www.mediterranei.eu 
 diretto da Patrizia Bonelli- patbonelli@katamail.com 
         
                                                                         
         Italy, the Italian Republic
is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the
two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. 

Unification 17 March 1861; Republic 2 June 1946 Accession to the European Union 25 March 1957 (founding member) Area Total 301,318 km² Population 2006 estimate 59,131,287 GDP (PPP) 2007 Total $2.150 billion Per capita $36.359

Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the movement of the Italian Renaissance. Italy's capital Rome has been the center of Western Civilization, and is the center of the Catholic Church.

Today, Italy is a democratic republic, and a developed country with the 7th-highest GDP. Italy is subdivided into 20 regions. It is further divided into 109 provinces (province) and 8,101 municipalities

Economy of Italy

According to GDP calculations, Italy was ranked as the seventh largest economy in the world in 2006, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, China, UK, and France, and the fourth largest in Europe. According to the OECD, in 2004 Italy was the world's sixth-largest exporter of manufactured goods. This economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, and a less developed agricultural south.

Italy has a smaller number of world class multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size. Instead, the country's main economic strength has been its large base of small and medium size companies.

Italy's major exports are motor vehicles (Fiat Group, Aprilia, Ducati, Piaggio), chemicals, petrochemicals and electric goods (Eni, Enel, Edison), aerospace and defence tech (Alenia, Agusta, Finmeccanica), firearms (Beretta) ; but the country's more famous exports are in the fields of fashion (Armani, Valentino, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Benetton, Prada, Luxottica), food industry (Barilla Group, Martini & Rossi, Campari, Parmalat), luxury vehicles (Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Pagani) and motoryachts (Ferretti, Azimut).

Tourism is very important to the Italian economy: with over 37 million tourists a year, Italy is ranked as the fifth major tourist destination in the world