Italy
Italy, slightly larger than Arizona, is a long peninsula shaped like a boot, surrounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the east by the Adriatic. It is bounded by France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia to the north. The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula's backbone; the Alps form its northern boundary. The largest of its many northern lakes is Garda (143 sq mi; 370 sq km); the Po, its principal river, flows from the Alps on Italy's western border and crosses the Lombard plain to the Adriatic Sea. Several islands form part of Italy; the largest are Sicily (9,926 sq mi; 25,708 sq km) and Sardinia (9,301 sq mi; 24,090 sq km).
History
The migrations of Indo-European peoples into Italy probably began about 2000 B.C. and continued until 1000 B.C. From about the 9th century B.C. until it was overthrown by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. , the Etruscan civilization was dominant. By 264 B.C. , all Italy south of Cisalpine Gaul was under the leadership of Rome. For the next seven centuries, until the barbarian invasions destroyed the western Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. , the history of Italy is largely the history of Rome. From 800 on, the Holy Roman Emperors, Roman Catholic popes, Normans, and Saracens all vied for control over various segments of the Italian peninsula. Numerous city-states, such as Venice and Genoa, whose political and commercial rivalries were intense, and many small principalities flourished in the late Middle Ages. Although Italy remained politically fragmented for centuries, it became the cultural center of the Western world from the 13th to the 16th century.
Italy became an integral member of NATO and the European Economic Community (later the EU) as it successfully rebuilt its postwar economy. A prolonged outbreak of terrorist activities by the left-wing Red Brigades threatened domestic stability in the 1970s, but by the early 1980s the terrorist groups had been suppressed. “Revolving door” governments, political instability, scandal, and corruption characterized Italian politics in the 1980s and 1990s.
Italy adopted the euro as its currency in Jan. 1999. Treasury Secretary Carlo Ciampi, who is credited with the economic reforms that permitted Italy to enter the European Monetary Union, was elected president in May 1999. Italy joined its NATO partners in the Kosovo crisis. Aviano Air Base in northern Italy was a crucial base for launching air strikes into Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
Info
Languages: Italian (official); German-, French-, and Slovene-speaking minorities
Ethnicity/race: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian- and Greek-Italians in the south)
Religions: Christian 80% (overwhelming Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehova Witnesses and Protestants), Muslims NEGL (about 700,000 but growing), Atheists and Agnostics 20%
National Holiday: Republic Day, June 2
Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $1.871 trillion; per capita $30,900. Real growth rate: 0.4%. Inflation: 2.8%. Unemployment: 8.4%. Arable land: 26.41%. Agriculture: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish. Labor force: 25.08 million; services 67.8%, industry 28.3%, agriculture 5% (2001).
Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics. Natural resources: coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorospar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land. Exports: $522 billion (2011 est.): engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals. Imports: $556.4 billion (2011 est.): engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages, and tobacco. Major trading partners: Germany, France, U.S., Spain, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, China (2011).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 21.6million (2009); mobile cellular: 82 million (2009). Broadcast media: two Italian media giants dominate - the publicly-owned Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) with 3 national terrestrial stations and privately-owned Mediaset with 3 national terrestrial stations; a large number of private stations and Sky Italia - a satellite TV network; RAI operates 3 AM/FM nationwide radio stations; some 1,300 commercial radio stations (2007). Internet hosts: 25.456 million (2010). Internet users: 29.235 million (2009).
Transportation: Railways: total: 20,255 km (2008). Roadways: total: 487,700 km; paved: 487,700 km (including 6,700 km of expressways) (2007). Waterways: 2,400 km; note: used for commercial traffic; of limited overall value compared to road and rail (2012). Ports and terminals: Augusta, Cagliari, Genoa, Livorno, Taranto, Trieste, Venice oil terminals: Melilli (Santa Panagia) oil terminal, Sarroch oil terminal.
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