1. Regions of Italy

2.  Italy has 20 regions or “States”. Each region has
its own traditions, dialect (form of Language)
and its own history. As well as this each region
also has unique culinary (cooking) traditions,
architecture, geography (how the countryside
looks) Italy is like many small countries within
one nation. The following slide contains a map
displaying the twenty modern regions of Italy.

4.  The development of Italy’s regions can be
traced as far back as ancient Roman times, right
through the medieval times, to the modern
times. Italy as a “Nation” is young- just like
Australia. Infact it was only united after a brief
civil war which was lead by the famous Italian
general “Garibaldi”, and the capital of the
nation Rome was proclaimed in 1870. (For a
comparison, Australia was united as a nation in
1901).

6.  Red: Duchy of Savoy;
Yellow: Republic of
Genoa; White: Duchy of
Milan; Dark Green:
Venetian Republic; Frost:
Grand Duchy of Tuscany;
Dark Gray: Papal States;
Blue: Kingdom of
Naples(Under the control
of the Spanish Hapsburg
Crown); Orange:
Kingdom of Sicily(Under
the control of the Spanish
Hapsburg Crown); Pink:
Sardinia(Annexed to
Hapsburg Spain).

7.  As you can see in the previous slide, before
Italy was united as a nation in 1870 with the
capital of Rome, you can think of Italy being
like a giant “Cake” that was divided up
between the Pope and the catholic Church (The
Roman/Papal states), foreign powers- such as
France and Spain- And other local overlords
and rulers, such as the Medici in Florence and
the Sforza in Milan, and smaller independent
republics- such as the maritime republic of
Venice, which had its own ceremonial head of
state like the Pope known as the “Doge”.

9.  General Garibaldi’s assistant and Torino’s
governor Cavour came from Piemonte.

11.  Bilingual region of Italy (French/Italian) that
has both Italian and Frankish History.

15.  Trentino Alto-Adige is an autonomous region
of Italy separated into 2 separate halves-
Trentino, the southern half with the capital city
of Trento (Trent), and Alto-Adige in the north,
with the capital city of Bolzano. The two
separate parts of the region take it in turns to
govern the region. In Alto-Adige the
population speaks fluent German, and before
the end of World War 1, Trentino-AltoAdige
was a region of Austria, but was ceded to Italy
after the war.

19.  The Council of Trent
(Latin: Concilium
Tridentinum) was an
Ecumenical Council of the
Roman Catholic Church. It
is considered to be one of
the Church's most
important councils. It
convened in Trent (then
capital of the Prince-
Bishopric of Trent of the
Holy Roman Empire, in
Italy) between December
13, 1545, and December 4,
1563 in twenty-five
sessions for three periods.

20.  The Council issued condemnations on what it defined as
Protestant heresies and defined Church teachings in the
areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification,
Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration
of saints. It issued numerous reform decrees.By specifying
Catholic doctrine on salvation, the sacraments, and the
Biblical canon, the Council was answering Protestant
disputes.The Council entrusted to the Pope the
implementation of its work; as a result, Pope Pius IV issued
the Tridentine Creed in 1565; and Pope Pius V issued in
1566 the Roman Catechism, in 1568 a revised Roman
Breviary, and in 1570 a revised Roman Missal, thus
standardizing what since the 20th century has been called
the Tridentine Mass (from the city's Latin name Tridentum),
and Pope Clement VIII issued in 1592 a revised edition of
the Vulgate.

23.  Another Autonomous region of Italy. It’s
Capital Trieste, was the busiest port of the old
Austrian empire before being ceded to Italy
after world war 1. It is also composed of 2
smaller historical regions “Friuli” and “Venezia
Giulia” which in English is known as “Julian
March”- named after the Julian Alps, local to
the region.

25.  Lombardia was named after the german tribe
the “Lombards” who settled the region after
the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century
AD. It is also home to Italy’s most contraversial
separatist right-wing political party “The
Northern League” (circa 1990) who claim that
the rich industrious north of Italy should
separate and from the more impoverished
agricultural south, claiming mythical Celtic
origins, and they have named this land
“Padania”.

26.  The geographical map of (invented??) Padania
and the flag proposed by the separatist
Northern League.

30.  Castello Sforzesco- a
13th Century Palace
built for Milan’s then
ruling family, the
Sforza.

31.  La Scala is the most
famous Opera house
in the world, perhaps
more so than
Sydney’s. The Italians
invented Opera in the
1600s.

37.  Capital City- Venice “Venezia’. Venice is
famous for it’s masked “Carnivale” and its
long proud tradition of glass works.

38. GONDALIERS
 St Mark’s Square,
Venice

58. Home of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and
Juliette”. Below- The House of Romeo
e Giulietta- Messages of Love.

65.  Previous Slides-
Verona’s intact and
ancient Roman
Amptheatre.

66.  Apart from it’s capital city Genova (Genoa in
Italian), Liguria is also famous for it’s second
city “La Spezia” and the mountaineering-
hiking trail which passes through 5 small
towns known as the “Cinque Terre” (5 lands)

79.  Emilia Romagna’s Capital city Bologna, is
famous for inventing “Spaghetti Bolognese”
which they simply call “Ragu”. Parma, another
city in Emilia Romagna, invented Parmasan
cheese. Modena, yet another city, is famous for
inventing Balsamic vinegar. Bologna in the
medieval times, had many towers that
dominated its skyline, but now only 2 principle
towers remain. Bologna is also famous for its
covered archways.

101.  Tuscany, and it’s capital, Florence, are the heart
of the Italian renaissance, the standard Italian
language, as well as many Italian geniuses such
as Dante Alighieri (the 14th Century Italian
version of Shakespeare- he wrote the famous
novel “L’inferno”) (Hell) which was used as
the basis for the italian language. Leonardo Da
Vinci, Michealangelo, Brunelleschi, Petrarca,
Botticelli and many other renaissance masters
were based here. Tuscany is also home to the
leaning tower of Pisa, and the ancient Roman
ruins of Arezzo.

119.  Lesser Known Region of Italy- Main feautres-
it’s capital city Ancona (below)and and the
Appenine Mountains, which make part of its
geography.

122.  Umbria is the only “Landlocked” region of
Italy- it has no coast line. It is the setting of a
famous American Movie “My house in Umbria
(2003) starring Maggie Smith. It’s capital
Perugia, is home to a famous Italian University
for foreigners, and the Patron Saint Francis of
Assisi, lived in nearby Assisi, and he invented
the Franciscan order of Monks and was one of
the first people to write sacred music of the
western tradition (Laude/Cantici) in the 13th
century.

142.  Lazio is the heart of the ancient Latin world and the Roman Empire, with Rome as
the state capital. Rome was founded on the Mythical tale of twins Romulus and
Remus, who suckled from a she-wolf after they were abandoned by their mother.
The Roman empire sought to re-create the glory of the even earlier Greek classical
states, and modern Italian, French, Spanish and Romanian all developed from
Latin. It is height, the Roman empire controlled nearly all of Europe, the
Mediterranean and North Africa- except Germany, which was ruled by barbaric
tribes. London was originally a Roman outpost called “Londinium”. The Roman
empire was partly democratic with it’s own Forum (the ruins still remain in Rome)
and at other times was ruled by a series of emporers known as “Caeser”. This is
where the term “Ceaser Salad” comes from. The Colosseum was famous for
staging shows and battles for the citizens of Rome, using gladiators, and at times
filling the venue with water to stage ship battles. Before the Roman Empire
converted to Christianity in the 4th Century AD, Christians were often thrown to
the Lions here. Istanbul, Capital of Modern Turkey, was also a part of the Roman
Empire and was originally called “Constantinople”, after the famous Roman
Emporer, Constantine. When the Roman empire became to large, it split in half,
and the eastern half was called the “Byzantium Empire”, and it out-lived it’s
eastern half for nearly 1000 years, before being overrun by the Islamic Turks. From
roughly 350-1453 however, the Byzantine empire and Constantinople (Istanbul)
was a Christian Empire, and kept the light of Christian Civilisation alive after the
collapse of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and the beginning of
what is known as the “middle” ages.

164.  Abruzzo was the home of a shocking
earthquake in 2009 in the capital L’Aquila that
killed over 200 students because university
dorm-room buildings were constructed using
dodgy Mafia-labour. Apart from that it is well
known for good skiing in the Appenine
mountain range, its national parks and its wine
producing.

176.  Molise is one of the smallest and least
populated regions of Italy, and has mainly an
agricultural economy and some fantastic ruins.

184.  Campania is the region that’s famous for
giving the world the Mafia known locally in
Naples as the “Camorra”, and Naples, the city
that invented the Pizza. In Naples “Napoli”
you will also find more ancient underground
Roman Ruins. The bay of Naples is seated
infront of the Volcano Mt. Vesuvius, which in
Ad.59 erupted and buried the ancient city of
Pompeii, however leaving beautifully
preserved city structures and plaster casts of its
victims.

204. APOLLO TEMPLE
 Before the Eruption,
and Asfter.

217.  Puglia is one of Italy’s direst and flattest
regions, though also one of the most
industrialized southern regions. Puglia is home
to the “Trulli” at the town Alberobello
(BeautifulTree)- conical round shaped houses,
as well as four major cities- Foggia, Lecce,
Brindisi and Bari.

256.  A small mountainous agricultural region
renowned for its traditional crafts such as
weaving, woodwork and pottery. It’s capital is
called Potenza.

269.  Calabria contains Italy’s first settled city,
Reggio Calabria, originally called Rhegion, a
greek, Pre-latin settlement. This is also the
ancient meaning of the modern english word
“region”. The greeks settled here until they
were defeated by the romans in the 3rd century
AD. The famous greek mathematician
Pythagoras and his followers are also said to
have settled at Crotone, another city of the
region.

284.  Sicily is also an ancient greek settlement, but at
times as nearly taken over by muslim raiders in
the middle ages. They left their heritage there
in the form of architecture. Sicily’s capital,
Palermo, is home to some wonderful baroque
architecture, and its own local mafia known as
the “Cosa Nostra” or “Our Thing”. It is one of
the least developed regions of Italy.

305.  Sardegna’s history goes back as far as the stone
age. In English it’s called “Sardinia”. This is
where the name for the fish “Sardines” comes
from. Someone said to be from Sardinia is
called a “Sardo”. Sardegna’s is also home to
the famous Emerald coast, where Europe’s
billionaire’s go to play and a cup of coffee can
cost over $200!!!

331.  This concludes the end of our exploration of
what is surely one of the most fascinating
countries on earth. I hope you enjoyed your
trip into marvel and wonder.
 * * *