Capital:
Rome
Area: 301,338 sq
km (116,346 sq miles).
Population
of Italy: 58,145,360 (official estimate in 2004).
Population of Rome: 2,546,804 (from
2001).
Population Density: 193 per sq km
Geography:
Italy is situated in within Europe and attached in the north to
the European mainland.
To the north, the Alps separate Italy from France, Switzerland,
Austria and Slovenia.
Northern
Italy
The Alpine regions, the Po Plain and
the Ligurian-Etruscan Appennines. Piedmont
and Val d’Aosta contain some of the highest
mountains in Europe and are excellent areas for winter sports. Many
rivers flow down from the mountains towards the Po Basin, passing
through the beautiful Italian Lake District (Maggiore,
Como, Garda). The Po Basin, which extends as far
south and the bare slopes of the Appennines, are
covered with gravel terraces and rich alluvial soil and has long
been one of Italy’s most prosperous regions. In the east,
where the River Po flows through into the Adriatic
Sea, the plains are a little higher than the river itself with artificial
(and occasionally natural) embankments to prevent flooding.
Central Italy
In the northern part of the Italian peninsula. Tuscany
(Toscana) has a diverse landscape with many beautiful snow-capped
mountains (the Tuscan Appennines), lush countryside, hills and a
long sandy coastline with offshore islands.
Le
Marche, located between the Appennines and the Adriatic
coast, is a region of mountains, rivers and small fertile plains.
The even more mountainous regioni (administrative districts) of
Abruzzo and Molise are bordered
by Marche to the north and Puglia
to the south, and are separated from the Tyrrhenian Sea
and to the west by Lazio and Campania.
Umbria is known as the ‘green heart of Italy’
and is hilly with broad plains, olive groves and pines. Further
south lies Rome, Italy’s capital and largest
city. Within its precincts is the Vatican City.
Southern Italy
Campania consists of flat coastal plains and
low mountains, stretching from Baia Domizia to
the Bay of Naples and along a rocky coast to the
Calabria border. Inland, the Appennines
are lower, mellowing into the rolling countryside around Sorrento.
The islands of Capri, Ischia and
Procida situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea are also
part of Campania. The south is wilder than the
north, with miles of olive trees, cool forests and rolling hills.
Puglia, the ‘heel of the boot’, is
a landscape of volcanic hills and isolated marshes. Calabria,
the ‘toe’, is heavily forested and thinly populated.
The Calabrian hills are home to bears and wolves.
The Islands
Sicily (Sicilia), is visible across a 3km
strait from mainland Italy, is fertile but mountainous with volcanoes
(the most famous is called Mount Etna) and lava fields, and several
offshore islands.
Sardinia (Sardegna) has a mountainous landscape, fine sandy
beaches and rocky offshore islands.
Government
: Unification in 1861. Republic since 1946
Head
of State: President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi since 1999.
Head of Government: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi since
2001.
Language : Italian
is the official language. Dialects are spoken in different regions.
German and Ladin are spoken in the South Tyrol region (bordering
Austria). French is spoken in all the border areas from the Riviera
to the area north of Milan (border with France and Switzerland).
German is spoken around the Austrian border. English, French and
German are also spoken in the biggest cities and in tourism and
business circles.
Religion :
90 per cent Roman Catholic with Protestant minorities.
Time : Greenwich Mean Time
+ 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday
in September.
Electricity : 230
volts AC, 50Hz. |
