Some say that the people of Italy have civilized Europe twice, once in ancient times and again after the Middle Ages. Under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, Rome ruled much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for nearly a thousand years, until the Visigoths sacked Rome in AD 476 and the western empire fell.
Greek ideals and Roman justice were spread throughout the Mediterranean region by the empire's legions. Today, Rome's legal, cultural and scientific legacies endure throughout the world. Places as diverse as Japan, Louisiana and Brazil are ruled by modern versions of Roman law, and the Romance languages (including French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish), as well as scientific terminology, are derived from Latin.
At its height, Rome controlled lands from the Irish Sea to the Caspian Sea; Roman ruins can be found from Great Britain to Morocco, Turkey and Jordan. During the Renaissance, Italy rose to the forefront of Western civilization again, when such notable citizens as Galileo, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci made enormous contributions to science, art and architecture.
Though the Roman legal system and famous Roman roads gave Europe a vision of cultural unity, Italy itself only achieved political unity in 1870. Before then, modern-day Italy was a collection of squabbling kingdoms, dukedoms and city-states that were often dominated by outside forces. Although currently unified under the government in Rome, the country is still divided into 20 distinct regions, each with its own landscape, history, dialects, artistic styles, foods and architecture. For many visitors, it is Italy's diversity that lends the country its most distinctive charms.