Italy is a democratic republic and a developed country with the 8th-highest Quality-of-life index rating in the world is located in Southern Europe; the land occupied is 116,303 sq mi (301,225 sq km). Rome is Italy Capital and largest city for centuries the center of Western Civilization; it also spawned the Baroque movement and seats the Catholic Church. It is borders on France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia in the northwest, the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, the Ionian Sea in the south, the Adriatic Sea in the east, Slovenia in the northeast, and Austria and Switzerland in the north. The country includes the large Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia and several small islands, notably Elba, Capri, Ischia, and the Lipari Islands. Vatican City and San Marino are two independent enclaves on the Italian mainland while Campione d’Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.

The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula's backbone; the Alps form its northern boundary. The largest of its many northern lakes is Garda (143 sq mi; 370 sq km); the Po, its principal river, flows from the Alps on Italy's western border and crosses the Lombard plain to the Adriatic Sea.

It is a founding member of what is now the European Union (having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957), and a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8 (having the world's 7th largest nominal GDP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, the Central European Initiative, and a Schengen state. It has the world's 7th largest defense budget and shares NATO's nuclear weapons. On 1 January 2007, Italy began a two year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Italy is largely homogeneous linguistically and religiously but is diverse culturally, economically, and politically. Italy has the fifth-highest population density in Europe--about 200 persons per square kilometer (490 per sq. mi.). Minority groups are small, the largest being the German-speaking people of Bolzano Province and the Slovenes around Trieste. There are also small communities of Albanian, Greek, Ladino, and French origin. Immigration has increased in recent years, however, while the Italian population is declining overall due to low birth rates. Although Roman Catholicism is the majority religion--85% of native-born citizens are nominally Catholic--all religious faiths are provided equal freedom before the law by the constitution.

Greeks settled in the southern tip of the Italian Peninsula in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.; Etruscans, Romans, and others inhabited the central and northern mainland. The peninsula subsequently was unified under the Roman Republic. The neighboring islands came under Roman control by the third century B.C.; by the first century A.D., the Roman Empire effectively dominated the Mediterranean world. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century A.D., the peninsula and islands were subjected to a series of invasions, and political unity was lost. Italy became an oft-changing succession of small states, principalities, and kingdoms, which fought among themselves and were subject to ambitions of foreign powers. Popes of Rome ruled central Italy; rivalries between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors, who claimed Italy as their domain, often made the peninsula a battleground.

The commercial prosperity of northern and central Italian cities, beginning in the 11th century, combined with the influence of the Renaissance, mitigated somewhat the effects of these medieval political rivalries. Although Italy declined after the 16th century, the Renaissance had strengthened the idea of a single Italian nationality. By the early 19th century, a nationalist movement developed and led to the reunification of Italy--except for Rome--in the 1860s. In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy was proclaimed King of Italy. Rome was incorporated in 1870. From 1870 until 1922, Italy was a constitutional monarchy with a parliament elected under limited suffrage.

• Area: 301,225 sq. km. (116,303 sq. mi.); about the size of Georgia and Florida combined.


• Capital: Rome


• Terrain: Mostly rugged and mountainous.


• Climate: Generally mild Mediterranean; cold northern winters.

The Currency used in Italy is EURO (formerly lira), often signified by €EUR. It was first put into circulation on January 1, 2002. The major imports of the euro zone are raw materials and intermediate goods. The euro, as compared with the dollar is very strong. More euros are circulating within the market, than dollars, because of the union's huge connection to OPEC and oil Prices.

• Railways: total: 19,460 km (2006).


• Highways: total: 484,688 km; paved: 479,688 km (including 6,621 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (2004).


• Waterways: 2,400 km; note: used for commercial traffic; of limited overall value compared to road and rail (2004).


• Ports and harbors: Augusta, Genoa, Livorno, Melilli Oil Terminal, Ravenna, Taranto, Trieste, Venice.


• Airports: 132 (2007).



Alitalia and affiliated companies provide most of the domestic air transportation here in Italy.

You may go through the airport without having to speak any Italian. You can find signs are in Italian and English.

Here are a few signs you will need to know:


arrivi	arrivals
controllo passaporti	passport control
passaporti paesi CEE	EC passport holders
altri passaporti	other passports
ritiro bagagli	baggage reclaim
dogana	customs control
zona verde (niente da dichiarare)	nothing to declare
zona rossa (articoli da dichiarare)	articles to declare
Banco informazione	information desk
uscita	exit (also means departure gate)



Prominent Cities in Italy are:


• Milano


• Firenze


• Messina


• Napoli


• Bari


• Trieste


• Torino


• Catania


• Padova


• Palermo


• Venezia


• Cagliari


• Verona


• Brescia


• Bologna


• Taranto


• Perugia