Facts, habits, and traditions of Italian culture

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Art, fashion, and cuisine have all been inspired by Italian culture, which has its roots in antiquity.

Italian culture's roots can be traced back to the Roman Empire and even further than that. Italy's culture centers on various elements, including the arts, family, architecture, music, and food. The birthplace of fascism, Benito Mussolini, and the Roman Empire, Rome was also a significant center of the Renaissance and a major center of Italian Renaissance. For many years, the Italian peninsula has been a cultural hotbed. Here's a quick rundown of some of the more well-known modern Italian traditions and practices.

Italy's population

According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, Italy will have 59.6 million residents by the beginning of 2020. According to Jen Green, author of "Focus On Italy" (Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2007), about 96 percent of the population of Italy is ethnic Italian. Yet, numerous other ethnicities dwell in this country. The rest of the population comprises Arabs from North Africa, Italians, Albanians, Germans, Austrians, and other Europeans. Italy's northern neighbors, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia, as well as the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Sicily, have all impacted Italian culture.

As of January 1, 2020, there are 59.6 million inhabitants in Italy, 48.7 percent are men, and 51.3 percent are women. The estimated ages of the remaining participants range from 15 to 64 years old, with 13% being under the age of 15. 14,804 people are at least 100 years old. The northwestern part of Italy, home to 26.8% of the country's total population, is the most populous region. Morterone, the smallest municipality in Italy, has a population of just 30 people, making it the smallest city in the country.

Italy's official languages

Italian is the country's official language. According to the BBC, 93 percent of the Italian population is fluent in Italian. A wide variety of regional dialects are spoken throughout Italy, including Sardo-Friulano-Napolitano-Siciliano-Liguriano-Piedmontese-Venetiano-Calabriano. In Milan, Milanese is also widely spoken. In addition to Italian, the Albanian, Bavarian, Catalan, Cimbrian, Corsican and Croatian languages are all spoken natively by native Italians, as well as French, German, Greek, Slovenian and Walser.

A typical day in the lives of a family in Italy

Talia Wagner, a Los Angeles-based marriage and family therapist told Live Science that "family is a very significant priority inside the Italian culture. Rather than a mother, father, and children, they have an extended family, which is more important to them than the West's "nuclear family," Wagner said.

Italians appreciate spending time with their families and frequently hold family get-togethers. According to Wagner, a child's upbringing keeps them close to their family as they grow older.

In the recent half-century, the traditional family unit has undergone some modifications. The average age of marriage in Italy is now 31 for women and 34 for men, seven years older than it was in 1975, according to Gian Carlo Blangiardo, professor of Statistics and Quantitative Methods at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Stefania Rimoldi, a researcher in demography at the University of Milano-Bicocca. An increase in premarital cohabitation and a decrease in the overall number of marriages have been connected to this.

Italy is a country steeped in religious tradition.

Roman Catholicism is the country's official state religion. Vatican City, in the heart of Rome, is the center of Roman Catholicism and home to Pope Francis, so this is not surprising. There are about 80 percent Catholics and other Christians in the country, but only about one-third of those are practicing Catholics. According to the University of Michigan, the country also has a growing Muslim immigrant population. According to the CIA, the remaining 80% of Americans are either Muslim, agnostic, or atheist.

According to Statista, the number of Italians who attend religious services at least once a week has decreased significantly since 2006. In 2006, a little more than 18 million Italians of all ages attended a weekly service; by 2020, that number is expected to drop to 12 million.

architecture and art in Italy's capital city

The classical Roman, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical architectural styles originated in Italy. The Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa are two of Italy's most recognized landmarks. A basilica was first used to denote a public courthouse in Italy, but it now means a Catholic pilgrimage site. "Royal Palace" is what the Oxford Dictionary defines as the word's origin. Greek basilik, the feminine of basilikos, which means "royal," or basileus, which means "king," is also the source of the name.

Other Italian castles include the Valle d'Aosta Fort Bard and the Verrès Castle.

Museums abound in the Italian cities of Florence, Venice, and Rome, but art can also be seen in churches and other public structures. Of particular note is Michelangelo's work on the Vatican's Sistine Chapel's ceiling, completed between 1508 and 1512.

'A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years' by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker claims that Italy has a "decades-long operatic tradition" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Many well-known operas, like Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" and "La Traviata" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," were written in Italian and are still performed there. In recent years, the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, a member of the Three Tenors, has made opera more accessible to the general public.

The cuisine of the Italian diaspora

Many people see Italian cuisine as an art form because of its effect on food worldwide. Italian meals wouldn't be complete without wine, cheese, and pasta. It's possible to find pasta in various shapes and sizes, from penne to fusilli to lasagna.

Food is more than sustenance for Italians; it is a way of life. Families generally assemble around food and the extended networks of their extended families, Wagner said.

We should pay attention to food because of the etymologies of Italian words like "sapore," which means taste, and "sapere," which means knowledge, in Peter Naccarato, Zachary Nowak, and Elgin K. Eckert's book "Representing Italy Through Food" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)

The cuisine of Italy varies greatly from region to region. According to CNN, "Italian food" varies greatly from region to region. Pizza, for example, hails from central Italy, where much of the country's Italian cuisine originates. The most common items in northern Italian cuisine are fish, rice, sausages, pig, and various kinds of cheese. Tomato-based pasta dishes are popular, as are stuffed pastas, polenta, and risottos of various varieties. Tomatoes predominate in Southern cuisine and can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce. Southern cuisine has common ingredients in artichokes, eggplant, ricotta cheese and capers.

Italians love their wine, and the country has some of the world's most renowned vineyards. Archaeologists unearthed the earliest signs of Italian wine in a cave near the southwest coast of Sicily. Archaeological ramifications of these new findings are huge, experts stated in a report published online in August 2017 in the Microchemical Journal. "This is the first and earliest-attested occurrence of wine in an archaeological context in Sicily," researchers wrote.

Fashion in the style of the Italians

Fashion is taken very seriously in Italy, where Armani, Gucci, Benetton, Versace, and Prada are just a few of the many world-famous fashion houses. While eating and drinking according to one's preferences is encouraged in Sicily, "dressing following others' preferences is not," a professor of contemporary history at Milan's University noted in her book "Italian Fashion after 1945." (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

Charles L. Killinger, author of "Culture and Customs of Italy," wrote, "As well-known as are the designers of Italian automobiles and household furnishings, they have not surpassed such designers of clothing and accessories as Gucci, Fendi, Kirzia, Ferragamo, Pucci, Valentino, Prada, Armani, Versace, Ferré, and Dolce and Gabbana" (Greenwood, 2005). Regarding ready-to-wear fashion, the late 20th century was a golden age. This was the final nail in the coffin when America's post-war subsidies boosted the fashion sector.

Italy as a place to conduct business

The euro is Italy's currency of choice and is used in all transactions. Italy has many small and medium-sized businesses because of the country's strong focus on the family. Even major corporations such as Fiat and Benetton are still mostly controlled by single families due to their size and scope. "In many Italian-American households, the parents adhere to conventional gender norms, and their children are raised similarly. Gender roles have shifted in American culture, making it difficult for the younger generations to reconcile the traditional duties of the father as primary breadwinner and unquestioned family leader with those of the mother as primary caregiver, "intoned Wagner,

For example, in countries such as Germany and Russia, meetings tend to be less formal, and the family structure can lead to chaotic and animated exchanges. Italian businesspeople often view outsiders' information skeptically and prefer to converse with people they know well.

Holidays in Italy

Most Christian holidays are observed in Italy. The Epiphany, which takes place on January 6, is similar to Christmas. Good children are rewarded with gifts and food from Belfana, an elderly lady who is said to fly around on her broomstick.

On the Monday following Easter, known as Pasquetta, families gather for picnics to celebrate the arrival of spring.

On November 1, the Catholic celebration of Saints Day, Italians traditionally lay flowers on the graves of departed family members.

The patron saint of many Italian towns and villages is celebrated on this day. The patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, celebrates his feast day on September 19.

The liberation of Italy in 1945, which ended World War II, is commemorated on April 25 each year as Liberation Day.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/44376-italian-culture.html

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