Italy is a history teachers dream. Every town, every city, every square seems to have historical significance. I have traveled to Italy on four separate occasions, but one of my most extensive tours, and most memorable, was with a group of IB students and a colleague from my school former school, Sebastian River High School. We did this trip in the summer of 2000, starting in Rome, then going to Naples and Pompeii, on to Florence and Pisa, then on to Venice. Italy is a very beautiful country and I would love to return in the future.
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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the European Monetary Union in 1999. |   |
