The country, located in the center of the Mediterranean, in the south of Europe, this article gives not only economic and geographical, but also political characteristics. Italy (the Italian Republic), with its third largest 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: there are eight thousand provincial communes in Italy.
Land and water borders
In the northwest, Italy borders France for 488 kilometers, then Switzerland - 740 km, and the north of the border is occupied by Austria - 430 kilometers, as well as in the northeast and north of Slovenia - 232 kilometers. Within the country there are also borders: withVatican (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 are Piave, Reno, Adige, Tiber, Po.
There are also many beautiful lakes in Italy - Lugano, Garda, Lago Maggiore, Bracchiano, Como, Trasimeno, Bolsena. Characteristics of Italy cannot do without mentioning the resort and tourist areas, of which almost the entire country consists. There are many balneological he alth resorts here, since everywhere there are both thermal springs - up to 39 degrees Celsius, and cold ones: mineral hydrocarbonate, calcium, sulfur-containing with a high content of chlorine, iodine, bromine s alts, which are used as drinking and bathing in certain diseases.
Geography
The characteristic of Italy from a geographical point of view begins with the location: this country occupies the entire Apennine Peninsula and a small part of the Balkan, the islands of Sardinia, Sicily and many small ones. The Southern Alps and the Padua Plain are located in this territory. The relief of the country is almost entirely composed of mountains and hills - only one-fifth is plains.
Alps - the longest of the European mountain systems, where Mont Blanc - the largest peak - is located inareas of Courmayeur and Haute-Savoie, another part of Mont Blanc is already in France. This famous crystalline massif is 4810 meters high and stretches for 50 kilometers. The highest point in Europe, except for Elbrus, Dykhtau and several other peaks of the Caucasus, where the height of the mountains is much more than five and a half kilometers - this is a comparative characteristic. Italy in Western Europe has no rivals in terms of mountain height. However, from a tourist point of view, the level of habitability is much higher here, 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 here is the richest: coniferous and beech forests, Mediterranean shrubs and meadows on the peaks. There are active volcanoes here: Stromboli, Vulcano, Etna, Vesuvius. The large length 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, while summers are hot and dry. There are practically no sub-zero temperatures, the average winter temperature is eight degrees above zero. Sicily has a huge number of sunny days, the Riviera has even warm weather all year round, and the Salentina peninsula has the smallest amount of precipitation (only 197 millimeters - an annual rate).
Nature
On the Apennine Peninsula, there are more than one and a half hundred UNESCO monuments, more than in any other country in the world. Italy is exceptionally beautiful. Geographical characteristics are not limited to listing mountain ranges, lakes, rivers and plains. Here they treat nature very responsibly, only national parks have been created on the territory of about one and a half million hectares. Twenty-one for such a small country. Five percent of the entire territory is kept in its original form and 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 elevation changes from 800 to 4.5 thousand meters: here are glaciers - harsh and impregnable, and fat alpine pastures strewn with bright flowers. All other national parks and reserves are no less attractive. For example, up to a million tourists come to Abruzzo every year, despite the fact that these places are reserved. There are not only unique flora and fauna, but also the remains of ancient civilizations, necropolises, shepherd's paths of exceptional beauty, leading to the remains of medieval fortresses. And of course, excellent ski slopes attract tourists no less.
Economy
In the Mediterranean, Italy occupies a crucial position as it is right in the middle of the main routes fromoil-rich Middle Eastern countries to industrial Western Europe, the main consumer of these riches. Italy occupies a very advantageous geographical position.
The characteristics of the country almost entirely depends 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 in Italy that two very significant independent states are located - the Vatican as the residence of the head of Christianity on the planet and San Marino, the oldest republic in Europe with a Constitution of 1600.
San Marino
This is the smallest country and the proudest - with great reluctance to submit 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 for these restrictions financially. Pilgrims visiting the Vatican by the millions, as well as tourists seeking to see the sights in San Marino in equal numbers, bring Italy much more tangible benefits - the income is simply huge.
Resources
In order for the economic and geographical characteristics of Italy to be sufficiently complete, it is necessary to indicate the availability of all kinds of natural resources, including minerals,because 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 the deposits are inconvenient for development. Italy only satisfies itself with its own energy by 17 percent.
The lack of coal is felt very acutely. In Calobria, Tuscany, Umbria and Sardinia there is hard and brown coal, but the deposits are small. There is oil in Sicily, but it is also very limited, providing only two percent of the need. A comparative economic and geographical description of Italy, for example, with Germany, clearly shows that the Italians are poor in resources. With Russia, of course, the comparison will not be correct: we have 200 billion tons of coking coal only in explored deposits, the same proportions with gas, oil and any other minerals.
Resource we alth
With better gas: The Padua Plain and its continuation - the Adriatic Sea shelf - provide about 40 percent of the required. Natural gas deposits have been discovered but not yet developed in the Apennines and Sicily, but all this together does not exceed 46 percent of the consumption required by the country. Iron ore has been mined here for almost three thousand years, the reserves are very small, about 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 might sound like this: there are almost no resources.
Polymetallic ore Italy is a little richer, besides, the ores contain zinc, lead and silver, as well as impurities and other metals. There are many reserves of mercury ore in the country, cinnabar, which lies in the volcanic massif of Tuscany. There are also pyrites. In Apulia - the development of bauxite, in Sardinia - antimony ores, in Liguria - manganese. The only thing Italy is really rich with is granites, marbles, tuffs and other building materials. The famous Carrara marble, for example, is very expensive. But there isn't much left either. Drawing up the economic and geographical characteristics of Italy must begin with tourism. And perhaps they should finish.
Industry
Italian GDP in its structure is distributed as follows: two percent is given to agriculture, 27 percent to industry, and the remaining seventy-odd - to services, that is, tourism. More than 70 percent of the extracted mineral resources and more than 80 percent of energy products are imported.
At the end of the twentieth century, nuclear energy began to develop, but in 1988 a referendum covered it up. Therefore, without electricity imports, Italy will not survive. Of the entire industry, mechanical engineering, automotive industry, and agricultural machinery are more developed than others. Italian furniture, textiles, ceramic tiles are valued on the world market. That's it.
Agriculture
In agriculture, there are a huge number of small farms (and unprofitable ones, especially in southern Italy) with an average area of one about six hectares, which even forThe EU is very, very small.
Purely Mediterranean products are grown - olives, wine, citrus fruits. Crop production in agriculture occupies more than 60 percent, and livestock - less than forty.
