Italy map

Italy map. Italy, is a unitary state is a republic with a parliamentary style of Southern Europe. Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia along the Alps in the north. In addition to the Italian peninsula, the country also includes Sicily and Sardinia (the two largest islands in the Mediterranean), along with many other smaller islands in the south. 

Italy map

The coastal area of ​​the country is faced with the Ligurian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea, all of which relate directly to the Mediterranean Sea. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican is an enclave in Italy, while Campione d'Italia is the Italian exclave in Switzerland. Italian territory covers approximately 301 338 square kilometers, and is influenced by a temperate climate. With a population of 60.8 million inhabitants, Italy is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and most all of the world 23. 

Rome, capital of Italy, over the centuries has become the center of political, religious and West, that is, as the capital of the Roman Empire, and the site of the Holy See. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy is constantly attacked by foreign peoples, from Germanic people such as Lombard, and Ostrogoths, to Byzantine, and Norman, on the other side. 

Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, the intellectual movement which is important in shaping the thinking of Europeans. In the 15th century, as the spread of the Renaissance, again Italy became the cultural center of the Western World, but after a few times of the battle Italy in the 16th century, Italy became under the domination of a foreign power, namely France, Spain, and Austria.