There is a great deal of variety in the landscape of Italy, although it is characterised predominantly by two mountain chains: the Alps and the Apennines. The former extends over 600 miles from east to west. It consists of great massifs in the western sector, with peaks rising to over 14,000 feet, including Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc), Monte Rosa and Cervino (the Matterhorn). The height of the chain is lower in the eastern sector, although the mountains are still of an extraordinary beauty (the Dolomites). At the foot of the Alpine arc stretches the vast Po Valley plain, cut down the middle by the course of the river Po, the longest in Italy (390 miles), which has its source in the Pian de Re (Monviso) and flows into the Adriatic through a magnificent delta. The Alpine foothills are characterised by large lakes: Lake Maggiore and the lakes of Como, Iseo and Garda.
The Apennines form the backbone of the peninsula, stretching in a wide arc concave to the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Corno Grande (Gran Sasso d’Italia) is the highest peak. A large part of central Italy is characterised by a green hilly landscape with lakes such as Trasimeno, Bolsena and Bracciano through which the rivers Arno and Tiber run. The southern section of the chain pushes out to the east forming the Gargano promontory and, sloping down further south, the Salentine peninsula. It then proceeds to the west with the Calabrian and Peloritano massif stretching across the Strait of Messina into Sicily.

VOLCANOES: Mount Etna - active (in Sicily between Catania and Messina, altitude 3323 metres); Vesuvio (in Campania near Naples, 1281 metres); Stromboli – active (Aeolian Islands, 924 metres); Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, 391 metres).

The Cities
Lakes
Mountains
Seas
Spas