1.
Foggia
–
Foggia is a city and comune of Apulia, in southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013 its population was 153,143, Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known as the granary of Italy. The name Foggia derives from Latin fovea, meaning pit, referring to the pits where wheat was stored. Although the area had settled since Neolithic times, and a Greek colony known as Argos Hippium existed nearby. According to the legend, the first settlers were peasants who had found a panel portraying the Madonna, the area was marshy and unhealthy. Robert Guiscard directed draining the wetland, boosting the economic and social growth of the city, the city was the seat of Henry, Count of Monte SantAngelo during the last twenty years of the 11th century. In the 12th century, William II of Sicily built a cathedral here, frederick II had a palace built in Foggia in 1223, in which he often sojourned. It was also seat of his court and a studium, including figures such as the mathematician and scholar Michael Scot. In 1447, King Alfonso V of Aragon built a Custom Palace to tax the local sheep farmers and this caused a decline of the local economy and the progressive ruin of the land, which again became marshy. In 1456, an earthquake struck Foggia, followed by others in 1534,1627 and 1731, the House of Bourbon promoted a certain economic growth by boosting the cereal agriculture of Capitanata and rebuilding much of the settlement. In the 19th century, Foggia received a station and important public monuments. The citizens also took part in the riots led to the annexation to Italy in 1861. By 1865, there was a shift from the custom of sheep farming in favour of an agricultural economy. The historical lack of resources was solved with the construction of the Apulian aqueduct in 1924. This role pushed the Allies to bomb Foggia during World War II, in particular on July 22 and August 19,1943, killing more than 20,000 civilians and reducing much of the city to rubble. On October 1,1943, the British 8th Army liberated Foggia, in 1959 and 2006, Foggia received, respectively, the Gold Medal for Civil and Military value for its role in World War II. The cathedral of Santa Maria de Fovea, which is linked with the patron saint Madonna dei Sette Veli This important site has two levels of architectural style. The lower part is Romanic as with many Pugliese churches, the upper part is a very remarkable example of Baroque
2.
Italy
–
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
3.
University of York
–
The University of York is a research-intensive plate glass university located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres. In the 2014 Research Assessment Exercise, York was named as the 14th best research institution in the United Kingdom. The university also places among the top 20 in the country, top 50 universities in Europe, York is described as a genuinely world class institution by The Times and The Sunday Times. In 2012 York joined the Russell Group, which some of the UKs most prestigious universities. Situated to the south-east of the city of York, the university campus is about 200 acres in size, incorporating the York Science Park and its wildlife, campus lakes and greenery are prominent, and the institution also occupies buildings in the city of York. In May 2007 the university was granted permission to build an extension to its main campus, the second campus, known as Heslington East, opened in 2009 and now hosts three colleges and three departments as well as conference spaces, sports village and a business start-up incubator. York is a university and every student is allocated to one of the universitys nine colleges. The ninth college was founded in 2014 and was named Constantine after the Roman emperor Constantine I, there are plans to build two new colleges in the near future. The first petition for the establishment of a university in York was presented to James I in 1617, in 1641 a second petition was drawn up but was not delivered due to the English Civil War in 1642. A third petition was created in 1647 but was rejected by Parliament, in the 1820s there were discussions about the founding of a university in York, but this did not come to fruition due to the founding of Durham University in 1832. In 1903 F. J. Munby and the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, amongst others, oliver Sheldon a director of Rowntrees and co-founder of York Civic Trust, was a driving force behind the campaign to found the university. Morell and the history of the foundations, in 1963 the university opened with 216 undergraduates,14 postgraduates, and 28 academic and administrative staff. The university started with six departments, Economics, Education, English, History, a year later, work began on purpose-built structures on the Heslington Campus, which now forms the main part of the university. Due to the influence of Graeme Moodie, founding head of the Politics Department, students are involved in the governance of the university at all levels, and his model has since been widely adopted. Yorks first two Colleges, Derwent and Langwith were founded in 1965, and were followed by Alcuin and Vanbrugh in 1967, in 1972 this was followed by Wentworth College. The university was noted for its approach to teaching. It was known for its adoption of joint honours degrees which were often very broad such as history
4.
Italian Parliament
–
The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. The Parliament is the body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It is a legislature with 950 elected members and a small number of unelected members. The two houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution, on the other hand, no distinction is made between deputies and senators. The Chamber of Deputies has 630 elected members, while the Senate has 315 elected members, the Senate of the Republic also includes a small number of unelected members. There are two categories of senators for life, former Presidents of the Republic are senators for life by law, unless they renounce this privilege. Furthermore, Presidents of the Republic can appoint up to five Italian citizens as senators for life for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field. Similarly, the two houses have a different age of candidacy, deputies are required to be 25 or older, no explicit age limit is required to be appointed senator for life. The main prerogative of the Parliament is the exercise of legislative power, for a bill to become law, it must receive the support of both houses independently in the same text. A bill is first introduced in one of the houses, amended, and then approved or rejected, if approved, it is passed to the other house, if approved without amendments, the bill is then promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. If approved with amendments, it is back to the other house. The process continues until the bill is approved in the text by both houses or is rejected by one house. The Council of Ministers, which is led by the Prime Minister and is the executive of Italy. If the President of the Republic is unable to find a new Prime Minister able to receive the support of both houses, he or she can dissolve one or both houses and new elections are held. The process by which the Italian Parliament makes law, the iter legis, is as follows, proposals can be made by the Government, individual Members of Parliament, private citizens, individual Regional Councils, and the National Council for Economics and Labour. Once a proposal is introduced in one of the two Chambers, it is assigned to a committee to carry out preliminary inspection of the proposal. At this point, two different procedures can be taken and this must be completed in no more than four months for the Chamber of Deputies and two months for the Senate. Once the bill has come before one of the chambers, a discussion takes place, followed by the review article by article, and finally a vote on the whole bill
5.
Democrats of the Left
–
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left, a member of The Olive Tree coalition, in October 2007 DS merged with Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and a number of minor centre-left parties to form the Democratic Party. The DS was successively led by Massimo DAlema, Walter Veltroni, the DS developed from the Democratic Party of the Left, which in turn was a reshaping of the Italian Communist Party into a democratic-socialist party. Under the leadership of Massimo DAlema, the PDS merged with some minor centre-left movements at a convention on 13 February 1998. The DS symbol lacked the hammer and sickle, which was present in the PDS one and was replaced by the red rose of European social democracy as used by the Party of European Socialists. Massimo DAlema became Prime Minister of Italy in October 1998, the first former Communist to hold the post, DAlema was replaced as the leader of DS by Walter Veltroni. During the partys national congress in November 2001, Piero Fassino. Fassino was re-elected during the national congress in February 2005 with 79. 0% of party members votes. The DS–DL–MRE joint list obtained 31. 2% of the vote and 220 deputies, the partys dismal result and the razor-thin win of The Union coalition over the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition prompted a discussion on the partys future. By the end of 2006 the party leadership was committed to a merger with DL, nine Ministers of the Prodi II Cabinet were affiliated to the DS, notably including Massimo DAlema Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Also Giorgio Napolitano, who was elected President of Italy in May 2006, hailed from the DS, the left-wing of Fabio Mussi, Cesare Salvi, Fulvia Bandoli and Valdo Spini scored 15. 0%, this motion was instead opposed to the merger of the DS with DL. As a result, the DS approved the formation of a Democratic Party, along with DL, inside the DS, there was often a somewhat simplistic distinction between reformists and radicals, indicating respectively the partys mainstream and its left-wing. The party also included several organised factions, a dissident group left the Labourites in order to launch Socialists and Europeans as a vehicle to oppose the partys merger with DL. On the partys right, Liberal DS had a moderate Third Way or radical political agenda. The electoral results of the Democrats of the Left in the 10 most populated regions of Italy are shown in the table below, the result for the 2006 general election refers to the election for the Senate
6.
Democratic Party (Italy)
–
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy. The partys acting leader is Matteo Orfini, who replaced Matteo Renzi after his resignation in February 2017, in April–May the party will hold a leadership election and Renzi is again running for secretary. The PD was founded on 14 October 2007 upon the merger of various centre-left parties which had part of The Olive Tree list. The PDs main ideological trends are thus social democracy and the Italian Christian leftist tradition, the party has been also influenced by social liberalism, which was already present in some of the founding components of the DS and DL, and more generally by a Third Way progressivism. Following the 2013 general election and the 2014 European Parliament election, the PD was the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the European Parliament. From 2013 the Italian government has been led by three successive Democratic Prime Ministers, Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi, and Paolo Gentiloni. As of 2017, other than the government, Democrats head fourteen regional governments out of twenty and function as coalition partner in Tuscany. Former bigwigs include Giorgio Napolitano, Sergio Mattarella, Romano Prodi, Giuliano Amato, Massimo DAlema, Pier Luigi Bersani, Francesco Rutelli, the coalition, in alliance with the Communist Refoundation Party, won the 1996 general election and Prodi became Prime Minister. In February 1998 the PDS merged with minor parties to become the Democrats of the Left, while in March 2002 the PPI, RI. In the summer of 2003 Prodi suggested that the forces would participate in the 2004 European Parliament election with a common list. Whereas the Union of Democrats for Europe and the far-left parties refused, four parties accepted, the DS, DL, the Italian Democratic Socialists and the European Republicans Movement. They launched a joint list named United in the Olive Tree, the project was later abandoned in 2005 by the SDI. In the 2006 general election the list obtained 31. 3% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, eight parties agreed to merge into the PD, Democrats of the Left Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. Southern Democratic Party, Sardinia Project, European Republicans Movement, Democratic Republicans, Middle Italy, while the DL agreed to the merger with virtually no resistance, the DS experienced a more heated final congress. On 19 April 2007 approximately 75% of party members voted in support of the merger of the DS into the PD, the left-wing opposition, led by Fabio Mussi, obtained just 15% of the support within the party. A third motion, presented by Gavino Angius and supportive of the PD only within the Party of European Socialists, during and following the congress, both Mussi and Angius announced their intention not to join the PD and founded a new party called Democratic Left. On 22 May 2007 the composition of the committee of the nascent party was announced. On 18 June the committee met to decide the rules for the election of the 2,400 members of the partys constituent assembly
7.
Unipol
–
Unipol Gruppo Finanziario is an Italian financial services holding company operating in the insurance and banking fields with headquarters in the Unipol Tower, Bologna. As of 2009 it was ranked as the countrys fourth-largest insurer, the company trades under a number of brands, for insurance it uses the brands UnipolSai Assicurazioni, Linear Assicurazioni, Linear Life, UniSalute and Arca Vita, and for banking Unipol Banca. Unipol Assicurazioni was founded in 1962 in Bologna as a provider of non-life insurance. In 1995 the company entered an arrangement with the banking group Casse Emiliano Romagnole. The partnership also involved complex deals in ownership, as at 31 December 1995, Unipol owned 3. 64% shares of CAER, CAER in turn owned 9. 80% shares of Unipols parent company Finsoe. CAER also owned Banca dellEconomia Cooperativa through 6. 99% shares owned by CAER directly, since 1998 Unipol started to build their own bank networks, to sell their own products, which gave birth to Unipol Banca. In the same year Unipol founded a 50-50 joint venture company Quadrifoglio Vita with Banca Agricola Mantovana, in December 2000 Unipol purchased 51% shares of BNL Vita, a joint venture with Banca Nazionale del Lavoro from Assicurazioni Generali. In 2001 Unipol bought back the 9. 9% shares of UniSalute, cardine Banca also sold all the shares of Unipol Banca and Finsoe to third parties. In December 2003 Unipol subscribed to the increases of Reti Bancarie. In return Aurora Assicurazioni got the rights to sell their products in the networks of Reti Bancarie. BPI was involved in a takeover of Antonveneta, part of the bancopoli that was exposed in 2005. In early 2006 Unipols takeover bid of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro was rejected by Banca dItalia, BNL was acquired by BNP Paribas instead, consequently the French company acquired 4. 5% shares of Unipols parent company Finsoe. After the failed takeover bid Unipol saw its CEO Giovanni Consorte resign in the midst of the bancopoli scandal, Consorte was later convicted for insider trading. Under Consortes replacements Pierluigi Stefanini and Carlo Salvatori, the company underwent extensive restructuring in 2007, under the restructure scheme, Unipol Assicurazioni was to be renamed as Unipol Gruppo Finanziario, and a new subsidiary Unipol Assicurazioni would be set up. As at 31 December 2007 the holding company controlled five insurance companies, Unipol Assicurazioni, Aurora Assicurazioni, Linear Assicurazioni, Navale Assicurazioni, in 2008 Quadrifoglio Vita was sold to AXA. In 2011 BNP Paribas bought back BNL Vita from Unipol, in 2014 Unipol Assicurazioni, a subsidiary of Unipol was merged with Milano Assicurazioni, Premafin and Fondiaria-Sai to form UnipolSai
8.
BBC Online
–
BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBCs online service. The website has gone through several branding changes since it was launched, originally named BBC Online, it was then rebranded as BBCi before being named bbc. co. uk. It was then renamed BBC Online again in 2008, however the service uses the branding BBC, the web-based service of the BBC is one of the most visited websites and the worlds largest news website. As of 2007, it contained two million pages. On 2 March 2010, the BBC reported that it cut its website spending by 25% and close BBC6 Music. On 24 January 2011, the cuts of 25% were announced leaving a £34 million shortfall. This resulted in the closure of several sites, including BBC Switch, BBC Blast, 6-0-6, and this led to the official launch of BBC Online at the www. bbc. co. uk address in December 1997. Later, BBC Online launched licence fee funded web sites for Top of the Pops and Top Gear, Beeb. com was later refocussed as an online shopping guide, and was closed in 2002. Beeb. com now redirects to the BBC Shop website, run by BBC Worldwide. In 1999, the BBC bought the www. bbc. com domain name for $375,000, previously owned by Boston Business Computing, as of 2005, www. bbcnc. org. uk no longer exists. In 2001, BBC Online was rebranded as BBCi. the website launched on 7 November 2001, the BBCi name was conceived as an umbrella brand for all the BBCs digital interactive services across web, digital teletext, interactive TV and on mobile platforms. The navbar was designed to offer a similar system to the i-bar on BBCi interactive television. Interactive TV services continued under the BBCi brand until it was dropped completely in 2008, the BBCs online video player, the iPlayer has, however, retained an i-prefix in its branding. The widget-based design was inspired by such as Facebook and iGoogle. The new homepage also incorporated the design used in the 1970s on the BBCs television service into the large header. The new BBC homepage left beta on Wednesday,27 February 2008 to serve as the new BBC Homepage under the same URL as the previous version. On 30 January 2010, a new design became available as a beta version. This homepage expanded on the idea and the customisation theme
