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Right Area
Information ~ Location Guides for Italy
A brief guide to Italy
- About
Italy
Italy,
officially the Italian Republic is a Southern European
country. It comprises the Po River valley, the Italian
Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean
Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot
and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo
Stivale ("the boot") or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola ("the Peninsula").
Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory. Campione d'Italia is an Italian enclave in Switzerland.
Italy was home to many well-known and influential European civilizations, including the Etruscans, Greeks and the Romans. For more than 3,000 years Italy experienced migrations and invasions from Germanic, Celtic, Frankish, Lombard, Byzantine Greek, Saracen, Norman, and Angevin peoples, and was divided into many independent states until 1861 when Italy became a nation-state.
Italy is called "il Belpaese" (Italian for beautiful country) by its inhabitants, due to the beauty and variety of its landscapes and for having the world's largest artistic patrimony; the country is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (41 as of July 13, 2006).
Today, Italy is a highly developed country with the 7th highest GDP in 2006, a member of the G8 and a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Inhabitants of Italy are referred to as Italians (Italian: Italiani or poetically Italici).
Geography & Climate
Italy consists predominantly of a large peninsula (the Italian Peninsula) with a distinctive boot shape that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, where together with its two main islands Sicily and Sardinia it creates distinct bodies of water, such as the Adriatic Sea to the north-east, the Ionian Sea to the south-east, the Tyrrhenian Sea to the south-west and finally the Ligurian Sea to the north-west.
The Apennine mountains form the backbone of this peninsula, leading north-west to where they join the Alps, Italy highest point is Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) at 4,810 metres (15,781 feet)3. Italy is more typically associated with two famous volcanoes: the currently dormant Vesuvius near Naples and the very active Etna on Sicily.
Sicily and Sardinia are the two major islands of Italy
The Italian climate is unique and can be far from the stereotype of a "land of sun.", depending on the region. In fact the north of Italy (Turin, Milan, and Bologna) has a true continental climate, while below Florence it becomes more and more Mediterranean.
The climate of the coastal areas of the Peninsula is very different from that of the interior, particularly during the winter months. The higher areas are cold, wet, and often snowy. The coastal regions, where most of the large towns are located, have a typical Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot and generally dry summers. The length and intensity of the summer dry season increases southwards (compare the tables for Rome, Naples, and Brindisi).
Copyrights of this text is owned by Wikipedia
Articles used from Wikipedia & Wikitravel - About Italy
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