1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, 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 apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
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Propaganda of Fascist Italy
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Propaganda of Fascist Italy was the material put forth by Italian Fascism to justify its authority and programs and encourage popular support. The Fascist regime made heavy use of propaganda, including pageantry and rhetoric, at first, all propaganda efforts were grouped together under the press office, propaganda efforts were slowly organized until a Ministry of Popular Culture was created in 1937. Fascisms internal contradictions were justified by Mussolini as a product of its nature, a doctrine of action, il Duce was the center of Fascism and portrayed as such. This leadership cult helped reconcile Italians with the regime despite annoyance with local officials, a basic slogan proclaimed that Mussolini was always right. Endless publicity revolved about Mussolini with newspapers being instructed on exactly what to report about him and he was generally portrayed in a macho manner, although he could also appear as a Renaissance man, or as military, family, or even common. Mussolini as a practitioner of various such as fencing, auto racing, skiing, horse riding, lion taming and swimming was promoted to create an image of a valiant. Mussolinis prestige as an aviator in the manner of Charles Lindbergh was especially important, as for fascism the aeroplane embodied qualities such as dynamism, energy. Mussolini himself oversaw which photographs could appear, rejecting some, for instance, Mussolinis youthfulness, and his virile and energetic appearance were promoted. In fascist symbolism, youth constituted a metaphor for action and vitality, the official hymn of the fascist movement, Giovinezza, links the concepts of youth, the rebirth of the nation and the reign of Mussolini into symbolic unity. The publicizing of Mussolinis birthdays and illnesses were banned for journalists, legends of Mussolini defying death during the First World War and surviving assassination attempts were circulated to give the dictator a mythical, immortal aura. It was stated that Mussolinis body had been pierced by shrapnel just like Saint Sebastian had been pierced by arrows and he was also compared to Saint Francis of Assisi, who had, like Mussolini, suffered and sacrificed himself for others. His home town of Predappio was developed as a place of mass tourism, the Vatican implied that heavenly powers were aware that Mussolini had saved Italy from bolshevism and thus protected him. Pope Pius XI referred to him as the man of Providence during the aftermath of the Lateran treaty, the press described his speeches as sacramental meetings of Duce and people. Mussolinis melodramatic style of oratory was both pantomimic and liturgical, with exaggerated poses and hand movements and prominent variations in the pitch, Mussolini intended his speeches to be faith-inspiring theatrical performances, stating that the crowd does not have to know, it must believe. A story of a boy being cured after listening in a crowd to a speech of the Duce was told in an elementary school manual. His overtly belligerent image did not prevent newspapers from declaring he had done more for peace than anyone else and his image proclaimed that he had improved the Italian people morally, materially, and spiritually. He was the Duce and proclaimed in song even before the seizure of power, the war on Ethiopia was presented as a revival of Roman Empire, with Mussolini as Augustus. To improve fascisms image in North Africa and Levant and to gain Arab support, Fascism was among the most visible of movements that exulted action over talk and violence over reason, partly stemming from World War I
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Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
5.
A. J. Cronin
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Archibald Joseph Cronin, MBChB, MD, DPH, MRCP was a Scottish novelist and physician. His best-known novel was The Citadel, about a doctor in a Welsh mining village who quickly moves up the ladder in London. Cronin had observed this scene closely as a Medical Inspector of Mines and this book promoted controversial new ideas about medical ethics which largely inspired the launch of the National Health Service. Another popular mining novel, set in the North East of England, was The Stars Look Down, both these novels were adapted for film, as were Hatters Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His novella Country Doctor was adapted for a long-running BBC radio and TV series Dr Finlays Casebook and his paternal grandparents emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland and were glass and china merchants in Alexandria. Owen Cronin, his grandfather, had his surname changed from Cronague in 1870 and his maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage, Cronins parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School, when he was seven years old, his father, an insurance agent and commercial traveler, died from tuberculosis. From an early age, he was a golfer, a sport he enjoyed throughout his life. The family later moved to Yorkhill, Glasgow, where he attended St Aloysius College in the Garnethill area of the city and he played football for the First XI there, an experience he included in one of his last novels, The Minstrel Boy. A family decision that he should study for either the church or medicine was settled by Cronin himself and he won a Carnegie scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1914. He was absent during the 1916–1917 session for naval service, in 1919 he graduated with highest honours, with the degree of MBChB. Later that year he made a trip to India as ships surgeon on a liner, Cronin went on to earn additional degrees, including a Diploma in Public Health and his MRCP. In 1925, he was awarded an M. D. from the University of Glasgow for his dissertation, during World War I, Cronin served as a Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals including Bellahouston and Lightburn Hospitals in Glasgow and he undertook general practice work in a small village on the Clyde, Garelochhead, as well as in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. He was involved in the disaster at Ystfad Colliery in Pengelly, where miners were drowned. He subsequently moved to London, where he practised in Harley Street before opening his own thriving medical practice in Notting Hill, Cronin was also the medical officer for Whiteleys at this time and was becoming increasingly interested in ophthalmology. In 1930, after being diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. At Dalchenna Farm by Loch Fyne, he was able to indulge his lifelong desire to write a novel, having previously written nothing but prescriptions
6.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
7.
Venice Film Festival
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The film festival is part of the Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. The film festival has taken place in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, since its inception the Venice Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74th Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, the first edition of the Venice Film Festival was carried out from the 6 to the 21 of August in 1932. The festival began with an idea of the president of the Venice Biennale Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Luciano De Feo, with good reason, the festival was considered the first international event of its type, receiving strong support from authorities. This first edition was held on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, and at that stage it was not a competitive event. The very first film to be shown in the history of the Festival was Rouben Mamoulians Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the second edition was held two years later, from 1 to 20 of August in 1934. For the first time it included a competition, at least 19 countries took part with over 300 accredited journalists. The Mussolini Cup was introduced for best foreign film and best Italian film, other awards were the Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment to best actor and actress. The prize for best foreign film went to Robert J. Flahertys Man of Aran and was a confirmation of the taste of the time for auteur documentaries, starting in 1935, the Festival became a yearly event under the direction of Ottavio Croze. The actors award was renamed Volpi Cup, in 1936 an international jury was nominated for the first time and in 1937 the new Cinema Palace, designed by the architect Luigi Quagliata, was inaugurated. The 1940s represent one of the most difficult moments for the review, the conclusion of the Second World War divides the decade in two. Before 1938 political pressures distorted and ruined the festival, in addition, few countries participated and there was an absolute monopoly of institutions and directors that were members of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The festival resumed full speed in 1946, after the war, with the return of normalcy, Venice once again became a great icon of the film world. In 1947 the festival was held at the Doges Palace, a most magnificent backdrop for hosting a record 90 thousand participants, surely it can be considered one of the greatest editions in the history of the festival. For the next twenty years the festival continued its development and expansion in accordance with the plan set in motion after the war. In 1963 the winds of change blow strongly during Luigi Chiarini’s directorship of the festival, during the years of his presidency, Chiarini aspired to renew the spirit and the structures of the festival, pushing for a total reorganization of the entire system. The social and political unrest of 1968 had strong repercussions on the Venice Bienniale, from 1969 to 1979 no prizes were awarded and the festival returned to the non-competitiveness of the first edition
8.
Wallace Beery
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Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film actor. Beery appeared in some 250 movies during a 36-year career and his contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio, making him the highest paid actor in the world. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery Sr. and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr. Beery was born in Clay County, Missouri, the youngest of three sons born to Noah Webster Beery and Frances Margaret Fitzgerald, he and his brothers William C. Beery and Noah Beery became Hollywood actors, the Beery family left the farm in the 1890s and moved to nearby Kansas City, Missouri, where the father was a police officer. Wallace Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took lessons as well. He ran away from home twice, the first time returning after a time, quitting school. Beery ran away from home a second time at age 16 and he left two years later, after being clawed by a leopard. Wallace Beery joined his brother Noah in New York City in 1904, finding work in opera as a baritone. His most notable role came in 1907 when he starred in The Yankee Tourist to good reviews. In 1913, he moved to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios, cast as Sweedie, later, he worked for the Essanay Studios location in Niles, California. In 1915, Beery starred with Gloria Swanson, whom he married the following year, Beery began playing villains, and in 1917 portrayed Pancho Villa in Patria at a time when Villa was still active in Mexico. Beery reprised the role seventeen years later in Viva Villa, the same year, he made Min and Bill, the movie that vaulted him into the box office first rank. In 1931 he starred in The Champ, and shared the Best Actor Oscar with Fredric March, though March received one vote more than Beery, Academy rules at the time—since rescinded—defined results within one vote of each other as ties. He starred in several comedies with Marie Dressler and later, after Dresslers death, Marjorie Main, in 1943 his brother Noah Beery Sr. appeared with him in the war-time propaganda film Salute to the Marines, followed by Bad Bascomb and The Mighty McGurk. Beerys first wife was teenaged actress Gloria Swanson, the two had co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College and married in 1916. Although Beery had enjoyed popularity with his Sweedie shorts, his career had taken a dip, according to Swansons autobiography, Beery raped her on their wedding night, and later tricked her into swallowing an abortifacient when she was pregnant, which caused her to lose their child. In 1924, Beery married actress Rita Gilman, the couple adopted Carol Ann, daughter of Rita Beerys cousin. In December 1937, A few days before he passed away, in December 1939, the unmarried Beery adopted a seven-month-old infant girl Phyllis Ann
9.
Paul Muni
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Paul Muni was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. He started his career in the Yiddish theatre. During the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Brothers studio, and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted. He was also skilled in using makeup techniques, a talent he learned from his parents, who were also actors. At the age of 12, he played the role of an 80-year-old man, in one of his films, Seven Faces. He made 25 films and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1936 film The Story of Louis Pasteur. He also starred in numerous Broadway plays and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in the 1955 production of Inherit the Wind. His Hebrew name was Meshilem, he was also called Frederich Meier Weisenfreund, born to a Jewish family in Lemberg, Galicia and his parents were Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund. He learned Yiddish as his first language, when he was seven, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1902, they settled in Chicago. As a boy, he was known as Moony and he started his acting career in the Yiddish theatre in Chicago with his parents, who were both actors. As a teenager, he developed a skill in creating makeup, Film historian Robert Osborne notes that Munis makeup skills were so creative, that for most of his roles, he transformed his appearance so completely, he was dubbed the New Lon Chaney. In his first stage role at the age of 12, Muni played the role of an 80-year-old man and he was quickly recognized by Maurice Schwartz, who signed him up with his Yiddish Art Theater. Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni were cousins to Charles M. Fritz, Muni began acting on Broadway in 1926. His first role was that of an elderly Jewish man in the play We Americans, written by playwrights Max Siegel and it was the first time that he ever acted in English. In 1921, he married Bella Finkel, an actress in the Yiddish theatre and they remained married until Munis death in 1967. In 1929 Muni was signed by Fox and his name was simplified and anglicized to Paul Muni. His acting talents were recognized and he received an Oscar nomination for his first film, The Valiant. His second film, Seven Faces, was also a financial failure, unhappy with the roles offered him, he returned to Broadway, where he starred in a major hit play, Counselor at Law
10.
Emil Jannings
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Emil Jannings was a German actor, popular in 1920s Hollywood. He was the first Oscar recipient, honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 1929 ceremony, to date, he is still the only German to have won the Best Actor Oscar. Jannings is best known for his collaborations with F. W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, including 1930s The Blue Angel, with Marlene Dietrich. Der blaue Engel was meant as a vehicle for Jannings to score a place for himself in the new medium of sound film, Jannings later starred in a number of Nazi propaganda films, which made him unemployable as an actor after the fall of the Third Reich. He was christened Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe, originally from Germany. Jannings held German citizenship, while he was young the family moved to Leipzig in the German Empire. Jannings ran away from school and went to sea, when he returned to Görlitz, his mother finally allowed him to begin a traineeship at the town state theatre, where Jannings started his stage career. From 1901 onwards he worked with theatre companies in Bremen, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Königsberg. Jannings made his breakthrough in 1918 with his role as Judge Adam in Kleists Broken Jug at the Schauspielhaus, Jannings was a theater actor who went into films, though he remained dissatisfied with the limited expressive possibilities in the silent era. Having signed a contract with the UFA production company, he starred in Die Augen der Mumie Ma and Madame DuBarry, both with Pola Negri in the main female part. He also performed in the 1922 film version of Othello and in F. W. Murnaus The Last Laugh, as a proud, Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films, playing the title character in Herr Tartüff, and as Mephistopheles in Faust. His increasing popularity enabled Jannings to sign an agreement with Paramount Pictures and eventually follow his acting colleagues Lubitsch and he started his career in 1927 with The Way of All Flesh directed by Victor Fleming and in the following year performed in Josef von Sternbergs The Last Command. In 1929 Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his work in both films and he and Sternberg also cooperated in Street of Sin, though they actually differed about Jannings acting in front of the camera. His Hollywood career came to an end with the advent of talkies as his thick German accent was difficult to understand and his dialogue was initially dubbed by another actor in the part-talkie The Patriot directed by Ernst Lubitsch, although Jannings own voice was restored after he objected. Returning to Europe, he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film The Blue Angel, according to Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin, The Life and The Legend, Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor vote, but the runner-up. While researching her book, Orlean discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog, one of the biggest movie stars of his time, who won the vote. The Academy, however, worried about not being taken seriously if they gave the first Oscar to a dog, after the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933, Jannings continued his career in the service of Nazism and cinema. He also performed in his role in The Broken Jug directed by Gustav Ucicky
11.
Sesto Fiorentino
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Sesto Fiorentino, known locally as just Sesto, is a municipality in the province of Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. The oldest known settlement in the area dates from the Mesolithic. The Etruscan presence is known from the 7th century BC, the first churches were built in the early Middle Ages, among which the most important became the Pieve of San Martino. Sesto Fiorentino was subject to the Archbishop of Florence, later it was under the Florentine Republic, which dried the plain and boosted the areas economy starting from the Renaissance age. In 1735, Marquis Carlo Ginori founded one of the first porcelain plants in Europe, now under the name Richard-Ginori, the company is still located in Sesto, and is the largest porcelain manufacturer in Italy. Toward the end of the 19th century, craftsmen who had trained at Richard-Ginori began to start their own pottery studios. There are currently over one hundred producers of pottery in Sesto Fiorentino, Sesto Fiorentino was annexed by plebiscite to the newly unified Kingdom of Italy in 1860. The town was a protagonist in the late 19th century workers struggle, in 1899 it was the first town in Tuscany to have a socialist mayor. Pieve di San Martino, known from around the year 1000, the interior has a nave and two aisles, the inner part dating from the 12th century. On the high altar is a Crucifix by Agnolo Gaddi, notable are also a Circumcision by Jacopo Vignali, santa Maria a Quinto, mentioned in the 11th century but rebuilt in the 18th century. It houses a triptych by Spinello Aretino and Annunciation from 1410. Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati Villa Paolina Villa Villoresi Park of Villa Gamba, Etruscan findings include the Tomba della Montagnola, the Tomba della Mula and the Necropolis of Palastreto. Sesto Fiorentino is twinned with, Wieliczka, Poland El Ayoun, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Bagnolet, sherlock Holmes scholars determined that the unnamed Italian town in The Adventure of the Empty House was Sesto, and a bust of Holmes stands in the town. Poet Alberta Bigagli was born in Sesto Firorentino in 1928
12.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
