Italy is famous for its art, history, food, and architecture, but the country’s past is also filled with strange traditions, surprising inventions, and unforgettable historical moments. 25 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Italy explores unusual stories from ancient Rome to modern Italy, revealing everything from bizarre wars and ingenious inventions to strange laws and unexpected discoveries. These facts show that behind Italy’s familiar landmarks lies a history packed with remarkable and often surprising details.
Ancient Rome Electric Therapy
1. Ancient Roman physicians employed an early form of electrotherapy to successfully treat neurological conditions such as epilepsy and migraines. They administered the electrical charges by placing electric torpedo fish on the patient’s head.
2. There is a church named Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome that is lined with skeletons and has a plaque in 3 languages that reads “What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be.”
3. Following a 10-year, $40 million project, the Leaning Tower of Pisa stopped moving for the first time in its 800-year history. The tower is now expected to stay stable for at least 200 years.
4. There is an exclusive restaurant in Italy named Solo per Due that accommodates only 2 people.
5. After Spartacus’ revolt in 73 B.C.E., 6,000 slaves were crucified along a 120-mile stretch of road called the Appian Way. This equated to roughly 50 slaves per mile or roughly 1 slave every hundred feet. The mass crucifixion served as a deterrent to anyone else who thought to defy Rome.
6. Victims of the Pompeii eruption had “perfect teeth”, a condition likely connected to both a healthy diet and elevated fluorine levels in the air and water around the volcano.
7. More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his notebook that “all the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk.” In other words, if a tree’s branches were folded upward and squeezed together, the tree would appear as one large trunk with the same thickness from top to bottom.
8. Ancient Rome had take-out eateries with service counters opening onto the street for people to pick up food. Pompeii had more than 200 of these establishments, and most homes there lacked dining or kitchen areas, suggesting that cooking at home was uncommon.
9. In 2011, archeologists in Italy uncovered the buried remains of a couple who had been holding hands for 1,500 years.
10. Toilets in ancient Rome were so bad that people wrote prayers to the Gods of fortune on the walls. Problems included bursts of flame from methane buildup and biting creatures emerging from below.
Bucket Theft Led To War
11. In the 1300s, men from Modena stole a bucket from nearby Bologna in Italy, causing the Bolognese great humiliation; the Bolognese declared war, a battle produced about 2,000 casualties shared between the sides, and they failed to recover the bucket.
12. The Latin word ‘arena’ means ‘sand’, and its modern sense comes from Romans covering the Colosseum floor with sand to absorb blood.
13. Most extra virgin olive oil sold in stores as Italian is fraudulent: nearly 70% of lower-priced olive oils are not pure olive oil but are cut with cheaper seed oils to reduce cost, and much of the product is not actually from Italy.
14. The earliest known marketing pun was found in Pompeii on wine jars labeled ‘Vesuvinum’; the word blends Vesuvius, the volcano that destroyed the city, and vinum, the Latin word for wine.
15. Italian words commonly used in New Jersey differ significantly from contemporary standard Italian not because of bad ‘copying’ but because they originated with speakers of an Italian dialect that later died out in Italy.
16. Leonardo da Vinci frequently visited pet shops, purchased caged birds, and released them.
17. In 2008, during the grape festival in Marino, Italy, wine replaced water in dozens of homes, described as “due to a technical error”.
18. Italy’s Credem Bank accepts Parmesan cheese from local producers in exchange for low-interest loans, charging 3-5% interest depending on quality and an additional fee to ensure the cheese is properly aged for two years in the bank’s vault; if a loan defaults, the cheese is sold. The bank stores 430,000 wheels of Parmesan valued at $200 million.
19. Archaeologists have discovered a loaf of bread made in first century A.D. Pompeii that bears a Roman bread stamp, a mark bakeries were required to use to prevent fraud.
20. In 17th century Italy, conjoined twins faced a murder trial after authorities arrested Lazarus Baptista Colloredo for stabbing a man who had been teasing his parasitic twin; although he was sentenced to death, the court released him because they concluded they could not execute him without also killing his innocent conjoined twin.
Renaissance Robot Plans Proved Effective
21. Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a ‘mechanized knight,’ a robot-like device that depended on a pulley system. Nearly 500 years later, when those plans were discovered and a model was constructed exactly as Leonardo specified, the design functioned flawlessly.
22. The earliest documented tomato-based pasta sauce dates to 1790. Because tomatoes originate from the Americas, Italian cuisine had no tomatoes until after contact with the New World.
23. In 1478 Leonardo da Vinci devised plans for a clockwork three-wheeled vehicle. A reconstruction built from his designs in 2004 operated successfully.
24. In ancient Rome, the name ‘Julius Caeser’ was spoken as ‘YOO-lee-us KYE-sahr’.
25. In Turin, Italy, you are required to walk your dog three times daily or you can be fined.
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