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About Italya

     Italy (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic, (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.

     Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the movement of the Italian Renaissance. Italy's capital Rome has been the center of Western Civilization, and is the center of the Catholic Church.

     Today, Italy is a democratic republic, and a developed country with the 7th-highest GDP (nominal) and the 17th-highest Human Development Index rating in the world. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union (having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957), and also a member of the G8, the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Beginning January 1, 2007, Italy became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Italy is also a modern great power, and a regional power.

     The origin of the term "Italy" (It: Italia), from Latin Ītalia, is uncertain. According to one of the more common explanations, the term was borrowed through Greek, from Oscan Víteliú, meaning "land of young cattle" (cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf") and named for the god of cattle, Mars. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italian tribes and is often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Samnite Wars.

      The name Italia applied to a part of what is now southern Italy. According to Antiochus of Syracuse, it originally only referred to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria), but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to use the name "Italia" for a greater region, but it was not until the time of the Roman conquests that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula

 

About Bolzano

     Bolzano (Italian: Bolzano; German: Bozen, archaic Botzen; Ladin: Bulsan; Latin: Bauzanum; many of the region's Italian languages/dialects use Bolzan or Bulsan) is a city in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of Italy. It is the capital of the province of Bolzano-Bozen. The South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano is where the ice-mummy "Ötzi" is kept.

    Initially inhabited by the Raetians, the area was settled by the Romans in 15 BC, by general Nero Claudius Drusus, to whom referred the name of the first settlement in the area (an army camp with a bridge by the Isarco river). The nearby founded village was called Bauzanum. Bolzano has been a trading point since its foundation and elevation to a town over 800 years ago, due to its location in between the two major cities of Venice and Augsburg. Four times a year a market was held and traders came from the south and the north. The mercantile magistrate was therefore founded in 1635. Every market season two Italian and two German officers (appointed from the traders who operated there) worked in this office. The city was a cultural crosspoint at that time.

     The city's Italian-Austrian character, enhanced by the narrow cobblestone streets, Habsburg-era churches and pervasive bilingual signage give it the unique flavour of a city at crossroads between Italian and Austrian cultures. This, and its natural and cultural attractions make it a renowned tourist destination.

Among the major monuments and sights are:

• Walther Square, with a statue of Walther von der Vogelweide, the German minstrel (minnesinger);
• the South Tyrol Archeological Museum, which hosts the mummy of Ötzi the Iceman;
• the Gothic Cathedral, started in 1184, probably on the foundations of a Roman villa and rebuilt in the 14th Century by architects Martin and Peter Schiche (completed 1382);
• various castles, including Mareccio Castle, Roncolo Castle and Firmiano Castle;
• the First World War Victory Monument, a controversial monument built by Mussolini in 1928.
• the Messner Mountain Museum Firmian

For more historical and geographical information, see Province of Bolzano-Bozen.