Country

Italy

Also Known As Italian Republic

Southern Europe

Italy occupies the boot-shaped Apennine Peninsula reaching south into the Mediterranean Sea, together with Sicily, Sardinia and smaller islands, bordered by France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps to the north. Centuries of division among city-states, kingdoms and foreign-ruled territories, the Risorgimento, ended with the Kingdom of Italy proclaimed on 17 March 1861 by a parliament assembled in Turin, its first capital; Venice joined the kingdom in 1866, and Rome, still held by the Pope, was annexed in 1870 and became the capital in 1871, completing unification. Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice each anchor a different region of the country.

Facts

Capital

Rome 2

Rome became the capital in 1871; Turin (1861-1865) and Florence (1865-1871) each briefly served as capital first.

Population

58,900,000 2

Britannica 2025 estimate.

Population Estimate Year

2025 2

Area (sq km)

302,069 2

Independence or Founding Year

1861 2

The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861. Unification was not yet complete: Venice joined in 1866 and Rome, the last piece, was annexed in 1870, becoming the capital in 1871.

Classification

Sovereignty Status

UN Member State 1

Learn More

Turin, Florence, Rome

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Italy proclaimed itself a kingdom on 17 March 1861, and its first capital was not Rome but Turin, the Piedmontese city that had led the unification movement under the House of Savoy and its prime minister, Cavour. Turin held the capital for four years while the new kingdom absorbed the rest of the peninsula piece by piece; Venice, still under Austrian control in 1861, joined only in 1866, after Italy sided with Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War. Rome itself remained outside the kingdom the longest, held by the Pope and garrisoned by French troops as the last independent piece of the old Papal States; the capital moved to Florence in 1865 as a temporary, symbolic step toward Rome without provoking a premature confrontation over the city. Only in 1870, when French troops withdrew during the Franco-Prussian War, could Italian forces take Rome itself, and the capital finally moved there in 1871, completing a decade-long journey from Turin through Florence to the city the kingdom had wanted from the start.

A Peninsula of a Thousand City-States

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Unification took as long as it did partly because Italy before 1861 was never one political thing to unify. Florence, Milan, Venice and Rome had spent centuries as the seats of genuinely separate, often rival powers: the Republic of Florence and later the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; the Duchy of Milan, fought over repeatedly by French, Spanish and Austrian claimants; the Republic of Venice, an independent maritime power for over a thousand years until Napoleon ended it in 1797; and Rome, governed directly by the Pope as the capital of the Papal States. Each had its own currency, its own laws, its own army and often its own foreign alliances, and the wealth and rivalry among them produced the Renaissance as much as any single national culture did. The Risorgimento that Cavour and Garibaldi led in the 1850s and 1860s was not simply expelling foreign rulers, though Austria controlled the northeast and Spain and France had ruled parts of the south for centuries; it was persuading city-states and kingdoms with genuinely different histories that they were one nation at all, a persuasion Italian regional identity and dialect still show the limits of today.

Italy

Cities

157 entries

Subregion

Country (Contained By)

Continent

Population Band

Capital Status

Founding Era

Showing 1 to 50 of 157 in Cities, page 1 of 4.

FAQs

Which countries share a land border with Italy?

Italy borders Switzerland, France, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and the Vatican City.

Italy has land borders with six neighbors. Switzerland is the longest at 698 kilometers, followed by France at 476 kilometers, Austria at 404 kilometers and Slovenia at 218 kilometers. The two smallest are San Marino at 37 kilometers and the Vatican City at 3.4 kilometers. Together the land boundaries total about 1,836 kilometers.

Connections

Associated With

Bari

Bologna

Source Bologna (Wikipedia)

Campania

Campania is a region of Italy.

Source Campania (Wikipedia)

Caserta

Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy.

Source Caserta (Wikipedia)

Catania

Cesena

Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.

Source Cesena (Wikipedia)

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna is a region of Italy.

Source Emilia-Romagna (Wikipedia)

Florence

Florence sits in central Italy, in Tuscany.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Florence

Source Florence (Wikipedia)

Forlì

Forli is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy.

Source Forlì (Wikipedia)

Genoa

Source Genoa (Wikipedia)

Lazio

Lazio is a region of Italy.

Source Lazio (Wikipedia)

Liguria

Liguria is a region of Italy.

Source Liguria (Wikipedia)

Lombardy

Lombardy is a region of Italy.

Source Lombardy (Wikipedia)

Milan

Milan sits in northern Italy, in Lombardy.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Milan

Source Milan (Wikipedia)

Naples

Source Naples (Wikipedia)

Palermo

Source Palermo (Wikipedia)

Piedmont

Piedmont is a region of Italy.

Source Piedmont (Wikipedia)

Po Delta

Potenza

Potenza is a city and comune in the region of Basilicata in Southern Italy.

Source Potenza (Wikipedia)

Rome

Rome sits in central Italy.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Rome

Source Rome (Wikipedia)

Savona

Savona is a seaport and comune in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria.

Source Savona (Wikipedia)

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy.

Source Sicily (Wikipedia)

Southern Europe

The Alps

Source Alps (Wikipedia)

The Mediterranean

Turin

Source Turin (Wikipedia)

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region of Italy.

Source Tuscany (Wikipedia)

Varese

Varese is a city and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy.

Source Varese (Wikipedia)

Vatican City

Vatican City is an enclave entirely within Italy.

Source Vatican City (Wikipedia)

Veneto

Veneto is a region of Italy.

Source Veneto (Wikipedia)

Venice

Venice sits on the northeastern Adriatic coast of Italy.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Venice

Source Venice (Wikipedia)

Verona

Source Verona (Wikipedia)

Bordered By Water

Adriatic Sea

Italy has a coast on the Adriatic.

Source Adriatic Sea (Wikipedia)

Has Capital

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy.

Source Rome (Wikipedia)

Long-Form Articles

A Peninsula of a Thousand City-States

Turin, Florence, Rome

Rivers Through Territory

Po River

Tiber River

In the Other Atlases

Has Member

Group of Eight (G8)

Also in Economics Atlas: a member of this subject.

Participant In

Spanish Civil War

Also in History Atlas: a participant in this subject.

Nationals Include

Alfredo Diana

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikidata: Alfredo Diana

Antonio Bisaglia

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Athos Valsecchi

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bernardo Mattarella

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Calogero Mannino

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikidata: Calogero Mannino

Filippo Maria Pandolfi

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikidata: Filippo Maria Pandolfi

Franco Restivo

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Gianni Fontana

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikidata: Gianni Fontana

Giovanni Marcora

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Giuseppe Bartolomei

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Giuseppe Medici

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

José Graziano da Silva

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Lorenzo Natali

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Mario Ferrari Aggradi

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Nazareno Strampelli

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Nazareno Strampelli (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 1tier 2

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Nazareno Strampelli (May 29, 1866, in Castelraimondo, Italy – January 23, 1942) was an Italian agronomist and plant breeder.

Raffaele Ciferri

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikipedia: Raffaele CiferriLead sentence 1

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Raffaele Ciferri (30 May 1897, Fermo – 12 February 1964, Pavia) was an Italian botanist, agriculturalist and mycologist.

Vito Saccomandi

Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: a national of this subject.

Apollodorus of Damascus

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikipedia

Filippo Brunelleschi

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Leon Battista Alberti

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikipedia: Leon Battista AlbertiLead sentence 1

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Leon Battista Alberti (Italian: [leombatˈtista alˈbɛɾti]; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths.

Michelangelo

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Renzo Piano

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Vitruvius

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source The Ten Books on ArchitectureMarcus Vitruvius Pollio, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan

Achille Castiglioni

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Agnolo Gaddi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Agostino Ciampelli

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Agostino di Duccio

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Alighiero Boetti

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Amedeo Modigliani

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Amedeo Modigliani - WikipediaLead sentence 1

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (US: ; Italian: [ameˈdɛːo modiʎˈʎaːni]; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France.

Andrea del Castagno

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Andrea del Sarto

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Andrea della Robbia

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Andrei Tarkovsky

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Wikidata: Andrei Tarkovsky

Anna Magnani

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Antoniazzo Romano

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Antonio Beduzzi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Antonio da Correggio

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Antonio Gherardi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Ariel Agemian

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Artemisia Gentileschi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Source Artemisia Gentileschi (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 1tier 2

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi (US: JEN-til-ESK-ee, -⁠teel-; Italian: [arteˈmiːzja ˈlɔːmi dʒentiˈleski]; 8 July 1593 – after January 1654) was an Italian Baroque painter.

Baccio Baldini

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Baldassare Croce

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Barbara Longhi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bartolo di Fredi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bartolomeo degli Erri

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bartolomeo della Gatta

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bernardino Campi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bernardino Luini

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bernardino Mei

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Bernardo Cavallino

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: a national of this subject.

Showing 1 to 50 of 439 in Nationals Include, page 1 of 9.

Origin Of

Architectural Rationalism

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Baroque Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Cosmatesque

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Etruscan Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

First Romanesque Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Futurist Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikipedia: Futurist architecture

Italian Baroque architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Italian Colonial Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Lombard Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Mannerism

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikipedia

Neoclassical Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Neo-Futurism

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Palladian Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Renaissance Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Roman Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Tendenza

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Venetian Gothic Architecture

Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Venetian Gothic architecture (Wikipedia)Article lead

Quote, Article lead

Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice

Amedeo Modigliani

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Amedeo Modigliani - Wikipedia

Antonio da Correggio

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Antonio da CorreggioBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Correggio (Reggio nell'Emilia province, Emilia-Romagna, Italy) (inhabited place)

Antonio Gherardi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Antonio GherardiBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Rieti (Rieti province, Lazio, Italy) (inhabited place)

Antonio Moscheni

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikipedia: Antonio MoscheniWikipedia sections

Quote, Wikipedia sections

Moscheni was born in Stezzano, Province of Bergamo, Italy

Ballet

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Constantino Brumidi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Constantino Brumidi (Wikipedia)Lead

Quote, Lead

born in Italy to an Italian mother & Greek father

Donatello

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Donatello (Wikipedia)tier 2

Fra Angelico

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Fra Angelico - Wikipedia

Fresco

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Tate: Fresco (Tate Art Terms)Fresco

Quote, Fresco

Developed in Italy from about the thirteenth century and fresco was perfected during the Renaissance.

Giorgione

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Giotto

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Giotto - Wikipedia

Giuseppe Bazzani

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Giuseppe BazzaniBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Mantua (Mantova province, Lombardy, Italy) (inhabited place)

Giuseppe Verdi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikidata: Giuseppe Verdi

Glass Art

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Glass Art (Wikipedia)tier 2

Leonardo da Vinci

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)

Lino Tagliapietra

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Lino TagliapietraBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Murano (Venezia, Venezia province, Veneto, Italy) (suburb)

Luca Signorelli

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Luigi Crosio

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Luigi CrosioBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Alba (Cuneo province, Piedmont, Italy) (inhabited place)

Marcantonio Raimondi

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Marcantonio Raimondi (Wikipedia)Biography

Quote, Biography

born in Argine, near Bologna, Italy

Marco d'Oggiono

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Marco d'OggionoBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Oggiono (Lecco province, Lombardy, Italy) (inhabited place)

Marino Marini

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Michelangelo

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)

Opera

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Birth of Opera (EBSCO Research Starters, History)

Oratorio

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikipediatier 2

Orsola Maddalena Caccia

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Pasquale Cati

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Getty Research Institute: Union List of Artist Names: Pasquale CatiBirth and Death Places

Quote, Birth and Death Places

Born: Belvedere Ostrense (Ancona province, Marches, Italy) (inhabited place)

Piero della Francesca

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Piero della Francesca - Wikipedia

Pietro Perugino

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Sandro Botticelli

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Sandro Botticelli - Wikipedia

Sonata

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Sonata (Wikipedia)tier 2

Umberto Boccioni

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors

Alessandro Cruto

Also in Energy Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikidata: Alessandro Cruto

Alessandro Volta

Also in Energy Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Wikidata: Alessandro Volta

Showing 1 to 50 of 411 in Origin Of, page 1 of 9.

Location Of

Spartacus's Slave Revolt

Also in History Atlas: which took place in this subject.

Unification of Italy

Also in History Atlas: which took place in this subject.

Italian Wars of Independence

Also in War and Military Atlas: which took place in this subject.

Third Servile War

Also in War and Military Atlas: which took place in this subject.