officially Italian Republic
Country, southern Europe.
It comprises the boot-shaped peninsula extending into the Mediterranean Sea as well as Sicily , Sardinia , and a number of smaller islands. Area: 116,324 sq mi (301,277 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 57,988,000. Capital: Rome . Despite internal migration, there are regional variations, particularly between the north and the south. Language: Italian (official). Religion: Roman Catholicism. Currency: euro. More than three-fourths of Italy is mountainous or highland country. The Alps stretch from east to west along Italy's northern boundary, and the Apennines stretch southward the length of the peninsula. Most of the country's lowlands lie in the valley of its major river, the Po . Three tectonic plates converge in southern Italy and Sicily, creating intense geologic activity; southern Italy's four active volcanoes include Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etruscan civilization arose in the 9th century BC and was overthrown by the Romans in the 4th–3rd centuries BC (see Roman Republic and Empire ). Barbarian invasions of the 4th–5th centuries AD destroyed the Western Roman Empire. Italy's political fragmentation lasted for centuries but did not diminish its impact on European culture, notably during the Renaissance . From the 15th to the 18th century, Italian lands were ruled by France, the Holy Roman Empire , Spain, and Austria. When Napoleonic rule ended in 1815, Italy was again a grouping of independent states. The Risorgimento successfully united most of Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia by 1861, and the unification of peninsular Italy was completed by 1870. Italy joined the Allies during World War I , but social unrest in the 1920s brought to power the Fascist movement of Benito Mussolini , and Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in World War II . Defeated by the Allies in 1943, Italy proclaimed itself a republic in 1946. It was a charter member of NATO (1949) and of the {{link=European Community">European Community . It completed the process of setting up regional legislatures with limited autonomy in 1970. After World War II it experienced rapid changes of government but remained socially stable. It worked with other European countries to establish the European Union .