Italy
We took the summer off from our geography adventure, but we’re back it at with our exploration of ITALY! The last country we studied was Germany. Before that we trekked through the tiny and fascinating country of Andorra – nestled in between France and Spain.
PASSPORT and MAPPING
- Stamped their passports with date, country, capitol, flag and languages noted.
- Print out and label Italy map with National Geographic MapMaker
- Italian Flag and Coat of Arms meanings, colors
ABOUT ITALY
LANDFORMS
- ‘the boot’
- Mediterranean Sea
- Alps
- Apennines
- The Lake District: Lake Como, Garda and Maggiore
- Rivers: Po and Tiber
- fertile plains
- marsh
- bays
- gulfs
- Amalfi Coast
- Adriatic Sea
- volcanic islands: Sardinia, Sicily, Capri, Elba, Ischia, Aeolian Islands
- volcanoes: Mt. Etna, Stomboli, Mt. Vesuvius
Banana Gondola / Little Big Planet Gondola floating on the water (made by BamBam)
Venice waterways in Assassins’ Creed Brotherhood PS3 game / America’s Test Kitchen Pizza and Sauce
HISTORY, LANDMARKS, FAMOUS FIGURES
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Aqueducts
- Punic Wars
- Roman Republic
- Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
- Roman Roads
- Colosseum
- Pantheon
- Baths at Caracalla
- St. Peter’s Church
- St. Peter’s Basilica
- Constantinople
- Sistine Chapel
- Medici Dynasty
- WWI
- WWII
- European Union
- UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Italy – all!
Exploring Italy in the Renaissance virtually in the Assassins’ Creed Brotherhood PS3 game
Top left – the young Leonardo da Vinci – chatting with him
PEOPLE
- Constantine the Great
- Marc Antony
- Augustus
- Andrea Bocelli
- Archimedes
- Dante
- Florence Nightingale
- Caravaggio
- Christopher Columbus
- Galileo Galilei
- Charlemagne
- Michelangelo
- Marcus Aurelius
- Benito Mussolini
- Napoleon
- Julius Caesar
- Leonardo da Vinci
CULTURE
- Vatican City (independent country within Rome, Italy)
- Festivals around various foods
- Fashion: Milan, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Dolce and Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli, Benetton
- Ferrari
- Farming
- Vineyards
- Tourism industry
- learn Italian phrases
- bocce
- squish grapes with our feet
ARTS & CRAFTS / FUN
- Make a leaning Tower of Pisa out of paper tube
- mosaic art (paper collage or tiles broken up)
- plaster fresco art
- Little Big Planet Gondola create on water
- walk through Italian Renaissance towns and countryside in Assassins Creed Brotherhood.
- pasta dyed art or jewelry
- sophisticated pasta art on black paper
- play Pizza Balance game
- make a paper gondola
- stone, marble sculptures
- build a model of the Colosseum
- sugar cube Roman arch
- Banana Gondola with passengers
- One-Point Perspective Drawing with Venetian Canal
- Mona Lisa improv art
MUSIC
- opera
- tarantella
FOOD
- pizza
- pasta
- gelato
- fish
- minestrone soup
- risotto
- insalata caprese
- crostini or brushetta
- focaccia
- cannoli siciliani
- pizzelle
- tiramisu
- biscotti
- lasagna
BOOKS
Vacation Under the Volcano – Magic Tree House #13, Mary Pope Osborne
Living in Italy by Chloe Perkins
Italy (Countries Around the World)
Destination Detectives: Italy – Freestyle Express
Flavors of the World – The Food of Italy – by Sara Louise Kras
Spotlight on Italy by Bobbie Kalman
Children’s Atlas
IMPRESSIONS
How can anyone not love Italy?! The food, the beauty, the rich traditions…. we had such fun studying Italy and will probably add more to this page in the future.
Next up….. GREECE!