Italy (Repubblica Italiana) is located in Southern Europe, the country comprises the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, and it's surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. Italy is a member of the European Union. The capital city is Rome. Italy is subdivided into 20 regions: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta and Veneto.

The Italian Peninsula is one of the greatest peninsulas of Europe, spanning 1,000 km from the Alps in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The Apennine mountains form the backbone of this peninsula, leading north-west to where they join the Alps, the mountain range that then forms an arc enclosing Italy from the north. The terrein is mostly hilly and mountainous; some plains (a large alluvial plain, the Padana plain, is drained by the Po River, that's Italy's longest river with 652 km), and coastal lowlands. Italy's highest point is Monte Bianco at 4,810 metres in the Alps on the border between Italy and France. Between the lakes the most important are Lago Maggiore, Lago di Como and Lago di Garda on the southern side of the Alps.