Italy

Doing Business in Italy

Italy is a Southern European peninsula which is bed by San Marino France , Switzerland , Vatican City , Austria , Slovenia , and the Mediterranean Sea with a than 77 ,000 sq . km . of its land mass is arable (less than 27 , out of which , 27 ,500 sq . km . are irrigated (CIA World Factbook . Officially known as the Italian Republic , it is a rugged , mountainous country whose Mediterranean climate is normally mild , but its northern portion experiences cold winters . The country 's capital city is Rome and the other major cities are

Turin , Milan , and Naples (U .S . State Department . Italy is a beautiful country by any standards and people consider it a place of cultural achievement and historical pride ' Inevitably culture pervades the life of every Italian . Culture , therefore , is a very important consideration when dealing with Italians - it could serve as an effective link , or it could prevent a relationship from being established even before the initial steps are taken . One of the most important strategies that should be employed by a businessman who wants to penetrate the Italian market , therefore , is to acquire a good working knowledge about Italian culture (Gorrill

History

When he was proclaimed king in 1861 , Victor Emmanuel II created the nation-state of Italy by uniting the islands of Sicily and Sardinia with the provinces of the peninsula (CIA World Factbook . He later included Rome into his territory in 1870 and afterwards brought about the election of a parliament to establish a constitutional monarchy ' It remained a constitutional monarchy until 1922 when Benito Mussolini assumed power and replaced it with what was called a Corporate State ' Under that style of government , the King stayed on as a titular head of state ' but the real power was wielded by Mussolini who was the premier and who was , in fact , a fascist dictator ' World War II saw Mussolini fighting side by side with Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers but when Sicily was invaded by the Allies in 1943 , Mussolini was immediately dismissed as Premier . The King appointed Pietro Badoglio in his place whose first act in office was to declare war against Germany . In 1946 , the reign of the monarchy was officially ended by a plebiscite that also elected the constituent assembly ' which later charted Italy 's transition towards a republican form of government (U .S State Department . Italy later became one of the original members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ) and the European Economic Community (EEC ' which signaled the economic recovery of the country In 1999 , the country also joined the Economic and Monetary Union (CIA World Factbook

People and Language

Italian is the official language and is spoken by about 93 of its estimated population of 57 .8 million people composed mostly of Italians with a scattering of German-Italians , French Italians , Slovene-Italians and Albanian-Italians . Other languages spoken by the minority groups are Ladin , Slovene , [and] German in Alto-Adige province in the north . In Val d 'Aosta , French is recognized legally . Majority...