Italy
Article
May 19, 2022

Italy (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a country in southern Europe. Italy includes the Apennine Peninsula and three large islands in the Mediterranean: Sicily, Sardinia and the Elbe. It has the only land border in the north, in the Alps, where it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican are located within the territory of Italy. Italy is the birthplace of the Roman Empire, one of the greatest empires of the ancient world. Barbarian invasions destroyed the Western Roman Empire and enabled the creation of Germanic states on Italian soil. Byzantium and Francia owned significant parts of Italy in the early Middle Ages. The later division of Italy into small states enabled the Holy Roman Empire, France and Austria to dominate Italian politics. Italy was united in the second half of the 19th century. From unification until the end of World War II, the Kingdom of Italy created a colonial empire in the Mediterranean and East Africa. Since 1946, Italy has been a republic. It is very famous for its culinary specialties, fashion, design, clothing, architecture, art, music and other sights that are visited by a large number of tourists. Italy is one of the founders of NATO, the G8 and the European Economic Community, today's European Union.