The Italian Armed Forces (italian: Forze Armate Italiane) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy, the Italian Air Force and the Carabinieri. The President of the Italian Republic heads the armed forces as the President of the Supreme Council of Defence. The total number of active military personnel in 2011 is 319,529 (including the national gendarmerie, but excluding Guardia di Finanza, a military corp under the authority of the Italian Ministry of Economy). Italy currently runs the ninth or tenth highest military budget in the world.
Read more about Italian Armed Forces: Italian Constitution, The Four Branches of Italian Armed Forces, NATO Membership and UN Missions
Famous quotes containing the words italian, armed and/or forces:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“There are lone figures armed only with ideas, sometimes with just one idea, who blast away whole epochs in which we are enwrapped like mummies. Some are powerful enough to resurrect the dead. Some steal on us unawares and put a spell over us which it takes centuries to throw off. Some put a curse on us, for our stupidity and inertia, and then it seems as if God himself were unable to lift it.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
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