Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Italia, IPA: /i'talia/ or Repubblica Italiana, IPA: /re'pubblika ita'ljana/), is a country in Southern Europe. It comprises the boot-shaped Italian peninsula, the Po River valley, and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, and shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory.

For more than 3,000 years Italy witnessed many migrations and invasions from Germanic, Celtic, Frankish, Byzantine Greek, Saracens, Norman, and the French Angevin, and Lombard peoples. Italy was also home to many well-known and influential civilisations, including the Sardinians, the Etruscans, Greeks and the Romans.

Italy is sometimes called Belpaese (Italian for beautiful country) by its inhabitants, due to the beauty and variety of its landscapes and for its world's largest artistic patrimony; the country is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (40 until January 1, 2006).

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