PLACE Essays - Italy, Southern Europe, Italians, Apennine Mountains

PLACE Italy covers 116,320 sq. mi. (301,268 km). Italy lies in southern Europe on the Mediterranean sea. It borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Yugoslavia. The Alps form Italy's northern and northwestern border. The Apennines occupy the center of Italy's boot-shape peninsula. The highest elevation is 15,521 ft. 58,167,000 people live in Italy. Central and southern Italy have hot summers and mild winters. Northern Italy has a slightly cooler summer than the rest of the country. But it is much cooler in the winter time than the rest of the country. HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION People in Italy wear many different types of clothing. In central and southern Italy people wear short and long sleeves shirts and short and long pants. In northern Italy they wear long sleeve shirts and long pants and wear heavy jackets. The natural resources that the people mine are natural gas, marble, granite, feldspar, pumice, and sulfur. Many people come to Italy for shopping, fine food, and great sking. MOVEMENT There are many ways to get around Italy. Train, bus, car, boat, and airplane. Train is the best way to get around Italy. It's convenient, cheap, and fast. The original setters came from the Holy Roman Empire. REGION Vegetation in Italy is very large. Many different tress grow hear. Olive, orange, lemon, palm, fig, date, pomegranate, and almond are just a few of them. Italy has fewer varieties of animals than of plants. Some animals found in Italy are marmot, chamois, ibex, boar, wolf, bear, snakes, lizards, quail, woodcock, and partridge. The most common animal found in Italy is the bird. Also the scorpion is found here too. 98% of people in Italy speak Italian the rest speak German, French, and Slovene. HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE The type of government that Italy has is Parliamentary democracy. The president holds office for 7 years. Parliament has two houses- the Chamber of Deputies (630 members) and the Senate (315 members). Hear are some important dates in the history of Italy. 800 Pope Leo the 3rd crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans. 1300 The Renaissance began in Italy. 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte seized Italy for France. 1870 Rome became a part of Italy. 1871 Rome became the capital of Italy. 1915-1918 Italy fought on the Allies' side in World War 1. 1940 Italy entered World War 2. 1980 An earthquake struck killing more than 4,500. SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY 95% of the religion in Italy is Roman Catholic. Only 30% of Italians attend church regularly. Italy is rich with art, music, and literature. There are many famous paintings and sculptures in Italy. ECONOMICS Italy ?s agriculture grows grapes, wheat, beef, cattle, hogs, olives, corn, oranges, and tomatoes. They manufacturer clothing, shies, foods, beverages, motor vehicles, petroleum products, machinery, and chemicals. Italy makes 596,995,000,000 a year. Italy exports 157,102,000,000 a year. They import 158,181,000,000 a year. LOCATION 11 degrees east longitude and 45 degrees north latitude.