American Football In Italy Sources of american football in italy resources from the Web

Football is the main national sport and the Italians are well known for their passion for this sport. Italy has won the Football World Cup three times: in 1934, 1938 and 1982.

The Italian Republic or Italy (Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a southern European country, comprising a boot-shaped peninsula and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. It shares its nothern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory.

There have been frequent government turnovers since 1945. The dominance of the Christian Democratic (Democrazia Cristiana) party during much of the postwar period lent continuity and comparative stability to Italy's political situation.

The musical influence of Italian composers Palestrina, Monteverdi, Corelli and Vivaldi proved epochal; in the 19th century, Italian romantic opera flourished under composers Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini. Contemporary Italian artists, writers, filmmakers, architects, composers, and designers continue to contribute significantly to Western culture.

Italy has few natural resources. With much of the land unsuited for farming, it is a net food importer. There are no substantial deposits of iron, coal, or oil. Proven natural gas reserves, mainly in the Po Valley and offshore Adriatic, have grown in recent years and constitute the country's most important mineral resource. Most raw materials needed for manufacturing and more than 80% of the country's energy sources are imported. Italy's economic strength is in the processing and the manufacturing of goods, primarily in small and medium-sized family-owned firms. Its major industries are precision machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electric goods, and fashion and clothing.

Islam was almost entirely absent in Italy from the time of that country's unification in 1861 until the 1970s, when the first trickle of North African immigrants began arriving. These North Africans, mostly of Berber or Arab origin, came mainly from heavily Islamic Morocco, though they have been followed in more recent years by Tunisians, Albanians and to a lesser extent, Libyans, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Middle Eastern Arabs and Kurds. Some estimate the number of Italian converts to be around 10,000.