Italy (geographical region)

The borders of the Italian Republic in black, the borders of the Italian geographical region in red

The Italian geographic region, Italian physical region or Italian region is a geographical region[1] of Southern Europe delimited to the north by the mountain chains of the Alps. This subregion is composed of a peninsular and continental part and an insular part. Located between the Balkan Peninsula and the Iberian Peninsula, it protrudes into the centre of the Mediterranean Sea and overlooks the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Ligurian Sea, the Sardinian Channel, the Sea of Corsica, the Sea of Sardinia, the Strait of Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Italian geographic region,[2][3] in its traditional and most widely accepted extent, has an area of approximately 324,000 square kilometres (125,000 sq mi),[2] which is greater than the area of the entire Italian Republic (301,230 square kilometres (116,310 sq mi)). The region also includes territories that are sovereign parts of Croatia, France, Slovenia, and Switzerland, as well as the four small sovereign states of the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of San Marino, and the Vatican City State (the Holy See).[4]

  1. ^ "Italia", Dizionario enciclopedico italiano (in Italian), vol. VI, Treccani, 1970, p. 413
  2. ^ a b De Agostini Ed., L'Enciclopedia Geografica - Vol.I - Italia, 2004, p. 78
  3. ^ Mauri, A., La presentazione di una storia delle frontiere orientali italiane: una occasione per riflettere sulle determinanti storiche, economiche e geopolitiche dei confini, Working Paper n. 2007-41, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2007
  4. ^ "Archives historiques de la Suisse italienne" ("Archivio Storico della Svizzera Italiana"), Volumes 9-11, Université de Californie, 1934