Although predominantly Mediterranean with the Alpine to the far north, the rugged and mountainous conditions in the plains and coastal lowlands contribute to the hot climate dry south. Italy, slightly larger than Arizona, is a long peninsula shaped like a boot bounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the east by the Adriatic. Approximately 600 of Italy's 708 miles of length are in the long peninsula that projects into the Mediterranean from the fertile basin of the Po River. The Apennine Mountains, branching off from the Alps between Nice and Genoa, form the peninsula's backbone. They rise to a maximum height of 9,560 feett at the Gran Sasso d'Italia. The Alps form Italy's northern

People in Italy migrate from the south, known as the Mezzogiorno, to the north in search of job opportunities. Compared to the Mezzogiorno, Italy’s north benefits from relatively rich agricultural land and a strong industrial base. The Mezzogiorno comprises 40 percent of Italy’s land area and contains 35 percent of the population, but only 24 percent of the national income. Italy’s diversified industrial economy contains the same total and per capita output as France and the UK. This capitalistic economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less developed agricultural south, with 20% unemployment. Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75% of energy requirements are imported. Over the past decade, Italy has pursued a tight fiscal policy in order to meet the requirements of the Economic and Monetary Unions and has benefited from lower interest and inflation rates. Italy's economic performance has lagged behind that of its EU partners, and the current government has enacted numerous short-term reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and long-term growth. Rome has moved slowly, however, on implementing needed structural reforms, such as lightening the high tax burden and overhauling Italy's rigid labor market and expensive pension system, because of the current economic slowdown and opposition from labor unions. Products and commodities flourished in excess of $243 billion from agricultural exports (i.e. fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes) and manufactured goods (i.e. chemicals, transport equipment, textiles, clothing).

Italy declared its neutrality upon the outbreak of World War I on the ground that Germany had embarked upon an offensive war. In 1915, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies but obtained less territory than it expected in the postwar settlement. Benito Mussolini, a former socialist, organized discontented Italians in 1919 into the Fascist Party to “rescue Italy from Bolshevism.” He led his Black Shirts in a march on Rome and, on October 28,1922, became premier. He transformed Italy into a dictatorship, embarking on an expansionist foreign policy with the invasion and annexation of Ethiopia in 1935 and allying himself with Adolf Hitler in the Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936. When the Allies invaded Italy in 1943, Mussolini's dictatorship collapsed; he was executed by Partisans on April 28, 1945, at Dongo on Lake Como. Following the armistice with the Allies, Italy joined the war against Germany as a cobelligerent. A June 1946 plebiscite rejected monarchy and a republic was proclaimed. The peace treaty of September 15,1947, required Italian renunciation of all claims in Ethiopia and Greece and the cession of the Dodecanese to Greece and of five small Alpine areas to France. The Trieste area west of the new Yugoslav territory was made a free territory (until 1954, when the city and a 90-square-mile zone were transferred to Italy and the rest to Yugoslavia).

Located in the central part of the country lies the capital - Rome. Founded by Romulus in 753 BC, much archaeological evidence suggests earlier habitations on the site. Traces of an Iron Age village from the mid-8th century BC have been found on the Palatine Hill. A little over a century ago, Rome was a quiet city with a population (1870 estimate) of 226,000; its people were living largely in the past. Today, it is today not only the capital and nerve center of Italy but, as the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the headquarters of major international agencies and multinational corporations

Some topics in this essay:
Tower Pisa, Monetary Unions, Easter Healthcare, Sicilia Italy, Italian Alps, France UK, Mezzogiorno Italy’s, II Rome, Population Census, Red Brigades, roman catholic, century bc, nato european economic, economic community, hospitals italy, square miles, inclination tower, tower pisa, nato european, european economic, world war, european economic community,