Isolated mountains and a chaotic array of hills have made communications difficult and resulted in a profound state of isolation in this sweet, safe, and quiet land. We've pulled together Italian gift ideas to give you a jump start on shopping. There are now 12 million Internet users in Italy, up from 8.6 million a year ago, and Between ICT Brokers predicts there will be 16 million by September 2001. The majority of new users in 2000 were women, although there are still 2.6 Italian men online for every woman user. Similarly, Internet penetration in the disadvantaged south of Italy is growing twice as quickly as in the wealthy north, though penetration remains noticeably higher in the north.
Young people are more likely to have Internet access than the rest of the population.
About half of Italians aged between 18 and 34 have used the Internet at least once. Over 70 percent of students have gone online, while 38 percent of workers and only 9 percent of unemployed people have done so. Isolated for centuries by mountains and forest, the villagers' genetic history stretches back to the Greeks and could hold the key to cures for Alzheimer's disease, asthma, cancer and hypertension. The villagers agreed to become a living laboratory after it was explained they possessed a unique gene pool that could help create better drugs. Two hours south of Naples, the area, known as Cilento, had no roads or electricity until recent decades.