ITALIA

ITALY

Italian republic

Location: Southern Europe

Capital: Rome

President: Giorgio Napolitano.

Area: 301,230 sq km

Climate: predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south

Population: 60,722,000 millions

Ethnic groups: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)

Religions: predominately Roman Catholic with mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community

Language: Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Prehistory and antiquity

Excavations throughout Italy reveal a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Paleolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern arrived about 40,000 years ago. The Ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy – such as the Umbrian’s, the Latin’s (from which the Romans emerged), Volsci, Samnites, the Celts and the Ligures which inhabited northern Italy, and many others – were Indo-European peoples; the main historic peoples of non-Indo-European heritage include the Etruscans, the Elymians and Sicani in Sicily and the prehistoric Sardinians.

Between the 17th and the 11th century BC Mycenaean Greeks established contacts with Italy and in the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula became known as Magna Graecia. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily.

LOCATION

Italy is a country in southern Europe. Italy comprises a boot-shaped peninsula and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.

The country also shares a border with 2 tiny independent states, San Marino and the Vatican, both of which are entirely surrounded by Italian territory.

Comparatively, Italy is slightly larger than the state of Arizona. Rome, the capital city, is on the country's western coast at the heart of the peninsula. Other major cities include Milan, Naples, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Palermo, Bologna, and Bari.

Italy has a mild temperate climate thanks to the moderating influence of the sea and the protection given by the Alpine mountain barrier. The weather varies quite considerably depending on how far you are from the sea or the mountains.

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