Map of Italy with regions and capitals

Regions of Italy and their capitals

Italy is divided into 20 regions, such as Lombardy, Tuscany, Lazio and Sicily. Five of them, Aosta Valley, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily and Sardinia, have special autonomy. Rome, the capital, is in Lazio.

Population from Wikidata (latest figure available for each region).

Blank and coloring maps of Italy

Blank map of Italy

Coloring map of Italy

Geography of Italy

Italy covers 302,068 km² (116,629 sq mi), and mountains shape most of it. The Alps form a high wall along the northern border; Mont Blanc, on the border with France, is the highest point at 4,806 m (15,768 ft). The Apennines run down the whole peninsula like a spine, from Liguria to Calabria. Between the Alps and the Apennines lies the Po Valley, the country's largest plain. Italy also has active volcanoes, including Vesuvius near Naples, Stromboli, and Etna on Sicily, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

The Po, the longest river in Italy, flows east across the northern plain to the Adriatic Sea. Other important rivers are the Adige, the Arno, which passes Florence and Pisa, and the Tiber, which runs through Rome. Large lakes such as Garda, Maggiore and Como fill valleys at the foot of the Alps. The long coastline faces the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic Seas. Most of Italy has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers, while the Po Valley has foggy winters and the Alps are cold and snowy.

Fun facts

• Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Vesuvius buried the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in an eruption in AD 79.
• The small Italian town of Campione d'Italia is an exclave completely surrounded by Switzerland.

Countries bordering Italy

• Austria
• Switzerland
• France
• San Marino
• Slovenia
• Vatican City