Italian Landscapes

The abundant culture of Italy is attractive to many people. Whether it consists of food or art or architecture, Italy draws a variety of tourists and sightseers to its thriving country. Highlights from a "virtual tour" of Italy help to define the ancient history and proud culture of this nation. Views of amazing landscapes and beautiful cities put you in the heart of Italian spirit.

The Task:

Visiting the beautiful country of Italy via the Internet and through other extended research, you will explore a variety of towns and landscapes that characterize the Italian culture. Along with this tour, you will gain a greater knowledge of the geography of Italy and peek into their culture as an ancient people. Following your self-guided tour, you should be able to complete one of the following tasks:

• Be an explorer! Keep a travel log as you visit different parts of Italy. Record your visit to Italy by submitting the landforms and the cities that you explored into journal entries. You must submit at least five entries into your journal. Describe in detail these sites and add sketches that will help you remember what they look like. Next, design and compose a travel brochure for Italy, describe the places you visited and include pictures in your brochure.
• Be a geographer! Draw a map of Italy. Compose the map by including the major landforms and cities that you have visited during your research. Make it enticing and colorful so it can be used as a reference of your trip. Next, add a description of a route of travel that would be of interest to future travel.
• You are a travel agent! Plan a trip to Italy for a client. Include descriptions of cities and landforms that they will visit. Compose a day-to-day travel itinerary. Next, calculate the cost and time spent in Italy and offer some travel brochures and additional website references. Present your proposal to your client.

The following resources will provide you with a wealth of information in order for you to begin planning an exciting trip to the country of Italy.

• A site with descriptions of Italian geography.
• For facts on Italy.
  
• For a virtual tour of Italy.
  
• A volcano site in Italy.
  
• Another volcano site in Italy.

A tour of Italy is fascinating! The tourist can gain a greater appreciation for another culture through a tour of Italy as well as learn more about the ancient culture and history of our now-civilized world. In order to organize and develop a tour of Italy, you must gather more information about the country.

1. Visit each website available in the "Resource" section. Pay close attention to the different facts and geographical sites present in those pages.
2. Gather useful information from the web pages and take notes on each of the sites. This will help you in your completion of your task.
3. Go to the library to utilize other resources to gather more information for a tour of Italy. Look at different landmarks and significant cities. You may even find it helpful to visit with a travel agent.
4. After you have gathered all your information, neatly compile it into one of the above listed tasks.
5. Above all, have fun!

The objective of this webquest is to inform you more about Italy, as well as to develop an interest and an understanding of another country. Pay close attention to details in the websites and other sources of information and take accurate notes. These techniques will help you successfully complete one of the above tasks.

After you have completed your tasks, you should be more knowledgable about another country and various other landforms that are not found in the United States. What are some new pieces of information that you have learned? Would you like to personally visit the country of Italy someday? Why? What about the landforms found in Italy? Why are some of these landforms scarce in the United States? Keep thinking about your recent work on this webquest and who knows, if you become an expert on Italy, you may be able to visit that country someday!