List of Italians

This is a list of notable Italians.

Acting

Actors

Italians

Italians (Italian: italiani [itaˈljaːni]) are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Legally, Italians are citizens of the Italian Republic, regardless of ancestry or country of residence (though the principle of jus sanguinis is used extensively and arguably more favourably in the Italian nationality law), and are distinguished from people of Italian descent and from ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the Italian Peninsula.

In 2014, in addition to about 55 million Italians in Italy (91.00% of Italian population), Italian-speaking autonomous groups are found in neighbouring countries: about half a million in Switzerland, a large population in France, and smaller groups in Slovenia and Croatia, primarily in Istria and Dalmatia. Because of wide-ranging diaspora, about 5 million Italian citizens and nearly 80 million people of full or part Italian ancestry live outside of Italy, most notably in South America, North America, Australia and parts of Europe.

Italian wine

Italy is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, and Italian wines are known worldwide for their broad variety. Italy, closely followed by France, is the world’s largest wine producer by volume. Its contribution is about 45–50 million hl per year, and represents about ⅓ of global production.Italian wine is exported around the world and is also extremely popular in Italy: Italians rank fifth on the world wine consumption list by volume with 42 litres per capita consumption. Grapes are grown in almost every region of the country and there are more than one million vineyards under cultivation.

Etruscans and Greek settlers produced wine in Italy before the Romans started their own vineyards in the 2nd century B.C. Roman grape-growing and winemaking was prolific and well-organized, pioneering large-scale production and storage techniques like barrel-making and bottling.

History

Although vines had been cultivated from the wild Vitis vinifera grape for millennia, it wasn't until the Greek colonization that wine-making flourished. Viticulture was introduced into Sicily and southern Italy by the Mycenaean Greeks, and was well established when the extensive Greek colonization transpired around 800 BC. It was during the Roman defeat of the Carthaginians (acknowledged masters of wine-making) in the 2nd century BC that Italian wine production began to further flourish. Large-scale, slave-run plantations sprang up in many coastal areas and spread to such an extent that, in AD 92, emperor Domitian was forced to destroy a great number of vineyards in order to free up fertile land for food production.

Italians (film)

Italians is a 2009 Italian comedy film written and directed by Giovanni Veronesi. For this film Paolo Buonvino won the Silver Ribbon for best score. the film also received three nominations at David di Donatello for best score, best sound and best special effects.

Plot

First segment: Fortunato is a trucker specialized in the transport of luxury vehicles, especially Ferrari, in Saudi Arabia and in other Gulf countries. Tired of a life away from home and in the process of retiring, he accompanies his successor, the young Marcello, for his last trip in Dubai.

Second segment: Giulio Cesare Carminati, a successful Roman dentist, is forced to travel to St. Petersburg for a medical conference that he had organized but which would not want to participate because of the depression in which he fell since his wife's premature death. There he comes into contact with Vito Calzone, an exuberant Sicilian who lives in the Russian city and organizes meetings with local escorts on behalf of the Italian turists.