Italy's capital and largest city, Rome, has for centuries been the leading political and religious centre of Western civilization, serving as the capital of both the Roman Empire and Christianity. Beginning around the 11th century, various Italian cities, communes and maritime republics rose to great prosperity through shipping, commerce and banking (indeed, modern capitalism has its roots in Medieval Italy); concurrently, Italian culture flourished, especially during the Renaissance, which produced many notable scholars, artists, and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Italy was a founding member of NATO in 1949 and one of the Inner Six of the European Community in 1957, which became the EU in 1993. Italy currently maintains the world's tenth-largest nominal defense budget and is a participant in the NATO nuclear sharing policy.

Why Business in Italy

By virtue of its strategic location in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy is the main thoroughfare linking southern Europe to northern and central Europe by land, sea and air. It provides a gateway affording easy access to 500 million consumers across the European Union, and a further 270 million in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Innovation in Italy is driven by an extensive network of high-quality universities and public and private institutions and by a modern network of science and technological parks, which ensure that research is widely integrated into industrial processes. Italy has a long and acclaimed tradition of excellence in many fields, including medicine, biomedical technology, instrumental and precision engineering, robotics, micro-electronics, ICT, aerospace, new materials and nanotechnology. The quality of the country's research is borne out by its high level of scientific output, its constantly rising expenditure on R&D, its high productivity and high level of internationalization. Country's quality of life and lifestyle also is important while deciding to invest abroad. Italy ranks sixth as the world's top country brand in the Country Brand Index 2009, the international survey of the image of more than 40 countries in the world. Italy ranks in top position in the following categories: cusine, art and people.