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.
Regions of Italy
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The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of Italy, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are 20 regions, of five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes. Each region, except for the Aosta Valley, is divided into provinces, regions are autonomous entities with powers defined in the Constitution. As the administrative districts of the state during the Kingdom of Italy. The original draft list comprised the Salento region, friuli and Venezia Giulia were separate regions, and Basilicata was named Lucania. Abruzzo and Molise were identified as regions in the first draft. They were later merged into Abruzzo e Molise in the constitution of 1948. Implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional Elections of 1970, the ruling Christian Democracy party did not want the opposition Italian Communist Party to gain power in the regions, where it was historically rooted. Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a reform in 2001. In June 2006 the proposals, which had been associated with Lega Nord. The results varied considerably among the regions, ranging from 55. 3% in favour in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria, number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1995, Macroregions are the first-level NUTS of the European Union. These regions, whose statutes are approved by their councils, were created in 1970. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had residual legislative powers, the regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law. Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest, they just keep 20% of all levied taxes, Article 116 of the Italian Constitution grants to five regions home rule, acknowledging their powers in relation to legislation, administration and finance. These regions became autonomous in order to take into account cultural differences, moreover, the government wanted to prevent their secession from Italy after the Second World War. Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol constitutes a special case, the region is nearly powerless, and the powers granted by the regions statute are mostly exercised by the two autonomous provinces within the region, Trentino and South Tyrol. In this case, the regional institution plays a coordinating role, the latter is directly elected by the citizens of each region, with the exceptions of Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, where he is chosen by the regional council. Under the 1995 electoral law, the winning coalition receives a majority of seats on the council
3.
Lazio
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Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With almost 5.9 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the second most populated region of Italy and its capital is Rome, capital and largest city of Italy. Lazio comprises an area of 17,236 km2 and it has borders with Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche to the north, Abruzzo and Molise to the east, Campania to the south. The region is flat and hilly, with small mountainous areas in the most eastern and southern districts. The coast of Lazio is mainly composed of beaches, punctuated by the headlands of Circeo. The Pontine Islands, which are part of Lazio, lie opposite the southern coast, behind the coastal strip, to the north, lies the Maremma Laziale, a coastal plain interrupted at Civitavecchia by the Tolfa Mountains. The central section of the region is occupied by the Roman Campagna, the southern districts are characterized by the flatlands of Agro Pontino, a once swampy and malarial area, that was reclaimed over the centuries. To the south of the Tiber, other groups form part of the Preapennines, the Alban Hills, also of volcanic origin. The highest peak is Mount Gorzano on the border with Abruzzo, see also, History of Italy The Italian word Lazio descends from the Latin word Latium. The name of the region also survives in the designation of the ancient population of Latins, Latini in the Latin language spoken by them. Although the demography of ancient Rome was multi-ethnic, including, for example, Etruscans and other Italics besides the Latini, in Roman mythology, the tribe of the Latini took their name from king Latinus. Much of Lazio is in flat or rolling. The lands originally inhabited by the Latini were extended into the territories of the Samnites, the Marsi, the Hernici, the Aequi, the Aurunci and the Volsci, all surrounding Italic tribes. This larger territory was still called Latium, but it was divided into Latium adiectum or Latium Novum, the lands or New Latium, and Latium Vetus, or Old Latium. The northern border of Lazio was the Tiber river, which divided it from Etruria, the emperor Augustus officially united almost all of present-day Italy into a single geo-political entity, Italia, dividing it into eleven regions. However, the wars against the Longobards weakened the region. With the Donation of Sutri in 728, the Bishop of Rome acquired the first territory in the region beyond the Duchy of Rome, the strengthening of the religious and ecclesiastical aristocracy led to continuous power struggles between secular lords and the Pope until the middle of the 16th century. Other popes tried to do the same, during the period when the papacy resided in Avignon, France, the feudal lords power increased due to the absence of the Pope from Rome
4.
Metropolitan cities of Italy
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The metropolitan city is an administrative division of Italy, operative since 2015. In 2009, amendments added Reggio Calabria to the list, the metropolitan areas individuated by the autonomous regions were, Trieste in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Cagliari in Sardinia, Catania, Messina and Palermo in Sicily. On 3 April 2014 the Italian Parliament approved a law that establishes 10 metropolitan cities in Italy, the new metropolitan cities have been operative since 1 January 2015. The metropolitan city is composed by the municipalities that before had been members of the same province, each metropolitan city is headed by a metropolitan mayor assisted by a legislative body, the Metropolitan council, and by a non-legislative assembly, the metropolitan conference. Members of the Metropolitan council are elected and chosen by mayors and city councilors of each municipality in the metropolitan city, the metropolitan conference is composed by the mayors of the municipalities closest to the capital. The main functions devolved to the new cities are, local planning and zoning, provision of local police services, transport. Regions of Italy Provinces of Italy Municipalities of Italy Media related to Metropolitan cities of Italy at Wikimedia Commons
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Metropolitan City of Rome Capital
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The administrative area of the Metropolitan City of Rome is one of the constitutional Metropolitan cities of Italy in the Lazio region, Italy. Its capital is the city of Rome and it replaced the Province of Rome and comprises the city of Rome and other 121 municipalities. It was firstly created by the reform of local authorities and then established by the Law 56/2014 and it has been officially operative since 1 January 2015. The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital is headed by the Metropolitan Mayor, since 20 June 2016 Virginia Raggi, as mayor of the capital city. The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital covers almost one-third of the territory of Lazio, the western boundary of the province is represented by the Tyrrhenian Sea on which spread to about 130 kilometres from the coast near Rome from Civitavecchia to Torre Astura. In the territory there are lakes, almost all of volcanic origin. Today Rome is circled, at a distance of about 10 km from the Capitol, due to its location in the centre of the Italian peninsula, Rome is the principal railway node for central Italy. Romes main railway station, Termini, is one of the largest railway stations in Europe, the second-largest station in the city, Roma Tiburtina, has been redeveloped as a high-speed rail terminus. Rome is served by three airports, the intercontinental Leonardo da Vinci International Airport is Italys chief airport, is located within the nearby Fiumicino, south-west of Rome. The older Rome Ciampino Airport is a joint civilian and military airport and it is commonly referred to as Ciampino Airport, as it is located beside Ciampino, south-east of Rome. A third airport, the Roma-Urbe Airport, is a small, low-traffic airport located about 6 km north of the city centre, although the city has its own quarter on the Mediterranean Sea, this has only a marina and a small channel-harbour for fisher boats. The main harbour which serves Rome is Port of Civitavecchia, located about 62 km northwest of the city, a 3-line metro system called the Metropolitana operates in the Metropolitan City of Rome. Construction on the first branch started in the 1930s, the line had been planned to quickly connect the main railway station with the newly planned E42 area in the southern suburbs, where the 1942 World Fair was supposed to be held. The event never took place because of war, but the area was partly redesigned and renamed EUR in the 1950s to serve as a modern business district. The line was opened in 1955, and it is now the south part of the B Line. The A line opened in 1980 from Ottaviano to Anagnina stations, in the 1990s, an extension of the B line was opened from Termini to Rebibbia. This underground network is generally reliable as it is relatively short, the A and B lines intersect at Roma Termini station. A new branch of the B line opened on 13 June 2012 after a building cost of €500 million
6.
Frattocchie
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Bovillae was an ancient town in Lazio, central Italy, currently part of Frattocchie frazione in the municipality of Marino. It was a station on the Via Appia, located c.11 miles south-east of Rome and it was a colony of Alba Longa, and appears as one of the thirty cities of the Latin league. After the destruction of Alba Longa in 658 BC the sacra were, it was held, transferred to Bovillae, including the cult of Vesta and that of the gens Iulia. The existence of this hereditary worship led to an increase in its importance when the Julian house rose to the highest power in the state. Bovillae appears as the scene of the quarrel between Milo and Clodius, in which the latter, whose villa lay above the town on the left of the Via Appia, was killed, the site is not naturally strong, and remains of early fortifications cannot be traced. It may be that Bovillae took the place of Alba Longa as a local centre after the destruction of the latter by Rome, which would explain the deliberate choice of a strategically weak position. Remains of the circus built there by Tiberius in 14 AD in honor of Augustus can still be seen at 41°45′27″N 12°37′18″E, and of an octagonal mausoleum, on the edge of the Via Appia. There were once also a theatre and a schola actorum, identified by an inscription found in the neighbourhood, and, probably, a dedicated to Veiovis. Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, London, Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Ashby
7.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
8.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
9.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
10.
Romanesco dialect
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Romanesco is a variety of regional Italian spoken in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, especially in the core city. It is a Central Italian dialect and is thus close to the Tuscan dialect. There exist a few notable grammatical and idiomatic differences from Standard Italian, rich in expressions and sayings, Romanesco is used for informal/colloquial communication by most of the natives of Rome, often with code-switching with the standard language. The medieval Roman dialect belonged to the family of Italian dialects. A typical example of Romanesco of that period is Vita di Cola di Rienzo, therefore, current Romanesco has grammar and roots that are rather different from other dialects in Central Italy. Before Rome became the city of Italy, Romanesco was spoken only inside the walls of the city. Romanesco pronunciation differs from Standard Italian in these cases, the letter J is still used and is pronounced /j/. A Roman pun recites, Tera, chitara e guera, co ddu ere, sinnò è erore, note that ere and erore are also wrong, libbro /ˈlibbɾo/ for Standard Italian libro /ˈliːbro/ book, aggenda for agenda diary, agenda. Today, Romanesco is generally considered more of a regional idiom than a true language, classical Romanesco, which reached high literature with Belli, has disappeared. External forces such as immigration and the dominance of Italian are playing a role in the transformation, ma nun cè lingua come la romana Pe dì una cosa co ttanto divario Che ppare un magazzino de dogana. Le lingue der monno - G. G. Belli But there is no language like the Roman one To express a concept with so many variants So that it seems a customs warehouse, languages of the world - G. G. A description of the Roman dialect Lucio Felici, Le vicende del dialetto romanesco, in Capitolium,1972, n°4, pp. 26–33
11.
City
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A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
12.
Alban Hills
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The Alban Hills are the site of a quiescent volcanic complex in Italy, located 20 km southeast of Rome and about 24 kilometres north of Anzio. The dominant peak is Monte Cavo at 950 m, there are two small calderas which contain lakes, Lake Albano and Lake Nemi. The rock of the hills is called peperino a variety of tuff, a combination of ash and small rocks that is useful for construction. The hills, especially around the shores of the lakes, have been popular since prehistoric times, from the 9th to 7th century BC, there were numerous villages. The area was inhabited by the Latini during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, the ancient Romans called the hill Albanus Mons. In Roman times, the area was used by the rich as a way to escape the heat and crowds of Rome, as it is today as shown by the many villas. The towns and villages in the Alban Hills are known as the Castelli Romani, examination of deposits have dated the four most recent eruptions to two temporal peaks, around 36,000 and 39,000 years ago. The area exhibits small localised earthquake swarms, bradyseism, and release of carbon dioxide, the volcano emits large amounts of carbon dioxide which can potentially reach lethal concentrations if it accumulates in depressions in the ground in the absence of wind. Eight sheep were killed in an incident in October 2001
13.
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
14.
Castel Gandolfo
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Castel Gandolfo is a town located 15 miles southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Gandolfo has a population of approximately 8,834 residents and is considered one of Italys most scenic towns. Within the towns boundaries lies the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo which served as a residence and vacation retreat for the pope. Although the palace is located within the borders of Castel Gandolfo, however, it was acknowledged on October 21,2016 that the palace was no longer owned by the Vatican and that it was now open to the public as part of a museum. The resort community includes almost the whole coastline of Lake Albano which is surrounded by many summer residences, villas and it houses the Stadio Olimpico that staged the rowing events during the Rome Olympics. Castel Gandolfo has several places of archaeological interest including the Emissario del Lago Albano, the area is included within the boundaries of the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani. There are also points of artistic interest, such as the Collegiate Church of St. Thomas of Villanova. The boundaries of the town extend obliquely in a north-northeast turn around the area of the Alban Hills. It is included and protected by the Regional Park of Castelli Romani, most of the soil is of volcanic origin, with prevalence of materials such as tuff and pozzolana. Its seismic classification is rated a Zone 2 The main water body is Lake Albano, the Metropolitan City of Rome currently manages the lake. Up to 1802, it was the property of the Abbey of Saint Nilus Grottaferrata, the maximum elevation registered in the territory is 425 metres above sea level, at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide adjoining Villa Barberini. On the crown of the hills around the Lake Albano, the elevation is only 400 metres above sea level, at the summit of Monte Cucco, the lowest elevation of the territory is 101 metres above sea level at the village of Pavona. In terms of climate, the area falls within the domain of the temperate Mediterranean climate with mild winters, autumn temperatures higher than those of spring and ventilated summers. In the area of Colli Albani, and at Castel Gandolfo, the known as stau. Summers are hot and dry, while winter is mild and rainy without, in general, extreme low temperatures, in summer, temperatures can reach 35 °C with peaks of 37 °C in rare cases. Climate classification, Zone D,1966 GR / G, the name Castel Gandolfo is derived from the Latin Castrum Gandulphi, the name of the castle on this site was presumably owned by the family of Gandolfi, originally from Genoa. Another hypothesis, supported by Pope Pius II in his commentary, is that the results from Gandulphi Sabinorum. The modern city occupies the site of legendary ancient Alba Longa and it was later developed by emperor Domitian into his vast palace
15.
Albano Laziale
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Albano Laziale is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Latium, central Italy. It is bounded by communes of Castel Gandolfo, Rocca di Papa, Ariccia. Located in the Castelli Romani area of Lazio and it is sometimes known simply as Albano. Albano is one of the most important municipalities of the Castelli Romani, and it was also a suburbicarian bishopric since the 5th century, a historic principality of the Savelli family, and from 1699 to 1798 the inalienable possession of the Holy See. It now houses, among other things, the Praetor of the court of Velletri. The territory of Albano is partially included in the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, according to the classification given by the Geological Survey of Italy most of the territory is similar to other areas of the Colli Albani, from lands classified as v 2. The main hydrographic feature is Lake Albano, whose name is actually Lake Albano. In fact, most coastal lakes are relevant to the town of Castel Gandolfo, the lake basin is run by the Metropolitan City of Rome. Fosso of Chancellor, originates from springs from the Chancellor resort, in Ariccia common, about 118 metres above sea level, and continues to flow in a south-south-west to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Fosso di Montagnano, originates from water that is collected in the local mountains. The highest peak of the town of Albano is the Colle dei Cappuccini, from the hill, which houses a pine forest adjacent to the Capuchin Monastery, there is a remarkable overview of Lake Albano, Agro Romano and Monte Cavo. The historic center of Albano has a gradient of 11%, or 47 metres,435. Other altitudes through the center of town are Villa Altieri, at kilometre 25 of the State Road 7 Via Appia, the hill town of Castel Savelli is 280 m above sea level, while the underlying fraction of Pavona is built at 110 m above sea level. The village of Cecchina at the station is located at 212 m above sea level. In terms of climate, the area falls within the domain of the temperate Mediterranean climate with mild winters, with higher than those autumnal spring. In the area of Colli Albani, so even at Albano, presents the phenomenon called TSUE, so there will be more rainfall on the foothills of the hills, facing the sea, south southwest, and to the north. Albano, lying on the trajectory of the current wet Tyrrhenian, is rainy with 900–1000 mm annual precipitation. The winds blow mainly from the south and west, more rarely from the north, summer is hot and dry, with a mild and rainy winter with snow quite rarely and only in the presence of a marked generalised cold
16.
Rocca di Papa
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Rocca di Papa is a small town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is one of the Castelli Romani about 25 kilometres southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills and it is close to the other communes of Velletri, Rocca Priora, Monte Compatri, Grottaferrata, Albano and Marino. It is the center of the Regional Park known as the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, documents from 12th century name Rocca di Papa as Castrum Rocce de Papa, because Pope Eugene III lived there. In 1541 Pier Luigi Farnese, with French troops, destroyed the castle, in 1855 the people proclaimed the Rocca di Papa Republic against prince Colonna and the Papal States government. In 1889 the Royal Geodynamic Observatory was built on the top of Rocca di Papa, between 1922 and 1935 the scientist Guglielmo Marconi carried out several experiments from this building in radio-transmission, wireless transmission and broadcasting. In 1944, during World War II, Rocca di Papa was bombed, the Center of the city was destroyed. Thirty four people died in air strike and 35 died in a second air strike on 25 May. The city was liberated from the Nazi German occupation on 4 June 1944 by the 85th Infantry Division, Papal Fortress, known since medieval times but restored in the current form during the reign of Pope Paul III. Santuario Madonna del Tufo Chiesa del Crocefisso Church of the Assunta and it is dedicated to the Assumption, and was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1806 in larger size. Fontana della Barcaccia Quartiere dei Bavaresi, built by Bavarian militiamen left here by Emperor Louis IV in 1328, convent of Palazzolo, located on top of a rock dominating the east shore of Lake Albano. The old Roman buildings was turned into monasteries and a dedicated to St Mary of Palatiolo. In the orchard of the convent is a monument of the 2nd century BC with a staircase pyramid. Currently, the Abbey and the church belong to the English College, the economy of Rocca di Papa is mostly based on tourism and agriculture, the latter dominated by wine and vine production. The Geophysical Museum shows scientific data about the inside of the Earth and it has preservation tools and scientific documents of the geology, geography and terrestrial physics of the Earth. The astronomic observatory Franco Fuligni, located in the frazione of Vivaro, is a public structure, there is the Federal Equestrian Centre of C. O. N. I. It is situated on a knoll in the center of the farm of Domatore. Since 1960, when the equipment for the events was installed for the Olympic Games, it has been the center of equestrian championships. The equipment has improved and enlarged to form an adequate spot for the preparation of the best horse-riders, offering an excellent track with every kind of difficulty
17.
Grottaferrata
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Grottaferrata is a small town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills,20 kilometres south east of Rome. Nearby communes include Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Marino and Rome, the history of Grottaferrata identifies largely with that of the Basilian Monastery of Santa Maria, founded here in 1004 by Saint Nilus the Younger. The founding legend narrates that, at the spot where the now stands. Its iron window grates gave the site the name, first of Cryptoferrata then of Grottaferrata, from the site, a Roman bronze of a man and a cow attracted the antiquarian attention of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had the group removed to Lucera. Nilus died soon afterwards in the Sant Agata monastery in Tusculum, the monastic building was carried out by his successors, especially the fourth abbot, Saint Bartholomew, who is usually considered the second founder. Building materials scavenged from the villa were incorporated into the new structure, marble columns, sections of carved cornice. The sanctuary was complete enough in 1024 to be consecrated by the Tusculan Pope John XIX, the high repute of the monks attracted many gifts, eleventh- and thirteenth-century mosaics remain, but of the ambitious ensemble of Cosmatesque inlay, only the polychrome stone paving remains. The abbeys possessions in lands were numerous and widespread, and in 1131 King Roger II of Sicily made the abbot Baron of Rossano with an extensive fief. Between the 12th and 15th centuries the monastery suffered from the strife of warring factions, Romans and Tusculans, Guelphs and Ghibellines, popes and antipopes, Colonna. From 1163 till the destruction of Tusculum in 1191, the part of the monastic community sought refuge in a dependency of the abbey. In the middle of the 13th century the Emperor Frederick II made the abbey his headquarters during the siege of Rome, the fifteenth century saw the bloody feuds of the Colonna and the Orsini raging round the walls. According to the humanist Ambrogio Traversari, in 1432 the appearance of the abbey was that of a rather than a monastery. In 1462 began a line of non-resident abbots in commendam, fifteen in number, of whom all, the most distinguished were the Greek Bessarion, Giulio della Rovere, and the last of the line, Cardinal Consalvi, secretary of state to Pius VII. Cardinal Bessarion, himself a Basilian monk, increased the scanty and impoverished community, Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, for more selfish motives, erected the castle and surrounded the whole monastery with the imposing fortifications that still exist. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese replaced the ceiling, gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini to provide the high altar, completed in 1665. Till 1608 the community was ruled by priors dependent on abbots in commendam, the revenues of the community were separated from those of the commendatory abbots, and the first of a series of triennially appointed regular abbots was appointed. The triennial system survived the suppression of the commendam and lasted till the end of the century, with one break from 1834 to 1870. In 1901, new constitutions came into force and Arsenio Pellegrini was installed as the first perpetual regular abbot since 1462
18.
Ciampino
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Ciampino is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It was a frazione of Marino until 1974, when it became a comune, the city is named after Giovanni Giustino Ciampini, a religious, scientist and archaeologist who lived here in the 17th century. It grew from 5,000 inhabitants in 1951 to 28,000 in 1971, today, the city has circa 37,000 inhabitants. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Ciampino has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, the citys climate is basically Mediterranean type, but there are rare continental peaks, especially in winter. The autumn and spring seasons are particularly rainy and with mild temperatures, snow is a very rare phenomenon, they are mostly timid sleet or downpour of graupel. The summer is hot, humid and potentially drought. Therefore, the rainfall will have on the foothills of the hills, facing the sea, towards the south-west. In the summer, in conditions of heat waves particularly. Media related to Ciampino at Wikimedia Commons
19.
Wine
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Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes. These grapes are generally Vitis vinifera, or a hybrid with Vitis labrusca or Vitis rupestris, grapes are fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. These variations result from the interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine and these typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. There are also made from fermenting other fruits or cereals. Wines made from other than grapes include rice wine and various fruit wines such as those made from plums or cherries. Some well known examples are hard cider from apples, perry from pears, pomegranate wine, Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest known traces of wine from Georgia in Eurasia where 8000-year-old wine jars were found and in Iran with 7, the earliest known winery is the 6, 100-year-old Areni-1 winery Armenia. Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace, throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects, which are evident after the normal serving size of five ounces. Wine has long played an important role in religion, the earliest chemically attested grape wine was discovered at Hajji Firuz in the northwestern Zagros Mountains dating back to 5400 BC. The earliest evidence of a fermented drink was found in Georgia, where wine residue inside ceramic jars dates from 6000 BC. The earliest evidence of a production facility is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia and is at least 6100 years old, presumably. A2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in China in the years of the seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained traces of tartaric acid, however, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out. The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Lebanese, Syrian, the wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact. As the first great traders in wine, the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin
20.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
21.
Latin League
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The Latin League was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome, organized for mutual defense. The term Latin League is one coined by modern historians with no precise Latin equivalent and it was originally created for protection against enemies from surrounding areas under the leadership of the city of Alba Longa. An incomplete fragment of a recorded by Cato the Elder tells us that at one time the league included Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Cora, Tibur, Pometia. During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, the Latins were persuaded to acknowledge the leadership of Rome. The treaty with Rome was renewed, and it was agreed that the troops of the Latins would attend on a day to form a united military force with the troops of Rome. That was done, and Tarquin formed combined units of Roman, the early Roman Republic formed an alliance with the Latin League in 493 BC. According to Roman tradition, the treaty, the foedus Cassianum and it provided that both Rome and the Latin League would share loot from military conquests and that any military campaigns between the two would be led by Roman generals. The alliance helped repel attacks from such peoples as the Aequi and the Volsci, tribes of the Apennine Mountains and it is still unclear if the Latins had accepted Rome as one into the League, or if the treaty had been signed as between Rome and the Latin League. The increasing power of Rome gradually led to its domination of the league, the renewal of the original treaty in 358 BC formally established Roman leadership and eventually triggered the outbreak of the Latin War. Following the Roman victory, the league was dissolved, after 338 BC, the end of the Latin league, Rome renamed the cities municipia and established coloniae inside them. This meant that the towns were now ruled by Rome and that the living there were considered Roman colonists. Alba Longa, Ardea, Aricia, Cora, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Pometia, Tibur, and Tusculum
22.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
23.
Saracen
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Saracen was a term widely used among Christian writers in Europe during the Middle Ages. The terms meaning evolved during its history, in Europe during the Early Medieval era, the term came to be associated with Arab tribes as well. By the 12th century, Saracen had become synonymous with Muslim in Medieval Latin literature, such expansion in the meaning of the term had begun centuries earlier among the Byzantine Romans, as evidenced in documents from the 8th century. In the Western languages before the 16th century, Saracen was commonly used to refer to Muslim Arabs, the term Saraceni might be derived from the Semitic triliteral root srq signifies to steal, rob, plunder. The noun sāriq - sariqīn means, ptolemys 2nd century work, Geography, describes Sarakēnē as a region in the northern Sinai Peninsula. Ptolemy also mentions a people called the Sarakēnoi living in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula, the Augustan History also refers to an attack by Saraceni on Pescennius Nigers army in Egypt in 193, but provides little information as to identifying them. Both Hippolytus of Rome and Uranius mention three distinct peoples in Arabia during the first half of the century, the Saraceni, the Taeni. The Taeni, later identified with the Arabic-speaking people called Tayy, were located around Khaybar, the Saraceni were placed north of them. These Saracens, located in the northern Hejaz, were described as people with a certain military ability who were opponents of the Roman Empire, the Saracens are described as forming the equites from Phoenicia and Thamud. In one document the defeated enemies of Diocletians campaign in the Syrian Desert are described as Saracens. Other 4th century military reports make no mention of Arabs but refer to as Saracens groups ranging as far east as Mesopotamia that were involved in battles on both the Sasanian and Roman sides. The Saracens were named in the Roman administrative document Notitia Dignitatum—dating from the time of Theodosius I in the 4th century—as comprising distinctive units in the Roman army and they were distinguished in the document from Arabs. Beginning no later than the fifth century, Christian writers began to equate Saracens with Arabs. Saracens were associated with Ishmaelites in some strands of Jewish, Christian and this claim was popular during the Middle Ages, but derives more from Paul’s allegory in the New Testament letter to the Galatians than from historical data. The name Saracen was not indigenous among the populations so described but was applied to them by Greco-Roman historians based on Greek place names. As the Middle Ages progressed, usage of the term in the Latin West changed, but its connotation remained negative, associated with opponents of Christianity, in an 8th-century polemical work, John of Damascus criticized the Saracens as followers of a false prophet and forerunner to the Antichrist. By the 12th century, Medieval Europeans had more specific conceptions of Islam and used the term Saracen as an ethnic, in some Medieval literature, Saracens—that is, Muslims—were described as black-skinned, while Christians were lighter-skinned. An example is in The King of Tars, a medieval romance, the Song of Roland, an Old French 11th-century heroic poem, refers to the black skin of Saracens as their only exotic feature
24.
Tusculum
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Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was one of the largest Roman cities in the Alban Hills, the Tusculum is located on Tuscolo hill on the northern edge of the outer crater rim of the Alban volcano. The volcano itself is located in the Alban Hills 6 kilometres south of the town of Frascati. Tuscolo Hills summit is 670 metres above sea level and affords a view of the Roman Campagna, Rome was reached by the Via Latina, or by the Via Labicana to the north. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city. Strabo wrote about Tusculum in Geography, V3 §12, but still closer to Rome than the mountainous country where these cities lie, there is another ridge, which leaves a valley between them and is high as far as Mount Albanus. The geographer Filippo Cluverio discounts these legends, asserting that the city was founded by Latins about three hundred years before the Trojan War, funerary urns datable to the 8th–7th centuries B. C. demonstrate a human presence in the late phases of Latin culture in this area. Tusculum is first mentioned in history as an independent city-state with a king, a constitution and gods of its own. When Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last King of Rome, was expelled from the city in 509 B. C. he sought help from his son-in-law Octavius Mamilius. After the war between Clusium and Rome failed to win back the throne for Tarquinius, he sought refuge with Mamilius in Tusculum, the Mamilii claimed to be descended from Telegonus, the founder of the city. Mamilius commanded the army of the Latins against the Romans at the Battle of Lake Regillus and this is the point at which Rome gained predominance among the Latin cities. According to some accounts Tusculum subsequently became an ally of Rome, in 460 B. C. the Sabines occupied the Capitol. Of the Latin cities, only Tusculum quickly sent troops, commanded by the dictator Lucius Mamilius, together with the forces of the consul Publius Valerius Poplicola they were able to quash the revolt. Poplicola was thankful to the Tusculans for their help, and conferred on Lucius Mamilius the honour of Roman citizenship, in 459 B. C. the Aequi attacked Tusculum and captured its citadel. In 381 BC, after an expression of submission to Rome. Tusculum became the first municipium cum suffragio, or self-governing city, the Tusculum citizens were therefore recorded in the Tribus Papiria. Other accounts, however, speak of Tusculum as often allied with Romes enemies, several of the chief Roman families were of Tusculan origin, e. g. In 54 BC, in his Orationes Pro Cn, varro wrote about the laws of Tusculum in De Lingua Latina, Volume 5, New wine shall not be taken into the town before the Vinalia are proclaimed
25.
Frangipane
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Frangipane is a filling made from or flavored with almonds. Frangipani Italian pronunciation, is derived from frangere il pane and this filling can be used in a variety of ways including cakes and such pastries as the Bakewell tart, Conversation tart, Jesuite and Pithivier. A French spelling from a 1674 cookbook is franchipane with the earliest modern spelling coming from a 1732 confectioners dictionary, originally designated as a custard tart flavored by almonds or pistachios it came later to designate a filling that could be used in a variety of confections and baked goods. Frangipane is one of Frances many traditional foods associated with Christmas celebration, today it is normally made of butter, sugar, eggs, and ground almonds. In some anecdotes it was the kind of sweet that the noblewoman Jacopa da Settesoli brought to St. Francis of Assisi in 1226, when he was dying. On Epiphany, the French cut the King Cake, a cake made of frangipane layers into slices to be distributed by a child known as le petit roi who is usually hiding under the dining table. The cake is decorated with stars, a crown, flowers, whoever gets the piece of the frangipane cake with the bean is crowned “king” or “queen” for the following year. Frangipane/frangipani derived from frangere il pane from which the noble Frangipani family of Rome derived its name in the 11th century, a certain Frangipane was perfumier to Louis XIII of France, hence the common name of the flowering tropical trees that are actually in the genus Plumeria. Other people believe its derived from St. Francis, pane is Italian for bread, Frangipane can also refer to, A Belgian almond pastry tart. Usually the individual cakes have a pattern on top, occasionally with icing. The frangipane tree as in John Vanderslices song Kookaburra List of almond dishes List of custard desserts List of pastries Frangipane
26.
Confraternity
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A confraternity is generally a Christian voluntary association of lay people created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most common among Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, when a confraternity has received the authority to aggregate to itself groups erected in other localities, it is called an archconfraternity. An example is the Confraternity of the Rosary, the term may have other meanings, Confraternities in Nigeria began as a term for fraternities in the American college sense, university-based social organisations. Each Confraternity organization has a set of rules or by-laws to follow which every member promises to live by, even though the Catholic Church works in harmony with the confraternity, these rules are not religious vows, instead merely rules set up to govern the confraternal organization. Pious associations of laymen existed in ancient times at Constantinople. In France, in the eighth and ninth centuries, the laws of the Carlovingians mention confraternities, but the first confraternity in the modern and proper sense of the word is said to have been founded at Paris by Bishop Odo. It was under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Confraternities had their beginnings in the early Middle Ages, and developed rapidly from the end of the twelfth century. The main object and duty of these societies were, above all, the Purgatorial societies and orders of flagellants were other specialized medieval types. Various other congregations such as of the Holy Trinity, of the Scapular, from the latter century onwards, these pious associations have multiplied greatly. The Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone was a headquartered in the Church of Santa Lucia del Gonfalone, because of their white hooded robes, they were identified as the White Penitents. They were established in 1264 at Rome, st. Bonaventure, at that time Inquisitor-general of the Holy Office, prescribed the rules, and the white habit, with the name Recommendati B. V. Society could not function strictly through government programs because there was also a need to care of matters such as burials. While government can and did maintain programs to handle these needs, each confraternity has its own regulations for membership, stipulating who may join. Some confraternities allow only men, while others allow only women or only youth, the confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary allows universal membership without regard to race, creed or social status. Orthodox Christian Laity Brotherhoods Confraternities of the Cord
27.
Cola di Rienzo
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Cola di Rienzo was an Italian medieval politician and popular leader, tribune of the Roman people in the mid-14th century. Cola was born in Rome of humble origins and he claimed to be the natural child of Henry VII, the Holy Roman Emperor, but in fact his parents were a washer-woman and a tavern-keeper named Lorenzo Gabrini. His fathers forename was shortened to Rienzo, and his own, Nicola, to Cola, hence the Cola di Rienzo, or Rienzi and his early years were passed at Anagni. His zeal for this work was quickened by the desire to avenge his brother who had killed by a noble. He became a notary and a person of importance in the city. Returning to Rome about April 1344 he worked for three years at the object of his life, the restoration of the city to its former position of power. He gathered together a band of supporters, plans were drawn up, on 19 May 1347 heralds invited the people to a parliament on the Capitol, and on 20 May, the day being Whit-Sunday, the meeting took place. A new series of laws was published and accepted with acclaim, without striking a blow the nobles left the city or went into hiding, and a few days later Rienzo took the title of tribune. His authority quickly and quietly accepted by all classes, the new ruler governed the city with a stern justice which was in marked contrast to the recent reign of license and disorder. On the following day the festival of the unity of Italy was celebrated, Ferdinand Gregorovius says this ceremony was the fantastic caricature in which ended the imperium of Charles the Great. A world where political action was represented in such guise was ripe for overthrow and he then seized, but soon released, Stefano Colonna and some other barons who had spoken disparagingly of him. But his power was beginning to wane. Cola di Rienzos character has described as a combination of knowledge, eloquence, and enthusiasm for ideal excellence, with vanity, inexperience of mankind, unsteadiness. As these latter qualities became conspicuous, they eclipsed his virtues and his extravagant pretensions only served to excite ridicule. His government was costly, and to meet its many expenses he was obliged to lay heavy taxes upon the people. He offended the pope by his arrogance and pride, and both pope and emperor by his proposal to set up a new Roman Empire, the sovereignty of which would rest directly upon the will of the people. In October Clement gave power to a legate to depose him and bring him to trial, taking heart, the exiled barons gathered together some troops, and war began in the neighbourhood of Rome. Cola di Rienzo obtained aid from Louis of Hungary and others, just outside the Porta Tiburtina, a battle in which the tribune himself took no part, but in which his most distinguished foe, Stefano Colonna, was killed
28.
Alberico da Barbiano
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Alberico da Barbiano was the first of the Italian condottieri. His master in military matters was the English mercenary John Hawkwood, Albericos compagnia fought under the banner of Saint George, as the compagnia San Giorgio. Born in Barbiano di Cotignola, a commune of what is now eastern Emilia-Romagna, the family were nobles of Romagna of long standing, claiming descent from Carolingian times. They were hereditary lords of Barbiano, Cunio and Lugo di Romagna and claimed as kin the lords of Ravenna, Forlì and he married Beatrice da Polenta of Ravenna, and had by her two sons, Manfredo and Ludovico. Alberico gained his first military experience in the compagnia of the English captain John Hawkwood, taking part in the slaughter at Faenza. Allegedly touched by these excesses, Alberico left the foreign compagnia, famous condottieri like Facino Cane, Jacopo dal Verme, Braccio da Montone and Muzio Attendolo began their military career in the St. George Company. Starting with 200 men, Alberico could soon boast 4,000 soldiers under his command, the first condotta for Albericos force was in 1378, at the service of Barnabò Visconti of Milan, against the Scaliger and the Carraresi. The following year Alberico was called by Pope Urban VI to fight against Antipope Clement VII, the latters infamous Breton troops were crushed in the neighbourhood of Rome on 29 June 1379, after five hours of battles. Alberico was later involved in the war for the Crown of Naples between Queen Joan I and Charles of Durazzo, backed by Urban VI, on 18 June 1381, Alberico defeated Otto and subsequently besieged Joan in the Castel Nuovo of Naples. Alberico managed to protect Forlì and Cesena, however, Louis defeated Charles III at Campobasso and was declared king of Naples. Louis eventually died after a pestilence, while Urban VI changed sides declaring Alberico, Charles was assassinated on 24 February 1386, but Barbiano declared his loyalty to the latters son Ladislaus. The latter had to face a new French invasion, this led by Louis II. Alberico for the first time in his career was defeated, at Ascoli Piceno, gian Galeazzo Visconti paid 3,000 florins for his freedom, engaging him for the war against Florence, Bologna and Mantua. During this campaign his brother, Giovanni, was captured and beheaded by the enemy condottiero Astorre I Manfredi, Alberico, eager for vengeance, won a series of battles in 1397 and was ready for the final siege of Mantua. However, a treaty of peace signed by Visconti with Francesco I of Gonzaga stopped him, on 26 June 1402, he defeated a combined Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio, leading to the Milanese conquest of Bologna. The following year he left Milan to re-enter service to Ladislaus of Naples, Alberico da Barbiano died in the spring of 1409, on the way to meet his king at Città della Pieve. His son Ludovico was count of Lugo from 1411, the latters son Alberico II was ousted from the city in 1431, and moved to Lombardy, where his heirs become feudataries of Belgioioso. In 1566 the Barbiano-Belgioioso received the title of Grandees of Spain In 1930 the Italian Regia Marina launched a cruiser Alberico da Barbiano of the Condottieri class
29.
Antipope Clement VII
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Robert of Geneva was elected to the papacy as Clement VII by the French cardinals who opposed Urban VI, and was the first antipope residing in Avignon, France. He was the son of Amadeus III, Count of Geneva and he became Bishop of Thérouanne in 1361, Archbishop of Cambrai in 1368, and a cardinal on 30 May 1371. In 1392, he inherited the title of Count of Geneva, the title then passed from him through his eldest sister Mary to her son, Humbert de Thoire. Clement owed the support of Queen Joanna of Naples and of several of the Italian barons. Charles V of France, who seems to have been sounded beforehand on the choice of the Roman pontiff, Clement eventually succeeded in winning to his cause Scotland, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, a great part of the Latin East, and Flanders. He had adherents, besides, scattered through Germany, while Portugal on two occasions acknowledged him, but afterwards forsook him, burgundy and Savoy also acknowledged his authority. Unable to maintain himself in Italy, he took up his residence at Avignon in the southern French Comtat Venaissin, where he became dependent on the French court. These tempting offers gave rise to a series of expeditions into Italy carried out almost exclusively at Clement’s expense, the campaign was unsuccessful, Louis suddenly died at Bisceglie on 20 September 1384. After the death of Louis, Clement hoped to find equally brave and interested champions in Louis’ son and namesake Louis II of Anjou, to which he donated the larger part of the Pontifical States. Clement then tried to ally with Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Charles VI, with Charles VI himself, and with John III, Count of Armagnac. The prospect of his brilliant progress to Rome was ever before Clements eyes, moreover, his ambitions and the financial needs of his court had resorted to simony, the loss of land and extortion which discerned among his adherents the germs of disaffection. He had created excellent cardinals, but he seems never to have desired the termination of the schism. He died at Avignon on 16 September 1394, eventually it was determined that he would be recorded as an antipope rather than as a pope. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Valois. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Weber
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Colonna family
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The Colonna family, also 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, 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. According to tradition, the Colonna are 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. The first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206 when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS and 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 the pro-papal Orsini family, 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, Matteo, and Landolfo of their lands. The latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII who ordered Jacopo to return the land, and furthermore hand over the familys strongholds of Colonna, Palestrina, Jacopo refused, in May, Boniface removed him from the College of Cardinals and excommunicated him and his followers. The Colonna family declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the abdication of Pope Celestine V. The dispute led to warfare, and in September Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army. By the end of 1298 Landolfo had captured Colonna, Palestrina and other towns, the familys lands were distributed among Landolfo and his loyal brothers, the rest of the family fled Italy. The exiled Colonna allied with the Popes other great enemy, Philip IV of France, in September 1303, Sciarra and Philipps advisor, Guillaume de Nogaret, led a small force into Anagni to arrest of Boniface VIII and bring him to France, where was to stand trial. While the two managed to apprehend the Pope and Sciarra reportedly slapped the pope in the face in the process, the attempt eventually failed after a few days, when locals freed the Pope. However, Boniface VIII died on the 11th October, allowing France to dominate his weaker successors during the Avignon papacy, the family remained at the centre of civic and religious life throughout the late Middle Ages. Cardinal Egidio Colonna died at the 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 declared that he would not crown Louis, the King decided to be crowned by a member of the Roman aristocracy
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Charles VIII of France
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Charles VIII, called the Affable, French, lAffable, was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13 and his elder sister Anne of France acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Annes regency, the great lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a known as the Mad War. Preoccupied by the succession in the Kingdom of Hungary, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became administrator of Brittany and established a union that enabled France to avoid total encirclement by Habsburg territories. The coalition formed against the French invasion of 1494-98 finally drove out Charles army, Charles died in 1498 after accidentally striking his head on the lintel of a door. Since he had no heir, he was succeeded by his cousin Louis XII of France from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Charles was born at the Château dAmboise in France, the surviving son of King Louis XI by his second wife Charlotte of Savoy. Charles succeeded to the throne on 30 August 1483 at the age of 13 and he was regarded by his contemporaries as possessing a pleasant disposition, but also as foolish and unsuited for the business of the state. She would rule as regent, together with her husband Peter of Bourbon, Charles was betrothed on 22 July 1483 to the 3-year-old Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. The marriage was arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482 Peace of Arras between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. Margaret brought the Counties of Artois and Burgundy to France as her dowry, in 1488, however, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, died in a riding accident, leaving his 11-year-old daughter Anne as his heiress. The Regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to countenance such a marriage, however, since it would place Maximilian and his family, the Habsburgs, on two French borders. The French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Frederick III and his son with the succession to Mathias Corvinus. Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian and agree to be married to Charles VIII instead, in December 1491, in an elaborate ceremony at the Château de Langeais, Charles and Anne of Brittany were married. The 14-year-old Duchess Anne, not happy with the arranged marriage, however, Charless marriage brought him independence from his relatives and thereafter he managed affairs according to his own inclinations. Queen Anne lived at the Clos Lucé in Amboise, there still remained the matter of Charles first betrothed, the young Margaret of Austria. Although the cancellation of her betrothal meant that she by rights should have returned to her family, Charles did not initially do so
32.
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso II dEste was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este and he was the elder son of Ercole II dEste and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany and was the fifth and last Duke of Ferrara. As a young man, he fought in the service of Henry II of France against the Habsburgs, soon after his accession, he was forced by Pope Pius IV to send back his mother to France due to her Calvinist creed. The 1570 Ferrara earthquake fell into his reign, in 1583 he allied with Emperor Rudolf II in the war against the Turks in Hungary. He married three times, On 3 July 1558, Alfonso married his first wife Lucrezia di Cosimo de Medici and she died two years afterwards, poisoning has been suspected, although it is now thought that she died of tuberculosis. On 5 December 1565, Alfonso married his second wife Barbara of Austria, eighth daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia, on 24 February 1579, Alfonso married his third wife Margherita Gonzaga. She was the eldest daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, Margherita was the niece of his second wife Barbara. He had no children, legitimate or otherwise. The legitimate line ended in 1597 with him, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor recognized as heir his cousin Cesare dEste, member of a cadet branch, who continued to rule in the imperial duchies and carried on the family name. The succession, however, was recognized only by the Emperor, in 1598 Ferrara was therefore incorporated into the Papal States by Pope Clement VIII, on grounds of doubtful legitimacy. As a result of Alfonso death Cesare dEste and his family were obliged to leave the city, besides being fluent in Italian he was also proficient in Latin and French. Luzzasco Luzzaschi served as his court organist, in addition, he was the sponsor of the Concerto delle donne, a type of group which was to be copied all over Italy. He also restored the Castello Estense, damaged by an earthquake in 1570 and his expenses, however, went at damage of the public treasure. Alfonso II is the duke upon whom Robert Browning based his poem My Last Duchess
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Vittoria Colonna
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Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet. She developed a friendship with Michelangelo Buonarroti, with whom she exchanged verse. The early death of her husband, in 1525, gave Colonna the opportunity to develop and maintain her literary contacts, Vittoria Colonna was born at Marino, a fief of the Colonna family in the Alban Hills near Rome. She was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, Colonna was betrothed when she was four years old to Fernando Francesco dÁvalos, son of the marquis of Pescara, at the insistence of Ferdinand, king of Naples. She received the highest education and gave proof of a love of letters. Her hand was sought by many suitors, including the dukes of Savoy and Braganza, there she became part of the literary circle of Costanza dAvalos, Duchess of Francavilla, her husbands aunt. There the couple resided until 1511, when her husband offered his sword to the League against the French and he was taken captive at the Battle of Ravenna and conveyed to France. Between 1516 and 1522, Colonna lost three members of her family and her younger brother Federico, died in 1516, Fabrizio in 1520 and Agnese in 1522. It was during this time that she received a manuscript copy of Baldessare Castigliones The Book of the Courtier. On 3 December 1525, Fernando died at Milan from the wounds he had sustained at the Battle of Pavia. Colonna, who was hastening to tend him, received the news of his death at Viterbo, she halted and retreated to the convent of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome. Her request to take her vows and enter the convent was refused by Pope Clement VII and her brother Ascanio, after which she returned to Ischia, where she remained for several years. Abigail Brundin has suggested Clement and Ascanios motivations for refusing Colonnas request may have been that they hoped a future marriage would create another desirable political alliance, however, she refused several suitors and dedicated herself to writing poetry. The Sack of Rome in 1527 gave the Colonna family the opportunity to improve the relationship between them and the Medici pope Clement VII by offering help to the Roman population. However, when the French army attacked Naples, the house of Avalos took refuge on the island of Ischia. Nine months after the sack of the city, the historian Paolo Giovio arrived on Ischia after being invited by Colonna. In the third book of this dialogue, Giovio includes a ten-page encomium of Colonna, in 1529, Colonna returned to Rome, and spent the next few years between that city, Orvieto, Ischia and other places. Moreover, she tried to correct the wrongs of her husband by asking the house of Avalos to return to the abbey of Montecassino some wrongfully seized land
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Marcantonio Colonna
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He is best remembered for his part as the admiral of the Papal fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. His parents were Ascanio Colonna, Duke of Tagliacozzo, and Giovanna dAragona, due to acts of rebellion, he was disinherited by his father, but in 1562 Colonna was able to regain the family fiefs for himself, largely thanks to the support of Pope Pius IV. However, he had to forfeit several possessions, such as Nemi, Ardea, in 1553–1554, during the war against Siena, Colonna was made commander of the Spanish cavalry. At the Battle of Lepanto, he commanded the papal Capitana as part of the Centre division, where he rescued the flagship of commander Don John of Austria, the Real. When the Real was almost taken by the Ottoman janissaries, Colonna came alongside with the bow of his galley, with the help of Colonna, the Turks were pushed off the Real and the Ottoman flagship of Ali Pasha was boarded and swept. The entire crew of Ali Pashas flagship was killed, including the commander himself, the banner of the Holy League was hoisted on the captured ship, breaking the morale of the Turkish galleys nearby. On Colonnas return to Rome, Pope Gregory XIII confirmed him as Captain General of the Church, in 1577 King Philip II named Colonna as Viceroy of Sicily. He was also Lord of Marino, then a village a few south of Rome. Colonna often stayed at Avezzano, where he had a fountain built and added a new floor in the castle, later in his life he moved to LAquila, where he lived in the house now called the Palazzo Porcinari. His son cardinal Ascanio Colonna had as secretary Phillipe I Rubens, brother of Peter Paul
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Battle of Lepanto
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The battle was in essence an infantry battle on floating platforms. It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, over the following decades, the increasing importance of the galleon and the line of battle tactic would displace the galley as the major warship of its era, marking the beginning of the Age of Sail. It has long been compared to the Battle of Salamis both for tactical parallels and for its importance in the defense of Europe against imperial expansion. On 1 August, the Venetians had surrendered after being reassured that they could leave Cyprus freely, however, the Ottoman commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, who had lost some 50,000 men in the siege, broke his word, imprisoning the Venetians. The members of the Holy League were the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchies of Savoy, Urbino and Tuscany, the Knights Hospitaller and others. The banner for the fleet, blessed by the Pope, reached the Kingdom of Naples on 14 August 1571. There, in the Basilica of Santa Chiara, it was consigned to John of Austria. All members of the alliance viewed the Ottoman navy as a significant threat, the combined Christian fleet was placed under the command of John of Austria with Marcantonio Colonna as his principal deputy. The various Christian contingents met the force, that of Venice, in July and August 1571 at Messina. John of Austria arrived on 23 August, see Battle of Lepanto order of battle for a detailed list of ships and commanders involved in the battle. This fleet of the Christian alliance was manned by 40,000 sailors, Ali Pasha, the Ottoman admiral, supported by the corsairs Mehmed Siroco of Alexandria and Uluç Ali, commanded an Ottoman force of 222 war galleys,56 galliots, and some smaller vessels. The Turks had skilled and experienced crews of sailors but were deficient in their elite corps of Janissaries. The number of oarsmen was about 37,000, virtually all of them slaves, the Ottoman galleys were manned by 13,000 experienced sailors—generally drawn from the maritime nations of the Ottoman Empire, namely Berbers, Greeks, Syrians, and Egyptians—and 34,000 soldiers. An advantage for the Christians was their numerical superiority in guns and cannon aboard their ships and it is estimated that the Christians had 1,815 guns, while the Turks had only 750 with insufficient ammunition. The Christians embarked with their much improved arquebusier and musketeer forces, serious conflict had broken out between the Venetian and Spanish soldiers, and Venier enraged Don Juan by hanging a Spanish soldier for impudence. Despite bad weather, the Christian ships sailed south and, on 6 October, they reached the port of Sami, Cephalonia, early on 7 October, they sailed toward the Gulf of Patras, where they encountered the Ottoman fleet. While neither fleet had immediate strategic resources or objectives in the gulf, on the morning of 7 October, after the decision to offer battle was made, the Christian fleet formed up in four divisions in a north-south line. At the northern end, closest to the coast, was the Left Division of 53 galleys, mainly Venetian, led by Agostino Barbarigo, with Marco Querini and Antonio da Canale in support
36.
Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
37.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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North American B-25 Mitchell
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The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American twin-engine, medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was named in honor of Major General William Billy Mitchell, used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in every theater of World War II and after the war ended many remained in service, operating across four decades. Produced in numerous variants, nearly 10,000 Mitchells rolled from NAA factories and these included a few limited models, such as the United States Marine Corps PBJ-1 patrol bomber and the United States Army Air Forces F-10 reconnaissance aircraft and AT-24 trainers. The Air Corps issued a circular in March 1938 describing the performance they required from the next bombers — a payload of 1,200 lb with a range of 1,200 mi at more than 200 mph and those performance specifications led NAA to submit their NA-40 design. However, the experience from the XB-21 contributed to the design. The single NA-40 built flew first at the end of January 1939 and it went through several modifications to correct problems. These improvements included fitting 1,600 hp Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone radial engines, in March 1939, in March 1939, North American delivered the substantially redesigned and improved NA-40 to the United States Army Air Corps for evaluation. It was in competition with other manufacturers designs but failed to win orders, however, the French had already opted for a revised Douglas 7B. Unfortunately, the NA-40B was destroyed in a crash on 11 April 1939 while undergoing testing, although the crash was not considered due to a fault with the aircraft design, the Army ordered the DB-7 as the A-20. There was no YB-25 for prototype service tests, in September 1939, the Air Corps ordered the NA-62 into production as the B-25, along with the other new Air Corps medium bomber, the Martin B-26 Marauder off the drawing board. The NA-40 lost out to the Douglas A-20 in the competition, but NAA developed a more advanced design, the NA-40B. Early into B-25 production, NAA incorporated a significant redesign to the wing dihedral, the first nine aircraft had a constant-dihedral, meaning the wing had a consistent, upward angle from the fuselage to the wingtip. Flattening the outer wing panels by giving them a slight anhedral angle just outboard of the engine nacelles nullified the problem, less noticeable changes during this period included an increase in the size of the tail fins and a decrease in their inward tilt at their tops. NAA continued design and development in 1940 and 1941, both the B-25A and B-25B series entered AAF service. The B-25B was operational in 1942, combat requirements lead to further developments. Before the year was over, NAA was producing the B-25C, also in 1942, the manufacturer began design work on the cannon-armed B-25G series. The NA-100 of 1943 and 1944 was an interim armament development at the Kansas City complex known as the B-25D2, Similar armament upgrades by U. S-based commercial modification centers involved about half of the B-25G series. Further development led to the B-25H, B-25J, and B-25J2, the gunship design concept dates to late 1942 and NAA sent a field technical representative to the SWPA
39.
Guercino
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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, best known as Guercino, or Il Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his manner is in contrast to the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style and he was born in Cento, a village between Bologna and Ferrara. At an early age he acquired the nickname Guercino because he was cross-eyed, mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. By 1615, he moved to Bologna, where his work was praised by Ludovico Carracci, Guercino painted two large canvases, Elijah Fed by Ravens and Samson Seized by Philistines, for Cardinal Serra, a Papal Legate to Ferrara. These paintings have a stark naturalist Caravaggesque style, although it is unlikely that Guercino saw any of the Roman Caravaggios first-hand, the Arcadian Shepherds was painted in 1618 at the same time of The Flaying of Marsyas by Apollo in Palazzo Pitti. Its dramatic composition is typical of Guercinos early works, which are often tumultuous and he often claimed that his early style was influenced by a canvas of Ludovico Carracci that he saw in the Capuchin church in Cento. Some of his works are closer to the style of his contemporary Guido Reni. He was recommended by Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio to the Bolognese Ludovisi Pope, Pope Gregory XV, the years he spent in Rome, 1621–23, were very productive. Petronilla Altarpiece for the Vatican, which is considered his masterpiece, after the death of Gregory XV, Guercino returned to his hometown. In 1626, he began his frescoes in the Duomo of Piacenza, between 1618 and 1631, Giovanni Battista Pasqualini produced 67 engravings that document the early production of Guercino, which is not included in the Libro dei Conti. In 1642, following the death of Guido Reni, Guercino moved his workshop to Bologna. In 1655, the Franciscan Order of Reggio paid him 300 ducats for the altarpiece of Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna, the Corsini also paid him 300 ducats for the Flagellation of Christ painted in 1657. Guercino was remarkable for the rapidity of his executions, he completed no fewer than 106 large altarpieces for churches. He was also a prolific draftsman and his production includes many drawings, usually in ink, washed ink, or red chalk. Most of them were made as preparatory studies for his paintings, but he also drew landscapes, genre subjects, Guercinos drawings are known for their fluent style in which rapid, calligraphic pen strokes combined with dots, dashes, and parallel hatching lines describe the forms. Guercino continued to paint and teach until his death in 1666, as he never married, his estate passed to his nephews and pupils, Benedetto Gennari II and Cesare Gennari. Benedetto Zallone of Cento, and Matteo Loves, masterpieces of Cento, Rome and Polish collections, displayed at the National Museum in Warsaw from September 2013 to February 2014
40.
Ercole Ferrata
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Ercole Ferrata was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque. A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi and he is best known for two works in SantAgnese in Agone in Rome, the Bernini-inspired The Death of St. Agnes as well as the marble relief Stoning of St Emerenziana. The latter has a restraint influenced by his mentor, Algardi, although the half was completed by one of his pupils. Under the leadership of Bernini, he sculpted the Angel with a Cross for the Ponte SantAngelo, early in his career he worked with Cosimo Fanzago and Giuliano Finelli in Naples. He also made the statue of Saint Catherine of Siena for the Chigi Chapel in the Duomo di Siena, with Francesco Aprile he sculpted SantAnastasia in Santa Anastasia in Rome, another statue resembling Berninis famous dying Beata Ludovica Albertoni. In 1677, when the Grand Duke arranged to get his antique sculptures released from Rome, Ercole Ferrata was recalled to Florence to unpack, Ferrata is less known for the documented fact that he provided the elegant arms for the Venus de Medici. He showed remarkable flair in making just the kind of additions to a mutilated statue which most appealed to connoisseurs, according to Francis Haskell. Of the generation after Bernini and Algardi, which included Domenico Guidi and Antonio Raggi, Ferratas pupils included the Florentine Foggini as well as Caffà, who acted as Ercoles studio assistant. In addition he trained Leonardo Retti, Francesco Aprile, Michele Maglia, Filippo Carcani, Giuseppe Mazzuoli, Lorenzo Ottoni, among his last pupils was Camillo Rusconi, who moved to Rome in 1686 to work briefly in Ferratas studio. Ercole Ferrata died at Rome in 1686, taste and the Antique, The Lure of Ancient Sculpture 1500-1900. Page at Web Gallery of Art Page at Artcyclopedia
41.
Guido Reni
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Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style. Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni, as a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in studio by Albani. He may also have trained with a painter by the name of Ferrantini, when Reni was about twenty years old, the three Calvaert pupils migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati, led by Lodovico Carracci. They went on to form the nucleus of a prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed Lodovicos cousin Annibale Carracci to Rome, like many other Bolognese painters, Renis painting was thematic and eclectic in style. By late 1601, Reni and Albani had moved to Rome to work with the led by Annibale Carracci in fresco decoration of the Farnese Palace. During 1601–1604, his patron was Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati. By 1604–1605, he received an independent commission for an altarpiece of the Crucifixion of St. Peter, after a few year sojourn in Bologna, he returned to Rome to become one of the premier painters during the papacy of Paul V. From 1607–1614, he was one of the painters patronized by the Borghese family, Renis frescoed ceiling of the large central hall of garden palace, Casino dellAurora located in the grounds of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, is considered his masterpiece. The casino was originally a pavilion commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the massive fresco is framed in quadri riportati and depicts Apollo in his Chariot preceded by Dawn bringing light to the world. The work is restrained in classicism, copying poses from Roman sarcophagi, there is little concession to perspective, and the vibrantly colored style is antithetical to the tenebrism of Caravaggios followers. Payments showed that he was paid in 247 scudi and 54 baiocchi upon completion on 24 September 1616, the two families were in rather bad relations, and the reason for such friction was their constant quest for temporal power. Also the Popes brother, Antonio Barberini, was a cardinal, in those days, the main church of the Capuchins in Rome was St. Nicholas, rather small and dating back to the Middle Ages. The Archangel Michael trampling Satan, wears a late Roman military cloak,1636, held in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, Rome. According to a legend, Reni became aware that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphilj had slandered him, so, Reni, sensing an opportunity, decided to avenge himself by means of his own talent, at the same time pleasing his client, who belonged to the opposing family. According to existing portraits of him, Cardinal Pamphilj had a face, with thin hair, a scanty beard and a somewhat strange look in his eyes. Therefore, the face that Archangel Michael crushes under his foot looks almost identical to that of Giovanni Battista Pamphilj and this turned out even more embarrassing a few years later, when in 1644 the cardinal was elected Pope Innocent X. According to rumor, the chapel of Montecavallo was assigned to Reni to paint
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Anderlecht, Belgium
Boulogne Billancourt, France
Hammersmith, United Kingdom
Neukölln, Germany
Zaanstad, Netherlands
Paterna, Spain
Irving, United States[5]
Nafpaktos, Greece
Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Marino". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 721.
Ashby, Thomas (1911). "
