Everyone seems to like lists, and there is no shortage of Italian related ones; the top ten hotels, ten best beaches and the ten sculptures you should see. So to add to the ever growing list of lists, here’s another; ten quirky facts about ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½.
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In northern ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, surnames tend to end in i (Abertini, Meneghini, Rossi) while those in the south often end in o (Caruso, Alfano, D'Onofrio).
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It is estimated that every day on average €3,000 is thrown into the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
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In 2007, a dog named Rocco discovered a truffle in Tuscany that weighed 3.3 pounds. It sold at auction for £198,500 ($333,000 USD) creating a world record.
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Soccer is ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½â€™s most popular sport, but not many people know that it was the British that introduced it to Italians in the game in the late 1800s.
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Over the years, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ has won 13 Oscars at the Academy Awards, for best foreign language film, more than any other country.
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In 1454, two suitors from Marostica sought the love of one girl, but rather than fight a duel they took on the role of chess pieces and played a game of human chess with the winner earning the hand of the girl in question
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It’s said that there are more witches in Sardinia than anywhere else in ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. The Sardinian witches are said to have their own unique language that is passed down to their daughters.
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In 1986, when McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Rome, people protested outside by giving away free spaghetti.
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Pasta comes in many shapes and sizes but one thing it all has in common is that all pasta names are plural.
And as we began the list with a name related fact, I’ll end it with another.
- The most common surname in the UK with around 730,000 people is Smith, in ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ it’s Rossi.
