Madison at Oviedo
Newsletter

This March we will be exploring the beautiful, architecture, cuisine, history and culture of Italy. As a unified nation, Italy is only around 160 years old but interestingly enough there have been evidence of human habitation going as far back as 850,000 years. The regions culture was significantly influenced by the roman empire. Italy or Italia is also responsible for many culinary techniques and some of our favorite foods like pizza or espresso. Furthermore, Italy is home of the Vatican located in its capitol Rome.

The European country of Italy has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic. During the period of classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans, various Italic peoples (such as the Latins, Samnites, and Umbri), Celts, Magna Graecia colonists, and other ancient peoples inhabited the Italian Peninsula. Italy was the birthplace and centre of the ancient Roman civilization. Rome was founded as a kingdom in 753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC. The Roman Republic then unified Italy forming a confederation of the Italic peoples and rose to dominate Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean for centuries, contributing to the development of Western culture, philosophy, science and art. With the fall of Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871. The maritime republics, in particular Venice and Genoa, rose to prosperity. Central Italy remained under the Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal due to a succession of Byzantine, Norman, Spanish, and Bourbon crowns.