About
Italy is located in southern Europe and comprises the long, boot-shaped Italian Peninsula, the land between the peninsula and the Alps, and a number of islands including Sicily and Sardinia (Corsica, although belonging to the Italian geographical region, has been a part of France since 1769). Its total area is 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), of which 294,020 km2 (113,520 sq mi) is land and 7,210 km2 is water (2,784 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 35° and 48° N, and longitudes 6° and 19° E.
Italy borders with Switzerland (740 km/460 mi), France (488 km/303 mi), Austria (430 km/270 mi) and Slovenia (232 km/144 mi). San Marino (39 km/24 mi) and Vatican city (0.44 km/0.27 mi) are enclaves.
Including islands, Italy has a coastline of 7,600 kilometres (4,700 mi) on the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Sea.
