Italy: Told from a photo Gallery

September 5, 2008

Italy, slightly larger than Arizona, is a long peninsula shaped like a boot, surrounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the east by the Adriatic. It is bounded by France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia to the north.The migrations of Indo-European peoples into Italy probably began about 2000 B.C. and continued down to 1000 B.C. From about the 9th century B.C. until it was overthrown by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. Ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance gave Italy a rich architectural heritage that influenced building design around the world.Italy is justly renowned for many centuries and styles of stunning architecture. The style of architecture known as Italian was first developed by Filippo Bruneschelli, and blossomed during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries; it was an assimilation of classical circular-arch form to modern requirements. In Rome it conformed most to ancient types; in Venice it assumed its most graceful form. Filippo Brunelleschi (1337–1446) is widely considered the first Renaissance architect. Trained as a goldsmith in his native city of Florence, Brunelleschi soon turned his interests to architecture, traveling to Rome to study ancient buildings. Among his greatest accomplishments is the engineering of the dome of Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Duomo). He was also the first since antiquity to use the classical orders Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian in a consistent and appropriate manner