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Italy (Italian: Italia [i'ta:lja] ), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana [re'pubblika ita'lja:na]), is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy is located in south-central Europe, and it is also considered a part of Western Europe. The country covers a total area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian Sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union. The capital and largest city is Rome; other major cities are Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna, Florence and Venice.

Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout what is now modern-day Italy, the most predominant being the Indo-European Italic peoples who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era, Phoenicians and Carthaginians founded colonies mostly in insular Italy, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia of Southern Italy, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively. An Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed. Italy remained the homeland of the Romans and the metropole of the empire, whose legacy can also be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments, Christianity and the Latin script.

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Raphael, The Betrothal of the Virgin

Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.

The city of Florence in Tuscany is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and in particular of Renaissance painting, although later in the era Rome and Venice assumed increasing importance in painting. A detailed background is given in the companion articles Renaissance art and Renaissance architecture. Read more...

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Youth of Moses by Sandro Botticelli, 1481-82, Sistine Chapel
View of Piazzetta San Marco toward Grand Canal of Venice, at dawn, with Doges' Palace on the left and Biblioteca Marciana on the right.
South face of the Tofana di Rozes in the Parco naturale regionale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo
The Forma Urbis Romae is a massive marble map of ancient Rome, created under the emperor Septimius Severus between 203 and 211.
Interior of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome
Sellajoch, South Tyrol and Trentino (seen from Pordoi Pass), Langkofel on the left, Piz Ciavazes on the right
Porta Soprana is the best-known gate of the ancient walls of Genoa.
Dome of Florence Cathedral
A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo

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...that Poliphilo, the main character in the Renaissance book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was said to have felt "extreme delight," "incredible joy," and "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy" when he saw the buildings depicted in the book?

...the famous biblical period movies Pier Paolo Pasolini’s "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (1964), Bruce Beresford’s "King David" (1985) and Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" (2004) were filmed in Matera?

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A mosaic depicting a banquet during a hunting trip from the Late Roman Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily

Ancient Roman cuisine changed greatly over the duration of the civilization's existence. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and the empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new provincial culinary habits and cooking methods.

In the beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not great, but disparities developed with the empire's growth. Read more...

List of fare/cuisine articles
Italian cuisine Pizza Ancient Roman cuisine Pasta Roman cuisine Parmigiano-Reggiano Sicilian cuisine Mozzarella Fettuccine Alfredo Acquacotta Carbonara Gelato Marron glacé Minestrone Pizza di Pasqua Chianti Food and dining in the Roman Empire Espresso Italian wine Testaroli Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale

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The following are images from various Italy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Italian Lombard kingdom (781-1014).
Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero of Italian unification.
Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols, Bolsena, Italy, 700-650 BCE. Louvre Museum.
the Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., reflects the president's admiration for classical Roman aesthetics.
Physician attire for protection from the Bubonic plague or Black death, 1656.
Italian states in 1494.
Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy's finest red wines, made around the town of Montalcino from a Sangiovese variant known locally as Brunello.
The historic seat of the Corriere della Sera in via Solferino in Milan.
The espresso comes from the Italian esprimere, which means "to express," and refers to the process by which hot water is forced under pressure through ground coffee.
Palazzo della Carovana, the current seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
The Colosseum in Rome, built in the 1st century.
Benito Mussolini during the March on Rome in 1922.
Alcide De Gasperi, Prime Minister 1945-53, is revered as a founding father of modern Italy and Europe.
Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan (painting by Tranquillo Cremona, 1863).
David, by Michelangelo (Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy) is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art.
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, the first Prime Minister in the history of Italy.
Federico Fellini, considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century.
The Capitoline Wolf sculpture in the Capitoline Museums. According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf.
Italian states (1815-1859).
Ancient Greek colonies and their dialect groupings in Southern Italy.
  NW Greek
  Achaean
  Doric
  Ionian
Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy for almost ten years between 1994 and 2011.
"Italophone" world.
  Official language.

  Secondary, widely spoken or understood.

  Understood by some due to former colonisation.
Map of Etruscan civilisation.
Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic, elected on 3 February 2015.
Imperial ambitions of Fascist Italy in Europe, 1936.
Alessandro Manzoni, one of Italy's greatest 19th-century writers.
Official portrait of Benito Mussolini.
Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was murdered a few days after he openly denounced Fascist violence during the 1924 elections.
St. Peter's Basilica is the world's largest Christian church. It is the second church to stand above the crypt (tomb) believed to hold the body of Saint Peter, the first pope.
Giants of Mont'e Prama, Sardinia, Italy, early 1st millennium BCE.
The discovery of the New World by Christoper Columbus.
Ötzi the oldest mummy in the world discovered in the southern Alps (region of Trentino-Alto Adige) with extremely sophisticated equipment to that time. 4th millennium BCE.
Venetian dessert tiramisù.
Expansion of the territory known as Italy and the nearby islands from the establishment of the Roman Republic until Diocletian.
Mussolini and Hitler in June 1940.
The Creation of Adam is one of the scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo sometime between 1508 and 1512.
Italy today.
A chocolate gelato ice cream dessert.
Italian prisoners in El Alamein, November 1942.
Etruscan fresco, 5th century BCE.
Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His epic poem The Divine Comedy ranks among the finest works of world literature.
Antonio Meucci, c.1880, inventor of the first telephone
Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons
Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential architect in the Western world.
Antonio Canova's Venus Victrix.
This mosaic depicts some of the Gladiators entertainments that would have been offered at the games.
Aragonese Castle in Reggio Calabria
Italy and the Habsburg Empire in 1547.
The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire.
Greek temple of Hera, Selinunte, Sicily.
William Shakespeare is an example of an Italophile of the 16th century.
The Roman Empire provided an inspiration for the medieval European. Although the Holy Roman Empire rarely acquired a serious geopolitical reality, it possessed great symbolic significance.
Milan Cathedral is the fourth-largest church in the world.
Petroglyph in Valcamonica, Lombardy, the largest collection of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world (10th millennium BCE).
Residents of Fiume cheering D'Annunzio and his Legionari, September 1919. At the time, Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.
Italian unification.
Fresco of dancing Peucetian women in the Tomb of the Dancers in Ruvo di Puglia, 4th-5th century BCE
A Ferrari SF70H by Scuderia Ferrari, the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team.
Italian irredentism map.
The Battle of Bitonto by Giovanni Luigi Rocco
Giuseppe Verdi, one of Italy's greatest opera composers. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini.
Carmine Crocco
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, possibly one of the most famous and iconic examples of Italian art
From left to right, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano at the signing of Munich Agreement.
Umberto II, the last King of Italy, was exiled to Portugal.
Neapolitan pizza Margherita.
The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello (ca. 1438-40).
Spanish Republican poster against the Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War, reading "The claw of the Italian invader intends to enslave us."
Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana Store on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest painters and most versatile geniuses in history.
Rai Radio 1.
Mussolini reviewing adolescent soldiers, late 1944.
The celebration of the Azzurri for the first victory (of four) in the 1934 World football championship
Giuseppe Mazzini.
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world and one of the "Big Three" alongside Cannes and Berlin
the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
A Prada shop in Singapore.
Italy's Naval Jack, featuring the coats of arms of the four major Maritime Republics. Clockwise from upper left: Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi.
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is an Italian art masterpiece worldwide famous
Emirate of Sicily (831-1072).
Italian kingdom in 1919.
Italian cavalry in Trento on 3 November 1918, after the victorious Battle of Vittorio Veneto. Italy's victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and contributed to the end of World War I just one week later.
Sheets with the iconic picture of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, exposed as a sign of protest against Italian Mafia. They read: "You did not kill them: their ideas walk on our legs".
Iron Age hut foundations on the Palatine Hill considered to be the Casa Romuli, the reputed dwelling-place of Romulus.
The Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, which has the biggest brick dome in the world, and is considered a masterpiece of Italian architecture and world architecture.
The signing ceremony of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957, creating the EEC, forerunner of the present-day EU.
Italian kingdom in 1861.
The Pompeii Lakshmi, an ivory statuette from the Indian subcontinent found in the ruins of Pompeii. The Indo-Roman trade relations, beginning around the 1st century BCE, testifies to extensive Roman trade in far away regions.
Italy has been a home for innovation in science in the centuries since Galileo formulated his theories of planetary movement.
The Uffizi.
Pasta with pesto sauce.
Commedia dell'arte troupe Gelosi in a late 16th-century Flemish painting.
Pinocchio Disney film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio.
the EUR in Rome is a perfect example of modern Italian architecture
Michelangelo's David, one of the symbols of Italian Renaissance.
the Arch of Constantine in Rome.
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, ca. 1482-85.
Chiostro of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
A 1905 Fiat advertisement.
Florence Cathedral, Arnolfo di Cambio, campanile by Giotto dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Fiat 600, iconic middle-class dream car and status symbol of the 1950-60s.
Insurgents celebrating the liberation of Naples after the Four days of Naples (27-30 September 1943).
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence
The Vitruvian man by Leonardo da Vinci, representing the ideal human proportions as described by Roman architect Vitruvius, is a quintessential masterpiece of the Renaissance.
The Roman Empire at its greatest extent under Trajan in CE 117.
Attack of the far-right terrorist group NAR at the Bologna railway station on 2 August 1980, which caused the death of 85 people.
The Redipuglia War Memorial of Redipuglia, resting place of 100,000 Italian soldiers. More than 650,000 died on the battlefields of World War I. The total deaths for Italy amounted to 1,240,000.
Italy and the nearby islands in the 1st century BCE.
Italian states in 1796.
Pyramid of Monte d'Accoddi is an archaeological site in northern Sardinia, Italy, located in the territory of Sassari near Porto Torres. 4th millennium BCE.
Regional seat of RAI in Cosenza.
Galileo Galilei, the founder of modern experimental science.
Su Nuraxi nuraghe, Sardinia, Italy, 2nd millennium BCE.
The Roman Forum, the commercial, cultural, and political center of the city and the Republic which housed the various offices and meeting places of the government.
Maximum extent of the Italian Empire.