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This web page allows you to take a
virtual tour to Italy and its art, culture, food and wine. You will
also find practical information for planning a tour to Italy, but if
you wish only to visit Italy virtually… well you can do so sitting
in front of your computer's monitor. In any case have a pleasant
tour.
ITALY geographical
profile:
Area: 301,338 sq. km, resident
population: 57,679,955 - Capital: Rome
Language: Italian, but English is widely spoken in
cities and tourist areas.
Government: Democratic republic.
Currency:
Euro
Flag:
Time: GMT +1 (GMT +2 between the last Sunday in March and the
Saturday before the last Sunday in October
Religion: Mostly Roman Catholicism. Some Protestantism and
Judaism.
Largest Cities: Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo,
Florence, Genoa.
Most popular tourist cities: Amalfi coast,
Arezzo,
Ascoli, Assisi, Asti,
Chianti,
Cinque Terre, Ferrara,
Florence, Lucca,
Mantua,
Montalcino,
Montepulciano,
Orvieto, Padua,
Perugia,
Pienza,
Pisa, Pompei,
Portofino,
San
Gimignano,
Siena, Sorrento, Spoleto,
Taormina, Todi,
Urbino, Venice,
Verona
Major Industries: tourism, engineering, textiles, chemicals,
food processing, motor vehicles, clothing and footwear
Member of EU: Yes
Italy shares borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, and
Slovenia. Also, Vatican City and the Republic of San Marino are
independent states, surrounded by Italian territory.
Italy is divided into 20 Regioni (i.e., Regions),
in alphabetical order: Abruzzi, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania,
Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy,
Marches, Molise, Piedmont, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino Alto-Adige, Umbria, Aosta
Valley, Veneto. Each Region is
sub-divided into a number of provinces (Province). Every Provincia,
in turn, is structured into municipalities (Comuni).
Italy is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Each part of the
Mediterranean is also known by a specific name: to the east of Italy
is the
Adriatic Sea; to the south, the Ionian Sea; to the west, the
Tyrrhenian Sea; and along the northern coast (the Italian Riviera), the Ligurian Sea. 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, Monte
Rosa and Cervino. 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 del Re (Monviso) and flows into the Adriatic through a
magnificent delta. Other major rivers are the Ticino in the
north, the Arno and Tiber (Tevere) in the center, and the
Liri in the south.
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
concave arc to the Tyrrhenian Sea. A large part of central Italy
including Tuscany and Umbria is
characterized by green hilly landscapes, 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 proceeds to the west
with the Calabrian and Peloritano massif stretching across the
Strait of Messina into Sicily. There are three
active volcanos - Vesuvius (Vesuvio), near Naples; Etna, near
Catania, Sicily; and Stromboli, on the island of Stromboli in the
Tyrrhenian Sea.
Italy has two large islands - the regions of Sicily (Sicilia)
and Sardinia (Sardegna) - and many smaller islands. Among the
best-known smaller islands are Elba, Capri
and Ischia. The main Archipelago, the Pontine Islands, the Aeolian
Islands and the Egadi Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of
Sicily.
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