- Rome; 2,628,000 - 301,333 square kilometers (116,345 square
miles) - Italian, German, French, Slovene - Roman Catholic -
Life Expectancy: - GDP per Capita: - U.S. $25,100 - Literacy
Percent: Italy Facts Flag Italy consists of a mountainous
peninsula in southern Europe extending into the Mediterranean
Sea and includes the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and about 70
other smaller islands. The Alps form Italy's border with France,
Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. Most of Italy has warm, dry
summers and mild winters, with northern Italy experiencing
colder, wetter winters. There are some notable active volcanoes:
Vesuvius (near Naples), Etna (on Sicily), and Stromboli (north
of Sicily). Although decades of struggle unified Italy in 1871,
two Italys exist today: the prosperous, industrialized north and
the less developed agricultural south, known as the Mezzogiorno
(land of the midday sun). Their differences reach back to the
Renaissance, when northern city-states flourished while the
Kingdom of Naples and Sici