- Italy in the early Middle Ages
- Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries
- Early modern Italy (16th to 18th century)
- Revolution, restoration, and unification
- Italy from 1870 to 1945
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Italy
- Where is Italy located?
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Italy,country of south-centralEurope, occupying a peninsula that juts deep into theMediterranean Sea. Italycomprises some of the most varied and scenic landscapes onEarth and is often described as a country shaped like a boot. At its broad top stand theAlps, which are among the world’s most rugged mountains. Italy’s highest points are alongMonte Rosa, which peaks inSwitzerland, and alongMont Blanc, which peaks inFrance. The western Alps overlook a landscape ofAlpine lakes and glacier-carved valleys that stretch down to thePo River and thePiedmont.Tuscany, to the south of the cisalpine region, is perhaps the country’s best-known region. From the central Alps, running down the length of the country, radiates the tallApennine Range, which widens near Rome to cover nearly the entire width of the Italian peninsula. South of Rome the Apennines narrow and areflanked by two wide coastal plains, one facing theTyrrhenian Sea and the other theAdriatic Sea. Much of the lower Apennine chain is near-wilderness, hosting a wide range of species rarely seen elsewhere in western Europe, such as wild boars, wolves, asps, and bears. The southern Apennines are also tectonically unstable, with several active volcanoes, includingVesuvius, which from time to time belches ash and steam into the air above Naples and its island-strewn bay. At the bottom of the country, in theMediterranean Sea, lie the islands ofSicily andSardinia.
Italy’s political geography has been conditioned by this rugged landscape. With few direct roads between them, and with passage from one point to another traditionally difficult, Italy’s towns and cities have a history of self-sufficiency, independence, and mutual mistrust. Visitors today remark on how unlike one town is from the next, on the marked differences incuisine anddialect, and on the many subtle divergences that make Italy seem less a single nation than a collection of culturally related points in an uncommonly pleasing setting.
- Head Of Government:
- Prime Minister:Giorgia Meloni
- Capital:
- Rome
- Population:
- (2026 est.) 58,851,000
- Currency Exchange Rate:
- 1 USD equals 0.846 euro
- Head Of State:
- President: Sergio Mattarella
- Form Of Government:
- republic with two legislative houses (Senate [3221]; Chamber of Deputies [630])
- Official Language:
- Italian2
- Official Religion:
- none
- Official Name:
- Repubblica Italiana (Italian Republic)
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 302,069
- Total Area (Sq Mi):
- 116,629
- Monetary Unit:
- euro (€)
- Population Rank:
- (2026) 25
- Population Projection 2030:
- 60,286,000
- Density: Persons Per Sq Mi:
- (2026) 504.6
- Density: Persons Per Sq Km:
- (2026) 194.8
- Urban-Rural Population:
- Urban: (2018) 70.4%
- Rural: (2018) 29.6%
- Life Expectancy At Birth:
- Male: (2023) 81 years
- Female: (2023) 85.1 years
- Literacy: Percentage Of Population Age 15 And Over Literate:
- Male: (2019) 99%
- Female: (2019) 99%
- Gni (U.S.$ ’000,000):
- (2024) 2,275,197
- Gni Per Capita (U.S.$):
- (2024) 38,590
- Includes seven nonelective seats (five presidential appointees and two former presidents serving ex officio).
- In addition, German is locally official in the region of Trentino–Alto Adige, and French is locally official in the region of Valle d’Aosta.
Across a span of more than 3,000 years, Italian history has been marked by episodes of temporary unification and long separation, of intercommunal strife and failed empires. At peace for more than half a century now, Italy’s inhabitants enjoy a highstandard of living and a highly developedculture.
Though its archaeological record stretches back tens of thousands of years, Italian history begins with theEtruscans, an ancient civilization that rose between the Arno and Tiber rivers. The Etruscans were supplanted in the 3rd centurybce by theRomans, who soon became the chief power in the Mediterranean world and whose empire stretched fromIndia to Scotland by the 2nd centuryce. That empire was rarely secure, not only because of the unwillingness of conquered peoples to stay conquered but also because of power struggles between competing Roman political factions, military leaders, families, ethnic groups, and religions. TheRoman Empire fell in the 5th centuryce after a succession ofbarbarian invasions through which Huns, Lombards, Ostrogoths, and Franks—mostly previous subjects of Rome—seized portions of Italy. Rule devolved to the level of the city-state, although the Normans succeeded in establishing a modest empire in southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century. Many of those city-states flourished during theRenaissance era, a time marked by significantintellectual, artistic, and technological advances but also by savage warfare between states loyal to thepope and those loyal to theHoly Roman Empire.
Italian unification came in the 19th century, when a liberal revolution installedVictor Emmanuel II as king. InWorld War I, Italy fought on the side of theAllies, but, under the rule of the fascist leaderBenito Mussolini, it waged war against the Allied powers inWorld War II. From the end of World War II to the early 1990s, Italy had a multiparty system dominated by two large parties: theChristian Democratic Party (Partito della Democrazia Cristiana; DC) and theItalian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano; PCI). In the early 1990s the Italian party system underwent a radicaltransformation, and the political center collapsed, leaving a right-left polarization of the party spectrum that threw the north-south divide into sharper contrast and gave rise to such political leaders as media magnateSilvio Berlusconi.
The whole country is relatively prosperous, certainly as compared with the early years of the 20th century, when the economy was predominantly agricultural. Much of that prosperity has to do with tourism, for in good years nearly as many visitors as citizens can be found in the country. Italy is part of theEuropean Union and theCouncil of Europe, and, with its strategic geographic position on the southernflank of Europe, it has played a fairly important role in theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The capital isRome, one of the oldest of the world’s great cities and a favorite of visitors, who go there to see its great monuments and works of art as well as to enjoy the city’s fameddolce vita, or "sweet life." Other major cities include the industrial and fashion center ofMilan;Genoa, a handsome port on theLigurian Gulf; the sprawling southern metropolis ofNaples; andVenice, one of the world’s oldest tourist destinations. Surrounded by Rome is an independent state,Vatican City, which is the seat of theRoman Catholic Church and the spiritual home of Italy’s overwhelmingly Catholic population. Each of those cities, and countless smaller cities and towns, has retained its differences against the leveling effect of themass media and standardized education. Thus, many Italians, particularly older ones, are inclined to think of themselves as belonging to families, then neighborhoods, then towns or cities, then regions, and then, last, as members of a nation.
The intellectual andmoral faculties of humankind have found a welcome home in Italy, one of the world’s most important centers of religion, visual arts, literature, music, philosophy, culinary arts, and sciences.Michelangelo, the painter and sculptor, believed that his work was to free an already existing image;Giuseppe Verdi heard the voices of the ancients and of angels in music that came to him in his dreams;Dante forged a new language with his incomparable poems of heaven, hell, and the world between. Those and many other Italian artists, writers, designers, musicians, chefs, actors, and filmmakers have brought extraordinary gifts to the world.
This article treats the physical and human geography and history of Italy. For discussion of Classical history,see the articlesancient Italic people andancient Rome.