1. Italy Geographical and Social/ Cultural Project By: Ryan Maccagnan

2. Geograph y

3. Italy has three major geographical characteristics, the Alps, the Po Valley, and the Apennines.

4. The alps are loved by everyone, including thrill seekers who wait until the winter to glide along the upland plains, or just ski down the enormous mountains.

5. The Po Valley is approximately 400 miles going from east to west Po River runs the length of the Po Valley.

6. The Apennines are among some of the younger mountains. They run along Italy’s Eastern Coast from the North to South.

7. Italy’s climate varies juristically from the north to middle to south.

8. It’s Northern climate summers are very hot and humid while the winters are very frigid.

9. In middle Italy, there isn’t much difference between summer and winter temperatures.

10. In Southern Italy, the winters aren’t very harsh and have fairly consistent temperatures in the other three seasons.

11. The general location of Italy is in Europe. A more specific location is the bottom middle of Southern Europe.

12. Social/ Cultural

13. From a 2011 survey by Ipsos MORI 77% of Italians are Christians, 15% of them are irreligious, atheist, or agnostic, 2% are unspecified other religions, 1% are Muslims, and 5% did not give an answer to this question. Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Italy

14. Some famous foods from Italy include pizza, gelato, and tiramisu.

15. A couple of holiday foods are baccalà and vermicelli.

16. Some popular songs include “Jubel” by Klingande and Happy by Pharrell Williams. http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=PGJX9tutZEA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRqD bv2dROg

17. One artistic movement that started in Italy was Futurism, which glorified themes associated with concepts of the future, including, but not limited to speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects like the car, airplane and industrial cities.

18. One popular book in Italy is “Survival in Auschwitz”. Another is “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler”.