italy

Italy is not a uniform country that happens to be divided into regions — it is a federation of cultures, cuisines, dialects, and landscapes that arrived at something called Italy after a process of political unification in 1861 that the participants were not entirely convinced by and that the regions themselves have been negotiating ever since. The olive oil in Puglia is not the olive oil in Liguria; the pasta in Emilia is not the pasta in Naples; the Nebbiolo grape in the Langhe is not the Nebbiolo grape in Valtellina. These are not trivial variations — they are the substance of what Italy is.Articles in this section cover Italy in its national dimension: the themes, habits, cultural patterns, and historical contexts that run across the regions and make the specific variations comprehensible. The best starting point for readers approaching Italy for the first time, and for those who have been many times and want to understand it more.