancient Greece and Rome?
Before the lives of transgender, intersex, and non-binary people like in the ancient world. We're Jen! And Jenny. From Ancient History, Fangirl. We tell you true stories and tall tales of the ancient world. Sometimes we do it tipsy. Sometimes we have amazing guests on our show. Historians like Barry Strauss, podcasters like Liv Albert, Mike Duncan, and authors like Joanne Harris and Benerone Vitch. We take you to the top of Hadrian's Wall to watch the Roman Empire fall at the end of the world.
We walk the catacombs beneath the temple of the feathered serpent under Teotihuacan. We walk the sacred spirals of the Nazco lines in search of ancient secrets. And we explore mythology from ancient cultures around the world. Can't find us at ancienthistoryfangirl.com or wherever you get your podcasts. During World War II, Italy joined with Nazi Germany and the Axis powers.
But in 1943, the King of Italy deposed Mussolini, and Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, which effectively, you know, obviously ended its alliance with Nazi Germany. And this announcement threw Italy into political chaos. And German forces quickly moved in, and they occupied northern and central Italy. And they established a puppet state that was led by Benito Mussolini, who they had rescued from captivity after he was deposed.
Now German forces were not good to the Italians during this time. They enforced strict martial law and any Italian resistance, anything was treated brutally. But Allied forces with help from Italian partisans liberated the northern part of Italy in April of 1945, and the Nazi occupation ended. Mussolini tried to escape, actually, to make it to Spain, hoping to make it to Spain, which was fascist at the time as well. But in 1945, his convoy was stopped by Italians, and he was shot.
His body alongside other fascist leaders was that hung upside down in a public square in Milan, which was a symbol to all fascists that we don't want this anymore in our country. So with the worth World War II over, Italy made a huge change. And in 1946, Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic, which again marked the end of the Kingdom of Italy and the birth of the modern Italian republic. It was set up to be a parliamentary representative democracy.
It has a president, a prime minister, a two chambered parliament, a judiciary, and Italy again is divided into 20 regions, each with their own regional government. People vote for most of their leaders, and Italy has a constitution that emphasizes democracy, civil liberties, and the division of powers. It explicitly rejects fascism, and it ensures protections against authoritarianism. It also provides a lot of referendums that allow citizens to vote directly on certain issues.
But in the decades after World War II, Italy experienced significant reconstruction and economic growth, but there was also a lot of instability, an organized crime really capitalized on some of that instability.
It was during the 1950s and 1960s that Italy became a large tourist destination, largely because of film and fashion that talked about the sweet life in Italy and how Italy does a great job of celebrating life simple pleasures and savoring moments with family and friends, and that's part of what made it so famous. One of the key moments in Italy's post-war recovery was its decision to join the European Economic Community in 1957. That laid the foundation for the European Union.
This helped to stabilize Italy's economy, integrate it into the broader European community. There were also a lot of issues along the way if we're just looking broad-scale, 1950s to the 2000s. In the 1990s, there was a massive corruption scandal that exposed widespread corruption at the highest level of government. There was also a huge anti-Mofia anti-organized crime push during the 1980s, early 1990s, and between 1999 and 2002, it adopted the Euro as its official currency.
Looking at more recent history, Italy, much of the world faced the global financial crisis of 2008-2011, which hit the country quite hard due to its already struggling economy. There were high levels of debt and unemployment that created pretty significant challenges for the government and recovery has been slow.
More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on Italy in early 2020. Italy became one of the epicenters of the pandemic in Europe. Its healthcare system was really overwhelmed by the surge in cases. But the pandemic also showed the resilience and solidarity of its people, even though it showed some of the weaknesses in the public health infrastructure. Italians really stepped up, and there's some beautiful moments in Italian history during the COVID-19 pandemic as well.
Today, Italy is a complex state, and Italians are grappling with a lot of concerns. There are divisions in political thinking, just like there are in any country. There are people who lean more to the right on the political spectrum, people who lean more to the left. And again, I spoke to a few Italians, and they talked about how important family is in Italy and how many people have a family-oriented perspective on politics.
So a lot of perceptions of politics come from how you were raised. And the more recent history of Mussolini and fascism are still top of mind for many people. Some people liked some of the perceived stability that came from fascism while others do not.
But just like anywhere, there's going to be a lot of different ways to look at things and people from all backgrounds are involved in World War II, involved in either fascism or the resistance to fascism. And depending on who you talk to, you're going to get different sides of the coin.
The biggest issues in Italy that are talked about today tend to be the economy, they face economic stagnation. Italians are concerned about a high youth unemployment rate, which has caused a lot of Italians to look for better opportunities abroad. Italy also has an aging population, so that puts pressure on the social welfare systems, healthcare. It also causes concerns for the labor market and the economy.
And Italy is also known for frequent government changes. In fact, since World War II, Italy has had nearly 70 different administrations. So that's averaging a new administration every one and a half years.
And this level of turnover leads to instability and there has been a push for reforms that could hopefully bring more stability to that political process. Some Italians have felt frustrated with political corruption in efficiency. Another hot button topic in Italy is immigration because of its location on the Mediterranean Sea.
It's a pretty common entry point for many migrants from Africa in the Middle East. This has caused a lot of debate over balancing humanitarianism and integration of new peoples and cultures. And public opinion is divided. Some sea immigration is a strain on resources and social services. Others argue for policies that recognize the importance of migrants for filling labor gaps, especially in agriculture, caregiving.
So again, it's a complicated place. And as Italy's role in the European Union is another topic of debate. Some Italians see the EU membership as beneficial. Others argue that it's not. And Italy tends to want to preserve its Italian culture and its heritage in this era of mass tourism and the modern age. And that's a really tricky balance.
These are some of the more thorny topics. Again, I'm just barely glancing over them, but you can see how things are dynamic and changing in Italy. And it's just a good thing to be aware of when you're visiting or speaking with Italians. As I've studied Italy's history, I feel like it shows a very resilient people who have been reinvented many times. It's had periods of turmoil, but it has still remained a cultural force in Europe and in the world.
It's a stunning place as a stunning history and has so much to offer. So it's really, I don't know, I feel like Italy has really grown close to my heart as I've studied it recently for this episode. So to wrap up, again, I asked some friends what they would recommend for people to know before traveling to Italy. And they're really delivered. So I want to share some of their recommendations with you.
The first thing they mentioned is that it's again, it's important to remember that Italy hasn't been a unifying country for long. So it's very regional. So Italian dialects differ from place to place as does food and cultural expectations. So just to remember to be flexible, that's a good rule of thumb. They also talked about how Italy is really safe. So being out at night is fun and safe, especially in the summer months when there's a lot of people out late. Have common sense, obviously.
But go out at night. The city's really come alive at night and that's something that you don't want to miss. When traveling, they mention there aren't many public toilets. And if there are, they usually aren't very nice or reliable. So if you need to find a restroom, you have to find a bar that's big enough to have one. And then you need to buy something like a Coke or a sandwich. And then you can use the bathroom.
Italians don't love when tourists just expect to use the bathroom. So be respectful, buy something, keep cash on hand. In many areas, there are shops for shoes and shops for food and shops for meat. There aren't always massive, all in one stores. And so people sometimes prefer cash. And if you want the full experience, really go to those local specialty shops.
They also mention that everyone should eat gelato in Italy, but don't ask for samples and be ready to order when you get to the front of the line. Don't dilly-dattle. Also try to speak Italian. That goes a long way. Italians are generous people and they like that you're making an effort to connect. So don't be shy.
If you travel with children and pets, Italians are extra friendly. My friend said that when she's there with her kids, she's often moved to the front of the line because Italy doesn't have a lot of kids. And so they really cherish them.
But that being said, many Italians aren't used to children. So if you're really, really loud with your children on public transport, for example, that's, that's not super great. You know, you need to be aware and mindful of your volume, especially on public transport.
And they said if you do drive a car while traveling through Italy, just be aware that there are a lot of areas that are restricted for public transport. And they have cameras that will take a picture of your car and they'll find you later.
So it isn't like in some countries where a police officer or a security officer hand writes you a ticket. That's how you get caught. There are cameras. So be aware of that. And they also talked about restricted areas in cities called ZTL, where you really shouldn't go. So follow the signs. One fun tip is that many of the fountains in Italy are totally safe to drink from. They're all over the place. They're constantly running. And you can drink from them.
All right. That's all that I have for today. It's so hard to fit one nation's history into one episode that's less than an hour long. But I hope to do a full 101 on Italy one day. There are so many fascinating characters and stories here. And I've loved studying this place. Remember to do your own research. If you'd like to learn more about Italy. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone you know who's planning a trip there.
It wants to go there wants to learn more about it. You can also subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app. You can sign up for my free newsletter on my website. Why's a world podcast calm or consider supporting the podcast through Patreon where you can get extra resources for only three five or $10 a month.
I'm so grateful for the financial support there. It keeps the lights on. And I also love sharing resources every single month with Patreon supporters. I will be back in January of 2025 with more episodes for you. I have a great 101 series on Cuba coming. So I'm taking a couple months off to get those perfect. And in the meantime, let's make the world a little wiser.