The Republic of Italy is located on a peninsula in the south of Europe. It borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia and completely encloses San Marino. Excavations reveal that human presence in the region dates back to the Palaeolithic period 200,000 years ago. 2,500 years ago the Greek established colonies in the southern part of Italy. The Roman Era dominated the peninsula from around 800 years before Christ, but went into decline from the 4th Century and was broken up into separate empires in the 5th Century.

In the 6th Century Italy was invaded and settled by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe. For the next 1000 years Italy was divided into small provinces and city states which fought among themselves or occasionally as allies against outside enemies. One of these city states, Florence, gave birth to the Renaissance in 13th Century. The Black Death in 1348 inflicted a terrible blow to Italy, killing one third of the population. The independence of the small Italian states ended in the late 15th Century when France and Spain fought over domination of the country. Spain eventually won, but had to cede the country to Austria in the early 18th Century.

In the 19th Century a series of wars of independence under the influence of Garibaldi began ending with a unified Italy in 1861. In World War I, Italy fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire alongside France and the United Kingdom. However, as a result the economy collapsed resulting in high unemployment and paving way for fascist control by Mussolini in 1920. Italy joined Nazi Germany in World War II, but fared very poorly military and was in 1943 invaded by the allies and surrendered, which prompted Germany to invade causing Italy to be a battlefield for the remainder of the war. After the war Italy became a republic. Italy is a member of the G8 and the European Union.

Inhabitants: 59,000,000
Area: 301,400 km2
Capital: Rome (4,000,000 inhabitants)
Languages: Italian
Religion: Catholics (88%), Non-believers (9%), Protestants (1%), Muslims (1%), others (1%)
GDP (PPP) per capita: $31,200
Government: Parliamentary republic
Climate: Mediterranean Climate in most of the country, but continental climate in the north.