History UsefulNotes / CultureOfItaly

* '''[[TheIdealist MoVimento 5 Stelle]]''' ("Five Star Movement"): the third-largest Italian party isn't, actually, a party. It's a movement, a free association[[note]]although technically the rights to the name and logo belong to its only recognizable face, former comedian Beppe Grillo, whose blog is the party's official outlet[[/note]] of {{cloudcuckoolander}}s and [[GovernmentConspiracy conspiracy theorists]] who [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics don't understand economics]] and are, despite the occasional bouts of sanity, hell-bent on getting social justice for everyone and everything. At the taxpayers' expense. Even then, the populist talk of Grillo and his henchmen has lead to the occasional racist discourse. The V in "[=MoVimento=]" is [[{{WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs}} capitalized partly as an homage]] to ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', partly after the Italian profanity [[ClusterFBomb "Vaffanculo" (the italian equivalent of "fuck you"]]).

* '''Forza Italia''' ("Forward, Italy"): After the vacuum left by the "Clean Hands" trials, Silvio Berlusconi stepped in, promising a more business-friendly government, spending cuts, tax reductions and a million jobs (which never materialised). In 2007, he changed his party's name from ''Forza Italia'' to ''Il Popolo delle Libertà'' (the "People of Freedom"), but this "new" party didn't last long... in 2013, judges -- after a long series of legal battles -- got the upper hand and found him guilty of tax evasion, barring him from public offices. He was kicked out from Parliament and then, his traitorous henchman Angelino Alfano broke up with him and founded his own party; Berlusconi thus re-founded ''Forza Italia''. After having been the on-and-off Prime Minister of Italy for the past twenty years, Berlusconi's most significant legacies have been -- besides a general feeling of embarrassment -- a long trail of sex scandals and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney several, botched attempts at introducing bills designed keep the clock on the statute of limitations from ticking even when a trial was underway, so that he could avoid going to jail for the various tax evasion schemes he carried on]]. His party is, apparently, still popular among the [[UpperClassTwit upper bourgeoisie]], [[NouveauRiche wannabe bourgies]] and part of the [[BreadAndCircuses disgruntled middle class]].

For some inexplicable reason, Italians find Neapolitans funny just because of the way they talk [[note]] (kinda similar to the humorous connotations of the Osaka-ben variety of the KansaiRegionalAccent in Japanese media)[[/note]]. Oftentimes, a Neapolitan comedian (in Italy, they seem to have a monopoly in that field) will play the "best friend" role along the Roman or Milanese protagonists. Sicilians, who have been playing the villain for a long time, have recently also been cast as "best friends"... often, if the villain is portrayed as a profit-hungry northerner.

''Below are some in-depth explanations of the most significant elements of modern Italy and its culture''.

''For a general overview of the country and its history, see UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}''.

* Italian has three "you": "tu" (informal "you"), "Lei" (formal "you") [[note]] During the Fascist period, Mussolini tried to switch the formal "you" from "Lei" to "Voi", but that didn't stick [[/note]] and "Voi" (royal "you").
** In some parts of Southern Italy, "Voi" may be used instead of "Lei".

* The '''[[{{Reasonable Authority Figure}} President of the Republic]]''' is the head of state. They are elected by the Parliament in joint session, plus a number of delegates from every region - but not the people - every seven years: their duty is to make sure the Parliament doesn’t violate the Constitution, and has [[{{Puppet King}} extremely limited powers]]. They can however play a major role during government crises and cabinet formation (political scientists say they have "accordion powers", as they effectively enlarge and reduce from time to time). There have been twelve Presidents since 1946.

As for '''Central Italy''', nobody seems to care about it (much to the chagrin of its inhabitants) and is often arbitrarily lumped together with either the North of the South- - something that irks actual Central Italians immensely (want to be hated for life by a Roman, or a Florentine? Just tell him he's a southerner). This part of Italy comprises the Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany and Marche regions.[[note]]This again has a bizarre parallel in New Jersey, which has a much-commented-on North and South with serious rivalries, and a Central region inhabitants of the North call part of the South and inhabitants of the South call part of the North. It even (under the most common definition) includes five counties (Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset, and one-half each of Union and Ocean) and includes the capital (Trenton) on the west side of the state. Weird...[[/note]]

* The '''Parliament''' is the main legislative body. It consists of two houses, holding largely the same powers: the '''Chamber of Deputies''' and the '''Senate of the Republic''' (Senate for short). They are both elected directly by Italian citizens every five years (or earlier, if they are dissolved by the President). There have been eighteen legislatures since 1948.
* After each election, the Parliament meets for the first time and decides who the '''President of the Council of Ministers''' will be. The President of the Council (often called ''Premier'' or ''Prime Minister'', though improperly since the executive power is vested in the whole '''Council of Ministers''' and the rest of the cabinet) must then try to run the country along with his fellow politicians. Since 1946, thirty individuals have held the office for a total of sixty-seven different cabinets (which, if you do the math, makes the average cabinet last a little over a year).

*** They may try to make the Parliament appoint PM someone who's not a politician, for a so-called "technical government". This happened just a few times (mostly in order to traverse an economic, political and/or social crisis), though: the Dini (1995-1996), Monti (2011-2013) and Draghi cabinets (2021-present) all came to power this way.

* Rifondazione Comunista: the so-called "Communist Refoundation Party" is still around albeit much, much less than its more illustrious predecessor. Usually, they manage to grab one or two seats in Parliament thanks to the many [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell starry-eyed, nostalgic comrades]] still on the loose (and the unions). Very popular among [[{{BourgeoisBohemian}} high school and college age progressives]].
* Radicali: the strike-lovin', work-hatin' "Radicals" have been at the forefront of every conceivable social battle during the last century, from abortion to [[DrugsAreBad free joints]] (or so they like to think). Their leader, Marco Pannella, was renowned for his countless -- and suspiciously ineffective -- hunger strikes, which would always end up with him not even losing a gramme. Voters weren't impressed.
* Federazione dei Verdi: the Italian Greens. They fell out of fashion some twenty years ago -- when being a tree-hugging hippie ceased to be cool -- and haven't recovered ever since. Their average voter is scared shitless of everything that isn't 100% organic.
* [[{{Granola Girl}} Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà]]: the party name literally means: "Left, Ecology and Liberty". The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, belongs to this party. Ambiguously progressive, it's led by the notoriously gay gov'nor of Apulia.[[note]]Who did not give up his seat in the regional council once he was elected to Parliament, effectively holding two offices and drawing two salaries. Oddly enough, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_mandate#New_Jersey they also do this in]] UsefulNotes/NewJersey, which (coincidence? No? Who knows?) is also the state in the US with the highest percentage of people of Italian ancestry.[[/note]] The party has now fused with the leftmost refugees from the Democratic Party to become Sinistra Italiana (Italian Left).
* [[{{RagtagBunchOfMisfits}} Partito Democratico]]: not to be confused with its far more successful American counterpart, the Italian Democratic Party is made up of a hodgepodge of [[{{Loss Of Identity}} guilt-tripped ex-socialists]] and young idealists: it undergoes a healthy leadership change about once every three months. By far the largest left-wing party in the country, it regularly starts elections with incredibly high poll numbers... only to [[WeAREStrugglingTogether end up entrenched in so much factionalism and infighting]] that it almost always loses. The PD, as it is popularly known, is the only party that chooses its candidates by means of an election; very popular among hipsters and retirees alike. After the rise of former Mayor of Florence Matteo Renzi to the Secretariat first and the Government later, the Party has been progressively drifting towards the centre leading to the leftmost fringes [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere breaking off]] in protest to Renzi's autocratic tendencies.
* [[{{Obstructive Bureaucrat}} Scelta Civica and the Unione di Centro]]: in 2013, the small, centrist party UDC -- that is, the last remnant of the ''Democrazia Cristiana'', drawing its support from devout Christians and "moderates" (whatever that means) -- attempted to strike out on its own after a history of being only just large enough to tip the scales in favour of one or another coalition by supporting Mario Monti in the 2013 elections. Monti had previously served as a "temporary" PM, having been appointed by the President after Berlusconi resigned. However, over the course of the electoral campaign, Monti was used as a scapegoat by the entire political establishment and his party only got a mediocre 10%; he was later forced to resign in shame.
* [[{{Army of Lawyers}} Italia dei Valori]]: another centrist party, leaning towards the right. Its name literally means "Italy of Values", as the party was founded by the magistrate [[note]] equivalent to a DA in the States [[/note]] behind most of the "Tangentopoli" investigations under the pretext of "cleaning up" Italian politics. The party always gets no more than a meager 5-10%, but has been very successful in exploiting legal loopholes in order to divert campaign funds into real estate investments.
* [[MethuselahSyndrome Partito Repubblicano Italiano]]: apparently, the Italian Republican Party (yes, we too got one) has been around since 1895; nobody, however, is quite sure of [[BandwagonTechnique what the party stands for]]... only nostalgic (?) retirees give it a chance and to this date, the loser has never won a national election.
* [[TheIdealist MoVimento 5 Stelle]]: the third-largest Italian party isn't, actually, a party. It's a movement, a free association[[note]]although technically the rights to the name and logo belong to its only recognizable face, former comedian Beppe Grillo, whose blog is the party's official outlet[[/note]] of {{cloudcuckoolander}}s and [[GovernmentConspiracy conspiracy theorists]] who [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics don't understand economics]] and are, despite the occasional bouts of sanity, hell-bent on getting social justice for everyone and everything. At the taxpayers' expense. Even then, the populist talk of Grillo and his henchmen has lead to the occasional racist discourse. The V in "[=MoVimento=]" is [[{{WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs}} capitalized partly as an homage]] to ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', partly after the Italian profanity [[ClusterFBomb "Vaffanculo" (the italian equivalent of "fuck you"]]).
* Forza Italia: After the vacuum left by the "Clean Hands" trials, Silvio Berlusconi stepped in, promising a more business-friendly government, spending cuts, tax reductions and a million jobs (which never materialised). In 2007, he changed his party's name from ''Forza Italia'' to ''Il Popolo delle Libertà'' (the "People of Freedom"), but this "new" party didn't last long... in 2013, judges -- after a long series of legal battles -- got the upper hand and found him guilty of tax evasion, barring him from public offices. He was kicked out from Parliament and then, his traitorous henchman Angelino Alfano broke up with him and founded his own party; Berlusconi thus re-founded ''Forza Italia''. After having been the on-and-off Prime Minister of Italy for the past twenty years, Berlusconi's most significant legacies have been -- besides a general feeling of embarrassment -- a long trail of sex scandals and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney several, botched attempts at introducing bills designed keep the clock on the statute of limitations from ticking even when a trial was underway, so that he could avoid going to jail for the various tax evasion schemes he carried on]]. His party is, apparently, still popular among the [[UpperClassTwit upper bourgeoisie]], [[NouveauRiche wannabe bourgies]] and part of the [[BreadAndCircuses disgruntled middle class]].
* [[{{Sleazy Politician}} Nuovo Centrodestra]]: the "New Centre-right" is by no means any less sleazy than its predecessor, Berlusconi's ''People of Freedom'', and thus we shall spare you a description of this not-so-liked newcomer (as the old proverb goes, "like father, like son"). The NCD is very unlikely to last long in the political arena.
* [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Northern League]]: after the "Clean Hands" trials, the Northern League -- led by the charismatic clodhopper Umberto Bossi -- won many seats in Parliament by tapping into the frustration that many northerners had with the South and its problems. At the height of their power, they even proposed the secession of Northern Italy from the rest of the country. The party plunged into chaos when Bossi (who now plays a "symbolic" role at the provincial/regional level) was rendered incapable after suffering a stroke while in bed with a famous singer-actress. The Northern League almost collapsed after a scandal broke out -- campaign funds supplied by the State had been used to make massive jewelry purchases (reportedly as "investments," although they were found to have ties with the Calabrese Mafia) -- and still hasn't recovered from the blow. The most recent secretary, Matteo Salvini, has had a recent surge in popularity riding the wave of populism: he is a staunch oppositor of immigration, Islam, gay rights, and has compared Mrs Borldrini [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero to a blow-doll]]. It was very popular among Northern industrialists, rednecks and [[LowerClassLout other like-minded yahoos]].
* ''Fratelli d'Italia'' (Brothers of Italy): Another faction spawned from the demise of Berlusconi's party has proven to have more staying power than NCD. Most of the [=FdI=] leadership, as well as the tricolor flame that symbolizes the party, comes from the National Alliance, the slightly more moderate successor to a number of post-fascist parties. It's generally national conservative, right-wing populist, and Euroskeptic. In the 2022 elections, [=FdI=] skyrocketed in support and picked up the largest number of seats in both houses of Parliament, forming a center-right coalition that won a majority of seats. [=FdI's=] leader Giorgia Meloni is expected to become the first woman to serve as Prime Minister.

[[folder: Northern, Southern (and Central...) Italy]]

[[folder: Northern Italy]]

[[folder: Elements common to the Italian media]]

[[folder: Linguistics and honorifics]]

* ''Fratelli d'Italia'' (Brothers of Italy): Another faction spawned from the demise of Berlusconi's party has proven to have more staying power than NCD. Most of the FdI leadership, as well as the tricolor flame that symbolizes the party, comes from the National Alliance, the slightly more moderate successor to a number of post-fascist parties. It's generally national conservative, right-wing populist, and Euroskeptic. In the 2022 elections, FdI skyrocketed in support and picked up the largest number of seats in both houses of Parliament, forming a center-right coalition that won a majority of seats. FdI's leader Giorgia Meloni is expected to become the first woman to serve as Prime Minister.

* [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Northern League]]: after the "Clean Hands" trials, the Northern League -- led by the charismatic clodhopper Umberto Bossi -- won many seats in Parliament by tapping into the frustration that many northerners had with the South and its problems. At the height of their power, they even proposed the secession of Northern Italy from the rest of the country. The party plunged into chaos when Bossi (who now plays a "symbolic" role at the provincial/regional level) was rendered incapable after suffering a stroke while in bed with a famous singer-actress. The Northern League almost collapsed after a scandal broke out -- campaign funds supplied by the State had been used to make massive jewelry purchases (reportedly as "investments," although they were found to have ties with the Calabrese Mafia) -- and still hasn't recovered from the blow. The most recent secretary, Matteo Salvini, has had a recent surge in popularity riding the wave of populism: he is a staunch oppositor of immigration, Islam, gay rights, and has compared Mrs Borldrini [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero to a blow-doll]]. It was very popular among Northern industrialists, rednecks and [[LowerClassLout other like-minded yahoos]]. [[/folder]]

Some of the political factions that emerged remain active to this day relatively unchanged, while many others simply disbanded. A list of the current (2014) parties can be found below, starting from the far-left.

* Forza Italia: After the vacuum left by the "Clean Hands" trials, Silvio Berlusconi stepped in, promising a more business-friendly government, spending cuts, tax reductions and a million jobs (which never materialised). In 2007, he changed his party's name from ''Forza Italia'' to ''Il Popolo delle Libertà'' (the "People of Freedom"), but this "new" party didn't last long... in 2013, judges -- after a long series of legal battles -- got the upper hand and found him guilty of tax evasion, barring him from public offices. He was kicked out from Parliament and then, his traitorous henchman Angelino Alfano broke up with him and founded his own party; Berlusconi thus re-founded ''Forza Italia''. After having been the on-and-off Prime Minister of Italy for the past twenty years, Berlusconi's most significant legacies have been -- besides a general feeling of embarassment -- a long trail of sex scandals and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney several, botched attempts at introducing bills designed keep the clock on the statute of limitations from ticking even when a trial was underway, so that he could avoid going to jail for the various tax evasion schemes he carried on]]. His party is, apparently, still popular among the [[UpperClassTwit upper burgeoisie]], [[NouveauRiche wannabe bourgies]] and part of the [[BreadAndCircuses disgruntled middle class]].

* [[{{A Nazi by Any Other Name}} Northern League]]: after the "Clean Hands" trials, the Northern League -- led by the charismatic clodhopper Umberto Bossi -- won many seats in Parliament by tapping into the frustration that many northerners had with the South and its problems. At the height of their power, they even proposed the secession of Northern Italy from the rest of the country. The party plunged into chaos when Bossi (who now plays a "symbolic" role at the provincial/regional level) was rendered incapable after suffering a stroke while in bed with a famous singer-actress. The Northern League almost collapsed after a scandal broke out -- campaign funds supplied by the State had been used to make massive jewelry purchases (reportedly as "investments," although they were found to have ties with the Calabrese Mafia) -- and still hasn't recovered from the blow. The most recent secretary, Matteo Salvini, has had a recent surge in popularity riding the wave of populism: he is a staunch oppositor of immigration, Islam, gay rights, and has compared Mrs Borldrini [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero to a blow-doll]]. It was very popular among Northern industrialists, rednecks and [[LowerClassLout other like-minded yahoos]]. [[/folder]]

During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[UsefulNotes/RepublicanItaly the Italian political landscape]] was split in two halves: one was the Vatican-influenced, pro-American '''Democrazia Cristiana''', while the other was the [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheUSSR Moscow-guided]] '''Partito Comunista Italiano'''. There were of course other parties in between, but they (with the exception of the Socialist Party) never mattered that much. After the TheGreatPoliticsMessUp -- when these two political giants dissolved -- politicians lost their free money courtesy of the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} or [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] and began mercilessly embezzling public funds or accepting bribes from pretty much everybody. After a series of scandals and investigations, the "Tangentopoli" [[note]] "Bribesville" or "Bribe City"[[/note]] trials took place between 1992 and 1996 [[BlatantLies and made the past political establishment pay for what it did]]. This period, which included the introduction of a new, radically different electoral law, is widely considered a watershed: it marked the end of the so-called "First Republic" and the beginning of the Second Republic.[[note]]These expressions were taken from French political history, but are technically inappropriate: unlike the French case, no new Constitution was introduced and consequently the institutional structure remains unchanged.[[/note]]

* After each election, the Parliament meets for the first time and decides who the '''President of the Council of Ministers''' will be. The President of the Council (often called ''Premier'' or ''Prime Minister'', though improperly since the executive power is vested in the whole '''Council of Ministers''' and the rest of the cabinet) must then try to run the country along with his fellow politicians. Since 1946, twenty-nine individuals have held the office for a total of sixty-six different cabinets (which, if you do the math, makes the average cabinet last a little over a year).

*** He might try to get some other parties together in order to make a new coalition. This rarely works, and if it does don't expect for the following cabinet to have much political strength.
*** He may try to make the Parliament appoint PM someone who's not a politician, for a so-called "technical government". This happened just a few times (mostly in order to traverse an economic, political and/or social crisis), though: the Dini (1995-1996), Monti (2011-2013) and Draghi cabinets (2021-present) all came to power this way.

Period or location-specific pieces were once amazingly accurate [[note]] (like {{Il Gattopardo}})[[/note]]. However, location-specific content has been watered-down in recent years, probably to avoid alienating any audience segment (and in the process, making much modern Italian fiction extremely generic).

The decline of Italian media is mostly attributed to Silvio Berlusconi, proud owner of the country’s three largest private television channels. Despite what he or his supporters and enemies will say, here we will simply state facts pertaining to media: several laws favouring Mediaset were passed [[note]](including a tax exclusive to {{Sky TV}} making it very uncompetitive)[[/note]], and funding to the state broadcaster Rai was slashed. Rai broadcasts three main channels, and he was able to replace the directors of the first two channels [[note]] (Rai 1 and Rai 2) [[/note]] with people who had previously worked for him at Mediaset (that is, pawns). The last channel, Rai 3, has held out but they tend to show so much anti-Berlusconi propaganda that most people just write them off as crazy left-wingers. [[note]] (Or, as Berlusconi likes to call all left-wingers, "Communists").[[/note]]

The explanation for both phenomena is simple: Mediaset and the AC Milan football club are both owned by Silvio Berlusconi. Rai, on the other hand, makes a decent chunk of the characters AS Roma fans because writers and producers alike are unlikely to sympathise with Rome’s other working class team, SS Lazio. [[note]] (some fans of which tend to be openly Fascist. For this reason, Lazio is one of the biggest heels in Italian football). [[/note]]

* "Signore" or "Signor" are equivalent to "Mr." "Signorina" is roughly equal to "Miss" and is used towards young women, while "Signora" is equivalent to "Mrs."[[note]]Keep in mind that "signorina" is only used colloquially, and official documents use "signora" for all women regardless of age or marital status.[[/note]] Those honorifics are used by younger people towards older people, by adults into professional relationships such as a client and his lawyer (although colleagues usually use the informal you and are often on a first-name basis) or by university teachers towards students. While using only the honorific to address someone is okay, especially if you don't know their surname, addressing someone by their last name only is considered rude or even aggressive in most contexts. Keep in mind that

!!!Administrative divisions

Italy is a unitary parliamentary Republic.\\

Unlike the United States - where fifty States make up the country - Italy has one unitary State, which is divided into twenty regions. Regions can promulgate laws in the matters specified by the Constitution, most notably healthcare, while the rest is handled by the central government. Due to their particular history, geography and/or the presence of lingustic minorities, five of these twenty regions (namely Trentino-South Tyrol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily and the Aosta Valley) are ''regioni a statuto speciale'' - that is, they have a larger degree of autonomy and the right to withhold a significant portion of their taxes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most Italians from ordinary regions aren't happy about it. Regions are further divided into provinces (roughly equivalent to U.S. counties) which, in turn, are divided into ''comuni'' (municipalities); there's no such thing as unincorporated or federal territories. Since 2014, the provinces of 14 large cities were replaced by new entities called "metropolitan cities", which fuse in a way of sorts the provincial government with the municipal one in the seat city itself.\\
\\
Rome, being Italy's capital city, is an exception and is governed by a one-of a kind entity named ''Roma Capitale'', holding all the powers of a municipality and more (a bit like Washington D.C. Rome's got a government of its own, albeit much less powerful, independent and - why not? - cooler than its American counterpart). Unlike Washington DC, Rome is still the seat of the metropolitan city and the regional government.\\
\\
The twenty regions, and their respective ''capoluogo'' (seat city), are:
* Valle d'Aosta (Aosta Valley; special statutory region) - Aosta
** The smallest and least populous Italian region, it's a mountainous region nestled right next to France and Switzerland. As a result, it has a significant French-speaking population, and French is its second official language. The Mont Blanc, Italy's (and France's) tallest mountain, is found here, right on the border between the two countries.
* Piemonte (Piedmont) - Torino (Turin)
* Liguria - Genova (Genoa)
* Lombardia (Lombardy) - Milano (Milan)
** The most populous region.
* Trentino-Alto Adige (Trentino-South Tyrol; special statutory region) - Trento
** The northernmost region, with German and Ladin[[note]]An Alpine romance language[[/note]] as its other official languages. The region itself is a largely ceremonial entity, with most of the effective powers being held by its two halves: the Autonomous Province of Trento in the south, and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen further north.
* Veneto - Venezia (Venice)
* Friuli-Venezia Giulia (special statutory region) - Trieste
** Its other official languages are German, Slovene and Friulan,[[note]]Yet another romance language, in the same family as Ladin[[/note]] reflecting the linguistic minorities residing there.
* Emilia-Romagna - Bologna
* Toscana (Tuscany) - [[UsefulNotes/{{Florence}} Firenze]] (Florence)
* Umbria - Perugia
* Marche - Ancona
* Lazio - [[UsefulNotes/{{Rome}} Roma]] (Rome)
* Abruzzo - L'Aquila
* Molise - Campobasso
** The second-smallest and second-least populous region after the Aosta Valley (and first in both among the ordinary regions), claiming that it doesn't actually exist has become a meme among Italians, who call it ''Molisn't''.
* Campania - Napoli (Naples)
* Puglia (Apulia) - Bari
** The easternmost region, it's the "heel" of the Italian peninsula.
* Basilicata - Potenza
* Calabria - Catanzaro
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} Sicilia]] (Sicily; special statutory region) - Palermo
** The largest region and the largest Italian island.
* Sardegna (Sardinia; special statutory region) - Cagliari
** The second-largest Italian island, it's smack-dab in the middle of the Western Mediterranean right south of UsefulNotes/{{Corsica}}. The Sardinian language is related yet arguably distinct from Italian, and it's the other official language of the region.
----

!!!Politics

Italian is considered a difficult language to learn, especially for English speaker, not only for his grammar but for his syntax. It generally follows the grammatical rules of Romance languages.

The decline of Italian media is mostly attributed to Silvio Berlusconi, proud owner of the country’s three largest private television channels. Despite what he or his supporters and enemies will say, here we will simply state facts pertaining to media: several laws favouring Mediaset were passed [[note]](including a tax exclusive to {{Sky TV}} making it very uncompetitive)[[/note]], and funding to the state broadcaster Rai was slashed. Rai broadcasts three main channels, and he was able to replace the directors of the first two channels [[note]] (Rai 1 and Rai 2) [[/note]] with people who had previously worked for him at Mediaset (that is, pawns). The last channel, Rai 3, has held out but they tend to show so much anti-Berlusconi propaganda that most people just write them off as crazy left-wingers. [[note]] (Or, as Berlusconi likes to call all left-wingers, "[[YouKeepUsingThatWord Communists]]").[[/note]]

[[{{Mega Corp}} Mediaset]], Italy’s largest private TV broadcaster and cinema producer [[note]] as well as distributor, through its subsidiary, Medusa Films[[/note]] usually sets its films and shows in Milan. Rai, the Italian State broadcaster/producer/distributor, has its studios in Rome, and normally sets its films and TV shows there.

The decline of Italian media is mostly attributed to Silvio Berlusconi, proud owner of the country’s three largest private television channels. Despite what he or his supporters and enemies will say, here we will simply state facts pertaining to media: several laws favouring Mediaset were passed [[note]](including a tax exclusive to {{Sky TV}} making it very uncompetitive)[[/note]], and funding to the state broadcaster Rai was slashed. Rai broadcasts three channels, and he was able to replace the directors of the first two channels [[note]] (Rai 1 and Rai 2) [[/note]] with people who had previously worked for him at Mediaset (that is, pawns). The last channel, Rai 3, has held out but they tend to show so much anti-Berlusconi propaganda that most people just write them off as crazy left-wingers. [[note]] (Or, as Berlusconi likes to call all left-wingers, "Communists").[[/note]]

'''Dialects'''

'''Honorifics'''

* Italian has three "you": "tu" (informal you), "Lei" (formal you) [[note]] During the Fascist period, Mussolini tried to switch the formal you from "Lei" to "Voi", but that didn't stick [[/note]] and "Voi" (royal you).

* "Signore" or "Signor" are equivalent to "Mr". "Signorina" is roughly equal to "Miss" and is used towards young women, while "Signora" is equivalent to "Mrs". Those honorifics are used by younger people towards older people, by adults into professional relationships such as a client and his lawyer (although colleagues usually use the informal you and are often on a first-name basis) or by university teachers towards students. While using only the honorific to address someone is okay, especially if you don't know their surname, addressing someone by their last name only is considered rude or even aggressive in most contexts.
** Students address teachers with "Professor" [[note]] if male [[/note]] or "Professoressa" [[note]] if female [[/note]] and use the formal "you" when speaking to them. In high school, some easy-going teachers may also be addressed as "prof", but the formal you is still required.
** Members of the Parliament and people with political roles are usually addressed as "Onorevole" followed by the last name.

* "Signore" or "Signor" are equivalent to "Mr". "Signorina" is roughly equal to "Miss" and is used towards young women, while "Signora" is equivalent to "Mrs". Those honorifics are used by younger people towards older people, by adults into professional relationships such as a client and his lawyer (although colleagues usually use the informal you and are often on a first-name basis) or by university teachers towards students. While using only the honorific to address someone is okay, especially if you don't know their surname, addressing someone by their last name only is considered rude or often in most contexts.

* Italian has three "you": "tu" (informal you), "Lei" (formal you) [[note: During the Fascist period, Mussolini tried to switch the formal you from "Lei" to "Voi", but that didn't stick [[/note]] and "Voi" (royal you).