Ok guys, this is my first post so I'll try to make it quality! I am Italian born in 1996 in Milan and I always lived in Italy. It was an awesome place to grow up in the early '00s even though its real peak were the late '80s/early '90s, especially because at the time Italy was still exploiting the '80s great economic boom and it also was living in a great moment in every single aspect: Berlusconi was still cool (I study economics, I can tell you he's not that bad, especially on foreign affairs.), Italian sport was living a great period:

- Serie A was the best league in the world by far, almost every star player played in Italy. It wasn't like the '90s when at least one Italian team got in the Champions League final 8 out of 10 years and 14 out of 20 teams in Uefa Cup finals from 88/89 to 98/99 and every single good player was in Serie A but I can't have everything I guess. Also, the 2002 World Cup team was the best Italian team ever, we got robbed but won in 2006. And last but not least, we were the most popular league in every single continent, even the Asian one, mainly because of Hidetoshi Nakata, the greatest asian to ever play the game.
- Italian basketball team won the Euros in 1999 and got 3rd in 2003 and also Italian teams got 1 time 1st, 3 times 2nd, 3 times 3rd and one time 4th.
- Ferrari and Valentino Rossi were (Rossi still is going good though) both dominating in F1 and MotoGP.

Italian music, especially Italodance, was trending in Europe and in Spanish countries. Gigi d'Agostino, Robert Miles, Eiffel 65 were just some of the names of the time. If you are Spanish or live in a Spanish country you may also remember Alex Britti, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro songs from the early '00s.
Movies were in an average phase, as the Italian filmmaker tradition born with De Sica and Fellini (whose movie, Amarcord, reflects the nature of this site) was already gone at the end of the '90s. The last "Cinepanettone" (most popular Italian comedy movie series ever that comes out once a year near Christmas) of the "Vacanze di Natale" series (started in the early '80s) came out in 2007. While movie weren't doing good, TV was in a great moment, we had plenty of good tv shows: The early Big Brother (the first 2-3 seasons were good, I must admit that a lot of the contenders had real talent and later worked for TV channels/actors/models), Isola dei Famosi, Festivalbar, Le Iene, Striscia la Notizia et cetera.

Even mobile advertising were so good they became iconic. If you ask any italian kid of my age, he'll say his first crush was Megan Gale:
http://oi44.tinypic.com/25k1kcy.jpg

Last but not least, kids tv shows and cartoons: Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Beyblade and Digimon were everywhere on free tv, even on juice bottles. And then, we had these...
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e15/11378053_1441329512837301_2146007350_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=NTYxNzM1MTA0ODAyNTc1NjY0.2
Mr.Day (the producer) probably made billions on these chocolate bars. But damn they were so good. They were discontinued when Parmalat went bankrupt.

In cable tv every kid watched Cartoon Network (being a very early watcher, I still remember I Am Weasel, What-a-Cartoon, Big Dog & Small Dogg, Fat Dog Mendoza) or Jetix. And guys, who of you from the UK or Italy remembers G@me Network? All those videogame trailers, damn...

For the last part of the post I decided to make a "A day in the life" from 2004/06.

I woke up at 7.15 circa, ate breakfast watching cartoons (usually Looney Tunes), washed myself and arrived to school at 7.50/55. Lessons started at 8 and ended at 12.30 with a 10 minutes pause at 10 o'clock. At lunch the places to sit in the dining hall were automatically assigned and were changed once every 2-3 months. After everybody finished their meal the teachers let you go play outside for 45 minutes, from 13.15 to 14.00. I can't count how many football matches I've played. From 14.15 to 16.15 we had English and Physical Ed. so it was pretty good for me as I loved both subjects. Then I got home (or went to play at some friends' house), drank some Ice Tea and, when it was possible to get, Fanta Icy http://www.bevandenovara.it/BEVANDE/BEVANDE_IN_LATTINA/FANTA%20ICY%20GUSTO%20LIMONE%20CL.33%20CONF.24%20%20LATT..JPG, quickly made my homework and then I watched cartoons (free tv or cable tv, it depended by the day) and played videogames: PS2 (Smackdown! HCTP, SSX3, NFSU2, Downhill Domination, FIFA 2002 or 2004), Gamecube (Animal Crossing, Pokemon Colosseum/Channel, Mario Kart: Double Dash) and GameBoy (Pokemon Gold/Crystal, with the second being my favourite game all time btw, Sapphire/Ruby) until dinner. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after I got home from school I had football training with my team instead and played official games on Sunday. Then I watched some football on tv and went to bed, ready for another day to come!

I hope you liked the post, I know it's a bit unusual and it has lots of mistakes but I wrote it in a rush! If you want some other details, free to ask :D

Ciao! Welcome to InThe00s. We love getting more members from around the world. We hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the boards, Enjoy you stay here!

Nice to meet you Athlete! :)

Italy in the 2000s is special to me because that's when eurobeat music was being produced around the Brescia and Milan areas at a fast pace! It may have been specifically marketed to Japanese audiences, but it all came out of Northern Italy!

Welcome Athlete. :)