Italy
Country Profile
Population: 59 millionCurrency: Euro
Time Zone: GMT + 1 hour
Languages: Italian
Capital: Rome
Italians seem to delight in the whole experience of being alive. Witness what happens in the early evenings where everybody dresses in their finest and parades about the town, meeting (and inspecting) each other. Grandparents reminisce, parents chat, children play and single people get know each other. After the ?passegiata? and an ice cream in the town square, many people go off to a restaurant. The choice is rarely "Shall we go for a Chinese or an Indian tonight?" ? the cuisine is so ingrained that it's a rarity to find a restaurant that isn't Italian. And of course, the meal will be washed down by a Chianti or perhaps a cheap Frascati ? not a Chardonnay in sight.
As a non-native there are so many things to do. You can visit the Galleria degli Uffizi and the David in Florence; relax under the shadows of the medieval towers in the hill town of Lucca; voyage to the beautiful Eolie Islands; hike the Cinque Terre through villages and vineyards perched high above the Mediterranean coast; enjoy the famous Ghost Walk in Genoa; explore the streets of Romeo and Juliet's Verona or ride a gondola through the passages of Venice.
Italy can be challenging if you are not simply a tourist. Foreign residents can find the bureaucracy a nightmare. You may hear for the seventh time that your new telephone will be installed ?tomorrow?. Italian politics has its own, sometimes incomprehensible, rules. Maybe this is the price for ?la dolce vita?, but these are small downsides for one of the world's most enticing countries.