Pasta

The other headliner in Italyโ€™s culinary line-up is pasta. Fresh or dried, stuffed or coated with sauce,ย each region has its own way of cooking it.

Aside from countless different shapes and recipes, there is also a number of rules dictating what you shouldnโ€™t do.

Vespas

Like yellow taxis and New York or red double-decker buses and London, Vespas are synonymous with Italy.

Invented in 1946, this sexy scooter became an icon thanks to a number of appearances on the silver screen.

Fashion

Italyโ€™s first internationally recognised fashion show took place in Florence in 1951. These days though, Milan is considered Italyโ€™s main sartorial hub and the cityโ€™s high-end shopping district, known as the Quadrilatero dโ€™Oro, is home to some of the worldโ€™s biggest luxury brands.

Art

Italyโ€™s contribution to the art world is immeasurable. Works by Giotto, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, Caravaggio, and Bernini are among the most recognizable and most celebrated in the world.

Pizza

Pizza may be one of Italyโ€™s greatest success stories but thereโ€™s not actually one standard, national pizza recipe. Probably the most famous is the pizza Napoletanaย with its soft, chewy dough and prominent crust.

Cars

Italy is the birthplace of some of the worldโ€™s most famous car brands, including Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lamborghini and Maserati. Italian automotive design is coveted by petrolheads the world over for its beauty, exclusivity and performance.

Hand Gestures

Italians like to let their hands do the talking and, according to one study, there are around 250 gestures used in everyday conversation. Swipe the fingers outwards from under the chin to say โ€˜I couldnโ€™t care lessโ€™ or pinch the fingers together and move the hand up and down to say โ€˜what are you talking about?โ€™

Football

Football, orย il Calcio, is taken very seriously in Italy. Teams from the top league, Serie A, attract some of the worldโ€™s best players, while the national team, known as the Azzurri, have won the World Cup four times.

Explorers

Amerigo Vespucci, Marco Polo, John Cabot and, the most famous explorer of all, Christopher Columbus, all hailed from Italy. The Italians played a big part in the Age of Discovery, exploring the world in search of trade, wealth and knowledge.

Gelato

Yes, โ€˜gelatoโ€™ is the Italian word for ice cream but no, the two are not the same thing. Gelato is lower in fat, has less air in it and is served at a slightly higher temperature.