<P> The Victorian era in Great Britain saw Italophilic tendencies . Britain supported its own version of the imperial Pax Romana, called Pax Britannica . John Ruskin was a Victorian Italophile who respected the concepts of morality held in Italy . Also the great writer Henry James has exhibited Italophilia in several of his novels . However, Ellen Moers writes that "In the history of Victorian Italophilia no name is more prominent than that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning...(She places) Italy as the place for the woman of genius ..." </P> <P> Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, along with Giuseppe Mazzini and Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, led the struggle for Italian unification in the 19th century . For his battles on behalf of freedom in Europe and Latin America, Garibaldi has been dubbed the "Hero of Two Worlds ." Many of the greatest intellectuals of his time, such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand showered him with admiration . He was so appreciated in the United States that Abraham Lincoln offered him a command during the Civil War, (Garibaldi turned it down). </P> <P> During the Fascist era, several leaders in Europe and Latin America modeled their government and economic system on Italian Fascism . Adolf Hitler was an avid admirer of Benito Mussolini . To justify his Italophilia, Hitler had to convince himself that northern Italians were somehow racially Aryan--"from the cultural point of view," he once remarked, "we are more closely linked with the Italians than with any other people"--and that the veins of Mussolini, Dante and other heroes pulsed with no contaminating blood from the inferior "Mediterranean race ." </P> <P> After World War II, such brands as Ferrari and Alfa Romeo became well known for racing and sports cars . Since then Italy has experienced a strong economic growth, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, which lifted the country to the position of being one of the most industrialized nations in the world . Italian product design, fashion, film, and cuisine and the notion of Italy as the embodiment of la dolce vita for German tourism--all left an imprint on contemporary Italophilia . </P>

The italian renaissance was a major creative force in the field of literature