These Italian trivia questions come in five rounds: the map and the national symbols, before Rome and under it, city-states to the republic, builders, painters, writers and players, and festivals, the table and the road.
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Trivia questions about Italy for Italian night
Start with Festivals, the table and the road: Ferragosto, the merenda, pranzo and the sweet cheeses. Then The map and the national symbols asks for the national animal, tree and bird.
Italian trivia questions and answers printable
After a round of ten, Print question sheet prints the next 20 questions with lettered choices, and Print answer key is under More options. On screen, tap a choice to see the right answer, a reason and the article it was read in; Scored round deals 20 and marks them together.
Questions and answers
Are these Italian trivia questions multiple choice?
Yes. Every question has four choices and one right answer, with a short reason and the article it was read in.
Which round has the Italian geography trivia questions?
The map and the national symbols: the largest lake (Garda), the country to the east (Slovenia), the Italian name of the Matterhorn (Monte Cervino) and the twenty regions.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the Wikipedia article Italy, linked under the question. The Colosseum, the Leaning Tower, Pompeii, Leonardo and Dante are left to the packs that already ask them.
What are the national animal and tree of Italy?
The Italian wolf and the strawberry tree. The tree's green leaves, white flowers and red berries recall the colors of the flag; the national bird is the Italian sparrow.
By which name do Italians know the Matterhorn?Answer: Monte Cervino. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave. Inside which country does it lie?Answer: Switzerland. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Etna and Vesuvius are two active volcanoes of Italy. Which of these is another?Answer: Stromboli. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Five regions of Italy have special autonomous status. How many regions are there in all?Answer: 20. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Italy has a national bird as well as a national animal. Which bird is it?Answer: The Italian sparrow. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Most rivers of Italy drain into the Adriatic or into which other sea?Answer: The Tyrrhenian Sea. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
The national tree of Italy has green leaves, white flowers and red berries, the colors of the flag. Which tree is it?Answer: The strawberry tree. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
One theory traces the name Italia to the Italói, a tribe that lived in the region now called what?Answer: Calabria. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Some scholars suggest that the tribe behind the name Italia had a totem animal. Which animal?Answer: The calf. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which animal, tied to the legend of the founding of Rome, is the national animal of Italy?Answer: The Italian wolf. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which country borders Italy on the east?Answer: Slovenia. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which is the largest lake in Italy, ahead of Maggiore and Como?Answer: Lake Garda. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Before Rome and under it 12
By which name did the Romans know the northern area that was legally merged into Italy in 42 BC?Answer: Cisalpine Gaul. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
By which name was the area of Greek colonies in southern Italy and Sicily later known?Answer: Magna Graecia. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
The Camunni are known for their rock drawings in which valley?Answer: Valcamonica. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Formal Latin literature is dated from 240 BC. What happened in Rome that year?Answer: The first stage play was performed. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
In 264 BC Roman Italy began at two rivers of the center-north. One was the Arno. Which was the other?Answer: The Rubicon. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
In which city of southern Italy did Pythagoras found his school of philosophy?Answer: Crotone. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
In which year did the Romans expel their kings and set up a republic?Answer: 509 BC. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
The Nuragic civilization arose on which island?Answer: Sardinia. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Under which emperor, who reigned from 180 to 192, did a period of growing trouble and decline begin?Answer: Commodus. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
What kind of Roman paintings are the only ones to survive?Answer: Wall paintings. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which emperor added Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Malta to Italy in 292 AD?Answer: Diocletian. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Who were the first colonizers to set up trading posts on the coasts of Sicily and Sardinia?Answer: The Phoenicians. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
City-states to the republic 12
At which town did Garibaldi shake the hand of Victor Emmanuel II and hail him as King of Italy?Answer: Teano. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
In medieval Italy, city-states that sided with the Papacy were called Guelphs. What were those that sided with the Holy Roman Emperors called?Answer: Ghibellines. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
To which city was the capital of the kingdom moved from Turin in 1865?Answer: Florence. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Venice, Genoa and Pisa were three of the best-known maritime republics. Which was the fourth?Answer: Amalfi. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Victor Emmanuel II became the first king of a united Italy when the kingdom was declared. On which day?Answer: March 17, 1861. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
What does Italy celebrate on June 2, the Festa della Repubblica?Answer: The birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which Germanic people invaded Italy in the 6th century and ended the political unity of the peninsula?Answer: The Lombards. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which league of city-states defeated Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1176?Answer: The Lombard League. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which political movement did Giuseppe Mazzini found in the 1830s?Answer: Young Italy. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which state was the first to adopt the Italian tricolor?Answer: The Cispadane Republic. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Who conquered Sicily in the late 11th century?Answer: The Italo-Normans. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Who wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, considered the manifesto of the Renaissance?Answer: Pico della Mirandola. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Builders, painters, writers and players 12
Commedia dell'arte gave Europe its first known professional what, documented from the 1560s?Answer: Actresses. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Giambattista Basile printed some of the first known versions of European fairy tales in 1634. What is his collection called?Answer: The Pentamerone. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
The High Renaissance gave rise to a stylized art that sought instability, artifice and doubt. What is it called?Answer: Mannerism. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
What did verismo, an Italian literary movement of the late 19th century, extol?Answer: Realism. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
What is notable about the Gran Sasso National Laboratories?Answer: They are the largest underground research center in the world. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which dance form originated in Italy during the Renaissance, as an outgrowth of court pageantry?Answer: Ballet. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which group of Italian painters of the 19th century is linked with Impressionism?Answer: The Macchiaioli. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which Italian educator created the philosophy of education that bears her name?Answer: Maria Montessori. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which painter's metaphysical paintings followed futurism and influenced the surrealists?Answer: Giorgio de Chirico. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which poet at the Sicilian court of Frederick II is credited with inventing the sonnet?Answer: Giacomo da Lentini. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which Renaissance architect gave his name to a style that shaped country houses in Britain and the United States?Answer: Andrea Palladio. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which two instruments of classical music were invented in Italy?Answer: The piano and the violin. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Festivals, the table and the road 12
By which name is the journey known that brought European aristocrats to Italy from the 17th century onward?Answer: The Grand Tour. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Ferragosto comes at the height of the summer vacation period in Italy. On which date does it fall?Answer: August 15. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
From which century did tomatoes, potatoes and maize become main ingredients of Italian cooking?Answer: The 18th century. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
In Italy, what is a merenda?Answer: A snack in the late morning or the mid-afternoon. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Italy was the first country to build which kind of road?Answer: Motorways. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Mascarpone and ricotta, used in Italian desserts, are both what?Answer: Sweet cheeses. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Natale di Roma, the "Birthday of Rome", is held each year on which date?Answer: April 21. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
The Saracen Joust is a festival of which Italian town?Answer: Arezzo. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Venice, Viareggio and Ivrea are all known for which kind of festival?Answer: Carnival. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
What was discovered in the Similaun glacier in 1991?Answer: A natural mummy known as Ötzi. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which language is co-official with Italian in the Aosta Valley?Answer: French. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
Which meal do Italians call pranzo?Answer: Lunch. Source: Wikipedia: Italy
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every answer was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Italy (text under CC BY-SA 4.0), which is linked beside each question; the questions, wrong choices and explanations are in our own words. Left out on purpose: population figures and ranks, current office-holders and living people, sports teams, companies and brands, drink, film and song titles, the Fascist years and the Second World War, religion as a round, and the facts other packs on this site already ask (the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower, Vesuvius and Pompeii, Leonardo and Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, the birth of opera). Levels are our estimate. Licence: own work