Family

Like other countries in south Europe, Italy, new family compositions are gradually penetrating into the family system. These new configuration, encompasses single parenthood, cohabiting, extra marital births, and one-person households.

Ever since form 1970, Italy ha s undergone many changes such as, age of the family, birth rate, stability in marriage. The Italian people get married at later stage and not frequently. They have only less children and divorce more frequently. They have created latest family models as mentioned above- extramarital births, cohabiting, etc.

Third party family tradition (Umbria, Abruzzo, Emilia, Toscana, Friuli and Veneto) was portrayed by extended or multiple family structure, by patrilocal residence in the past. The southern parts of Italy were exemplified by nuclear families and neolocal independent residence, yet if women married very at young age. The southern families’ nuclear structure might be associated to the property attention in fiefs, peasants settling in rural towns. This feature is not found in the north, in Tuscany or Lombardy.The peasants there lived in “cascine” or “poderi” situated in the fields.

Over generations, the Italian families preserve sturdy relationships with their father and mother. Normally they live adjacent to one of the two parental families, they make daily phone calls to their parents (particularly to their mother) and weekly they visit them. Brawny mutual exchanges and support are displayed by their rapport with their parents comprising care of the elders and the sick, childcare, assist with economic difficulties, lend and guidance.

Food

The chief characteristic of an Italian food is its Simplicity. Only four to eight ingredients are present in most of the dishes. The Italian mostly gives importance to the ingredients’ quality relatively than on detailed preparation. The recipes and dishes are mostly produced by the Grandmas fairly then the chefs and this puts together various recipes preferably appropriate for home cooking. Wine and cheese finds a prominent part in the Italian cuisine with several distinctions. Coffee, particular espresso also forms a major part in the Italian cooking.

The Italian cuisines are region based and are seasonal. The Italians give top priority to the usage of fresh produce.

Some of the Italian regional cuisines are Friuli-Venezia Giulia, meatball prepared form smoke meat called as patina. The other characteristic dishes comprise of Istrian Stew (made up of sauerkraut, soup of beans, bacon, potatoes and spare ribs.

The other famous Italian dishes include pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans), risi e bisi (peas and rice). The other common ingredients found in Italian food are cuttle fish and squid. Lombardy is another well-known regional food that is mainly prepared from rice, maize, pork, beef, lard and butter.

Dress

The Italian women do not wear short and sleeveless shirts when they attend church or other religious establishments. They wear only skirts that are knee length. Likewise the men also wear shorts of knee length.
The Italians are not interested in flashy fashionable dress or jewellery. They wear only simple clothing, as well stitched cotton cloth, a simple gold earrings pair. Shirt with cartoon characters, loose jumpers are worn only by kids.

Sports

A long traditional sport history prevails in Italy. Both in team as well as individual sports, Italy has tasted many successes. The most popular sport in Italy is football. The other sports are volleyball and basketball. The 2006 FIFA world cup was won by Italy. Tennis, cycling, fencing, atheletics, rugby and winter sports are some of the other popular sports in Italy.

Italy has the credit of hosting the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, 2006 Turin winter Olympics.