The mention of Italy brings to mind varied images – history, culture, art & architecture, fashion, automobiles, cutting edge designs – the list is endless. This boot shaped country has been traversed by millions of travellers’ and is the 5th most visited country in the world.
A virtual assault on all the senses, the sights, sounds and culture of Italy are unmatched. Italy is home to forty three UNESCO World Heritage Sites (more than any other country in the world), including many entire cities such as Venice, Verona, Siena, Vicenza, Ferrara, San Gimignano and Urbino. Ravenna, one of Italy’s lesser known cities, hosts an unprecedented eight different internationally recognized sites.
Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the center of Western civilization, with the Roman Empire spreading its reaches from present-day Britain in the West to present day Iraq in the East, the Northern regions of the African continent and the majority of modern Europe.
Today, Italy is a democratic republic and a developed country with the eighth-highest quality of life index rating in the world. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, and it is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8, having the world's seventh-largest nominal GDP.
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Italy's Profile
Area: 116,303 square miles
Population: 58.8 million
Population density: 487/sq. mile
Capital: Rome (2,775,000 inhabitants) |
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