Italy

Italy is a European country. Rome is in Italy. There are tensions between the developed North of Italy and the less developed South.

[edit] Famous Italians

Silvio Berlusconi, businessman, politician and all-round ~~scheming, corrupt bastard~~ swell guy.
Leonardo da Vinci invented everything that the Chinese and Thomas Edison didn't, as well as being quite good at painting. Michelangelo Buonarroti was an artistic equal and contemporary of leonardo. As the reigning artistic geniuses of the Renaissance, and sharing the same city at the same time, naturally they hated each other.
Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince, the ultimate "how-to" book of dirty pragmatism in politics. His name is now a byword for deviousness. He also wrote a lesser known book about establishing a republic. He was a republican, you see.
Garibaldi united Italy and had a biscuit named after him - it turned out to be a massive advertising campaign for United Biscuits.
Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida had many fine qualities.
The Three Tenors, except only one of them was Italian.
Primo Levi deserves an article, deffo.

One of the most famous and diverse cuisines in the world. And no, you can't just put spaghetti sauce on anything and call it Italian.