Italy, situated in south-central Europe, occupies a peninsula extending deeply into the Mediterranean Sea. Often likened to a boot in shape, the country boasts diverse and picturesque landscapes. The towering Alps grace the northern region, featuring some of the world’s most rugged mountains, with Monte Rosa peaking in Switzerland and Mont Blanc in France. The western Alps overlook a scenic terrain of Alpine lakes and valleys carved by glaciers, stretching down to the Po River and the Piedmont.
Moving south from the central Alps, the Apennine Range runs the length of the country, widening near Rome to cover nearly the entire width of the Italian peninsula. Tuscany, situated to the south of the cisalpine region, is renowned as one of the country’s most famous regions. Further south, the Apennines narrow, flanked by two expansive coastal plains along the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic Sea. The lower Apennine chain, in particular, is a near-wilderness area hosting a variety of species seldom found elsewhere in western Europe, including wild boars, wolves, asps, and bears.
The southern Apennines are characterized by tectonic instability, featuring several active volcanoes such as Vesuvius. Periodically, Vesuvius releases ash and steam into the air above Naples and its island-strewn bay. At the southernmost point of the country, in the Mediterranean Sea, lie the islands of Sicily and Sardinia
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 in cuisine and dialect, 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.
