Italians are warm, welcoming people who enjoy sharing the pleasures of life with others. In Italy, conversation is an art form. Walk along the open cafes in nearly any town in Italy and you'll observe groups engaged in intense, animated discussions on a wide variety of topics. But, Italians don't casually discuss personal matters of religion or politics. Conversational topics that are appreciated, however, are (besides family) Italian culture, art, films, food, wine and, of course, sports, especially soccer! Art is a big part of Italian culture, and not only visible in its museums. Moreover Italians love to sing and dance and they do it perfectly.
The world has much to thank the Italians for. Writers from Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Livy and Cicero to Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino, Mirandola and Vasari all sprang from Italian loins. Modern literary Italian appeared in the 13th and 14th centuries, developing out of its Latin heritage, the country's many dialects and the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, who wrote chiefly in the Florentine dialect. The Italians were no slouches when it came to music; they invented both the piano and our system of musical notation, as well as producing Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Verdi, Puccini, Bellini and Rossini.
