Europe's kinky over-the-knee boot has it all: popes, painters, polenta, paramours, poets, political puerility and potentates. Its three millennia of history, culture and cuisine seduce just about everyone. In Italy you can visit Roman ruins, gawk at Renaissance art, stay in tiny medieval hill towns, go skiing in the Alps, explore the canals of Venice and see more beautiful churches than you imagined could exist in one country.
Naturally you can also indulge in the more elementary pleasures of enjoying good food and wine, improving your wardrobe and seeking out la dolce vita.
When to go
Europe\'s kinky over-the-knee boot has it all: popes, painters, polenta, paramours, poets, political puerility and potentates. Its three millennia of history, culture and cuisine seduce just about everyone. In Italy you can visit Roman ruins, gawk at Renaissance art, stay in tiny medieval hill towns, go skiing in the Alps, explore the canals of Venice and see more beautiful churches than you imagined could exist in one country.
Naturally you can also indulge in the more elementary pleasures of enjoying good food and wine, improving your wardrobe and seeking out la dolce vita.
Environment
Europe\'s kinky over-the-knee boot has it all: popes, painters, polenta, paramours, poets, political puerility and potentates. Its three millennia of history, culture and cuisine seduce just about everyone. In Italy you can visit Roman ruins, gawk at Renaissance art, stay in tiny medieval hill towns, go skiing in the Alps, explore the canals of Venice and see more beautiful churches than you imagined could exist in one country.
Naturally you can also indulge in the more elementary pleasures of enjoying good food and wine, improving your wardrobe and seeking out la dolce vita.
Italy's Profile
Area: 116,303 square miles
Population: 56,778,000
Population density: 487/sq. mile
Capital: Roma (2,775,000 inhabitants)
Other important cities:
Milano (1,369,000)
Firenze (403,000)
Messina (231,000)
Napoli (1,067,000)
Bari (342,000)
Trieste (231,000)
Torino (963,000)
Catania (333,000)
Padova (215,000)
Palermo (699,000)
Venezia (309,000)
Cagliari (204,000)
Genova (679,000)
Verona (256,000)
Brescia (195,000)
Bologna (404,000)
Taranto (232,000)
Perugia (153,000)
Situated in Mediterranean Europe, Italy has land frontiers with France in the north-west, Switzerland and Austria in the north and Slovenia in the north-east.
The peninsula is surrounded by the Ligurian Sea, the Sardinian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, the Sicilian Sea and the Ionian Sea in the south and the Adriatic Sea in the east.
Italian is the language of the majority of the population but there are minorities speaking German, French, Slovene and Ladino.
Geographical Profile
There is a great deal of variety in the landscape in Italy, although it is characterized predominantly by two mountain chains: the Alps and the Apennines.
The former extends over 600 miles from east to west.
It consists of great massifs in the western sector, with peaks rising to over 14,000 feet, including Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc), Monte Rosa and Cervino (the Matterhorn).
The the chain is lower in the eastern sector, although the mountains, the Dolomites, are still of extraordinary beauty.
At the foot of the Alpine arc stretches the vast Po Valley plain, cut down the middle by the course of the river Po, the longest in Italy (390 miles), which has its source in the Pian de Re (Monviso) and flows into the Adriatic through a magnificent delta.
The Alpine foothills are characterized by large lakes: Lake Maggiore and the lakes of Como, Iseo and Garda. The Apennines form the backbone of the peninsula, stretching in a wide arc concave to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The Corno Grande (Gran Sasso d'Italia) is the highest peak. A large part of central Italy is characterized by a green hilly landscape, through which the rivers Arno and Tevere (Tiber) run.
The southern section of the chain pushes out to the east forming the Gargano promontory and, sloping down further south, the Salentine peninsula.
It then proceeds to the west with the Calabrian and Peloritano massif stretching across the Strait of Messina into Sicilia.
The principal islands are Sicilia, rising up to the great volcanic cone of Etna (10,860 feet) and Sardegna.
The main archipelagos are the Tremiti Islands in the Adriatic Sea, the Tuscan Archipelago, the Pontine Islands, the Aeolian Islands and the Egadi Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Sicilia.
Climate in Italy
The moderating influence of the sea and the protection given by the Alpine barrier from the cold north winds join to bless Italy with a temperate climate.
Nevertheless, the weather varies considerably according to how far one is from the sea or the mountains.
The winter is very cold in the Alps, cold and foggy in the Po Plain and the central Apennines; mild and even warm on the Ligurian coast, the Neapolitan coast and in Sicilia.
The summer is hot and dry, but the temperature is mitigated on the coast by sea breezes and in the Apennines and Alps it is pleasantly cool.
In mountain areas, winter is ideal for skiing, and summer for excursions, hiking, etc.
Seaside and lake resorts, with their excellent hotel facilities, have an intense tourist season in the summer, while the cities that are rich in art treasures are ideal in spring and autumn.
