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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 Napoli

Naples (Italian: Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is the capital city of the Campania region and the Province of Naples. Its ancient name was Neapolis, that is "new city". Its metropolitan area is the second most populated in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. It is located halfway between the volcano, Vesuvius and a separate volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei, both of which form part of the Campanian volcanic arc.

The city itself in the central area has a population of around 1 million, the inhabitants are known as Neapolitans, (Italian: napoletani) or poetically partenopei. It is rich in historical, artistic and cultural traditions and gastronomy. The Neapolitan language is the geographically most diffuse Italian language, similar variations of the Neapolitan dialect ('o napulitano) are spoken throughout most of Southern Italy.

Between 1266 and 1861, Naples was the capital town of the Kingdom of Naples (later of the Two Sicilies), usually simply indicated as "the Kingdom", other Italian states having different denominations. This history, coupled with its size, has given Naples the unofficial status of being the capital of the Italian South (Mezzogiorno).

In the modern day, the city is served by Naples International Airport at Capodichino, a civil airport hosted by a military one, once outside the town, now surrounded by built up area.

In 1995 the Historic Centre of Naples was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Although Naples is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and rich in history and monuments, it is sometimes overlooked by mass tourism and is less visited than other Italian cities. There are, however, many attractions within the city. Naples has 448 historical churches.

Historic castles, palaces and museums

• Castel dell'Ovo
• Castel Capuano
• Maschio Angioino or Castel Nuovo (the New Castle)
• Certosa di San Martino
• Castel Sant'Elmo
• Carmine Castle
• Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte
• Royal Palace
• National Archaeological Museum
• Villa Pignatelli
• Palazzo Como
• Pietrarsa railway museum
• Palazzo Serra di Cassano