Italian Islands Trivia Quiz

Answer: Venice

Murano, Burano, and Torcello are the three main islands of over a hundred islands that are part of the city of Venice. Murano is famous for the glassmaking that happens there. Burano is famous for the lace that is made there. Torcello, despite being very sparsely populated now, is where the city of Venice started from. Along with those, about 120 to 180 islands make up the old city of Venice, famous for its canals and its gondolas.

Answer: Sardinia

Bocche di Bonifacio is a shallow strait in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It separates the island of Corsica which is administered by France and the island of Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) which is administered by Italy. In the past, Sardinia and Corsica were their own Roman province, as well as a self-administered kingdom subject to the Spanish crown. It was only in the late 18th century that the island became 'Italianized'.

Today, Sardinia is a semi-autonomous region of Italy. There are many sheep on the island giving it a very high ovine density, akin to regions like New Zealand or parts of the United Kingdom. Cheeses are made all over the island, and, while the name for the sardine fish comes from the island's name, fishing is not a big part of Sardinian culture.

Answer: It is an active volcano

Panarea is a special island in the Mediterranean Sea. There is evidence that it was settled by the Mycenaean civilization over 3000 years ago. It was raised out of the sea because it is an active volcano. Of the Aeolian chain, it is the smallest inhabited island, but also one of the most unique; it has skerries and islets around it making it easily distinguishable.

The island itself is a tourist destination for the affluent. Houses are very difficult to acquire on the island and it makes it very exclusive. The islands themselves, Panarea included, and the water around the Aeolian chain, have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Answer: Tunisia

Lampedusa is the largest of the Pelagie Islands belonging to Italy. Located in the south part of the central Mediterranean Sea, it is actually located closer to Tunisia than any other country, only 113 km away. The closest large Italian land is Sicily, located over 200 km from Lampedusa. Malta, the small island nation, lies 176 km to the east.

For years, Lampedusa has served as a resting place for mariners and was a part of the Phoenician, Greek, Roman, and Berber Empires, all seafaring nations. For a while, the island served as a pirate haven and a religious retreat. In the early 2000s, fleeing Libyans used Lampedusa as an entry point to Europe as refugees.

Answer: Sicily

Sicily is the large island right off the 'toe' of the Italian mainland which is shaped like a boot. At the narrowest point, the strait between the two land bodies is only 3km wide, but that would still make a bridge between the two points the longest suspension bridge in the world by a long distance. The project was estimated to cost over 6 billion euros in 2009, a colossal amount which would only increase as time passed.

Sicily is a large island with a rich history. It was settled before 8000 BCE and has had human inhabitants since. For a while it had an autonomous status as a kingdom but was quickly absorbed into the Italian Unification. The island is notorious for the Cosa Nostra, the organized crime syndicate often referred to as the Mafia.

Answer: Etruscans

Ponza is the largest island of the Italian Pontine archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is located about halfway between the cities of Rome and Naples and is not far from the mainland. It was first settled by the Etruscan civilization and, at that time, there were massive trees growing on the island. However, these were cut down for construction by the Greeks and later the Romans and there remain only remnants today.

According to legend, the island of Ponza is said to be the island of Aeaea from Homer's "Iliad". The sorceress Circe was to have lived here and turned all of Odysseus' men into animals and seduced Odysseus himself.

Answer: It is located in a lake

San Giulio Island (in Italian, Isola di San Giulio) is located in northwestern Italy. It can be found in Lake Orta, close to the Swiss border. A Benedictine monastery, the Basilica di San Giulio, is found on this island. It is named for St. Julian of Novara, a 4th-century saint, who worked in that region of Italy. It was also the birthplace of Saint William of Dijon.

Answer: Airplane crash

Ustica is a small island which had a population of about 1500 people in 2020. It is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea just north of Sicily. It lacks sufficient fresh water to make the settlement there much larger, however, there is evidence that the island was settled even back in the Phoenician days. During World War II, it was used as a prison for political prisoners and homosexuals that were all sent there by Benito Mussolini.

On June 27, 1980, flight Itavia Flight 870 crashed into the sea near the island. This became known as the 'Ustica massacre' as none of the passengers or crew survived the crash. The suspected cause of the crash was a terrorist bomb, however, no group took responsibility for it, so it remains still an unexplained event.

Answer: Napoli

Seeing how both Bari and Venice are on the Adriatic Sea, and Florence is an inland city, Napoli (or Naples) is the only logical answer. Ischia is a volcanic island first formed from an underwater eruption about 56,000 years ago. Subsequent minor eruptions have shaped the island the way it is today, the last eruption occurring in 1302.

Ischia is a part of the greater Napoli area. Located at the west edge of the Gulf of Naples, it is actually quite close to the popular Isle of Capri. It has a very picturesque castle on the island, Castello Aragonese, that was first built in 474 BCE. The castle was originally built on a separate outcropping of rock and connected with a wooden bridge, but that was later upgraded to a solid stone bridge.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Elba is the third-largest Italian island and the site of Napoleon Bonaparte's first exile in 1814. He was sent to the relatively quiet island to keep him out of France, as he was seen to be a threat to French sovereignty and European peace. However, when Napoleon heard that he was going to be transferred to the Atlantic, he escaped off of the island with 700 of his followers. What happened next was the Hundred Days War.

Elba is located between the Italian mainland and the French island of Corsica. It is roughly shaped like a fish and was exploited for its iron ore deposits. Portoferraio is the main town on the island.