Italian Government Tourist Board statistics says that there are over 33
million visitors to Italy a year. This puts Italy to the list of
world's top visited countries.
The country can boast being a birthplace for great masterpieces of
different kinds of art in Italy: those who take
interest in architecture will admire the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower
of Pisa and the ruins of Pompeii; art lovers can enjoy the grand works
of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael; music connoisseurs
won't miss an opportunity to visit the world famous Teatro Alla Scala
and Teatro dell'opera di Roma to listen to the works of famous
composers such as Verdi, Bellini and Puccini. And an idle
pleasure-seeker could simply get a superb glass of wine and a delicious
meal to be followed by a romantic gondola ride on the Venetian canals
or a shopping in Milan
boutiques. It's difficult not to fall victim of aesthetic overloading
as the fascinating art pieces surround you everywhere. Travel Italy is
full of pleasures.
Art's always played an important role in the history of Italy.
The great emperor of ancient Rome, Augustus, was the first one to use
art as a tool of the state serving his own prestige. Later on, the
country's political rulers and the papacy also directed art and artists
to benefit from it, advancing their ideas.
Among the periods of Italian art one can distinguish the Etruscans
period, with the vestiges of its cultural heritage still firing the
imagination of those searching for this mysterious civilization; the
Roman period famous for its cultic and decorative sculpture
and pictorial mosaic and a variety of styles echoing Greek trends of
that time; Byzantine period influenced by the 1000-year leadership of
Constantinople over the Roman empire; Gothic period also known as the
Early Renaissance (or the Primitives); the Renaissance itself with the
rediscovery of Ancient Greek and Roman classics bringing the world
artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael;
as well as Baroque, Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism and
Surrealism, Classical Modernism and Post-Modernism, etc.
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