Area: 301,337 square kilometres
Population: 58.5 milion
Population density: 194/sq.k.
Capital: Roma (Rome) (2,553,873 inhabitants)
Other important cities:
Milano (Milan) (1,299,439)
Napoli (Naples) (995,171)
Torino (Turin) (902,255) - Palermo (675,084)
Genova (Genoa) (605,084) - Bologna (374,425)
Firenze (Florence) (368,059) - Bari (328,458)
Catania (305,773) – Venezia (Venice) (271,251)
Verona (259,068)
Other important statistics:
Provinces: 109
Woodland: 65,558 sq.k
Coastline: 7,375 km
Protected areas: 57,325 sq.k
Highest peak: Monte Bianco (4,810 m)
Longest river: Po (652 km)
Source: ISTAT (www.istat.it)
Currency: Euro € (see page 9)
LANGUAGE: ITALIAN IS THE OFFICIAL

LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY.
Both Italian and German are official in the South Tyrol Province; both Italian and French are official in the Aosta Valley region. Other languages, though not really official, are spoken by some small local communities: e.g. Albanian in some parts of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria; Catalan in Sardinia (area of Alghero). Owing to the extreme complexity of Italian history every region has one or even more dialects. In some cases great writers and poets have written in their dialects, exceptional works which can be compared to the very best literature in Italian.
Carlo Goldoni wrote his plays in Venetian; the celebrated trio of Roman poets, Pascarella, Trilussa and Belli used, of course, the “Romanesco”; Pier Paolo Pasolini mastered both his native “Friulano” and the “Romanesco”; Eduardo de Filippo, Salvatore di Giacomo and many song lyricists wrote in “Neapolitan”; Carlo Porta in “Milanese”; today the best follower of this tradition is arguably the Sicilian Andrea Camilleri.

TIME
In terms of standard time zones, Italy is one hour ahead of UK time. Summer time in Italy comes into effect each year from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October.