🇮🇹 Italy

National Flag

🎵 National Anthem

Geography & Borders

AustriaFranceSan MarinoSloveniaSwitzerlandVatican City

Introduction & Background

Italy (Template:Lang-it Template:IPA-it), officially the Italian Republic,a or the Republic of Italy,1314 is a country in Southern Europe.151617 It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.18 Italy is also considered part of Western Europe,19note 1 and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of 301,230km2 (116,310sqmi), with a population of over 60 million.2021 It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.

Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures, who immigrated to the peninsula throughout history.2223 The Latins, native of central Italy, formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed.2425