1. For ITALY, give the following information:

1. capital
2. location/the countries that share its borders
3. the religious breakdown of the population
4. the type of government
5. the chief of state (and head of government if different) If monarch or dictator, since what date has he/she ruled? – include name of heir apparent for monarch
6. the population

Find the answers at the CIA World FactBook website. For each country, answers can be found under the “Geography” “People” and “Government” headings.

NOTE: Before answering the following questions, read the info under “Background” and watch the video under “Resources” below.

2. For ITALY:
a) list the who, what, where and when of the news item
b) The water crested at 6 feet in Venice. What was the record flood in Venice?
c) What is the acqua alta? Why is flooding not entirely unexpected?
d) What is Mose? When did construction begin? How much has been spent thus far? What were the completion dates? Why does the date of completion keep getting pushed up a few years at a time?
e) Consider this from a CBS 60 Minutes report:

Amsterdam is a city known for its canals. Waterways encircle the city's historic center like a kind of belt, providing picturesque views of boats and urban reflections. Even though Amsterdam sits almost entirely below sea level, the city never floods. As Bill Whitaker reported on 60 Minutes, the Dutch have taken extraordinary precautions to prevent flooding and allocate more than a billion dollars each year to manage their flood infrastructure. …

Venice, too, is famous for its characteristic waterways. But it's also known for its narrow brick streets inadvertently turning into small rivers more than 100 times a year. In 2001, correspondent Bob Simon reported on a new effort aimed at preventing this deluge of water, a system of gates then called Project Moses.

The gates are similar to the Dutch system. In the Netherlands, two enormous arms seal off the Rhine River and Rotterdam from the North Sea. In Venice, the system will employ mobile gates at the three openings to the lagoon which surrounds Venice. The gates can sit idle in the water during low tide, then during storms, they can be raised to provide a barrier between the lagoon and the Adriatic Sea.

But as Simon reported, …squabbling between Italy's politicians had kept the system mired in debate for years.

…Simon reported, "It took nearly 20 years for Project Moses to be drawn up, and Italy has been arguing about it for the past 10. And Venetians … fear it will take another disastrous flood to shake Italy's politicians." …

Work on MOSE began in 2003, more than 20 years after the proposal was submitted — but after countless delays, it's still incomplete. According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the project, which has already cost 5.5 billion euros (approximately $6.5 billion), is now expected to be completed in 2022. For comparison, the Dutch gates took just six years to build and cost $500 million.
(from a July 2019 CBS 60 Minutes report by Brit McCandless Farmer)

Venice’s mayor - Luigi Brugnaro, blames climate change for the flooding. Others blame politicians, pointing out that engineers in the 21st century are able to design a fix (as Amsterdam has proved) to prevent a city from flooding. What is your reaction to this?