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Some say that the people of Italy have civilized Europe twice, once in ancient times and again after the Middle Ages. Under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, Rome ruled much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for nearly a thousand years, until the Visigoths sacked Rome in AD 476 and the western empire fell.

Greek ideals and Roman justice were spread throughout the Mediterranean region by the empire's legions. Today, Rome's legal, cultural and scientific legacies endure throughout the world. Places as diverse as Japan, Louisiana and Brazil are ruled by modern versions of Roman law, and the Romance languages (including French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish), as well as scientific terminology, are derived from Latin. At its height, Rome controlled lands from the Irish Sea to the Caspian Sea; Roman ruins can be found from Great Britain to Morocco, Turkey and Jordan. During the Renaissance, Italy rose to the forefront of Western civilization again, when such notable citizens as Galileo, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci made enormous contributions to science, art and architecture.

Though the Roman legal system and famous Roman roads gave Europe a vision of cultural unity, Italy itself only achieved political unity in 1870. Before then, modern-day Italy was a collection of squabbling kingdoms, dukedoms and city-states that were often dominated by outside forces. Although currently unified under the government in Rome, the country is still divided into 20 distinct regions, each with its own landscape, history, dialects, artistic styles, foods and architecture. For many visitors, it is Italy's diversity that lends the country its most distinctive charms.

In the past 100 years, Italy has gone from monarchy to parliamentary system to fascism to a seemingly unending series of coalition governments -- an average of one a year since 1946. The political situation, however, appears to have stabilized a bit in recent years. After a half-decade under the leftist Ulivo coalition, there has been a backlash to the right. In 2001, the country elected Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial media magnate and leader of the Forza Italia coalition. However, the general shift toward the right (particularly in the north) is not as important as Italy's new obligations to the European Union. Infrastructure, law, labor policies and finance are rapidly being made more efficient in order to comply with E.U. standards.

It's a long story! Italy as a geographical area was mentioned as far back as during the age of the highly civilised Etruscan people, as is borne out by the manuscripts kept in some museums, especially in Tuscanyand Latium. These in fact were the regions where most Etruscan settlements are found, although they also populated Umbria, Campania and some zones of what is now Emilia Romagna and Lombardy.

Then came the Romans who, starting from the 3rd century BC, unified the whole peninsular under their dominion (and indeed most of Europe in general).

The word Italia appears on a coin dating back to the 1st century BC which was minted by the confederation of the Italic peoples who rose up against Rome. The coin was found in the region of Abruzzo in Corfinio, the ancient Corfinium, capital of the confederation with the name of Italica. The long Roman domination (from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD) has left an indelible mark in Italy with its roads, aqueducts, temples, monuments, towns and cities, bridges, theatres and so on - all relics and memories of a past that is remote and yet also very present, a past that can be seen in every part of the country.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was invaded and dominated for centuries by foreign populations, especially in thesouth and Sicily. Thanks to the success of independent city states in the Centre and North such as Venice, Florence, Siena, Genoa, andMilan, Italy nevertheless became a flourishing and civilised country of trade and the arts. Later however, the small independent states could not hold out against the invasions of the great states of Spain and Austria.

Only the small kingdom of Piedmont remained independent and after the interlude of Napoleon's occupation it became the "driving force" behind il Risorgimento, the great movement that led to the unification of Italy in 1870 under the Royal House of Savoia.

After the Second World War, in 1946 a popular referendum abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Italy a Republic. The rest is the history of recent times. An on-going, fascinating story to follow always. Italy and its regions: beyond the bounds of the big cities Is Rome in Latium or Campania? Is Milan in Veneto or Lombardy? Easy to answer for Italians perhaps, but for the rest of us it may be tricky to connect Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan and Venice with their respective regions of Latium, Campania, Lombardy and Veneto. Perhaps Tuscany is the exception in this regard as it has traditionally enjoyed a special relationship with foreigners, the British Isles and North America in particular.

The holiday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair took in Tuscany in the summer of '98 has further fortified this bond. So how can we start talking about the regions? To start with, they are main territorial administrative divisions of the Italian state and there are 20 of them: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Latium, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Piedmont, Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, the Aosta Valley, and Veneto. Each has accumulated a historical, artistic and cultural heritage of extraordinary value over time that offers an attractive alternative to the great art cities. So why not come and venture into an Italy which, when stepping off the beaten track of the main tourism flows, is practically unknown. The Italy of the regions: more Italy than ever before!