Despite having one of Europe's oldest histories, Italy has only been a country since 1861. Italy was a unified entity throughout the Roman era. It was thereafter separated into independent states, which it remained until 1861. Because of this lengthy history of individualism, the country now has such a diverse spectrum of cultural variants.

According to the World Health Organization, only Belarus consumes more alcohol than Moldova. With each person consuming an average of 16.8 litres of liquor each year (excluding under 15s). Well that is a lot of booze..

In the winter, street sellers offer ice cream from paper boxes on the street. At -30 degrees Celsius, there's no need for a freezer (-22 degrees Fahrenheit).

Martin Lotze, a German researcher, studied the brains of both professional athletes and professional writers and discovered that their brain activity during athletic competition and the writing process was very similar. Lotze discovered an interesting difference between professional and amateur writers: professional writers used their speech-processing centres of the brain to develop their stories, whereas amateur writers relied on their vision centres to imagine the story first.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter released during the beginning stage of a relationship, is also triggered when cocaine and nicotine are used. It provides the surge of pleasure and euphoria that makes those narcotics so addictive. It also increases the secretion of testosterone, which, as previously indicated, is necessary for attraction. If you were to choose between the three, we believe falling in love is the safer option.

There are many misconceptions surrounding Washington, but one of the most common has to do with his teeth. Washington is commonly assumed to have had wooden dentures. This is not at all the case. While Washington had severe oral issues and wore dentures, wood was never employed as a material.

If you're using romantic whispers to impress a potential partner, make sure to speak into his or her left ear. An MITCogNet study discovered that when emotion stimuli were delivered to the left ear, recall accuracy was more than 6% higher than when the same stimuli were delivered to the right ear.

When Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, died in 1952, the Prime Minister invited Einstein to fill the (mostly ceremonial) office. The scientist said no, writing: "I am extremely affected by our State of Israel's offer, and I am both heartbroken and humiliated that I cannot accept it. I've spent my whole life dealing with objective issues, therefore I lack both the natural ability and the expertise to deal with people and carry out official tasks."

Many Koreans were forced to fight for the Japanese cause, but one soldier is said to have fought for almost everyone. According to folklore, after fighting for the Imperial Japanese Army, Korean soldier Yang Kyoungjong was captured and forced to serve for the Soviet Red Army, and then the German Wehrmacht. During this period, the Allies arrived in France, and Yang was captured by the US Army.

Do you despise all things enjoyable? You might be suffering from Cherophobia! People who have this fear tend to avoid any circumstance that others would consider to be enjoyable or cheerful. Cherophobia is derived from the Greek words chero, which means "to joy," and phobia, which means "fear." If you have Cherophobia, please stop reading these fascinating facts right now! We can't comprehend the mental anguish you've gone through by reading this far.

Cheese rolling is one of the oddest sports that takes place every spring in Gloucestershire, in the west of England. An 8-pound round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled from the top of Cooper Hill, and competitors pursue it down to the bottom. They are intended to catch the cheese, but it is nearly impossible, thus the first person to cross the finish line wins the cheese.

Why doesn't your stomach digest itself if it has so many enzymes and acids that it can digest a piece of meat? It turns out that it sort of does. The cells that line your stomach proliferate fast in order to replace the cells that are killed in the course of their everyday tasks. Every three days, we develop a new gut lining.

Seattle residents Peter Cicero and Richard Sclafani are credited with inventing the number-themed eyeglasses that are now seen at New Year's Eve parties around the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, their first set, which read "1991," sold 500 pairs. The following year, approximately 3000 sets were purchased.

This occurred while he was shooting "127 Hours." According to legend, Franco enrolled in an NYU acting class where the teacher gave him a "D." He was working 127 hours at the time. Another aspect of this incident is that the professor was eventually sacked for assigning a "D" grade to Franco's paper.

Robin Dunbar, a psychologist and the director of Oxford University's Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience research department, believes that every guy should spend at least two hours a week with 4-5 buddies. They can use this time any way they choose, from sports to going to bars. According to Dunbar, guys with faithful friends are less likely to be sad and have a better immune system.

Apart from  butter-fingers, crossfire, dustbin, fairy story, slow-coach and whoosh, Charles Dickens is also credited with coining the term "boredom" in the Oxford English Dictionary, which he used in his novel Bleak House (1852-3), but this has since been traced back even further, to 1830.

Wilbur and Orville Wright, popularly known as the Wright Brothers, are famed for inventing the aeroplane, which may lead you to assume they were a well-educated couple, however none of them graduated from college. The discovery gained the brothers fame and money, and thankfully for them, they did not live to become one of those innovators who regretted their creations.

In the good ol' USA, around 300 billion pizzas are sold each year. Not only that, but 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month, according to a recent survey. Around the Super Bowl, there is a significant increase in pizza delivery sales. It doesn't get any more American than that! Unfortunately, there is no official statistics on how many of those pies were devoured as a result of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos' "Two Pizza Rule."

You may have noticed that women take more risks than men, and there is a scientific reason for this. Women have a larger anterior cingulate cortex than men, which is the part of the brain that weighs options when making a decision. Some argue that this was evolution's way of making women better caregivers and saving the "tribe" when it came to gathering food and establishing social structures.

First and foremost, we're not debating whether ham and pineapple belong on a pizza. Sam Panopoulos immigrated to Canada from Greece in 1954. In Chatham, Ontario, he worked as a cook at the Satellite Restaurant. Panopoulos came up with the notion of using canned pineapple on pizza in 1962. His inspiration for this unusual combo came from Chinese Sweet and Sour style food. Because of the odd fruity component, the Hawaiian pizza was first disliked. However, as people tried it, the new topping quickly became a popular option all around the world! Hawaiian pizza has nothing to do with the Hawaiian Islands. It was called after the brand of canned pineapples that they first used.

Archaeologists uncovered a tablet in Iraq in 1976, which has since been lost. Researchers, on the other hand, were able to interpret and decipher the writing from an image of the tablet. What were the outcomes? We know the tablet contains jokes, but the complete context has been lost in translation. The world's oldest your mother joke is "...of your mother is by the one who has relations with her." "What or who is it?" Do we comprehend it? No way, but we know a "your mom" joke when we see one!

There is a lot of evidence that following a pattern for 66 days will make it habitual. If you want to be better at cleaning your house or going to the gym, make a concerted effort to do so for 66 days, after which it will become a habit and be easier to maintain (this also works for breaking habits).

Katie Mulcahey, a New Yorker, was jailed in 1908 for striking a match on a wall and lighting a cigarette with it. Why? Because it was a breach of The Sullivan Ordinance, a local ordinance that prohibits women (and only women!) from smoking in public. Mulcahey protested for her right to smoke cigarettes in public at her hearing in district court. She received a $5.00 fine. The Sullivan Ordinance was vetoed by New York City's mayor two weeks later.

Asakusa is a must-see, with its charming streets (and even the metro station) adorned with these beautiful paintings depicting Japanese history. The thick but aesthetically unified murals exude a cultural vibe while fulfilling two functions: art and storytelling. In Asakusa, you can also buy unusual foods and souvenirs and watch cooks produce street delicacies via glass windows. Visit the iconic Kaminarimon temple, albeit you may have to compete with other eager tourists!