LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Italy: Northern Italy
built 646 days ago
, Italy’s political unity was lost. But Rome, under the Roman Catholic Church, remained the spiritual center of western Europe. In the late Middle Ages northern Italian cities such as Florence, Venice, and Milan became prosperous commercial centers. In these cities the rebirth of classical culture known as the Renaissance began in the 14th century. Italian Renaissance painters, sculptors, writers, and architects were admired and imitated all over Europe, while Italy’s many small states became pawns in power struggles between France, Spain, and Austria.
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The food of Northern Italy is characterized by using more butter or lard than olive oil, with polenta and risotto being more common than pasta. When pasta is served, butter, cream or pesto sauces are used instead more often than tomatoes. Meat dishes feature more prominently in northern and central Italian cooking, but seafood is tremendously popular nationwide. Southern Italian food is more well-known outside of Italy and includes the famous Neapolitan pizza as well as numerous varieties of pasta served with a rich tomato sauce. The South is ... known for the almost exclusive use of extra virgin olive oil and the unique use of herbs and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, wild fennel and mint.
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Before 1861, Italy did not exist as a state, because its territory was divided into several independent states, often under foreign domination (by countries such as Austria, France, and Spain). From the 1850s, in Piedmont, a free Italian state, the Earl of Cavour had the idea of defeating the Austrian domination in Lombardy and Veneto to create a Northern Italian state. This happened, but other Central and Southern Italian states ... decided to join Piedmont to create a bigger state. Particularly, in 1860, Garibaldi's mission in Southern Italy succeeded in conquering the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Italy was created. Vittorio Emanuele II was crowned King of Italy. But in 1861, Latium and Veneto were still not part of Italy, because they were under the power of the Pope and of the Austrian Emperor.
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Unemployment in Italy is moderate at 7.1 percent (third quarter 2005), but below the average of 8.7 percent among euro zone countries (November 2005). Italy’s unemployment rate is currently at the lowest level since 1992. Traditional regional disparities remain unchanged with the southern third of the country having a 13.2 percent unemployment rate compared to 3.9 percent in the northern third and 5.8 percent in central Italy. Despite these differences, internal migration within Italy remains modest. Labor shortages in the North are being filled by unskilled and semi-skilled immigrants. The Bossi-Fini law, enacted in 2001, provides for the legalization of 650,000 undocumented foreign workers and grants a residence permit to immigrants who are legally employed.
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Hitchhiking in Italy is related with the hippies and "on the road" kind of culture. Therefore, it is considered out-dated and useless. You will rarely find Italians hitchhiking unless there's a serious problem with the bus or other means of transportation. Hitchhiking in the summer in touristy areas works okay because you'll get rides from Northern European tourists, and it works okay in very rural areas as long as there is consistent traffic (because you're still playing the odds), but hitchhiking near large cities or along busy routes is extremely frustrating. As long as you stay on the Autostrada, hitching from one "Area di Servizio" to the next, you will not have any trouble crossing the country. Off the Autostrada things are a bit more difficult: Italians are generally very friendly and open people, but they're less likely to pick up hitchhikers than anyone else in the world.
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The climate of Italy is highly diversified, with extremes ranging from frigid in the higher elevations of the Alps and Apennines, to semitropical along the coast of the Ligurian Sea and the western coast of the lower peninsula. Regional climatic variations on the peninsula result chiefly from the configurations of the Apennines, and are influenced by tempering winds from the adjacent seas. In the lowlands regions and lower slopes of the Apennines bordering the western coast, from northern Tuscany to the vicinity of Rome, winters are mild and sunny, and extreme temperatures are modified by cooling Mediterranean breezes. Temperatures in the same latitudes on the east of the peninsula are much lower, chiefly because of the prevailing northeastern winds. Along the upper eastern slopes of the Apennines, climatic conditions are particularly bleak. Semitropical conditions prevail in southern Italy and along the Gulf of Genoa, whereas the climate of the Plain of Lombardy is continental.
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Northern Italy