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    BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Italy, republic in southern Europe, is on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Most of Italy consists of a boot-shaped peninsula that juts out from southern Europe into the Mediterranean. Italy also includes the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Sicily and many lesser islands.

    Italy is blessed with varied and splendid landscapes, and because of its location most of the country enjoys sunshine and a mild Mediterranean climate.

    Italian nationalism emerged as a powerful force in the 19th century, and a united Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861.

    In 1946, after World War II, the monarchy was abolished and the Italian Republic was established. Since then, Italy has had a succession of governments, dominated during most of that period by the center-right, with the left in opposition.

    Rome is the capital and largest city of Italy, but nearly all of Italy's towns and cities retain artistic treasures and other reminders of Italy's cultural heritage.

    The Italian population consists almost entirely of native-born people, many of whom identify themselves closely with a particular region of Italy. The country can be generally divided into the more urban north (the area from the northern border to the southern part of Rome) and the mostly rural south (everything below this line).

    The more prosperous, industrialized north contains most of Italy's larger cities and about two-thirds of the country's population; the primarily agricultural south has a smaller population base and a more limited economy. In recent decades the population has generally migrated from rural to urban areas; the population was 68 percent urban in 2005.

    The overwhelming majority of the people speak Italian, one of the Romance languages of the Indo-European family of language. German is spoken around Bolzano, in the north near the Austrian border. Other minority languages include French, Ladin, Albanian, and Slovenian. Regional dialects are spoken in some parts of Italy.

    According to the 2001 census, Italy had a population of 56,995,744. The 2007 estimated population is 58,147,733, giving the country an average population density of 198 persons per sq km (about 512 per sq mi). About two-thirds of Italy's people live in towns and cities.

    Italy is bordered by Switzerland and Austria on the north; by Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea, on the east; by the Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, on the south; on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ligurian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea; and on the northwest by France.

    The climate of Italy is highly diversified, with extremes ranging from frigid in the higher elevations of the Alps and Apennines, to semitropical along the coast of the Ligurian Sea and the western coast of the lower peninsula.

    Regional climatic variations on the peninsula result chiefly from the configurations of the Apennines, and are influenced by tempering winds from the adjacent seas. In the lowlands regions and lower slopes of the Apennines bordering the western coast, from northern Tuscany to the vicinity of Rome, winters are mild and sunny, and extreme temperatures are modified by cooling Mediterranean breezes.

    (Agencies)