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Of all European countries, Italy is perhaps the hardest to organize. It is a modern, developed nation. It is the forerunner of style; its designers lead the way with each season's fashions. But it is also, to a degree, a Mediterranean country. In towns and villages all over the country, life grinds to a halt in the middle of the day for a siesta, and is strongly family-oriented, with a focus on the traditions and rituals of the Catholic Church.
Above all Italy promotes reaction. Its people are unpredictable, rarely indifferent to anything, and on one and the same day you might encounter the kind of disdain dished out to tourist masses worldwide, but an hour later be treated to ludicrously generous hospitality. If there is a single national trait, it's to embrace life to the full. In the hundreds of local festivals taking place across the country on any given day, whether to celebrate a saint or a local harvest; in the significance placed on good food; in the obsession with clothes and image; and above all in the daily domestic ritual of the communal evening stroll or passeggiata, a sociable affair celebrated by young and old alike in every town and village across the country.
Italy only became a unified state in 1861 and, as a result, Italians often feel more loyalty to their region than the nation as a whole, something obvious in different cuisines, dialects, landscape and often changing standards of living. There is also, of course, the country's enormous cultural legacy, Tuscany alone has more classified historical monuments than any country in the world. There are substantial remnants of the Roman Empire all over the country, particularly of course in Rome itself, and every region retains its own remnants of an artistic tradition generally recognized to be among the worlds richest.
Yet there's no reason to be intimidated by the art and architecture. If you want to lie on a beach, there are a number of places to do it. Development has been kept relatively under control, and many resorts are still largely the preserve of Italian tourists. Other parts of the coast, especially in the south of the country, are almost totally undiscovered. Beaches are for the most part sandy, and doubts about the cleanliness of the water have been confined to the northern part of the Adriatic coast and the Riviera. Mountains run the country's length, from the Alps and Dolomites in the north right along the Apennines, which form the spine of the peninsula - and are an important reference-point for most Italians. Skiing and other winter sports are practised passionately, and in the five national parks, protected from the national passion for hunting, wildlife of all sorts thrives.
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