Traditional Sports

Italy is popular for some sport such as football because the Italian national football

team, called Azzurri for their blue shirts, is one of the best national teams in the world as

it has won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006).

FORMULA 1

Formula 1 is very popular because of the Ferrari, which is a car completely designed and built in Italy. The company is located in Maranello. The official car race track is in Monza, where fans, coming from every part in Italy, join and support the Red Ferrari.

Moto GP

MotoGP is another popular sport. The Italian circuit is the Mugello one, which is in Emilia Romagna, where the most important Italian pilots were born. In this region there is a strong passion for motorbikes as it is practiced by the drivers since they were children.

Cycling

Cycling is another sport, practiced by a lot of people also as amateur sport. In Italy there is the Giro d'Italia which is an annual bicycle race. It is as the same as Tour de France and Vuelta de España. This tour lasts 3 weeks and it is usually held towards the end of May and beginning of June. It is performed throughout all Italy and it finishes in Milan. The winner of each cycling stage receives the pink shirt.

But there are also other sports that are so old whose existence we Italians ignore like:

CALCIO STORICO FIORENTINO

Calcio Storico Fiorentino which is a football match played in Florence since XIV century. It is considered the father of football as it is similar to it. The match is played on a sand field and lasts 50 minutes. It is played by two teams whose objective is to throw the ball into the net using feet or hands.

TROTTOLA

Trottola, in English spinning top, consists of launching the top on a limited ground. It is a challenge between two players in which each of them can bump the opponent’s top in order to make it fall or to get it out of the limited space. The looser has to pay his forfait.

TIRO ALLA FUNE

Tiro alla fune, in English tug of war, consists of pulling a rope. It is played by two teams of 8 players. The players have to be of the same weight and the minimum age to take part in is 15.

LANCIO DEL RUZZOLONE The word ruzzolone derives from

ruzzolare which means to roll. It is a wooden disc with a spool and handle. The track is about 500 meters. The game consists of throwing the ruzzolone from the starting point of the track to the destination, with the fewest number of throws. It's a very old game dating back to the XV century. Originally a piece of cheese was used instead of the ruzzolone. This game is still played. The winner receives as a prize the opponent’s cheese.

BOCCE SU STRADA

Boccia su strada, in English road bowl is played in all the Italian regions. It is played on road individually or in teams and consists of a bowl of iron of 1 kg. The bowl is thrown three times. The player or team that covers more road is the winner.

LIPPA Lippa is a small wooden piece which has to

be hit with a stick by the player. The winner is the person who throws the wooden piece as far as possible.

Other sports like lippa are rebatta and fiolet, in which the player has to hit with a stick a small ball.

Other traditional sports are “tiro con la fionda” (slingshot) e “tiro con la balestra” (crossbow).

Famous people of Italy

Italy is a country rich in history, culture and art. We introduce some

people representing these areas.

Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are the founders of Rome. According to the legend when they were baby they were abandoned. They were saved and feed by a she wolf. Then a shepherd found them and fostered them to manhood. They decided to found a new town and had a quarrel about its location. Romulus killed Remus and founded the new town, whose name is Rome, after himself. This was the first step to the Roman Empire.

Italian Renaissance

Raffaello Michelangelo Leonardo

Italian arti sts

Raffaello Raffaello Sanzio Urbino, was

painter and architect. He started to work very young . He worked mainly in Florence and his masterpieces are: "Coronation of the Virgin", the "Marriage of the Virgin” and painting frescoes in the Vatican Stanze. He exploited the perspective in almost every aspect of architectural illusionism.

Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti was a

sculptor, painter and architect. His style is characterized by a

strong sense of sculpture even in his painting works.

His most important works are :

“David”, Florence. “The Judgemen”, Sistine Chapel, Rome “Pietà”, Vaticane, Rome

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was painter, engineer and scientist. L’Ultima Cena was one of his most famous paintings even if his masterpiece is “Gioconda” also known as “Monna Lisa”. Leonardo was also interested in human anatomy and birds and made a series of essays and drawings about the possibility of human flight. He was the first to make some study about optics, as well.

Past and Present

Galileo Galilei Rita Levi Montalcini

Science

Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei was physicist, philosopher,

astronomer and mathematician. He is considered the father of modern science. He perfected the telescope thanks to which he confirmed the Copernican theory showing for the first time that the planets revolve around the sun and not the opposite. He made many important astronomical discoveries and observations like the moon morphology . He created the scientific method which consists of four phases: 1 - to observe nature; 2 - to write about what you have observed; 3 - to propose a general theory; 4 - to test the theory with experiment.

Rita Levi Montalcini

Rita Levi Montalcini was a great scientist who made a lot of investigations about NGF , nerve growth factor. Her investigations helped the understanding of disease like cancer , Alzheimer and Parkinson. That’s why she received the Nobel Prize for medecine in 1986.

Classic music Modern music

Verdi Pavarotti Pausini Ramazzotti

Bocelli

Puccini Rossini

Music

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer. He is considered with Richard Wagner the most influential composer of operas of the nineteenth century. His most famous works are influenced by popular culture and they are Rigoletto, La traviata, Nabucco, and Aida. The last 10th October was his birth bicentenary, which was celebrated all over the world.

Puccini and Rossini After Verdi the most

important composers are Puccini and Rossini.Puccini’s most important operas are: La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot. Rossini’ s masterpieces are: The Barber of Sevilla and William Tell.

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti was a popular tenor in all over the

world thanks to his voice, intense and shrill, as well as for being a friendly and communicative person.He sang with great artists like Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. They were called “The Three Tenors”. They performed in a lot of concerts all over the world.

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli is a tenor,

considered the heir to Pavarotti. He began his career at the Italian Sanremo Musical Festival. Since that moment his performances are characterized by worldwide tours in collaboration with famous foreign singers.

Laura Pausini Laura Pausini is a singer-

songwriter. In her career she has won the most prestigious international awards. She took part in some international music events like the concert in New York dedicated to September 11th

Ramazzotti Eros Ramazzotti is another

singer- songwriter. He is known abroad thanks to his album “Dove c’è musica” and he was on the top spot in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Sweden and the USA.

CINEMA Federico Fellini Sofia Loren

Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. He is considered one of the most influential film directors of the 20th century. He won the highest number of Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film in the history.He directed La Dolce Vita that won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Costumes.

Sophia Loren is an actress. She started her career very young and she became a sex symbol. She acted in many films directed by Vittorio De Sica : “La ciociara”, in which she played a dramatic role and thanks to which she won the Oscar for Best Actress, “Ieri, oggi, domani” and “Matrimonio all’italiana”, for which she received a second Oscar nomination.

Fashion

Dolce & Gabbana Valentino

Giorgio Armani

Valentino

Valentino, is the founder of the Valentino spa brand and company. His style is classic and he became

so famous in the world for his red dresses.

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana are founders of an Italian luxury fashion house that started in Milan in 1985 with their first women’s collection.

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani, known as “Re Giorgio” (King

Giorgio), arrived on the scene with his radical new suits, menswear known as the Armani Way. His style is sensual and simple and has became a way of life.

Business

Enzo Ferrari Gianni Agnelli

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Ferrari was an engineer, businessman and also

a pilot. He was the founder of the Ferrari car company in Maranello and of the Ferrari Stable concerning the car race Formula 1.

Gianni Agnelli Gianni Agnelli was a businessman, the main shareholder and

manager of FIAT. Known even such as “The Lawyer”, Agnelli represented the most prestigious figure of the Italian economy as he tried and succeed in making Fiat international thanks to the collaboration with other foreign car companies. He is also remembered as the president of Juventus F.C.