Italy travel deals include Italy tour packages for Rome travel. The migrations of Indo-European peoples into Italy probably began about 2000 B.C. and continued down to 1000 B.C. From about the 9th century B.C. until it was overthrown by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C., the Etruscan civilization dominated the area. By 264 B.C. all Italy south of Cisalpine Gaul was under the leadership of Rome. For the next seven centuries, until the barbarian invasions destroyed the western Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., the history of Italy is largely the history of Rome. From 800 on, the Holy Roman Emperors, Roman Catholic popes, Normans, and Saracens all vied for control over various segments of the Italian peninsula.

Italy, slightly larger than Arizona, is a long peninsula shaped like a boot, surrounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the east by the Adriatic. It is bounded by France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia to the north. The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula's backbone; the Alps form its northern boundary. The largest of its many northern lakes is Garda (143 sq mi; 370 sq km); the Po, its principal river, flows from the Alps on Italy's western border and crosses the Lombard plain to the Adriatic Sea. Several islands form part of Italy; the largest are Sicily (9,926 sq mi; 25,708 sq km) and Sardinia (9,301 sq mi; 24,090 sq km).

113,521 sq mi (294,019 sq km); total area: 116,306 sq mi (301,230 sq km)

58,133,509 (growth rate: 0.0%); birth rate: 8.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.8/1000; life expectancy: 79.8; density per sq mi: 512

Rome, 3,550,900 (metro. area), 2,455,600 (city proper)

Milan, 1,180,700; Naples, 991,700; Turin, 856,000; Palermo, 651,500; Genoa, 602,500; Bologna, 369,300; Florence, 351,600; Bari, 311,900; Catania, 305,900; Venice, 265,700

Italian (official); German-, French-, and Slovene-speaking minorities

Euro (formerly lira)

Roman Catholic approx. 90%, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic

99% (2003 est.)

Fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish.

Coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorospar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land.

Required by all except the following for stays of up to 90 days.
(a) nationals of countries referred to in the chart above.
(b) nationals of Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong (SAR), Israel, Korea (Rep), Macau (SAR), Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Switzerland, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.