Facts about Italy

1. 08

   Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, painted in Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery between 1495 and 1498, measures 460 by 880 centimeters and is considered one of the most influential artworks in Western history.

   ItalyMay 14shareartrenaissancemeasurement
2. 07

   Approximately 240 million people worldwide speak Italian as either a first or second language, with the highest concentration outside Italy found in Argentina, where over 1.5 million native speakers reside.

   ItalyMay 14sharelanguagedemographicsmodern
3. 06

   Dante Alighieri completed his epic poem the Divine Comedy around 1320, establishing Italian as a literary language and influencing European literature for centuries thereafter.

   ItalyMay 14shareliteraturemedievallanguage
4. 05

   Over 20 million tourists visited Italy in 2019, making it the fifth most visited country in the world by international arrivals.

   ItalyMay 14sharetourismmeasurementmodern
5. 04

   Mount Etna in Sicily, standing 3,357 meters tall, is Europe's most active volcano and has erupted continuously since 1500 BCE.

   ItalyMay 14sharegeographygeologymeasurement
6. 03

   Venice's Basilica di San Marco contains the relics of Saint Mark, stolen by Venetian merchants from Alexandria, Egypt in 828 AD and housed in the basilica completed in 1094.

   ItalyMay 14sharehistoryreligiousmedieval
7. 02

   In 1945, Italian partisan Benito Mussolini was executed by firing squad on April 28, ending fascist rule that had lasted 23 years since his rise to power in 1922.

   ItalyMay 14sharehistorypoliticaltwentieth-century
8. 01

   The Colosseum in Rome was completed in 80 AD and could hold approximately 50,000 spectators for gladiatorial games and public spectacles.

   ItalyMay 13shareancientarchitecturehistory