Italy

B

Political Divisions

Administratively, Italy is divided into 20 regions, each of which is subdivided into provinces and communes.

C

Principal Cities

The capital and largest city of Italy is Rome, population 2,553,873 (2005 estimate), which is a cultural and tourist centre. Other cities include Milan, 1,299,439 (2005 estimate), an important manufacturing, financial, and commercial city; Naples, 995,171 (2005 estimate), one of the busiest ports in Italy; Turin, 902,255 (2005 estimate), a transport junction and major industrial city; Palermo, 675,084 (2005 estimate), the capital and chief seaport of Sicily; Genoa, 605,084 (2005 estimate), the leading port in Italy and a major trade and commercial centre; Bologna, 374,425 (2005 estimate), a major transport centre and agricultural market; Florence, 368,059 (2005 estimate), a cultural, commercial, transport, and industrial centre; Catania, 305,773 (2005 estimate), a manufacturing and commercial city in Sicily; Bari, 328,458 (2005 estimate), a major commercial centre; and Venice, 271,251 (2005 estimate), a leading seaport and a cultural and manufacturing centre.

D

Religion

The dominant religion of Italy is Roman Catholicism, the faith of more than 80 per cent of the people. However, the Catholic Church’s role in Italy is declining: only about 25 per cent of Italians attend Mass regularly, and a law passed in 1984 abolished Roman Catholicism as the official state religion and ended mandatory religious instruction in public schools. The constitution guarantees freedom of worship to the religious minorities, which are primarily Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish.

E

Language

Italian is the official language, spoken by the majority of people. It has many diverse dialects, some of which are not mutually intelligible, but many speakers are bilingual in their regional variety and the standard. The northern dialects tend to be closer to French and Occitan than to other Italian dialects. Thirty-two other languages are mother tongues for certain people in Italy, most of them regional languages that some class as dialects of Italian but which are so different from Standard Italian as to be languages in themselves. Lombard has around 8.6 million speakers, while Neapolitan-Calabrese is spoken by some 7 million in the south of Italy. Sicilian (4.6 million speakers) is used in Sicily, Emiliano-Romagnolo (3.5 million) mainly in the north-west, Piedmontese (3 million) in the north-west, and Venetian (2.1 million) in the north. There are many other regional languages spoken by smaller minorities.

Other languages spoken as mother tongues in Italy include Friulian, German, Provençal, French, Arbëreshë Albanian, Ladin, Catalan, Greek, and Slovenian.

F

Education

The Italian impact on European education dates from the ancient Roman educators and scholars, outstanding among whom were Cicero, Quintilian, and Seneca. Later, during the Middle Ages, Italian universities became the model for those of other countries. During the Renaissance, Italy was the teacher of the liberal arts to virtually all Europe, especially for Greek language and literature. The educational influence of Italy continued through the 17th century, when its universities and academies were Continental centres of teaching and research in the sciences. After a decline during the 18th and 19th centuries, Italian education regained international attention in the 20th century, partly as a result of Maria Montessori’s method for teaching young children.

The modern educational system dates from 1859, when a law was passed providing for a complete school system that extended from the elementary through the university levels. Improvements were introduced later in the 19th century. In 1923 the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, Minister of Public Instruction under Benito Mussolini, promoted complete State control of education, which was reinforced by the School Charter of 1939. With the collapse of fascism in 1944, however, Italy undertook to organize the school system along democratic lines. The constitution of 1947 and later laws raised the general educational level and encouraged such experiments as televised adult education (telescuola).

Traditionally, the goal of the Italian educational system has been to establish a well-trained minority rather than a widely educated majority. Children aged 3 to 5 may attend kindergarten. Education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 to 14. The compulsory system includes five years of elementary and three years of secondary education. The required part of secondary education is taken in a lower secondary school. This period may be followed by study in a higher secondary school to gain specialized training or to prepare for university entrance. Higher secondary studies leading to university entrance may be taken in classical, scientific, teacher-training, technical, or business schools. A student may also enter an art institute or conservatory of music. Areas of specialized training include industry and agriculture. In 2002–2003 about 5 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

In 1995 about 20,361 primary schools with some 262,675 teachers were giving instruction to 2,810,337 pupils. Some 4,473,362 students were also enrolled in about 9,270 lower secondary schools and 7,880 higher secondary schools.

Much attention is given to higher education in Italy. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the gain in Italian university graduates was about seven times the corresponding rate of increase of the Italian population. Around 1,854,200 students were enrolled in higher education in Italy in 2001–2002. Examinations held three times a year are mainly oral. Six Italian universities were founded in the 13th century and five in the 14th. The oldest is the University of Bologna, dating from the 11th century, and the largest is the University of Rome, with about 180,000 students. Other notable institutions are those of Bari, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Padua, Perugia, Pisa, Siena, and Trieste.