HISTORY OF ITALY During the Middle Ages Italy would become a patchwork of city-states fought each other for

hegemony over the rest , with frequent interventions surrounding powers and the Church . In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries became the cultural center of Europe , giving rise to the Renaissance and was one of the areas in which European supremacy was decided Spanish Empire . After the decline of the Spanish monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would control the region. Transformed into a battlefield during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic First Empire , would fight for their independence. Between 1856 and 1870 he held the Unification of Italy after a series of wars that involved face the Austrian Empire and the Papal States . Later , Italy carried out imperialist policies that led her to participate in World War I on the side of the Entente 's invasion of Abyssinia and to participate in World War II as an ally of Hitler. Throughout its three millennia of history , artists have been chief , strategists , soldiers, legislators , administrators, builders of temples, roads and cities unmistakable for its classic features , navigators, merchants , bankers , philosophers and poets , and have given the Church some of its greatest popes and saints. This paper is an attempt to make available to our communities in Argentina and all who want to have a general idea of what was and is Italy a complete synthetic text , although, of course , by no means exhaustive . "

Geography Italy limits are marked by physical elements : the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the Strait of Sicily in the south, the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Alps in the north ( but in the central part border line serves water separation , Switzerland extends along the southern canton of Ticino in ) . The Italian territory includes the two small states of San Marino and the Vatican and has an enclave in Switzerland , Campione city on the shores of Lake Lugano . The Italian territory is very uneven : 23 % just is plain, the mountains are the 35 % and 42 % the hills. Two major mountain ranges give its structure: the Alps in the north, with the highest peak of Mont Blanc country with 4810 m ( if one considers that the Mont Blanc is part of Italy) , and the Apennines ranging from Ligurian coast to Reggio Calabria. A single large floodplain : the Po plain , approximately 45,000 km . Located in the line of contact of European and African plates , Italy is subject to earthquakes and has four volcanoes : Etna , Vesuvius , Vulcano and Stromboli (the latter two in the Tyrrhenian Sea )

The relief shows four regional units : Alpine System Po plain (or Po Valley ) industry articulated by the Apennine peninsula island lands The foothills of the Alps has long and deep valleys , with numerous lakes : Garda ( 370 km ) , Mayor, Como, Iseo . South of the Alps , between them and the Apennines , lies the plain of the Po ( the longest river in the country, with 652 km in length) , graben filled by sedimentary deposits provided by the rivers descending from the Apennines and especially of the Alps ( Adigio, 410 km; Piave ) , and the plain avenan opens the Adriatic Sea on the NE coast of Italy. The remaining Italian plains , while numerous, are of small size , and are preferentially located in the Tyrrhenian coast , formed by major rivers ( Arno , Tiber ) or coastal plains ( Maremma , Pontine Agro ) .

Historical CITIES Italy Pricipales I. Colosseum:

II. Fontana di Trevi:

III. Historic Ensemble of Pisa:

IV. Florence:

V. The Roman Forum:

VI. St. Peter's Basilica:

VII. Valley of Temples:

VIII. Castle Maschio angioino:

IX. St Marcos's Basilica: (Venice)

X. pantheon