According to legend, refugees from Troy founded Rome in 753 BC. Historically,  the first identifiable inhabitants were Etruscans in the central regions and Greeks in the south.

Rome drove out the Etruscans, destroyed the Greeks, triumphed over the Carthaginian (North African) invaders and by 250 BC dominated the whole peninsula. Civil strife led to civil war until Augustus in 27 BC became head of what was by then the Roman Empire. It reached the zenith of its power soon after AD 100. Assaulted at home and abroad by Goths, Huns, Persians and Franks, the Empire had collapsed by about 450 AD and for the next 1,400 years Italy was nothing but a geographical expression. An Eastern Empire, capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul), continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean; Lombards made Milan the capital of their own kingdom; then came Saxons, Normans, the German Hohenstaufens, Angevins (French) and Aragonese (Spanish), whose heritage is still evident all over Italy.

The finest flowering of culture in Italy, known as the Renaissance, lasted from about 1300 to 1550. Its centre was Florence and the violent squabbits which impoverished other city states of the peninsula did not obstruct its progress. From this period onward the Church was influential, and a notable patron of arts and literature.

In succeeding centuries, France and Spain battled for Italy. Bonaparte’s French army swept through in 1796 and gathered the country into a group of client states. It was, however, the Austrians in the north and the Spanish Bourbons and Papal armies in the south who had to be driven out before Cavour, Prime Minister to the King of Sardinia, could make a bid for a unified Italy. In 1870, with the aid of Garibaldi, the royalists achieved their aims. ‘Italy is made,’ said Massimo d’Azeglio, ‘Now let us make the Italians.’

United Italy embarked on some disastrous colonial adventures. Though she came late into the First World War, her rewards were Trentino, Alto Adige and Trieste. Mussolini, a newspaper editor, took advantage of labour troubles to establish a Fascist state and ally himself with Germany in the Second World War. His ignoble end and the monarchy’s unpopularity brought in a succession of republican governments which against all odds produced the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s. Italy today is a strong member (and beneficiary) of the EU and a formidable power in Europe. But unsteady governments, mafia scandals and corruption in high places remain a feature of public life.

KEY DATES

Early history

Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus               753 BC

Etruscan cities in Italy                                          750 BC

Greeks settle in south                                           734 BC

Roman Republic

Roman republic founded                                         510 BC

Rome extends authority over central Italy                290 BC

Rome expels the Greeks                                         275 BC

Hannibal the Carthaginian invades Italy                    219 BC

End of Punic (Carthaginian) wars                              146 BC

Julius Caesar assassinated                                        44 BC

Roman Empire

Augustus inaugurates Golden Age of culture               27 BC

Persecution of Christians under Nero                         AD 64

Vesuvius eruption destroys Pompeii                           79

Roman Empire at zenith of its power                         117

Empire divided, East and West                                  395

Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth                                410

Lombards invade Italy                                               568

Rome becomes centre of Christian world                     590

Charlemagne becomes first Holy Roman Emperor        800

Middle Ages

Rise of Venice as sea power                                   1125

Death of St Francis of Assisi                                  1226

Massacre of the Normans in Sicily                          1282

Death of Dante                                                     1321

Renaissance

Lorenzo de’ Medici rules Florence                            1469

Birth of Michelangelo                                              1476

Consecration of St Peter’s, Rome                             1626

Milan, Naples and other cities ceded to Austria          1715

Spanish Bourbons established in Naples                    1734

Bonaparte conquers Italy                                         1797

Risorgimento

Italy and France at war with Austria                        1859

Garibaldi seizes Sicily                                             1860

Kingdom of Italy established                                   1870

Modern times

Italy enters the First World War                              1915

Mussolini’s march on Rome                                     1922

End of Fascist era                                                   1943

Republic of Italy established                                    1946

Treaty of Rome established the European
Economic Community, now the EU                           1953

Italian becomes one of five ‘official’
European languages                                                1973

Umberto, last king of Italy, died in exile                     1981

KEY CULTURAL THEMES, PLACES AND TERMS

Pre-history

Nuraghi towers (many sites in Sardinia); trulli (beehive-shaped huts, Valle d’ltria, Puglia).

Pre-Roman and Ancient Rome

Etruscan civilization: Lazio region north of Rome; museums of Tarquinia, Volterra, Chiusi, Villa Giulia (Rome).

Magna Graecia: Segesta, Selinunte, Agrigento, Syracuse, Taormina (all in Sicily); Paestum, Metaponto; museums of Naples and Reggio Calibria.

Rome, Ostia Antica, Tivoli, Ercolano, Pompeii, Verona, Turin, Aosta, Brescia, Piazza Armerina (Sicily); national museums of Rome and Naples.

Early churches and monasteries

Rome, Milan, Padua, Stilo (Calabria), towns of Lombardy, Tuscany, Puglia; La Verna (Tuscany), Monte Sant’ Angelo (Puglia), Monte Cassino; Ravenna, Monreale for mosaics.

Renaissance painters

Assisi and Arezzo (Cimabue); Arezzo, San Sepolcro, Urbino (Piero della Francesca); Florence (Giotto, Uccel-lo, Botticelli, Fra Filippo Lippi, Ghirlandaio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael); Padua (Giotto); Parma (Correggio); Prato (Lippi); Milan (da Vinci); Mantua (Mantegna); Perugia (Perugino); Venice (Gior-gione, Titian, Veronese); Rome (Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio); Naples (Correggio, Caravaggio).

Baroque painters

Venice (Guardi, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Tintoretto).

Sculpture and architecture

Pisa (Pisano family); Florence (Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini); Padua (Donatello); Rome (Michelangelo, Bramante, Bernini); Venice (Verrocchio, Palladio); Vicenza and neighbourhood (Pal-ladio); Monte San Savino (Sansovino).

Art galleries

The world-famous ones are the Uffizi, Pitti and Accademia in Florence; the Brera in Milan; the Accademia in Venice and the Capitoline and Borghese in Rome.

Modern architecture

Turin, Milan, Rome; leading modern art galleries are in Milan, Rome, Florence and Ancona.

Opera

Major venues are La Scala, Milan, San Carlo, Naples and the opera theatres of Parma, Genoa, Rome, Palermo, Catania, Bologna, Trieste and Bergamo. The season is December to May, but summer opera, al fresco, is performed in Verona, Macerata, Rome and Rimini.

Drama and music festivals

Are held in summer in many towns, the best being Florence, Ravenna, Rome, Siena, Stresa, Pesaro, Torre del Lago Puccini and Syracuse.