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Italy

Italy BOOKS

First published in 2019 by Murray Books (Australia) www.murraybooks.com

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The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy are between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The monumental stairway of 174 steps was built in 1723–1725, linking the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France – located above – and the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See – located below – in Palazzo Monaldeschi. The stairway was designed by architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi. Millions visit each year to see this remarkable piece of architecture.

Beautiful Venice is located in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2018, 260,897 people resided in the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical city of Venice (centro storico). In 2019, The Italian government announced that large cruise ships will be banned from entering Venice's historic centre - a move that comes after a years-long campaign by residents.

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.

Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Athens of the Middle Agesâ&#x20AC;?. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.

The Val d'Orcia or Valdorcia is a region of Tuscany, central Italy, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. Its gentle, cultivated hills are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns and villages such as Pienza, Radicofani and Montalcino. Its landscape has been depicted in works of art from Renaissance painting to modern photography.

Lake Como has been a popular retreat for aristocrats and wealthy people since Roman times, and a very popular tourist attraction with many artistic and cultural gems. It has many villas and palaces such as Villa Olmo, Villa Serbelloni, and Villa Carlotta. Many famous people have had and have homes on the shores of Lake Como. One of its particularity is its characteristic "Y" shape, which forms the so-called "Larian Triangle", with the little town of Canzo as its capital.

Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the field of the art, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange (Italian: Borsa Italiana), and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, it has the third-largest economy among European cities after Paris and London, but the fastest in growth among the three, and is the wealthiest among European non-capital cities.

Located in Florence, the Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway which connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it then joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then following the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses the river at Ponte Vecchio. At the time of construction, the corridor had to be built around the Torre dei Mannelli, using brackets, because the owners of the tower refused to alter it. The corridor covers up part of the faรงade of the Church of Santa Felicita. The corridor then snakes its way over rows of houses in the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, to finally join the Palazzo Pitti. It was closed in 2016 for safety reasons. In 2019, the Uffizi Gallery announced that the corridor will re-open for tourists in 2021.

Largely preserved under the ash, the excavated city of Pompeii offers a unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried and providing an extraordinarily detailed insight into the everyday life of its inhabitants. It was a wealthy town, enjoying many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and works of art which were the main attractions for the early excavators. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were entombed in the ash and decayed leaving voids which archaeologists found could be used as moulds to make plaster casts of unique and often gruesome figures in their final moments of life.

For centuries the Forum was the center of day-to-day life in Rome: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history. Located in the small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations attracting 4.5 million or more sightseers yearly.

The Colosseum was the largest amphitheatre ever built at the time and held 50,000 spectators. The Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD 72 and was completed in AD 80 under his successor and heir, Titus. Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian (81â&#x20AC;&#x201C;96). These three emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its association with their family name (Flavius).

The Colosseum could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators during phases of its various renovations over the centuries, having an average audience of some 65,000; it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.

Although substantially ruined because of earthquakes, thieves, and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is still an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome and is listed as one of the New7Wonders of the World. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions.

The Picturusque town of Manarola is the oldest of the towns in the Cinque Terre, with the cornerstone of the church, San Lorenzo, dating from 1338. In recent years, Manarola and its neighbouring towns have become popular tourist destinations, particularly in the summer months. Tourist attractions in the region include a famous walking trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore (called Via dell'Amore, "Love's Trail") and hiking trails in the hills and vineyards above the town. Manarola is one of the five villages of the Cinque Terre. Most of the houses are bright and colourful. Manarola was celebrated in paintings by Antonio Discovolo (1874â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1956).

Rome has many secret treasures including here in Trastevere on the west bank of the Tiber, south of the Vatican City, and within Municipio I. Its name comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, meaning literally "beyond the Tiber". To the north, Trastevere borders the XIV rione, Borgo.

Siena is located in the central part of Tuscany, in the middle of a vast hilly landscape between the Arbia river valley (south), the Merse valley (south-west), the Elsa valley (north), the Chianti hills (north-east), the Montagnola Senese (west) and the Crete Senesi (south-east). The city lies at 322 m above sea level.

The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions. Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year.

Located on the Amalfi Coast, Posatinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rapid growth from a small fishing village to an international destination is credited to the rise of the tourism industry. In addition to the beaches, cliffs, and historic sites, clothing stores and restaurants are scattered throughout Positano, attracting tourists from around the world. To complete the picture, natural lemon, orange, and olive groves grow prominently across the cliffside town. The produce is often sold in fresh markets around the city.

The Ancient theatre of Taormina in Sicily looks over The present town of Taormina which occupies the ancient site, on a hill which forms the last projecting point of the mountain ridge that extends along the coast from Cape Pelorus to this point. The site of the old town is about 250 metres (820 ft) above the sea, while a very steep and almost isolated rock, crowned by a Saracen castle, rises about 150 metres (490 ft) higher. This is the likely site of the ancient Arx or citadel, an inaccessible position mentioned by ancient writers. Portions of the ancient walls may be traced at intervals all round the brow of the hill, the whole of the summit of which was occupied by the ancient city. Numerous fragments of ancient buildings are scattered over its whole surface, including extensive reservoirs of water, sepulchres, tessellated pavements, etc.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy's oldest active shopping mall and a major landmark of Milan, Italy. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the center of town, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1867. Millions of tourists visit the Galleria each year to shop, enjoy and relax.

Amalfi is the main town of the Amalfi Coast, and is today an important tourist destination together with other towns on the same coast, such as Positano, Ravello and others. Amalfi is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the northern coast of the Salerno Gulf on the Tyrrhenian Sea, located in the Province of Salerno of southern Italy.

Located in Southern Italy, Matera has gained international fame for its ancient town, the "Sassi di Matera". The Sassi originated in a prehistoric troglodyte settlement, and these dwellings are thought to be among the first ever human settlements in what is now Italy. The Sassi are habitations dug into the calcareous rock itself, which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia. Many of them are really little more than small caverns, and in some parts of the Sassi a street lies on top of another group of dwellings. The ancient town grew up on one slope of the rocky ravine created by a river that is now a small stream, and this ravine is known locally as "la Gravina". In the 1950s, as part of a policy to clear the extreme poverty of the Sassi, the government of Italy used force to relocate most of the population of the Sassi to new public housing in the developing modern city.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. The tower is situated behind the Pisa Cathedral and is the third-oldest structure in the city's Cathedral Square, after the cathedral and the Pisa Baptistry.

Assisi and its ancient archictature, is the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208, and St. Clare (Chiara d'Offreducci), the founder of the Poor Sisters, which later became the Order of Poor Clares after her death. The 19th-century Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was also born in Assisi. The historical city is located in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio.

Ostuni is located about 8 km from the coast, in the province of Brindisi, region of Apulia, Italy. The town has a population of about 32,000 during the winter, but can swell to 100,000 inhabitants during summer, being among the main towns attracting tourists in Apulia. It also has a British and German immigrant community and an industrial zone. The region is producer of high quality olive oil and wine.

Thanks to its strategic position, Gravina has a very ancient history. Its territory has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, due to the high presence of water and woods. The largest remains date back to the Neolithic.

Leaning Tower of Pisa assembly Instructions

PLEASE COLOUR-IN PUZZLE ON FLAT SHEET PRIOR TO ASSEMBLY