Italy's Tourist Destinations ~ It's All About Europe..

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Southern Europe. To the north, Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia, and is approximately delimited by the Alpine watershed, enclosing the Po Valley and the Venetian Plain. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula and the two biggest Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to many other smaller islands. The sovereign states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and has a largely temperate climate. With 59.7 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe. Italy is also the fourth-largest economy on the European Union, third in the Eurozone and ninth in the world.

Italy was a founding member of the European Community in 1957, which became the EU in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and has been a member of the Eurozone since 1999. Italy is considered to be both a middle and regional power with membership in prominent institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the G7, G8, G20, NATO, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. Italy currently maintains the world's tenth-largest nominal defence budget and is a participant in the NATO nuclear sharing policy.

Colosseum