Campania
Campania is a region in Southern Italy. As of 2018, the region has a population of around 5,820,000 people, making it the third-most-populous region of Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands and Capri for administration as part of the region. Campania was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture; the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture in regard to gastronomy, architecture and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Oplontis, Aeclanum and Velia; the name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, which translates into English as "fertile countryside" or "happy countryside". The rich natural sights of Campania make it important in the tourism industry along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri; the original inhabitants of Campania were three defined groups of the Ancient peoples of Italy, who all spoke the Oscan language, part of the Italic family.
During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, began to establish colonies in the area around the modern day province of Naples. Another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. Since the Samnites were more warlike than the Campanians, they took over the cities of Capua and Cumae, in an area, one of the most prosperous and fertile in the Italian Peninsula at the time. During the 340s BC, the Samnites were engaged in a war with the Roman Republic in a dispute known as the Samnite Wars, with the Romans securing rich pastures of northern Campania during the First Samnite War; the major remaining independent Greek settlement was Neapolis, when the town was captured by the Samnites, the Neapolitans were left with no other option than to call on the Romans, with whom they established an alliance, setting off the Second Samnite War. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC and allowed it to remain a Greek city with some autonomy as a civitas foederata while aligned with Rome.
The Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a full-fledged part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures and rich countryside, its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, creating the first traces of Greco-Roman culture. During the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious, they renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was second only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, allied with Carthage; the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls. Capua was starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, the Romans were victorious; the rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised.
As part of the Roman Empire, with Latium, formed the most important region of the Augustan divisions of Italia. In ancient times Misenum, at the extreme northern end of the bay of Naples, was the largest base of the Roman navy, since its port was the base of the Classis Misenensis, the most important Roman fleet, it was first established as a naval base in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa, the right-hand man of the emperor Augustus. Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri, it was during this period that Christianity came to Campania. Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, there were several martyrs during this time; the period of relative calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. With the Decline of the Roman Empire, its last emperor, Romulus Augustus, was put in a manor house prison near Castel dell'Ovo, Naples, in 476, ushering in the beginning of the Middle Ages and a period of uncertainty in regard to the future of the area.
The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards. Under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples, it was during this period that elements of Spanish and Aragonese culture were introduced to Campania. After a period as a Norman kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily passed to the Hohenstaufens, who were a powerful Germanic royal house of Swabian origins; the University of Naples Federico II was founded by Frederick II in the city, the oldest state university in the world, making Naples the intellectual centre of the kingdom. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy, led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning Angevin Dynasty duke Charles I as the king. Charles moved the capital from Palermo to Naples where he resided at the Castel Nuovo. During this period, much Gothic architec
Colonna family
The Colonna family known as Sciarrillo or Sciarra, is an Italian noble family. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders; the family is notable for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence in Rome, until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V. Thereafter, historians recorded that "no peace had been concluded between the princes of Christendom, in which they had not been included by name". According to tradition, the Colonna family is a branch of the Counts of Tusculum — by Peter son of Gregory III, called Peter "de Columna" from his property the Columna Castle in Colonna, Alban Hills. Further back, they trace their lineage past the Counts of Tusculum via Lombard and Italo-Roman nobles and clergy through the Early Middle Ages — claiming origins from the Julio-Claudian dynasty; the first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206, when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.
Cosma e Damiano. For many years, Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo was identified as a member of the Colonna family and therefore its first representative in the College of Cardinals, but modern scholars have established that this was based on false information from the beginning of the 16th century. Giovanni Colonna, nephew of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano, made his solemn vows as a Dominican c. 1228 and received his theological and philosophical training at the Roman studium of Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. He served as the Provincial of the Roman province of the Dominican Order and led the provincial chapter of 1248 at Anagni. Colonna was appointed as Archbishop of Messina in 1255. In 1248, after having dedicated her entire life to serving God and the poor, Margherita Colonna died. A member of the Franciscan Order, she was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1848. At this time, a rivalry began with leaders of the Guelph faction.
This reinforced the pro-Emperor Ghibelline course that the Colonna family followed throughout the period of conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1297, Cardinal Jacopo disinherited his brothers Ottone and Landolfo of their lands; the latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who ordered Jacopo to return the land, furthermore hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna and other towns to the Papacy. Jacopo refused; the Colonna family declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V. The dispute led to open warfare, in September, Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army, to put down the revolt of Landolfo's own Colonna relatives. By the end of 1298, Landolfo had captured Colonna and other towns, razed them to the ground; the family's lands were distributed among his loyal brothers. The exiled Colonnas allied with the Pope's other great enemy, Philip IV of France, who in his youth had been tutored by Cardinal Egidio Colonna.
In September 1303, Sciarra and Philipp's advisor, Guillaume de Nogaret, led a small force into Anagni to arrest Boniface VIII and bring him to France, where he was to stand trial. The two managed to apprehend the pope, Sciarra slapped the pope in the face in the process, accordingly dubbed the "Outrage of Anagni"; the attempt failed after a few days, when locals freed the pope. However, Boniface VIII died on 11 October, allowing France to dominate his weaker successors during the Avignon papacy; the family remained at the centre of religious life throughout the late Middle Ages. Cardinal Egidio Colonna died at the papal court in Avignon in 1314. An Augustinian, he had studied theology in Paris under St. Thomas of Aquinas to become one of the most authoritative thinkers of his time. In the 14th century, the family sponsored the decoration of the Church of San Giovanni, most notably the floor mosaics. In 1328, Louis IV of Germany marched into Italy for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor; as Pope John XXII was residing in Avignon and had publicly declared that he would not crown Louis, the King decided to be crowned by a member of the Roman aristocracy, who proposed Sciarra Colonna.
In honor of this event, the Colonna family was granted the privilege of using the imperial pointed crown on top of their coat of arms. The celebrated poet Petrarch, was a great friend of the family, in particular of Giovanni Colonna and lived in Rome as a guest of the family, he composed a number of sonnets for special occasions within the Colonna family, including "Colonna the Glorious, the great Latin name upon which all our hopes rest". In this period, the Colonna started claiming. At the Council of Constance, the Colonna succeeded in their papal ambitions when Oddone Colonna was elected on 14 November 1417; as Martin V, he reigned until his death on 20 February 1431. Vittoria Colonna became famous in the sixteenth century as a figure in literate circles. In 1627 Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna, married Taddeo Barberini of the family Barberini. In 1728, the Carbognano branch of the Colonna family added the name Barberini to its family name when Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra married Cornelia Barberini, daughter of the last male Barberini to hold the name and granddaughter of Maffeo Barberini (son of Tadde
Albanella
Albanella is a town and comune in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. It is located 51 kilometers from the city of Salerno; the town slogan is La terra degli ulivi, which translates to "the land of the olive trees" in English. Olive oil is one of the principal products of the town; the town is located halfway between Monti Alburni and the Gulf of Salerno, on a hill commanding the plain of the Sele River. The rest of the municipal area is either flat or, between the Sele and Calore Lucano rivers to the north and Monte Soprano to the south, hilly. Lying on hills rich with olive trees, Albanella was founded in the 11th century by refugees from Paestum, seeking for a site which would be safe from Saracen raids; the most ancient settlement is in fact on the hill's side, hidden from the sea. Several archaeological findings are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Paestum and in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples; the comune includes the following hamlets: Matinella is the largest frazione in the comune of Albanella, located about 6 km from the center of the township at the intersection of roads from Eboli and Altavilla Silentina which leads to Capaccio-Paestum, the Provincial Road No. 11 from Ponte Barizzo which leads to Albanella.
Because of the low-lying country in recent decades the village has experienced significant population growth that has brought a third of the municipal population. In 1950, the government launched a series of legislative measures in Agrarian Reform; these measures, implemented in specific provinces had the goal of expropriating the land of large landowners to local laborers and peasants. This led to the creation of the agricultural village and frazione of Borgo San Cesareo, a small village, about 9 km from Albanella town; the frazione of San Nicola is located halfway between Albanella town and the frazione Matinella along the Provincial Road 11. Its development is due to the important road junction that links to Albanella and which leads to Altavilla Silentina and Eboli. Bosco is an ancient frazione which takes its name from the vast forests on the slopes of the hills that once lay to the north-east of the village. After centuries of deforestation for timber and to create land for pasture or cultivation the ancient "Bosco" forest is only a small area today of about one hundred acres, bordering the territory of Castelcivita and Roccadaspide, saved through by the WWF.
Built in the 16th century. Dating back to 1400, this church stands in the heart of the historic center on a small hill where there was an old Roman settlement; the church is characterized by two aisles and a bell tower in Romanesque style, has a great organ. It is located in the old town opposite the Church of St. Matthew, it is the newest of the three Catholic churches in Albanella, dating back to the 19th century. The external façade has a majolica panel, realized in Vietri, depicting the Madonna del Rosario between St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. Better known as the Church of St. Anne because of the statue of the saint, it is located in the frazione of Matinella. A modern church built in the 20th century located in the frazione of Borgo San Cesareo. On the hill of San Chirico, a few kilometres west of Albanella town, are ten wind turbines, visible from the Amalfi Coast; the plant, established in February 2004, features ten wind turbines of 850 kW each producing more than 20 million kWh per year.
The wind farm has been developed by the IWT headed the Danish multinational Vestas. Thrakomakedones Albanella official site
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco, was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women's Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis on 16 July 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy, he became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October. He is remembered as the patron saint of animals. In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient, he returned to Italy to organize the Order.
Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew from external affairs. Francis is known for his love of the Eucharist. In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas live nativity scene. According to Christian tradition, in 1224 he received the stigmata during the apparition of Seraphic angels in a religious ecstasy, which would make him the second person in Christian tradition after St. Paul to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion, he died during the evening hours of 3 October 1226, while listening to a reading he had requested of Psalm 142. Francis of Assisi was born in late 1181 or early 1182, one of several children of an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant, a French mother, Pica de Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman from Provence. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, Pica had him baptized as Giovanni. Upon his return to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.
Since the child was renamed in infancy, the change can hardly have had anything to do with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought. Indulged by his parents, Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man; as a youth, Francesco became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine. He was handsome, witty and delighted in fine clothes, he spent money lavishly. Although many hagiographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, love of pleasures, his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar". In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis ran after the beggar; when he found him, Francis gave the man everything. His friends chided and mocked him for his act of charity; when he got home, his father scolded him in rage.
Around 1202, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year as a captive. An illness caused him to re-evaluate his life, it is possible. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. In 1205, Francis left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Count of Brienne. A strange vision made having lost his taste for the worldly life. According to hagiographic accounts, thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions. In response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered, "Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have seen", meaning his "Lady Poverty". On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica, he spent some time in lonely places. He said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins."
He took this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, so he sold some cloth from his father's store to assist the priest there for this purpose. When the priest refused to accept the ill-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the floor. In order to avoid his father's wrath, Francis hid in a cave near San Damiano for about a month; when he returned to town and dirty, he was dragged home by his father, beaten and locked in a small storeroom. Freed by his mother during Bernardone's absence, Francis returned at once to San Damiano, where he found shelter with the officiating priest, but he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father; the latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from San Damiano, sought to force his son to forego his inheritance by way of restitution. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony. For the next couple of months Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi.
He spent some time at a neighbouring monastery working as a scullion. He went to Gubbio, where a friend gave him, as an alms, the cloak and staff of a pilgrim. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city begging stones for the restoration of St. Damiano's; these he carried to the old chapel, set in p
Secondary education in Italy
Secondary education in Italy lasts eight years and is divided in two stages: scuola secondaria di primo grado known as the scuola media, corresponding to the ISCED 2011 Level 2, middle school and scuola secondaria di secondo grado, which corresponds to the ISCED 2011 Level 3, high school. The middle school lasts three years from the age of 11 to age 14, the upper secondary from 14 to 19; the scuola secondaria di primo grado known as scuola media inferiore or scuola media, it follows the definition of a ISCED 2011 Level 2 school. It is compulsory for all pupils, it lasts for three years from age 11 to 14. It is the first stage of secondary education building on primary education, with a more subject-oriented curriculum where students are taught by subject specialists, it consolidates the subjects taught at the scuola primaria, adding technology and a language other than English. The middle school has a common program of study for all pupils. At the end of the third year, students take an examination which includes: Five written tests, four prepared by each examining board: Prima prova, an Italian language written test, Seconda prova, a mathematics written test, Terza prova, an English language written test Quarta prova, second foreign language prova INVALSI, assessed by the INVALSI institute, used for tracking progress in reading comprehension, knowledge of language and basic mathematical skills.
This was introduced in the 2010 Gelmini reforms. An oral: colloquio orale, an overall oral examination where the exam committee receive a presentation made by the pupil and ask relating questions; the final score is given as an average of the test scores. Successful students receive a diploma di licenza media; the scuola secondaria di secondo grado – known as scuola media superiore or scuola superiore – lasts five years. It follows the pattern of typical ISCED 2011 Level 3 school; the first two years when the student will be under 16 years old, are compulsory, the other three years are voluntary. There is an exam at the end of the final year, called esame di stato or the esame di maturità; the course is designed to give students the skills and qualifications needed to progress to university or higher education college. Students may choose what level of school to attend, there are three types of scuola secondaria di secondo grado that range from the academic to the vocational; the vast majority of students attend the instito.
All students follow a common course of core subjects during the first two years augmented by subjects from their elected specialism. Liceo, academic. Istituto tecnico:17, the normal route, will still lead to a university entrance qualification Istituto professionale:3 which includes a lot of practical work relating to a dominant local industryPrograms of study are introduced at national level. Most secondary schools provide some common structure and core subjects, while other topics are specific to one type of establishment.:3In 2013, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked the Italian secondary education as the 21st in the world, higher than the United States, around the OECD average, observes a gap between results in Northern Italian schools, which performed better than the national average, Southern Italian schools, that had, on average, somewhat poorer results. Moreover, students in state-owned schools perform better than students in private schools.
A typical Italian student is age 19 when they enter university, while in other countries 18 is the more common age. The education offered by a liceo is academic. Individual lyceums will specialise in specific fields of study; the principal focus is to prepare students for university and higher education.:3Types of liceo include: Liceo classico – dedicated to humanities, with Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian and philosophy as the principal subjects.:4 Liceo scientifico – dedicated to scientific studies, shares a part of its program with liceo classico in teaching Italian, Latin and philosophy, but is more oriented towards mathematics, chemistry, earth science and computer science.:6 Liceo linguistico – puts emphasis on modern foreign languages learning. As
Via Popilia
The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas. The first road was an extension of the Via Flaminia from Ariminum around the north of the Adriatic through the region that became Venice; the name of this road continues as a street name in modern Rimini, which, as Ariminum, was the junction point between the Via Flaminia from Rome, the Via Aemilia along the edge of the Po valley, the northern Via Popilia. It ran along the shore strip from Ariminum to Ravenna, where it was usual in imperial times for travellers to take ship and go by canal to Altinum, there resume their journey by road; the second Via Popilia ran from the Via Appia at Capua to Rhegium on the Straits of Messina. An archaeological discovery of part of its itinerarium engraved on stone brought it more into the light of history, it ran a distance of 321 miles from the right along the length of the Italian peninsula, the main road through the interior of the country, not along the coast.
There are the remains of at least one Roman bridge along the Ponte sul Savuto. Roman road Roman bridge Roman engineering The Polla Tablet Omnes Viae: Via Popilia on the Peutinger Map Rhetorics of land and power in the Polla inscription
Sele (river)
The Sele is a river in southwestern Italy. Originating from the Monti Picentini in Caposele, it flows through the region of Campania, in the provinces of Salerno and Avellino, its mouth is in the Gulf of Salerno, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the borders between the municipalities of Eboli and Capaccio, in the beginning point of Cilentan Coast. The important Greek site of Foce del Sele, a sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Hera, is at the ancient mouth of the river, though little remains on the site. At this period the Sele represented the border of the Greek and Etruscan zones of influence along the coast. In terms of average water discharge of southern Italian rivers, it is second only to the Volturno, its main tributaries are the Calore Lucano and the Tenza. In ancient times it was known as Silarus; this river is the location of the battle of the Silarus in which Hannibal won a major victory over the Romans, it is the place of the battle in which Spartacus and his rebellion against the Romans died.
The municipalities crossed by the river, from the mouth to the origin, are Eboli, Albanella, Campagna, Contursi Terme, Oliveto Citra, Senerchia, Valva and Caposele. Despite of its name, demonym of the river, the municipality of Altavilla Silentina is not crossed by Sele. Media related to Sele at Wikimedia Commons
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Eboli". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 843.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 