~jay~

* When McDonald’s opened in 1986 in Rome, food purists outside the restaurant gave away free spaghetti to remind people of their culinary heritage

* Italians suffer more earthquakes than any other Europeans. In 1693, an estimated 100,000 people died in an earthquake in Sicily. The most deadly recent quake occurred in Naples in 1980, killing 3,000.

* No other country in Europe has as many volcanoes as Italy. This is because the Italian peninsula stands on a fault line. 3 major volcanoes (Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius) have erupted in the last hundred years.

* Italy’s birthrate is the 2nd-lowest in the Western world. Both political and church leaders have expressed concern and have offered rewards to couples who have more than 1 child.

what my family heard: