In Depth

The best way to begin your Italian adventure is with a little prep work. The more you know about Italy, even what happened before your arrival, the better you can understand and appreciate its charms.

Italy Today

For Italy, one of the world's greatest tourist destinations (Italians claim the greatest), it is the best of times and the worst of times. Unlike most countries of the world including the United States where the population is growing hysterically -- Italy's population is actually declining, with a birthrate of 8.7 per 1,000 people. That rate is matched with a death rate of 10.4 per 1,000 people. In all, the population stands roughly at 59 million.

The vacuum is being filled by hordes of immigrants, especially those from Eastern Europe, notably Romania and Albania. It's estimated, for example, that there may be one million Romanians living in Italy today.

Italian security forces valiantly struggle to turn back massive immigration, not only from the East but from North Africa with its underfed masses. Illegal aliens pour into southern Italy, especially Sicily, on anything that floats. Many immigrants are arrested and sent back, but others arrive by the thousands. Once in Sicily, they can make their way to the Italian mainland, where they hope to find a job and a better life.

The inevitable conflicts arise between the undocumented workers and the local citizens. Polls have shown that a majority of Italians associate immigrants with sex workers -- prostitution among foreigners is rampant -- and drug trafficking. In spite of that, the average immigrant takes a job to replenish the rapidly shrinking Italian workforce.

Italy's long coastline makes it impossible to control the flood of undocumented migrants, and the country is the major gateway for Latin American cocaine and Asian heroin entering the European market. There is massive money laundering by organized crime and smuggling.

Long recovered from its post-World War II doldrums, Italy is now the seventh-largest economy in the world, ranking behind such countries as the United States, Germany, Japan, and China.

Like most countries of western Europe, Italy suffers from overdevelopment, especially along its coastlines and in its northern cities. The only major area left for development is the south, including Calabria. However, Italian authorities, seeing the mistakes made in their past development, are putting the brakes on uncontrolled growth in what is left of their virgin south.

Even though the government wants to develop the south and improve the living standards of its people, they are also controlling real estate expansion with an array of new laws. For example, development has been forbidden within 300m (984 ft.) of any beach. Other stringent building codes and antipollution measures are in force as well.

With all its changes and all its problems, Italy remains on that coveted list of the four or five countries that most people want to visit, at least once in their lifetime. All roads in Italy still lead to Rome, but there is so much to see along the way there. Take Florence or Venice, for example.

As the director Fellini once said, "A man should visit Italy at least twice in his life -- once when he's young and can enjoy so many 'forbidden' fruits, and again when he's old and can sit in our timeless sun and enjoy la dolce far niente or the sweetness of doing nothing."