Giorgio Napolitano
President of the Republic of Italy
Silvio Berlusconi
President of the Council of Ministers
The Italian Republic is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.
Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the university and of the Renaissance, that began in Tuscany and spread all over Europe. Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the center of Western civilization; it also spawned the Baroque movement and is the seat of the Catholic Church.
According to GDP calculations, Italy was ranked as the seventh-largest economy in the world in 2006, also inin 2004 Italy was the world's sixth-largest exporter of manufactured goods.
This economy remains divided into a developed industrial north dominated by private companies and a less-developed agricultural south. According to World Bank data, Italy has high levels of freedom to invest, do business, and trade.
Italy's major exports are motor vehicles, chemicals, petrochemicals, electricity, home appliances, aerospace and defense, but the country's more famous exports are in the fields of fashion, food industry, luxury vehicles and motoryachts. Also tourism is very important to the Italian economy: with over 43.7 million tourists a year, Italy is ranked as the fifth major tourist destination in the world.
Tower of Pisa: Tuscany, Italy