Italy

"I'm back from the last inspection now. In these 72 endless hours the hours of sleep can be counted on the fingers of one hand and interrupted by a thousand thoughts for my fellow citizens, for my land. We have a myriad of disasters and open fronts"

"Tutti no... buona parte sì."

"Gli Italiani tutti ladroni."

"We who have seen Italia in the throes, Half risen but to be hurled to ground, and now, Like a ripe field of wheat where once drove plough, All bounteous as she is fair, we think of those Who blew the breath of life into her frame: Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi: Three: Her Brain, her Soul, her Sword; and set her free ruinous discords, with one lustrous aim."

"France is a country you have to drive through to get to Italy. That's all it's for."

"In Italia, chi si fa valere all'estero non viene considerato."

"Fratelli d'Italia, l'Italia s'è desta, dell'elmo di Scipio s'è cinta la testa."

"The European Union and many of its countries, which used to take initiatives in the United Nations for peaceful settlements of conflict, are now one of the most important war assets of the U.S./NATO front. Many countries have also been drawn into complicity in breaking international law through U.S./U.K./NATO wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and so on."

"Italy is, after France and perhaps in the same degree, the land in which love of country has the deepest roots in the hearts of its inhabitants. The fact is that perhaps nowhere else has nature been so prodigal with its enchantments and seductions. Therefore, although Italy has been, since the fall of the Caesars, the object of European covetousness, the eternal battlefield of powerful neighbors, and the theatre of the fiercest and most prolonged civil wars, her children have always refused to leave her. Save for some commercial colonies hastily thrown upon the shores of Asia by Genoa and Venice, history has not, in fact, recorded in Italy any important outward movement of population."

"[of the Sicilians] They never want to improve. They think themselves perfect. Their vanity is greater than their misery."

"A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see."

"Italia, Italia, O tu cui feo la sorte, Dono infelice di bellezza, ond' hai Funesta dote d'infiniti guai Che in fronte scritti per gran dogha porte"

"Bologna la grassa, Firenze la bella, Genova la superba, Lucca l’industriosa, Mantua la gloriosa, Milano la grande, Padova la forte, Pavia la dotta, Veneziala gran mendica, Verona la degna."

"Bologna the rich (or fat), Florence the beautiful, Genoa the superb, Lucca the busy, Mantua the glorious, Milan the grand, Padua the strong, Pavia the learned, Venice the great beggar, Verona the worthy."

"For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground."

"Italians said: 'You're Greater than the Cassius of old'. We like your name, we like your game, So make Rome your home if you will. I said I appreciate your kind hospitality, But the USA is my country still."

"If maps were shaded like balance sheets, the bottom part of mainland Europe would be deepest red. Italy, Spain and Portugal are heavily in debt. They are also Catholic countries. Their predominantly Protestant neighbours to the north, including Germany and Scandinavia, are in comparatively good shape financially. Is that simply a coincidence, or is Max Weber's theory about the Protestant ethic being intertwined with the spirit of capitalism still valid, over 100 years on?"

"Iuravit in mea verba tota Italia."

"My bond with Juventus is very strong and I have a love for this club that goes beyond many other considerations. It’s no coincidence I stayed this year even after some difficult moments."

"I'm proud to be a "juventino", to be a "bandiera", like you define me to be often, in reality I'm just a small part of a big black & white "bandiera" (flag) that grows with the years and if you look closely your name is part of it... To continue making this "bandiera" grow we need everybody: let's stay united."

"A couple of years ago I nearly went to Juve. People spoke to me about Turin, and said it is this and it is that, but Milan would be nicer. I said 'I'm not going for the bloody shops; I'm going because it's Juventus."

"Juventus are an institution like none other in football; La Vecchia Signora is a national icon of Italy in a way that is incomparable across Europe. In Spain, that iconography is complicated by rivalry between [Real] Madrid in Castile and Catalan Barcelona; in English terms, one could only liken Juventus to an entity that combined Liverpool and Manchester United with the Aston Villa of yore. Bayern Munich, though founded in 1900, just do not have the history, having won the German title only once before 1969."

"I began by playing for the biggest club in the Lorraine region, went on to the biggest club in France and ended up with the biggest in the world."

"My first Juventus was built in the name of Trapattoni. He was the right coach to cement our group."

"You never know, I could have done the same thing as Platini. His career really took off when he signed for Juventus."

"As news it's every bit as startling as snow in Siberia or Paul Gascoigne in rehab, but there you have it: Juventus are champions of Italy, for the 27th time."

"When we first played in the Champions League they [Juventus] were the top team, they were who we were aspiring to be like."

"[Juventus were] the team of gentlemen, industrial pioneers, Jesuits, conservatives and the wealthy bourgeois."

"Juventus have given me everything. I acquired my winning mentality here; the one which makes you say every game is a battle. I've learnt to be demanding with myself and how to meet difficulties and overcome them."

"Juve will always be Juve. There are a number of teams that have a winning spirit built in and Juventus are one of them."

"As you travel across southern Italy, it is entirely normal to see entire teams of young players decked out in Juve shirts in kickabouts, hundreds of miles from Turin. Juventus have far more fans outside Turin than in their home-town. When they play in Sicily, or Calabria, or Milan, or Sardinia, they attract—and have always attracted—sell-out crowds."

"The men can go away, the executives can go away, but what is really though in this society are the players who has been handed down the feel of winning, of being the absolute best, which isn't equal to any other team."

"I played in two of the biggest clubs in the world. There are others, but it is difficult to match the Juve or Real Madrid honours."

"There were players like Bettega, Haller, Causio. We had talent, speed, imagination and dynamism. Later we improved our physical strength and experience by adding players like Boninsegna and Benetti. However the first Juventus still remains my favourite one."