The country, located in the center of the Mediterranean, in the south of Europe, in this article is given not only economic and geographical, but also political characteristics. Italy (the Italian Republic) with its third European economy is characterized by such a distinctive feature as saturation with historical monuments of art, culture, architecture, and this will also be discussed. The area of the country is 301,200 square kilometers, which are divided into twenty regions, which, in turn, are divided into ninety-five provinces. And the division does not end there: in Italy there are eight thousand provincial communes.
Land and water borders
In the north-west, Italy borders on France for 488 kilometers, then Switzerland - 740 km, and the north of the border is Austria - 430 kilometers, as well as 232 kilometers in the north-east and north of Slovenia. Inside the country there are also borders: with the Vatican (the city of the Pope) - three kilometers and two hundred meters and San Marino - 39 kilometers. The characteristic of Italy differs from many other countries in the amount of water resources. Eighty percent of the country's borders pass through the seas - the Adriatic, Ligurian, Ionian, Mediterranean and Tyrrhenian. The coastline has a length of 7375 kilometers. There are many rivers, the largest - Piave, Renault, Adige, Tiber, Po.
There are also many beautiful lakes in Italy - these are Lugano, Garda, Lago Maggiore, Bracciano, Como, Trasimeno, Bolsena. Characteristics of Italy can not do without mentioning the resort and tourist areas, of which virtually this whole country consists. There are many balneological health resorts, because everywhere there are both thermal springs - up to 39 degrees Celsius, and cold: mineral hydrocarbonate, calcium, sulfur-containing with a high content of chlorine, iodide, bromide salts, which are used as drinking and bath salts for certain diseases.
Geography
Geographical characteristics of Italy begin with a location: this country occupies the entire Apennine peninsula and a small part of the Balkan, islands of Sardinia, Sicily and many small ones. On this territory are the Southern Alps and the Padua Plain. The relief of the country is almost entirely composed of mountains and hills - only one fifth of the plains.
The Alps is the longest of the European mountain systems, where Mont Blanc - the largest peak - is located in Courmayeur and Upper Savoy, the other part of Mont Blanc is already in France. This famous crystalline massif 4810 meters high stretches for 50 kilometers. The highest point in Europe, with the exception of Elbrus, Dykhtau and several other peaks of the Caucasus, where the height of the mountains is much more than five and a half kilometers, is a comparative characteristic. Italy in Western Europe in the height of the mountains there are no rivals. However, here from a tourist point of view, the level of deification is much higher; an 11-kilometer tunnel for cars has been laid under Mont Blanc.
Climate
Further on the territory of Italy the Apennines begin, these are not too high mountains, but they occupy almost the whole of Italy - a thousand kilometers from north to south along the entire eastern coast of the peninsula. The vegetation is rich: coniferous and beech forests, Mediterranean shrubs and meadows on the peaks. There are active volcanoes here: Stromboli, Volcano, Etna, Vesuvius. A large extent also determines changes in the mountain climate: in the upper and middle regions it is warm and temperate, and, for example, in Sicily it is pronounced subtropical.
Winters are mild and wet, and summers are hot and dry. There are practically no minus temperatures, the average winter temperature is eight degrees above zero. There are a lot of sunny days in Sicily, the Riviera is characterized by even warm weather all year round, and the Salentina Peninsula - by the smallest amount of precipitation (only 197 millimeters is an annual indicator).
Nature
On the Apennine Peninsula, there are more than one and a half hundred UNESCO monuments, this is more than in any other country in the world. Extremely beautiful Italy. The geographical characteristic is not limited to the enumeration of mountain ranges, lakes, rivers and plains. Here, they are very responsible for nature, only national parks are created on the territory of about one and a half million hectares. Twenty-one - on such a small country. Five percent of the entire territory is kept in its original form and is protected by the state. For example, Gran Paradiso - one of the oldest national parks - is located in the northwest, near the French border, and is considered the largest - about 700 square kilometers.
The set of landscapes is simply magnificent, because they are created by differences in heights from 800 to 4.5 thousand meters: here both glaciers are harsh and impregnable, and fat alpine pastures strewn with bright colors. No less attractive are all the other national parks and reserves. For example, up to a million tourists come to Abruzzo every year, despite the fact that these places are protected. Here, not only unique flora and fauna, but also the remains of ancient civilizations, necropolises, the exceptional beauty of shepherd’s trails, leading to the remains of medieval fortresses. And of course, excellent ski runs attract tourists no less.
Economy
In the Mediterranean, Italy occupies the most important position, since it is located right in the center of the main routes from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries to industrial Western Europe, the main consumer of these riches. Italy has a very favorable geographical position.
The country's characteristics depend almost entirely on it, since it affects both the economic and political position of the country in the European Union, where it has been a member since its inception. A feature of such a high place is the fact that it is precisely in Italy that two very significant independent states are located - the Vatican as the residence of the head of Christianity of the planet and San Marino, the oldest republic in Europe with the Constitution of 1600.
San marino
This is the smallest country and the most proud - with great reluctance, it submits to the Council of Europe and strongly opposed joining the European Union. However, even Italy dictates to the republic how it should live: it forbade San Marino to open gambling houses and even have its own television, money and customs.
True, Italy partially compensates these restrictions financially. Pilgrims who have visited the Vatican in millions, as well as tourists who are in no small number seeking San Marino for sights, bring Italy a much more tangible benefit - the revenues are simply huge.
Resources
For the economic and geographical characteristics of Italy to be sufficiently complete, it is necessary to identify the availability of its various natural resources, including minerals, since a rare country can build an economy through tourism alone. It should be noted that this country is provided with raw materials and energy not only unevenly, but also insufficiently. Almost all of its deposits are small in volume, and deposits for development are inconvenient. Italy alone satisfies itself with its own energy by 17 percent.
The lack of coal is very acute. In Calobria, Tuscany, Umbria and Sardinia there is coal and brown coal, but the deposits are small. There is oil in Sicily, but also very limitedly, it provides only two percent of the need. The comparative economic and geographical characteristics of Italy, for example with Germany, clearly show that Italians are poor in resources. With Russia, of course, the comparison will not be correct: we have 200 billion tons of coking coal in explored deposits alone, the same proportions with gas, oil and any other minerals.
Mineral wealth
With better gas: the Padua plain and its continuation - the shelf of the Adriatic Sea - give about 40 percent of what is required. Natural gas deposits in the Apennines and Sicily have been discovered but are still not being developed, but all this together is no more than 46 percent of the country's consumption. Iron ore has been mined here for almost three thousand years, its reserves are very small, approximately 50 million tons have been preserved on the Elbe and in Aosta, which, of course, is very, very small. A brief description of Italy in terms of resources may sound like this: there are almost no resources.
Italy is slightly richer in polymetallic ore , and besides, zinc, lead and silver, as well as impurities and other metals, are present in the ores. There are many reserves of mercury ore in the country, cinnabar, which lies in the volcanic massif of Tuscany. There are also pyrites. In Puglia, bauxite mining, in Sardinia, antimony ores, and in Liguria, manganese. The only things that Italy is really rich in are granites, marbles, tuffs and other building materials. The famous Carrara marble, for example, is very expensive. But he, too, was not so much. The compilation of the economic and geographical characteristics of Italy must begin with tourism. And perhaps they finish.
Industry
Italy’s GDP is distributed in its structure as follows: two percent is given to agriculture, 27 percent to industry, and the remaining seventy-odd percent to services, that is, tourism. More than 70 percent of the extracted mineral resources and more than 80 percent of energy are imported.
At the end of the twentieth century, nuclear energy began to develop, but in 1988 a referendum covered it. Therefore, Italy will not survive without electricity imports. Of the entire industry, mechanical engineering and the automotive industry are more developed than others; agricultural machinery is produced. In the world market, Italian furniture, textiles, and ceramic tiles are valued. It's all.
Agriculture
In agriculture, a huge number of small farms (and unprofitable, especially in the south of Italy) with an average area of about six hectares, which is very, very small for the European Union.
Pure Mediterranean products are grown - olives, wine, citrus fruits. Crop production in agriculture occupies more than 60 percent, and livestock production - less than forty.