Italy
A boot-shaped peninsula of art, food, and the legacy of Rome
Italy reaches like a boot into the Mediterranean, a peninsula of staggering cultural density where Roman ruins, Renaissance masterpieces, and Baroque cities crowd a landscape from alpine peaks to sun-drenched southern coasts. Home to about 58.5 million people, with Rome as its eternal capital, it has shaped Western art, law, cuisine, and faith more than almost any other nation. From the canals of Venice to the vineyards of Tuscany and the smoking cone of Vesuvius, Italy holds more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any country on Earth.
The Alps wall off the north, where Mont Blanc, Monte Bianco in Italian, reaches 4,810 meters on the French border, while the Apennines form the peninsula's spine. The fertile Po Valley is the industrial and agricultural heartland, and active volcanoes, Vesuvius, Etna, and Stromboli, mark the south and Sicily. The long coastline, the lakes of the north, and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia define a Mediterranean geography. A temperate-to-Mediterranean climate sustains the wine, olive, and citrus cultivation central to Italian life.
The Roman Republic and Empire spread their language, law, and engineering across Europe, and after Rome's fall the peninsula's city-states, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Milan, drove the Renaissance that remade Western art and science. Unified only in 1861, Italy endured fascism and war in the twentieth century before becoming a founding member of the European project. A devoutly Catholic country surrounding the independent Vatican, Italy remains a global force in fashion, design, automotive engineering, and a cuisine beloved worldwide.