Introduction
Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana [reˈpubblika itaˈljaːna]), is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.
Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era, Phoenicians and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively. The Italic tribe known as the Latins 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 conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, and the Republic eventually expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural, political and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy, art and literature flourished. Italy remained the homeland of the Romans and the metropole of the Roman Empire. The legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, law, governments, Christianity and the Latin script.
Selected general articles
Did you know...
- ... that Giovanni Fornasini, an Italian priest murdered by the Nazis in 1944, was posthumously awarded Italy's Gold Medal of Military Valour and is a candidate for sainthood?
- ... that the Panoz Avezzano, unveiled at the 2016 Petit Le Mans, is named after a town in Italy that was destroyed by an earthquake?
- ... that Lega Nord politician Toni Iwobi is the first black person elected to the Italian Senate?
- ... that a politician implicated in Italy's largest corruption scandal was permitted to claim his time in the parliament constituted his community service?
- ... that the Padule di Fucecchio massacre, in which at least 174 Italian civilians were murdered, has been described as "one of the worst Nazi atrocities in Italy"?
- ... that the carrozza is a street food and popular dish in Campania, Italy, where it is prepared using buffalo mozzarella?
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Selected images
In the news
- 23 March 2019 – China–Italy relations
- Italy signs $2.8 billion in deals with the Belt and Road Initiative. (Reuters)
- 3 March 2019 – 2019 Italian Democratic Party leadership election
- Governor of Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti, wins the leadership election by a landslide, defeating Maurizio Martina and Roberto Giachetti, and becoming the new Secretary of the Democratic Party. (The Guardian)
Subcategories
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Subtopics
Recognized content
Featured articles
- 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger
- 1956 Winter Olympics
- 1987 Giro d'Italia
- 1988 Giro d'Italia
- 2009 Giro d'Italia
- Amy Adams
- Andrea Doria-class battleship
- L'ange de Nisida
- Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
- Felice Beato
- Beograd-class destroyer
- Boletus edulis
- Byzantine Empire
- Cannibal Holocaust
- Battle of Ceresole
- Concerto delle donne
- Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik
- Enrico Fermi
- Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood
- Lisa del Giocondo
- Gymnopilus maritimus
- Italian War of 1521–1526
- Italian War of 1542–1546
- War of the League of Cambrai
- Claudio Monteverdi
- Mortara case
- Mozart in Italy
- Palazzo Pitti
- Prince's Palace of Monaco
- Domenico Selvo
- Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430)
- Yugoslav torpedo boat T3
- Yugoslav torpedo boat T5
- Yugoslav torpedo boat T7
- Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies
- Tricholoma pardinum
- Peter Martyr Vermigli
- Giovanni Villani
Featured lists
- 2009 Mediterranean Games medal table
- Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia
- List of Italian football champions
- List of battleships of Italy
- List of protected cruisers of Italy
- List of teams and cyclists in the 2009 Giro d'Italia
- List of teams and cyclists in the 2015 Giro d'Italia
- List of titular churches
Good articles
- 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
- 1909 Giro d'Italia
- 1910 Giro d'Italia
- 1911 Giro d'Italia
- 1912 Giro d'Italia
- 1984 European Cup Final
- 1985 Giro d'Italia
- 1986 Giro d'Italia
- 1991 Giro d'Italia
- 1992 Giro d'Italia
- 1993 Giro d'Italia
- 1994 Giro d'Italia
- 1995 Giro d'Italia
- 1996 Giro d'Italia
- 2000 Italian Grand Prix
- 2001 Italian Grand Prix
- 2008 Giro d'Italia
- 2008 Italian Grand Prix
- 2009 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11
- 2009 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
- 2009 UEFA Champions League Final
- 2010 Giro d'Italia
- 2011 Giro d'Italia
- 2011 Imola GP2 Asia Series round
- 2011 Tirreno–Adriatico
- 2011 Tour de France
- 2014 Italian Grand Prix
- 2015 Giro d'Italia
- 2015 Italian Grand Prix
- 2015 Milan–San Remo
- 2015 Tirreno–Adriatico
- 2016 Milan–San Remo
- 2018 Rome ePrix
- Acquacotta
- Adriatic Sea
- Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
- AgustaWestland AW101
- Enrico Alfano
- Italian cruiser Amalfi
- Italian battleship Andrea Doria
- Anglo-Italian Cup
- Italian cruiser Aretusa
- Austro-Italian ironclad arms race
- Roberto Baggio
- Battle of Fardykambos
- Battle of Gallipoli (1416)
- Battle of Porta
- Yugoslav gunboat Beli Orao
- Italian battleship Benedetto Brin
- Yugoslav destroyer Beograd
- Bessas (general)
- Abebe Bikila
- Black Sabbath (film)
- Italian cruiser Bolzano
- Bucentaur
- Gianluigi Buffon
- Italian ironclad Caio Duilio
- Gasparo Cairano
- Italian cruiser Calatafimi
- Vettore Cappello
- Italian cruiser Caprera
- Claudia Cardinale
- Mara Carfagna
- Italian cruiser Coatit
- 2014 Coppa Italia Final
- Cortina d'Ampezzo
- Cretan War (1645–1669)
- Mauro De Mauro
- Alessandro Del Piero
- The Dictator Pope
- Michael Dokeianos
- Don't Look Now
- Etna-class cruiser
- Italian cruiser Etruria
- Italian cruiser Euridice
- Italian seaplane carrier Europa
- 1977 European Cup Final
- European debt crisis
- Eutharic
- Fasci Siciliani
- The Fires of Pompeii
- Italian cruiser Fiume
- Flag of Italy
- Forti
- Galeb-class minelayer
- Galileo Galilei
- Manu Ginóbili
- Italian cruiser Giovanni Bausan
- 2007 Giro d'Italia
- 2005 Giro d'Italia
- Italian battleship Giulio Cesare
- Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1899)
- Golden Ambrosian Republic
- Gothic War (535–554)
- Gran Paradiso National Park
- SMS Graudenz
- Helmichis
- The Holocaust in Albania
- Italian battleship Impero
- Italian cruiser Iride
- Juventus F.C.
- Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Italian cruiser Libia
- Italian cruiser Liguria
- Like a Virgin (song)
- Italian battleship Littorio
- Aldus Manutius
- Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
- Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
- Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- Marta Menegatti
- 2018 Milan–San Remo
- Mina (Italian singer)
- Italian cruiser Minerva
- Venetian glass
- Music of Italy
- Muslim conquest of Sicily
- Death of Benito Mussolini
- Napoleon
- S.S.C. Napoli
- No Me Ames
- North American Piedmontese
- Nuova Cronica
- Operation Alfa
- Viktoria Orsi Toth
- Alfonsina Orsini
- Osvetnik-class submarine
- Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573)
- Panavia Tornado
- Italian cruiser Partenope
- Operation Pedestal
- Scipione Piattoli
- Andrea Pirlo
- Pisa-class cruiser
- Marco Polo
- Bruno Pontecorvo
- Italian ironclad Principe di Carignano
- Italian cruiser Puglia
- Italian battleship Regina Elena
- Italian battleship Roma (1940)
- Italian ironclad Roma
- Roman Empire
- Western Roman Empire
- Italian cruiser Saetta
- Saint Dominic in Soriano
- Battle of San Marino
- Italian ironclad Sardegna
- Siege of Saïo
- Sceriman family
- Battle of Settepozzi
- Italian ironclad Sicilia
- Siege of Mantua (1799)
- Siege of Syracuse (877–878)
- Skanderbeg's Italian expedition
- La Strada
- Yugoslav torpedo boat T6
- Yugoslav torpedo boat T8
- Testaroli
- Francesco Totti
- Tragedy of Otranto
- Battle of Trapani
- Trento-class cruiser
- Italian cruiser Urania
- I Vampiri
- Vandalic War
- Vardar Offensive
- Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands
- Italian ironclad Venezia
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Mount Vesuvius
- Violante Beatrice of Bavaria
- Italian battleship Vittorio Emanuele
- Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto
- World War II