Italy in 2011

2011 was a big year for Italy, full of both high and low points. Here's a few of the things that shaped the country in this past year;

• Italy celebrates its 150th birthday. Countrywide celebrations marked 150 years of unification.

• Italy came 2nd place in the Eurovision song Contest after a long absence from the competition. Raphael Gualazzi - Follia D'Amore 

• After dominating Italian politics for over 17 years, Silvio Berlusconi was forced from office. He managed for years to stay despite numerous scandals (tax fraud, corruption, paying for sex with a minor...and these are just the ones he's currently involved in). The European Debt Crisis was too much though and his elective career came to an end in November.

• Mario Monti became the new Prime Minister of Italy and formed the current non-party government. Big changes are ahead.

• A year full of sporting victories for Italy including the huge success of the Italian fencing team in the 2011 European and World Championships.

• A year of great sporting losses too including the death of Moto GP star Marco Simoncelli who fell from his bike during a race in Malaysia.

• Nature hit hard this year with Italy suffering several earthquakes and floods.

What will happen in 2012? Hopefully Olympic success for the talented Italian team and some economic improvement (although realistically things are likely to get worse better they get better). At least Italian shouldn't be headline news for once due to the suspect behavior of the country's leader. Berlusconi maybe be gone from the top but he definitely left his mark.

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