ITALIAN NEWS - Issue # 2, February 2008

Italian News
Periodical On-Line that Promotes, Supports, Spreads ITALY,
and ITALIAN Language, History, Culture, Tradition, Genealogy,
Articles, Products, Services, Every Aspect of ITALIAN Life Style
by THE ITALIAN PROJECT

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Italian Regions

LIGURIA
Official Website: www.regione.liguria.it

The Territory
The territory of the region is a long, narrow coastline on the
border with France, around the Genoa Gulf, and, thanks to
its position, enjoys a wonderfully mild climate and a
picturesque landscape, with a mountainous hinterland,
constellated of medieval boroughs among a rich
Mediterranean vegetation. The coast is divided into two
very different sectors: the eastern side, called Riviera di
Levante, is full of cliffs over the sea, with very beautiful
landscapes like Portofino and the Cinque Terre, while the
western part, the Riviera di Ponente, is all bays and
beaches. Liguria is covered with forests of chestnut trees,
oaks, beech trees, and a wealth of flowers, for which the
region is the main center in Italy. There is some agricultural
activity, mostly olive trees and vineyards, though the main
resource of the region is undoubtedly tourism and trade
through the ports, especially Genoa.

History
Occupied by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, Liguria
belonged with Piemonte to the Decima Regio of the Roman
Empire, then in the early 4th century AD was united to
Emilia.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire it was
conquered by the Byzantines who named it Provincia
Maritima Italorum and then in the early 7th century by the
Lombards, followed one century later by the Franks, who
divided it into 3 feudal territories called Arduinica (in the
west), Aleramica (in the center) and Obertenga (in the east),
then was subsequently further divided into a number of
fiefdoms such as Cavi, Lavagna, Savona, Ventimiglia,
Nice, Genoa.

With the rise in power of the Communes against the feudal
lords, very soon Genoa acquired the supremacy in the
region, and became a powerful maritime republic, often at
wars with other sea-trading centers like Savona and
Venice. In the following century there were periods of
independence followed by darker periods of foreign
occupation, as under the Visconti of Milan.

The Republic of Genoa was an important ally of Napoleon,
and suffered a blockade by the English fleet in 1805. For
this reason it lost its independence in 1825, when the
Congress of Vienna annexed the whole of Liguria to the
Kingdom of Sardinia, under the Savoy family.

The history of the region, always dependent on the sea,
saw since mid-1800 a never-ending exodus of hundreds of
thousands of Italian emigrants from the port of Genoa to
destinations overseas.

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Italian Genealogy

HOW TO FIND Places of your Ancestors
and Living Relatives in ITALY

Here are Step-by-Step, Detailed, and Useful Suggestions:

1- Go to PAGINE BIANCHE.it Web Site, by clicking HERE.

2- In the "Cognome o nome Azienda" box, Write the Family
Name, or the Last Name of your Ancestors, and of your
Living Relatives in ITALY.

3- In the "Nome" box, Write the First Name of your
Ancestors, and of your Living Relatives in ITALY, or Leave
it Blank, if you are Looking for the Family Name in ITALY.

4- In the "Dove" box, Write the Name of the Birth Town, or
Province, or Region of your Ancestors, and of your Living
Relatives in ITALY.

5- Click on the button "Cerca": a List of Persons with that
Family Name, with their full names, addresses, and
telephone numbers will appear!

6- Save, and/or Print their full names, addresses, and
telephone numbers, and Towns, and/or Provinces that you
have found, where they are living in ITALY!

They are your "Potential" Living Relatives, and the
"Potential" Towns, and/or Provinces of Birth of your
Ancestors in ITALY!

7- Then, click on the LINKS here below, to Know HOW TO
OBTAIN Information and Extracts, Acts, Certificates of your
ITALIAN Ancestors, and/or HOW TO CONTACT your Living
Relatives in ITALY!

H OW TO OBTAIN Information and
Documents of your Ancestors in ITALY

H OW TO CONTACT your Living Relatives
in ITALY

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Italian Recipes

Cheese Tortellini with Walnut Pesto

Ingredients
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley with thick stems
removed
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for
serving
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 pound fresh or frozen cheese tortellini
1 tablespoon butter

Nutrition Info Per Serving
Calories: 799 kcal
Carbohydrates: 56 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Fat: 57 g
Protein: 21 g
Sugars: 3 g

Cooking Directions
In a food processor or blender, pulse the walnuts, parsley,
garlic, Parmesan, oil, salt, and pepper to a coarse puree.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the tortellini until
just done, about 4 minutes for fresh and 12 minutes for
frozen. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain the
tortellini. Toss with 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water, the
walnut pesto, and the butter. If the pasta seems dry, add
more of the reserved pasta water. Sprinkle with additional
Parmesan and pass more at the table.
Yield: 4 servings

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Italian Companies

Barilla

Official Website: www.barilla.com

Barilla, originally established in 1877 as a bread and pasta shop in Parma, is today one of the most widely recognised
Italian food Groups, a leader in the pasta business world-wide, in the pasta sauces business in Continental Europe, in the
bakery business in Italy and crisp bread business in Scandinavia.

The Company has been managed for over 125 years by the family's entrepreneurial experience and is now run by the sons
of Pietro Barilla, Guido, Luca, Paolo and Emanuela, the fourth generation children.

Always oriented towards a correct diet through exceptionally flavoured and nutritionally balanced wheat products, for daily
use, Barilla became popular world-wide for the quality of products - the result of large-scale investment in research,
innovation and technology - and the attention to communication.

Barilla owns 27 factories and production facilities (15 are in Italy and 12 abroad) of which 9 mills, directly managed,
providing most of the raw materials for the production of pasta and bakeries.
Barilla exports in more than one hundred Countries.
Every year more than 1,400,000 tons of food products, with the brands Barilla, Mulino Bianco,Pavesi, Academia Barilla,
Wasa, Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico), are featured on dining tables the world over.
The Number1 brand, a Group Company engaged in logistic activities and the First brand, engaged in retailing activities,
come alongside the product brands.

The consistency with principles and values declared in Our Commitment, antique but always actual, the human resources
management as the fundamental asset and leading edge production systems make Barilla one of the most widely
recognised Companies in the world for Italian excellence.

The Barilla brand was born in Parma, Italy, in 1877, when Pietro Barilla senior opened his bread and shop. By its respect
for tradition, adherence to long-standing yet ever-valid principles, attention to the quality standards of ingredients and
finished products, combined with its use of cutting-edge production technology, Barilla is today one of the most widely
recognised names for Italian excellence. All over the world, the Barilla brand name represents the finest of Italian cooking,
thanks to a vast range of products that go from pasta, in its most traditional and special shapes and sizes, to filled pasta,
pasta sauces, pastries and savoury baked products.
To make its pasta, Barilla uses only a mixture of the finest durum wheat, specially selected to assure the very best results
for each pasta shape, whether spaghetti or rigatoni - cooked "al dente" every time. But Barilla pasta is not only semolina
pasta; by adding eggs to durum wheat semolina, Barilla also creates a complete line of egg pasta, from lasagne through to
tagliatelle. Then when fine sheets of egg pasta embrace a filling made from simple ingredients, the result is Barilla filled
pasta: tortellini and tortelloni. To ensure that the Italian first course is enjoyed to its fullest, Barilla also produces a wide
range of delectable pasta sauces, from the simplest to the most refined, ready in an instant. Barilla's dedication to good
food continues through to its pastries, in a rich selection of products with that typical Italian flavour, not to mention its
savoury baked products, based on the home-made tradition - the delightful, crisp alternative to bread.

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Italian Language

Classification
Italian is most closely related to the other two
Italo-Dalmatian languages, Sicilian and the extinct
Dalmatian. The three are part of the Italo-Western grouping of
the Romance languages, which are a subgroup of the Italic
branch of Indo-European.

Geographic Distribution
The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the
World: in green are signed large Italian-speaking
communities; in light blue are painted the former Italian
colonies, where Italian was taught and spoken until their
independence.The total speakers of Italian as maternal
language are between 60 and 70 million. The speakers who
use Italian as second or cultural language are estimated
around 110-120 million.

Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and
one of the official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly
in Ticino and Grigioni cantons, a region referred to as Italian
Switzerland. It is also the second official language in the
Vatican City and in some areas of Istria in Slovenia and
Croatia with an Italian minority. It is widely used and taught
in Monaco and Malta. It is also widely understood in Corsica
and Nice (areas that historically spoke Italian dialects before
annexation to France), and Albania.

From the Italian Foreign Office site the countries with
significant presence of Italian citizens abroad (in total more
than 4 million, obviously the number does not indicate the
real consistence of Italian speakers in every country):

Brazil 1,292,519 (1.2%)
Germany 708,019 (0.9% of population)
Argentina 618,443 (1.5%)
Switzerland 520,550 (6.7%)
France 358,603 (0.6%)
Belgium 281,674 (3%)
United States 188,926
United Kingdom 173,493
Canada 140,812 (0.4 %)
Australia 131,679 (0.9 %)
New Zealand 129.959 (4.2%)
Mexico 125,655
Venezuela 121,655 (0.6%)
Uruguay 74,163 (2.5%)
Spain 61,383
Chile 44,734
Sweden 42,369
South Africa 32,330
Netherlands 30,529
Peru 25,787
Luxembourg 22,913 (5%)
Austria 13,824
Greece 10,654
Colombia 10,474
Israel 10,221
Ecuador 10,105
Monaco 6,631 (21%)

Italian is also spoken by some in former Italian colonies in
Africa (Libya, Somalia and Eritrea). However, its use has
sharply dropped off since the colonial period. In Eritrea
Italian is widely understood. In fact, for fifty years, during the
colonial period, Italian was the language of instruction, but
as of 1997, there is only one Italian language school
remaining, with 470 pupils. In Somalia Italian used to be a
major language but due to the civil war and lack of
education only the older generation still uses it.

Italian and Italian dialects are widely used by Italian
immigrants and their descendants (see Italians) living
throughout Western Europe (especially France (1 million,
Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and
Luxembourg), the United States, Canada, Australia, and Latin
America (especially Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and
Venezuela).

In the United States, Italian speakers are most commonly
found in four cities: Boston (7,000), Chicago (12,000), New
York City (140,000), and Philadelphia (15,000). In Canada
there are large Italian-speaking communities in Montreal
(120,000) and Toronto (195,000).[citation needed] Italian is
the second most commonly-spoken language in Australia,
where 353,605 Italian Australians, or 1.9% of the population,
reported speaking Italian at home in the 2001 Census. In
2001 there were 130,000 Italian speakers in Melbourne, and
90,000 in Sydney.

Italian Language Education
Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world,
but rarely as the first non-native language of pupils, in fact
Italian generally is the fourth or fifth most taught
second-language in the world.

In anglophone parts of Canada, Italian is, after French, the
third most taught language. In the United States and the
United Kingdom, Italian ranks fourth (after
Spanish-French-German and French-German-Spanish
respectively). Throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most
taught non-native language, after English, French, Spanish,
and German.

In the European Union, Italian is spoken as a mother tongue
by 13% of the population (64 million, mainly in Italy itself) and
as a second language by 3% (14 million); among EU member
states, it is most likely to be desired (and therefore learned)
as a second language in Malta (61%), Croatia (14%),
Slovenia (12%), Austria (11%), Romania (8%), France (6%),
and Greece (6%). It is also an important second language in
Albania and Switzerland, which are not EU members or
candidates.

Influence and Derived Languages
From the late 19th to the mid 20th century, thousands of
Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil,
where they formed a very strong physical and cultural
presence (see the Italian diaspora).

In some cases, colonies were established where variants
of Italian dialects were used, and some continue to use a
derived dialect. An example is Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil,
where Talian is used and in the town of Chipilo near Puebla,
Mexico each continuing to use a derived form of Venetian
dating back to the 19th century. Another example is
Cocoliche, an Italian-Spanish pidgin once spoken in
Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires, and Lunfardo.

Rioplatense Spanish, and particularly the speech of the city
of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those
of Italian dialects, due to the fact that Argentina had a
constant, large influx of Italian settlers since the second half
of the nineteenth century; initially primarily from Northern
Italy then, since the beginning of the twentieth century,
mostly from Southern Italy.

Lingua Franca
Starting in late medieval times, Italian language variants
replaced Latin to become the primary commercial language
for much of Europe and Mediterranean Sea (especially the
Tuscan and Venetian variants). This became solidified
during the Renaissance with the strength of Italian banking
and the rise of humanism in the arts.

During the period of the Renaissance, Italy held artistic sway
over the rest of Europe. All educated European gentlemen
were expected to make the Grand Tour, visiting Italy to see
its great historical monuments and works of art. It thus
became expected that educated Europeans would learn at
least some Italian; the English poet John Milton, for
instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. In
England, Italian became the second most common modern
language to be learned, after French (though the classical
languages, Latin and Greek, came first). However, by the
late eighteenth century, Italian tended to be replaced by
German as the second modern language on the curriculum.
Yet Italian loanwords continue to be used in most other
European languages in matters of art and music.

Today, the Italian language continues to be used as a lingua
franca in some environments, for example within the
Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy, Italian is known by a large
part of members and is used in substitution of Latin in some
official documents as well (the presence of Italian as the
second official language in the Vatican City indicates not
only use in the seat in Rome, but also in the whole world
where an episcopal seat is present). Other examples can be
found in the sports (football, motor race) and arts (music,
opera, visual arts, design, fashion industry).

Italian Dialects
In Italy, all Romance languages spoken as the vernacular ,
other than standard Italian and other unrelated, non-Italian
languages, are termed "Italian dialects". Many Italian
dialects are, in fact, historical languages in their own right.
These include recognized language groups such as Friulian,
Neapolitan, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian, and others, and
regional variants of these languages such as Calabrian.
Though the division between dialect and language has been
used by scholars (such as by Francesco Bruni) to
distinguish between the languages that made up the Italian
koine, and those which had very little or no part in it, such
as Albanian, Greek, German, Ladin, and Occitan, which are
still spoken by minorities.

Dialects are generally not used for general mass
communication and are usually limited to native speakers in
informal contexts. In the past, speaking in dialect was often
deprecated as a sign of poor education. Younger
generations, especially those under 35 (though it may vary
in different areas), speak almost exclusively standard Italian
in all situations, usually with local accents and idioms.
Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:
the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and
influence of the local dialect (for example, annà replaces
andare in the area of Rome for the infinitive "to go").

The Italian people generally indicates as Italian dialects all
vernacular idioms spoken in Italy other than Italian and
other recognized languages. As a rule of thumb, all
Romance languages spoken in Italy are customarily termed
as dialects.However, Ethnologue, the registrar of the ISO
639-3 recognises them as languages of Italy.

Origin of Italian Dialects
Many Italian regions already had a different substratum
before the conquest of Italy by the Romans: Northern Italy
had a Celtic substratum (this part of Italy was known as
Gallia Cisalpina, "Gallia on this side of the Alps"), a Ligurian
substratum, or a Venetic substratum. Central Italy had an
Etruscan substratum, and the Southern Italy had an Italic or
Greek substratum. All of that began as a diversification
between the way to speak Latin (the official language of the
Empire).

Due to the long history of separation in many small states
and colonization by foreign powers (especially France,
Spain and Austria-Hungary) that Italy went through between
the fall of the Western Roman Empire and Italian unification
in 1861, there has been ample opportunity for linguistic
diversification.

However, most states used either the colonial language as
the official one, or Latin in the case of independent Italian
states (such as the Vatican). Rarely was the local
vernacular used in official documents, and as such a formal
grammar for most vernaculars was usually not established.
Private citizens who could write would use vernacular as
an informal way to write notes, as Leonardo da Vinci did,
using Latin instead for more important publications.

The synthesis of an Italian language from the various
dialects was the main goal in the life of Alessandro
Manzoni, who advocated building a national language
derived mainly from the vernacular of Florence, which had
gained prestige since Dante Alighieri had used it in his
Divina Commedia.

In a sense, therefore, the expression "Dialects of Italian" is
inaccurate, since the dialects did not derive from Italian, but
directly from spoken Latin, often termed Vulgar Latin: it was
Italian that derived from the dialects, not the other way
around.

Dialects remained the common parlance of the population
until about the 1950s. With progressive increases in
literacy, standard Italian became gradually accepted as the
national language. Until World War II people of lower
classes, who could not afford schooling or simply had no
use for a national language, continued to use their own
dialects in their daily lives. It is probably in this period that
the stigma against using dialects in public arose, since it
was a sign of low social status; later on, this trend to
marginalize people using dialects subsided, however
dialects were still not used in public because new
generations, as well as immigrants from other parts of Italy,
could not understand them.

Current Usage
The solution to the so-called language question that had
troubled Manzoni so much came from television. Its
widespread adoption as the most popular appliance in the
Italian home was the single main factor in helping Italians to
learn the national language. Roughly in the same period,
many southerners moved to the north to find jobs. The
powerful trade unions, to maintain unity among the workers,
successfully campaigned against the use of dialects: this
allowed southerners, whose dialects were not mutually
intelligible with the northerners', to integrate using Standard
Italian. The large number of mixed marriages, especially in
large industrial cities such as Milan and Turin, resulted in a
generation that could confidently speak only Standard
Italian, and could usually only partly understand their
parents' dialects.

As a result of these phenomena, dialects in Italy remain in
use most strongly where no immigration occurred, that is in
the South and in the North-Eastern Italy, in rural areas
(where there has been less blending and less influence from
trade unions), and among older speakers. Being unable to
speak Standard Italian still carries a stigma, and even
strongly pro-dialect political forces such as the Northern
League rarely resort to anything else than Standard Italian to
write or speak publicly.

Use of dialects in literature is not inconsiderable, with plays
of Carlo Goldoni in Venetian being a notable example. The
various dialects of Italy are also spoken in parts of the
world with significant Italian immigrant populations.

Dialects of Italian and Dialects of Italy
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties, more commonly
and more accurate referred to as Regional Italian, with
features of all sorts, most notably phonological and lexical,
percolating from the underlying languages. Tuscan, and
Central Italian in general, are in some respects not distant
from Italian in linguistic features, due to Italian's history as
derived from a somewhat polished form of Florentine.
Nevertheless, the traditional speech of Tuscany is rightly
viewed as part of the collection of Dialects of Italy. Some of
the "dialects of Italy" should thus be considered distinct
languages in their own right by some scholars, and actually
are assigned to separate branches on the Romance
language family tree by Ethnologue and others academic
works. The Italian legislation recognise only two as proper
language: Friulian and Sardinian, in fact their regions are
recognised with a special status.

A clear example of the differences and the confusion
between dialects of Italy and dialects of Italian is the
following. Venetian language has a very different grammar
from Italian. In Venetian language (dialect of Italy): we are
arriving would be translated «sémo drio rivàr», which is
very far from the Italian «stiamo arrivando». The Venetian
dialect of Italian (inflessione veneziana) would be «stémo
rivando», which is how a Venetian would colloquially
pronounce the Italian «stiamo arrivando». However, due to
the unfortunate fact that, in Italian, the two different
definitions are often expressed with the same term "Dialetti
italiani", it is a common conviction that all of them are
varieties of standard Italian. So, Venetian language it is
popularly held by some to be a variety derived from
standard Italian, and the same is true for well-known
languages which show considerable differences in
grammar, syntax and vocabulary: for example, Neapolitan,
Sicilian, and Gallo-Italic languages.

For historical, cultural and political reasons, "dialects of
Italy" have not yet been given an official status, nor have
they developed a unified written standard; only three
(Sardinian, Ladin and Friulian) are considered as completely
distinct languages. All the dialects of Italy exhibit internal
variety, especially in Northern dialects, where the
fragmentation in different states was harder and where there
was isolation because of the mountains. For example
Lombardy, when you can find at least three different and
non-intercomprehensible linguistic groups (Western, Alpine
and Eastern), also divided into six varieties, in which, then,
there are differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon
between a village and another (especially in Western
Lombard): although, all the varieties spoken in Lombardy all
conventionally referred to as Lombard language.

List of Varieties of Italian Language

Dialect areas closest to Italian in features (Central
Italian)
Tuscan dialect (the base of modern Standard Italian, but
there are many differences) - Florentine dialect of Italian is
one of the most important
Umbrian
Marchigiano
Romanesco
Laziale
Corsican is generally considered to be related to Italian, and
particularly to the dialects of Tuscany.

Languages which influence the Italian language in
some Regions
- influence of Piedmontese language (Piedmont)
- influence of Franco-Provençal language (Valle d'Aosta)
- influence of Ladin language (Trentino-Alto Adige)
- influence of Western Lombard (Western Lombardy, Eastern
Piedmont, Swiss) and intermediate Western-Eastern
Lombard dialects - Milanese dialect of Italian (do not
confuse with Milanese dialect of Insubric) is one of the most
important with Florentine one
- influence of Eastern Lombard (Eastern Lombardy, Western
Trentino)
- influence of Venetian language (Veneto, Eastern Trentino,
Julian March, Brazil)
- influence of Emiliano-Romagnolo language
(Emilia-Romagna, Northern Marche)
- influence of Ligurian language (Liguria)
- influence of Corsican language and Gallurese (Corsica and
Northern Sardinia)
- influence of Sassarese language (Northern Sardinia)
- influence of Sardinian language (Central and Southern
Sardinia)
- influence of Friulian language (Friuli)
- influence of Neapolitan language (Campania, Abruzzo,
Molise, Northern Apulia, Northern Calabria, Basilicata)
- influence of Sicilian language (Sicily, Southern Calabria,
Southern Apulia)

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Italian History

Early Italy
Excavations throughout Italy and Sicily have surfaced evidence of human activity dating back to the Paleolithic period
(also called "Old Stone Age", referring to the period between 2.5Million to 200,000 years ago), and the Mesolithic period.
(Also called the "Middle Stone Age", the word Mesolithic usually refers specifically to a development in northwestern
Europe that began about 8000 BC, and lasted until about 2700 BC. By the beginning of the Neolithic period (the period
following the Mesolithic period during which men became herdsmen and cultivators, and modifiers of their environment
and the social structure became more complex), the small communities of hunters of earlier times had been replaced by
agricultural settlements, with some stock breeding and widespread use of stone implements and pottery. Painted vessels
that seem to have been influenced by contemporary styles in Greece have been found at Castellaro Vecchio on the island
of Lipari.

The Bronze Age
By 2000 BC immigrants from the east had brought the art of metalworking to southern Italy and Sicily; while northern
Italian cultures of the same period developed strong links with cultures north of the Alps. During the Bronze Age (c.1800-
1000 BC), most of central and southern Italy had unified to a culture known as the Apennine, recognized by large
agricultural and pastoral settlements. Evidence found in Sicily and on the southeastern coast of Italy suggests the start of
trading contacts with the Mycenaeans. After c.1500 BC, in the northern Italian Po Valley , the terramare culture -known for
building its villages on wooden piles, its new techniques of bronze workings, and its cremation rites- rose to prominence.
By the time of the introduction of iron into Italy (c.1000 BC), regional variations were well established.

People of Italy

The introduction of Indo-European languages (Latin, Osco-Umbrian, Venetic, and Messapian) into what is now "Italy" dates
back to the late Neolithic age. The great cultural units of historical Italy—Etruscan, Latin, Sabellian, and Iapygian in Apulia;
Venetic in Venetia—were formed in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. During the 7th century BC, the non-Indo-European
ETRUSCANS became the dominant people of central Italy today known as Tuscany. In a simultaneous development,
Greeks began settling around Italy's South Western shorelines and on Sicily. The Greeks made their mark as savvy
traders especially with their export of metals. The adoption of writing, an increasing trend of improved social structures
and the urbanization became the foundation of a rapidly developing social and economic transformation in southern and
coastal Etruria. Etruscan power, though never unified, was extended through migration, colonization, and conquest.
Etruscans founded cities in the Po Valley and in Campania and subjugated various Latin communities, Rome among them.
The Etruscan cities were loosely united in a religious league of 12 but were politically independent with independent
artistic traditions. The economy was based on agriculture, maritime trade and piracy.

Etruscan dominance ended in the 5th century with their expulsion from Latium and the loss of the sea to Greeks, of
Campania to the Sabelli, and of the Po Valley to the Gauls. From the 4th through the 1st centuries, Roman conquest,
colonization, and co-optation caused Etruscan civilization to decline and finally end. The Etruscans influenced Roman
institutions in various ways, and in spite of the fact that many of their gods were different from those of Rome, they had a
reputation at Rome for religious expertise. They were also renowned for luxury, because women were relatively free by
the standards of classical Greece.

The LATINS lived on the western (Tyrrhenian) coastal plain—Latium—that stretches from the Tiber in the north to Monte
Circeo 65 miles to the south. Northern Latium is enclosed on the east by the foothills of the Apennines; further south, the
Lepini Mountains mark the eastern boundary. Traditionally there were 50 small Latin communities which were united by
common Latin cults and by the common Latin rights of intermarriage, contractual dealing, and intermigration. By the 7th
century, contacts with Etruscans and Greeks had influenced the Latins to organize themselves into about a dozen
communities resembling Greek poleis. Although still tied to each other by intercommunal rights and common cults, these
Latin “city-states” became increasingly independent and competitive. By the late 6th century several of them had formed a
political league centered around Aricia, at the time when Etruscan Rome was pursuing an aggressive policy. Roman
preeminence in Latium ended abruptly with the expulsion of Etruscan kings in the late 6th century. Soon after this the Latin
League was formed, and a military alliance was made with Rome to defend the homeland against invading Aequi and
Volsci. A century of war left Latium free of invaders, but Rome was again poised to dominate the other Latins. This was
achieved by a Roman victory in the Latin War, 337–334 (343–338).

In the historical period the Apennines were inhabited by Sabellian peoples who spoke a variety of Osco-Umbrian
languages and who periodically raided and sometimes conquered the fertile plains around them. In historical times the
Sabines had moved into Latium where they are said to have exerted a formative influence on early Rome. The territories
of the Umbrians extended from the highlands east of the Arno and Tiber to the Adriatic coast between Rimini and Ancona.
Another Osco-Umbrian-speaking people from the central Apennines were the Aequi, who invaded Latium c. 500 BC. The
central Apennines were also home to the Umbrian-speaking Marsi. Further east, Oscan speakers—the Paeligni, Vestini,
and Marrucini—held sway; to the southeast, along the Adriatic coast, the Oscan-speaking Frentani dominated. Inhabiting
the south-central Apennines were the SAMNITES, who spoke an Oscan language and by the 4th century were united in a
loose but formidable confederation. During the late 5th and early 4th centuries, Oscan-speaking peoples moved into
Campania, Lucania, and Bruttium, where they came to be known as Campani, Lucani, and Bruttii, respectively.

GREEK COLONIZATION had a major influence on all the peoples of Italy and Sicily. The first Greek colony was
established at Cumae in 750, and Greeks continued founding colonies in Campania, Apulia, and eastern Sicily later known
as the Magna Graecia for the following two centuries.

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Italian Products

Pizza

Pizza (pronounced /ˈpiːtsə/ listen (help·info), in Italian: ['pit.tsa]) is the name of an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread
that is usually covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and often mozzarella cheese, with other toppings added
according to region, culture or personal preference. While originating as a part of Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become
popular in many different parts of the world. A shop or restaurant where pizzas are made and sold is called a "pizzeria".
The phrase "pizza parlor" is also used in the United States.

History of Pizza

Focaccia: an ancient Mediterranean flatbread.

Bread is one of humankind's oldest prepared foods and dates back at least to the neolithic. Records of people adding other
ingredients to bread in order to make it more flavorsome can be found throughout ancient history. The Ancient Greeks, for
example, had a flat bread called plakous (πλακούς, gen. πλακούντος - plakountos) which was flavored with various
toppings like herbs, onion and garlic. It is also said that soldiers of the Persian King, Darius the Great (521-486 B.C.)
baked a kind of bread flat upon their shields and then covered it with cheese and dates, and in the 1st century BC,[citation
needed] Virgil refers to the ancient idea of bread as an edible plate or “trencher” for other foods in this extract from the
Aeneid:

Their homely fare dispatch’d, the hungry band
Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour,
To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour.
Ascanius this observ’d, and smiling said:
“See, we devour the plates on which we fed.”
These flatbreads, like pizza, are from the Mediterranean area and other examples of flat breads that survive to this day
from the ancient Mediterranean world are "focaccia" which may date back as far as the Ancient Etruscans, coca (which
has sweet and savory varieties) from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, the Greek "Pita" or "Pide" in Turkish. Similar flat
breads in other parts of the world include the Indian "Paratha" , the Pakistani "Naan" and the German "Flammkuchen".

For much of the 20th century, many Chinese erroneously believed that pizza was an evolution of Chinese green onion
pancake, brought back to Italy by Marco Polo. Chinese opinions on pizza's invention often run along lines like this:

Marco Polo missed green onion pancakes so much that when he was back in Italy, he tried to find chefs willing to make
the pancake for him. One day, he managed to meet a chef from Naples at a friend's dinner party and persuaded him to try
recreating the dish. After half a day without success, Marco Polo suggested the filling be put at the top rather than inside
the dough. The change, by chance, created a dish praised by everyone at the party. The chefs returned to Naples and
improvised by adding cheese and other ingredients and formed today's pizza.

The belief has since been dissipated in places like Hong Kong where people have gained awareness of the existence of
focaccia, but is still extremely prevalent in some Chinese settlements such as mainland China. The belief that pizza was
invented in the USA is also still quite prevalent.

The Pizza and Naples

Antica Pizzeria Port 'Alba in Naples

The innovation which gave us the particular flat bread we call “pizza” was the use of tomato as a topping. For some time
after the tomato was brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, it was believed by many Europeans to be
poisonous (as are some other fruits of the nightshade family). However, by the late 18th century it was common for the
poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flat bread, and so the pizza was born. The dish gained in
popularity, and soon Pizza became a tourist attraction as visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city in
order to try the local specialty.

Until about 1830, pizza was sold from open-air stands and street vendors out of pizza bakeries. Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba
in Naples is widely regarded as the world's first pizzeria.[citation needed] They started producing pizzas for peddlers in
1738 but expanded to a pizza restaurant with chairs and tables in 1830, and still serve pizza from the same premises
today. A description of pizza in Naples around 1830 is given by the French writer and food expert Alexandre Dumas, père
in his work Le Corricolo, Chapter VIII. He writes that pizza was the only food of the humble people in Naples during winter,
and that "in Naples pizza is flavored with oil, lard, tallow, cheese, tomato, or anchovies".

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Marinara.

The Neapolitans take their pizza very seriously. Purists, like the famous pizzeria “Da Michele” in Via C.Sersale (founded:
1870) consider there to be only two true pizzas – the “Marinara” and the “Margherita” and that is all they serve. The
Marinara is the oldest and has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and usually basil. It was named
“Marinara” not, as many believe, because it has seafood on it (it doesn't) but because it was the food the fishermen ate
when they returned home from fishing trips in the Bay of Naples. The Margherita is attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito.
Esposito worked at the pizzeria "Pietro... e basta così" (literally "Peter... and that's enough" which was established in
1780 and is still operating under the name "Pizzeria Brandi". In 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King
Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen's favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag – green
(basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor.

"Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana" ("True Neapolitan Pizza Association"), which was founded in 1984 and only
recognises the Marinara and Margherita verace, has set the very specific rules that must be followed for an authentic
Neapolitan pizza. These include that the pizza must be baked in a wood-fired, domed oven at 485C for no more than 60 to
90 seconds; that the base must be hand-kneaded and must not be rolled with a pin or prepared by any mechanical means
and that the pizza must not exceed 35 centimetres in diameter or be more than a third of a centimetre thick at the centre.
The association also select Pizzerias all around the world to produce and spread the verace pizza napoletana philosophy
and method. There are many famous pizzerias in Naples where these traditional pizzas can be found like Da Michele,
Port'Alba, Brandi, Di Matteo, Sorbillo, Trianon and Umberto (founded: 1916). Most of them are centred on the ancient
historical centre of Naples. These pizzerias will go even further than the specified rules by, for example, only using "San
Marzano" tomatoes grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and only drizzling the olive oil in a clockwise direction.
Another addition to the rules is the use of basil on the pizza marinara - it's not in the "official" recipe but it is added by most
Neapolitan pizzerias.

The pizza bases in Naples are soft and pliable but in Rome they prefer a thin and crispy base. Another popular form of pizza
in Italy is "pizza al taglio" which is pizza baked in rectangular trays with a wide variety of toppings and sold by weight.

Pizza in the United States

Lombardi's Pizza at 32 Spring Street in Little Italy, Manhattan

Pizza first made its appearance in the United States with the arrival of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. This was
certainly the case in cities with large Italian populations, such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and
Philadelphia where pizza was first sold on the streets of Italian neighborhoods. In late 19th century Chicago for example,
pizza was introduced by a peddler who walked up and down Taylor Street with a metal washtub of pizzas on his head,
crying his wares at two cents a chew. This was the traditional way pizza used to be sold in Naples, in copper cylindrical
drums with false bottoms that were packed with charcoal from the oven to keep the pizzas hot. It wasn't long until small
cafes and groceries began offering pizzas to their Italian-American communities.

The first "official" pizzeria in America is disputable, but it is generally believed to have been founded by Gennaro
Lombardi in Little Italy, Manhattan. Gennaro Lombardi opened a grocery store in 1897 which later was established as the
first pizzeria in America in 1905 with New York's issuance of the mercantile license. An employee of his, Antonio Totonno
Pero, began making pizza for the store to sell that same year. The price for an entire pizza was five cents, but since many
people couldn't afford the cost of a whole pie, they could instead say how much they could pay and they were given a slice
corresponding to the amount offered. In 1924, Totonno left Lombardi's to open his own pizzeria on Coney Island called
Totonno's. While the original Lombardi's closed its doors in 1984, it was reopened in 1994 just down the street and is run
by Lombardi's grandson.

Pizza was brought to the Trenton area of New Jersey very early as well with Joe's Tomato Pies opening in 1910 followed
soon by Papa's Tomato Pies in 1912. In 1936, Delorenzo's Tomato Pies was opened. While Joe's Tomato Pies has closed,
both Papa's and Delorenzo's have been run by the same families since their openings and remain among the most popular
pizzas in the area. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut, was another early pizzeria which opened
in 1925 and is famous for its New Haven style Clam Pie. Frank Pepe's nephew Sal Consiglio opened a competing store,
Sally's, on the other end of the block, in 1938. Both establishments are still run by descendants of the original family. When
Sal died, over 2000 people attended his wake, and the New York Times ran a half-page memoriam. The D'Amore family
introduced pizza to Los Angeles in 1939.

Prior to the 1940s pizza consumption was limited mostly to Italian immigrants and their descendants. The international
breakthrough came after World War II. Allied troops occupying Italy, weary of their rations, were constantly on the lookout
for good food. They discovered the pizzeria, and local bakers were hard-pressed to satisfy the demand from the soldiers.
The American troops involved in the Italian campaign took their appreciation for the dish back home, touted by "veterans
ranging from the lowliest private to Dwight D. Eisenhower".

According to an article in American Heritage[11], the modern pizza industry was born in the Midwestern United States. Ric
Riccardo pioneered what became known as the deep dish pizza when, in 1943, he and Ike Sewell opened Pizzeria Uno in
Chicago, and a generation later, Tom Monaghan launched what soon became known as Domino's Pizza, credited by some
for popularizing free home delivery.

In 1948, the first commercial pizza-pie mix — ‘Roman Pizza Mix‘ — was produced in Worcester, Mass., by Frank A. Fiorillo.

With its rising popularity, chain restaurants moved in. Leading early pizza chains were Shakey's Pizza, founded in 1954 in
Sacramento, California, and Pizza Hut, founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas. Later entrant restaurant chains to the dine-in
pizza market were Bertucci's, Happy Joe's, California Pizza Kitchen, Godfather's Pizza, and Round Table Pizza.

Today, the American pizza business is dominated by companies that specialize in pizza delivery. Besides Domino's, this
includes Brooklyn Pizzeria, Little Caesar's, Papa John's Pizza, Giordano's Pizza, Pizza Ranch, Mazzio's and Godfather's
Pizza. Pizza Hut has also shifted its emphasis away from pizza parlors and toward home delivery. Another recent
development is the take and bake pizzeria, such as Papa Murphy's, at which raw pizzas are made from fresh ingredients
and taken home to be baked in the customers' own ovens.

Bases and Baking Methods
The bread base of the pizza (called the "crust" in the United States and Canada) may vary widely according to style: thin as
in hand-tossed pizza or Roman pizza, thick as in pan pizza, or very thick as in Chicago-style pizza. It is traditionally plain,
but may also be seasoned with butter, garlic, or herbs, or stuffed with cheese.

In restaurants, pizza can be baked in a gas oven with stone bricks above the heat source, an electric deck oven, a
conveyor belt oven or, in the case of more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven. On deck ovens, the
pizza can be slid into the oven on a long paddle called a peel and baked directly on the hot bricks or baked on a screen (a
round metal grate, typically aluminum). When making pizza at home, it can be baked on a pizza stone in a regular oven to
imitate the effect of a brick oven. Another option is grilled pizza, in which the crust is baked directly on a barbecue grill.
Greek pizza, like Chicago-style pizza, is baked in a pan rather than directly on the bricks of the pizza oven.

In home-made pizza, there are many variations on the bread used for crust. In some countries, creations such as french
bread pizza, pita pizza, bagel pizza, matzo pizza, and tortilla pizza are popular.

A wood-burning pizza oven.

Pizza Styles

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Margherita, the base for most kinds of pizza.

Neapolitan Pizza (Pizza Napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano
tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made
with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is
protected with its own European Protected designation of origin).[1] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione
vera pizza napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour (type 0 and/or 00), natural
Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for
bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the
rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be
no more than 3 mm (1/8 in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-
wood fire. When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. Neapolitan pizza has been given the status of a
"guaranteed traditional specialty" in Italy. This allows only three official variants: Pizza marinara, which is made with
tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), Pizza
Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra virgin olive oil, and Pizza Margherita Extra made with
tomato, buffalo mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

Pizza al Taglio in Rome.

Lazio Style: Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy is available in 2 different "flavors": 1) In take-
away shops so-called "Pizza Rustica" or "Pizza al Taglio". Pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively
thick (1-2 cm). The crust similar to that of an English muffin and mostly cooked in an electric oven. When purchased, it is
usually cut with scissors or knife and priced by weight. 2) In Pizza Restaurants (Pizzerias) it is served in a dish in its
traditional round shape. It features a thin crust similar to the Neapolitan style. It is mostly cooked in a wood-fired oven
which gives pizza its unique flavor and texture. In Rome a "Pizza Napoletana" is topped with tomato, mozzarella,
anchovies and oil (thus, what in Naples is called "Pizza Romana", in Rome is called "Pizza Napoletana").

Other types of Lazio-style pizza include:

Pizza Romana (in Naples): tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, oil;
Pizza Capricciosa ("Capricious Pizza"): mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichokes, cooked ham, olives, oil (in Rome,
Prosciutto raw ham is used and half a hard-boiled egg is added);
Pizza Quattro Stagioni ("Four Seasons Pizza"): same ingredients for the Capricciosa, but ingredients not mixed;
Pizza Quattro Formaggi ("Four Cheese Pizza"): tomatoes, mozzarella, stracchino, fontina, gorgonzola (sometimes
ricotta can be swapped for one of the last three);
Sicilian-Style Pizza has its toppings baked directly into the crust. An authentic recipe uses neither cheese nor
anchovies. Sicilian Pizza in the United States is typically a different variety of product made with a thick crust
characterized by a rectangular shape and topped with tomato sauce and cheese (and optional toppings). Pizza Hut's
Sicilian Pizza, introduced in 1994, is not an authentic example of the style as only garlic, basil, and oregano are mixed into
the crust;

White Pizza (Pizza Bianca) uses no tomato sauce, often substituting pesto or dairy products such as sour cream. Most
commonly, especially on the East Coast of the United States, the toppings consist only of mozzarella and ricotta cheese
drizzled with olive oil and spices like fresh basil and garlic. In Rome, the term pizza bianca refers to a type of bread
topped with olive oil, salt and, occasionally, rosemary leaves. It's also a Roman style, to top the white pizza with figs,
called Pizza e fichi (Pizza with figs);

Ripieno or Calzone is a pizza in the form of a half moon, sometimes filled with ricotta, salami and mozzarella; it can be
either fried or oven baked.

Similar Dishes
"Farinata" or "Cecina". A Ligurian (Farinata) and Tuscan (Cecina) regional dish made from chickpea flour, water, salt
and olive oil. Often baked in a brick oven, and typically weighed and sold by the slice.

Calzone and Stromboli are very similar dishes (Calzone is traditionally half-moon-shaped, while a Stromboli is tube-
shaped) that are often made of pizza dough rolled or folded around a filling.

Pizza is sometimes used as a general word for a savory pie; the Campanian Pizza Rustica and the Italian American
Pizzagiena (Easter pie) are examples of this more general sense.

Italian and European Law
In Italy there is a bill before Parliament to safeguard the Traditional Italian Pizza, specifying permissible ingredients and
methods of processing (e.g., excluding frozen pizzas). Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called
"Traditional Italian Pizzas", at least in Italy.

Italy has also requested that the European Union safeguard some Traditional Italian Pizzas, such as "Margherita" and
"Marinara". The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.

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Famous Italians

Dante Alighieri

Born: 14 May 1265
Florence, Italy
Died: 13 September 1321 (aged 56)
Ravenna, Italy
Occupation: Statesman, Poet, Language Theorist
Nationality: Italian

Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14 / June 13, 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), was an Italian poet from Florence. His
central work, the Divina Commedia (originally called "Commedia" and later called "Divina" (divine) by Boccaccio hence
"Divina Commedia"), is considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world
literature. In Italian he is known as "the Supreme Poet" (il Sommo Poeta). Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also known
as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". The first biography
written on him was by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), who wrote the Trattatello in laude di Dante.

Life

Dante Alighieri, painted by Giotto in the chapel of the Bargello palace in Florence.
This oldest portrait of Dante was painted during his lifetime before his exile from his native city.

The exact date of Dante's birth is unknown, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from
self biographic allusions in La Vita Nuova, "the Inferno" (Halfway through the journey we are living, implying that Dante
was around 35 years old, as the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalms, 89, 10) is 70 years, and as the imaginary
travel took place in the 1300 Dante must have been born around 1265) and "the Purgatory". Some verses of "the
Paradise" also provide information about the day he was born, stating that he was born under the Gemini sign, ie. the
period between the 21st of May and the 21st of June ("As I revolved with the eternal wins, I saw revealed from hills to
river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious", Paradise XXII 151-154)

His family was prominent in Florence, with loyalties to the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the Papacy and
which was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who were backed by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Dante pretended that his family descended from the ancient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relative he could
mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei (Paradiso, XV, 135), of no earlier than about 1100. Dante's father, Alighiero
di Bellincione, was a White Guelph (see politics section) who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellines won the Battle of
Montaperti in the mid 13th century. This suggests that Alighiero or his family enjoyed some protective prestige and status.

The poet's mother was Bella degli Abati. She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon married again,
to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. It is uncertain whether he really married her, as widowers had social limitations in these
matters. This woman definitely bore two children, Dante's brother Francesco and sister Tana (Gaetana).

Dante fought in the front rank of the Guelph cavalry at the battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289). This victory brought forth a
reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in public life, one had to be enrolled in one of “the arts”. So
Dante entered the guild of physicians and apothecaries. In following years, his name is frequently found recorded as
speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic.

When Dante was 12, in 1277, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Messer Manetto
Donati. Contracting marriages at this early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts
signed before a notary. Dante had already fallen in love with another girl, Beatrice Portinari (known also as Bice). Years
after Dante's marriage to Gemma he met Beatrice again. He had become interested in writing verse, and although he wrote
several sonnets to Beatrice, he never mentioned his wife Gemma in any of his poems.

Dante had several children with Gemma. As often happens with significant figures, many people subsequently claimed to
be Dante's offspring; however, it is likely that Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni, Gabrielle Alighieri, and Antonia were truly his
children. Antonia became a nun with the name of Sister Beatrice.

Education and Poetry
Not much is known about Dante's education, and it is presumed he studied at home. It is known that he studied Tuscan
poetry, at a time when the Sicilian School (Scuola poetica siciliana), a cultural group from Sicily, was becoming known in
Tuscany. His interests brought him to discover the Occitan poetry of the troubadours and the Latin poetry of classical
antiquity (with a particular devotion to Virgil).

Mural of Dante in the Uffizi Gallery, by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450.

During the "Secoli Bui" (Dark Ages), Italy had become a mosaic of small states, Sicily being the largest one, at the time
under the Angevine dominations, and as far (culturally and politically) from Tuscany as Occitania was: the regions did not
share a language, culture, or easy communications. Nevertheless, we can assume that Dante was a keen up-to-date
intellectual with international interests.

At 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and soon after Brunetto Latini; together they became the
leaders of Dolce Stil Novo ("The Sweet New Style"). Brunetto later received a special mention in the Divine Comedy
(Inferno, XV, 28), for what he had taught Dante. Nor speaking less on that account, I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who
are His most known and most eminent companions. Some fifty poetical components by Dante are known (the so-called
Rime, rhymes), others being included in the later Vita Nuova and Convivio. Other studies are reported, or deduced from
Vita Nuova or the Comedy, regarding painting and music.

When he was nine years old he met Beatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, with whom he fell in love "at first
sight", and apparently without even having spoken to her. He saw her frequently after age 18, often exchanging greetings
in the street, but he never knew her well—he effectively set the example for the so-called "courtly love". It is hard now to
understand what this love actually comprised, but something extremely important for Italian culture was happening. It was
in the name of this love that Dante gave his imprint to the Stil Novo and would lead poets and writers to discover the
themes of Love (Amore), which had never been so emphasized before. Love for Beatrice (as in a different manner
Petrarch would show for his Laura) would apparently be the reason for poetry and for living, together with political
passions. In many of his poems, she is depicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly.

When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante tried to find a refuge in Latin literature. The Convivio reveals that he had read
Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero's De amicitia.

He then dedicated himself to philosophical studies at religious schools like the Dominican one in Santa Maria Novella. He
took part in the disputes that the two principal mendicant orders (Franciscan and Dominican) publicly or indirectly held in
Florence, the former explaining the doctrine of the mystics and of Saint Bonaventure, the latter presenting Saint Thomas
Aquinas' theories.

This "excessive" passion for philosophy would later be criticized by the character Beatrice, in Purgatorio, the second
book of the Comedy.

Statue of Dante at the Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Florence and Politics
Dante, like most Florentines of his day, was embroiled in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict. He fought in the battle of
Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against Arezzo Ghibellines, then in 1294 he was among the
escorts of Charles Martel d'Anjou (son of Charles of Anjou) while he was in Florence.

To further his political career, he became a pharmacist. He did not intend to actually practice as one, but a law issued in
1295 required that nobles who wanted public office had to be enrolled in one of the Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri,
so Dante obtained admission to the apothecaries' guild. This profession was not entirely inapt, since at that time books
were sold from apothecaries' shops. As a politician, he accomplished little, but he held various offices over a number of
years in a city undergoing political unrest.

After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi) — Dante's party,
led by Vieri dei Cerchi — and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although initially the split was along
family lines, ideological differences rose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine affairs, with the Blacks
supporting the Pope and the Whites wanting more freedom from Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and expelled the
Blacks.

In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles de Valois, brother of Philip the
Fair king of France, was expected to visit Florence because the Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany. But the
city's government had treated the Pope's ambassadors badly a few weeks before, seeking independence from papal
influence. It was believed that Charles de Valois would eventually have received other unofficial instructions. So the
council sent a delegation to Rome to ascertain the Pope's intentions. Dante was one of the delegates.

Exile and Death
Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome. At the same time (November 1,
1301), Charles de Valois entered Florence with Black Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and
killed many of their enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed and Messer Cante dei Gabrielli di Gubbio
was appointed Podestà of Florence. Dante was condemned to exile for two years, and ordered to pay a large fine. The poet
was still in Rome, where the Pope had "suggested" he stay, and was therefore considered an absconder. He did not pay
the fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty, and in part because all his assets in Florence had been seized by
the Black Guelphs. He was condemned to perpetual exile, and if he returned to Florence without paying the fine, he could
be burned at the stake.

Statue of Dante in the Piazza di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.

The poet took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due to treachery. Dante, bitter
at the treatment he received from his enemies, also grew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his erstwhile
allies, and vowed to become a party of one. At this point, he began sketching the foundation for the Divine Comedy, a work
in 100 cantos, divided into three books of thirty-three cantos each, with a single introductory canto.

He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala, then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later, he is supposed to have
lived in Lucca with Madame Gentucca, who made his stay comfortable (and was later gratefully mentioned in Purgatorio,
XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources say that he was also in Paris between 1308 and 1310. Other sources, even less
trustworthy, take him to Oxford.

Statue of Dante in the Piazza Dante in Naples, Italy.

A recreated death mask of Dante Alighieri (in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy).

The memorial tomb for Dante Alighieri at Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.

Dante Alighieri's tomb in Ravenna, Italy, built in 1780.

In 1310, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, marched 5,000 troops into Italy. Dante saw in him a new
Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and also re-take Florence from
the Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs. Mixing
religion and private concerns, he invoked the worst anger of God against his city, suggesting several particular targets
that coincided with his personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote the first two books of the Divine Comedy.

In Florence, Baldo d'Aguglione pardoned most of the White Guelphs in exile and allowed them to return; however, Dante
had gone too far in his violent letters to Arrigo (Henry VII), and he was not recalled.

In 1312, Henry assaulted Florence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante was involved.
Some say he refused to participate in the assault on his city by a foreigner; others suggest that he had become unpopular
with the White Guelphs too and that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed. In 1313, Henry VII died, and with
him any hope for Dante to see Florence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live in
a certain security and, presumably, in a fair amount of prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante's Paradise (Paradiso,
XVII, 76).

In 1315, Florence was forced by Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military officer controlling the town) to grant an amnesty to
people in exile, including Dante. But Florence required that as well as paying a sum of money, these exiles would do
public penance. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile.

When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dante's death sentence was commuted to house arrest, on condition that he go to
Florence to swear that he would never enter the town again. Dante refused to go. His death sentence was confirmed and
extended to his sons.

Dante still hoped late in life that he might be invited back to Florence on honourable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly a
form of death, stripping him of much of his identity. He addresses the pain of exile in Paradiso, XVII (55-60), where
Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, warns him what to expect:

. . . Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta ". . . You shall leave everything you love most:
più caramente; e questo è quello strale this is the arrow that the bow of exile
che l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta. shoots first. You are to know the bitter taste
Tu proverai sì come sa di sale of others' bread, how salty it is, and know
lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle how hard a path it is for one who goes
lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale . . . ascending and descending others' stairs . . ."

As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it wistfully, as if he had already accepted its impossibility, (Paradiso,
XXV, 1–9):

Se mai continga che 'l poema sacro If it ever come to pass that the sacred poem
al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra, to which both heaven and earth have set their hand
sì che m'ha fatto per molti anni macro, so as to have made me lean for many years
vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi serra should overcome the cruelty that bars me
del bello ovile ov'io dormi' agnello, from the fair sheepfold where I slept as a lamb,
nimico ai lupi che li danno guerra; an enemy to the wolves that make war on it,
con altra voce omai, con altro vello with another voice now and other fleece
ritornerò poeta, e in sul fonte I shall return a poet and at the font
del mio battesmo prenderò 'l cappello . . . of my baptism take the laurel crown...

Of course it never happened. Prince Guido Novello da Polenta invited him to Ravenna in 1318, and he accepted. He
finished the Paradiso, and died in 1321 (at the age of 56) while returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission to Venice,
perhaps of malaria contracted there. Dante was buried in Ravenna at the Church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San
Francesco). Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice in 1483, took care of his remains by building a better tomb.

On the grave, some verses of Bernardo Canaccio, a friend of Dante, dedicated to Florence:

parvi Florentia mater amoris
"Florence, mother of little love"
Eventually, Florence came to regret Dante's exile, and made repeated requests for the return of his remains. The
custodians of the body at Ravenna refused to comply, at one point going so far as to conceal the bones in a false wall of
the monastery. Nevertheless, in 1829, a tomb was built for him in Florence in the basilica of Santa Croce. That tomb has
been empty ever since, with Dante's body remaining in Ravenna, far from the land he loved so dearly. The front of his tomb
in Florence reads Onorate l'altissimo poeta - which roughly translates as "Honour the most exalted poet". The phrase is a
quote from the fourth canto of the Inferno, depicting Virgil's welcome as he returns among the great ancient poets spending
eternity in Limbo. The continuation of the line, L'ombra sua torna, ch'era dipartita ("his spirit, which had left us, returns"), is
poignantly absent from the empty tomb.

Recently, a recreation of Dante's face was made, showing that his features were much more ordinary than once thought.

Works

Dante, poised between the mountain of purgatory and the city of Florence, displays the famous incipit Nel mezzo del
cammin di nostra vita in a detail of Domenico di Michelino's painting, Florence, Italy 1465.

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso),
guided first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and of another of his works, La Vita
Nuova. While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other
books require a certain amount of patience and knowledge to appreciate. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the
three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic
passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face
of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII,
142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in a new language he called "Italian", based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, with some
elements of Latin and of the other regional dialects. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he
established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression. In French, Italian is nicknamed la
langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey
Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin (the languages of liturgy, history, and
scholarship in general). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for
greater levels of literacy in the future.

Profile portrait of Dante, by Sandro Botticelli (1444–1510).

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious
scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years
of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be more trivial in nature. Furthermore, the
word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not
only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to
an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise is the
paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of
God.

Dante's other works include the Convivio ("The Banquet"), a collection of Dante's longest poems with an (unfinished)
allegorical commentary; Monarchia, which was condemned and burned after Dante's death by the Papal Legate Bertrando
del Poggetto and which serves as a monumental political philosophy treatise describing a monarchial global political
organization and its relationship to the Roman Catholic Church; De vulgari eloquentia ("On the Eloquence of Vernacular"),
on vernacular literature, partly inspired by the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun; and, La Vita Nuova ("The
New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who also served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy.
The Vita Nuova contains many of Dante's love poems in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vernacular had been
regularly used for lyric works before, during all the thirteenth century. However, Dante's commentary on his own work is
also in the vernacular - both in the Vita Nuova and in the Convivio - instead of the Latin that was almost universally used.

Note: References to Divina Commedia are in the format (book, canto, verse), i.e., (Inferno, XV, 76).

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THE ITALIAN PROJECT www.theitalianproject.com

ITALIAN LANGUAGE: Classification - Geographic Distribution - Italian Language
Education - Influence and Derived Languages - Lingua Franca - Italian Dialects -
Origin of Italian Dialects - Current Usage - Dialects of Italian and Dialects of Italy - List
of Varieties of Italian Language
ITALIAN GENEALOGY: How to Find Places of your Ancestors and Living Relatives in
Italy
ITALIAN REGIONS: Liguria
ITALIAN PROVINCES: Genova - Imperia - La Spezia - Savona
ITALIAN RECIPES: Cheese Tortellini with Walnut Pesto - Spaghetti with Tomatoes,
Basil, Olives, and Fresh Mozzarella
ITALIAN HISTORY: Early Italy - The Bronze Age - People of Italy
FAMOUS ITALIANS: Dante Alighieri
ITALIAN COMPANIES: Barilla
ITALIAN PRODUCTS: Pizza
ITALIAN LATEST NEWS: Life in Italy

In This Issue:

Issue # 2, February 2008

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Italian Recipes

Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Basil,
Olives, and Fresh Mozzarella

Ingredients
2 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
3/4 pound salted fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch cubes,
at room temperature
1 1/4 cups chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup halved and pitted black olives
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

Nutrition Info Per Serving
Calories: 1040 kcal
Carbohydrates: 102 g
Dietary Fiber: 6 g
Fat: 55 g
Protein: 32 g
Sugars: 12 g

Cooking Directions
In a large glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the
chopped tomatoes with the mozzarella, basil, olives,
balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti
until just done, about 12 minutes. Drain, add to the tomato
mixture, and toss.
Heat the oil in a small frying pan over moderately low heat.
Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour the oil
over the pasta and toss again.
Yield: 4 servings

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Dialects of Italy by Groups

Languages and Dialects of Italy
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