Italy.

Italy. The kingdom of Italy comprises the central of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe (excepting the small republic of San Marino, q.v.), together with Sicily, Sardinia, and some smaller islands. Knit to the solid mass of central Europe by the Apennines, the peninsula projects south-eastward into the Mediterranean like a magnet, drawing to itself in ancient times the lordship and commerce of the whole sea, and serving as the avenue by which the culture of the East was carried into northern and western Europe. At the Strait of Otranto Italy approaches within less than 50 miles of Albania. The boundaries of the peninsula are on the W. and S. that portion of the Mediterranean known as the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the E. the Adriatic; on the N. the Alps stretch from the head of the Adriatic to the Riviera, and almost without a break shut in the kingdom from Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, and France. The peninsula itself extends from $46^\{\backslash circ\}\; 40\text{'}\; 12\text{'}\text{'}$ N. lat. (Monte Trugnoni in the Carnian Alps) to the southernmost point of Calabria, an unnamed headland in $37^\{\backslash circ\}\; 54\text{'}\; 54\text{'}\text{'}$ N. lat., or 24" farther south than Cape Spartivento. The extreme eastern point is the Cape of Otranto, $18^\{\backslash circ\}\; 30\text{'}\; 37\text{'}\text{'}$ E. long., and the western Monte Tabor, $6^\{\backslash circ\}\; 33\text{'}\; 7\text{'}\text{'}$ E. Its greatest length in a direct line is 710 miles; the breadth ranges from 351 miles in the north to about 20 between the Gulfs of Sta Eufemia and Squillace, but in most places is about 90 or 100 miles. The seaboard of the peninsula extends to 2272 miles, that of the islands to 1944 miles; in 1890 the frontier with France was returned at 307 miles, with Switzerland at 407 miles, and with Austria at 466 miles.

The area of the kingdom of Italy was formerly given officially as 114,416 sq. m., but the data on which this estimate was based were known to be inexact. Strelbitsky, in his Superficie de l'Europe (1882), made the area 111,410 sq. m.; his calculations were revised by the Italian Military Geographical Institute in 1884, and the total area of the kingdom was still further reduced to 110,657 sq. m., made up as follows: Continental and peninsular Italy, with the small islands embraced in its administration, 91,422 sq. m.; Sicily and the islands administratively dependent on it, 9939 sq. m.; Sardinia and the islets near it, 9296 sq. m. These are the official figures for the entire kingdom; but as yet no detailed survey has been accomplished, and the areas given for the provinces in the table below are those obtained by Strelbitsky's calculations. At the first general census of the kingdom, in 1871, the population was 26,801,154. The table gives the population actually present at the census of December 31, 1881 (density 257 per sq. m.); in 1895 the estimated population was 30,913,670. The number of foreigners in Italy at the time of the census of 1881 was 59,956, including 16,092 Austrians, 12,104 Swiss, 10,781 French, and 7302 British. The Italian population includes in Piedmont about 120,000 of French, and some 3000 of Teutonic origin, in Southern Italy at least 60,000 of Albanian and 20,000 of Greek origin, and in Sardinia 7000 or 8000 of Spanish origin. (A list of the pretty numerous places in the Neapolitan and Sicilian provinces where Albanian, an Italianised Modern Greek, Gallo-Italic, Provencal, and Illyrian are still in use as 'linguistic islands,' will be found in a paper contributed by Prince Lucien Bonaparte to the Philological Society, March 1890.) The estimated population at the end of 1889 (see table) was 30,947,306; but this is based solely on the difference between births and deaths, and takes no account of emigration. Within the eight years 1882-89, 791,404 persons left Italy for different parts of America, as many as 113,066 emigrating in 1889 alone. In 1888 the United States received 47,856; Argentina, 75,029; Brazil, 104,353. Of the 1881 population 501 in every 1000 were males. In the accompanying table the old compartimenti or groups of provinces are retained for convenience, although they are no longer recognised as administrative divisions. The area is nearly that of Great Britain and Ireland; the population about four-fifths that of the United Kingdom at the same date. To the kingdom proper must be added Italy's colonial possession in Africa. This consists of the territories of Assab and Massowah (q.v.), on the Red Sea, Keren and Asmara in Abyssinia, and the Dahlak archipelago, which embrace a total area of nearly 4000 sq. m., and were united into a colony bearing the name of Eritrea in 1889. Moreover, Italy established a protectorate for some distance inland from Massowah, and along the coast from Ras Kasar (18° 2' N.) to beyond Assab, and till the disastrous events of 1896 claimed to have established a protectorate over Abyssinia.

The towns with a population of over 100,000 in 1881 were Naples, 463,172; Milan, 295,543; Rome, 273,268; Turin, 230,183; Palermo, 205,712; Genoa, 138,081; Florence, 134,992; Venice, 129,445; and Bologna, 103,998. In 1895 the estimated populations were: Naples, 523,000; Rome, 453,000; Milan, 433,000; Turin, 336,000; Palermo, 277,000; Genoa, 217,000; Florence, 200,000; Venice, 150,000; Messina, 147,000; Bologna, 142,000. The seat of government was at Turin from 1861 to 1865, then at Florence till 1870, since which date Rome has been the capital of the kingdom.

Physical Features.—The configuration of continental Italy (for the islands, see SARDINIA and SICILY) may be easily explained; in the peninsular portion it is determined mainly by the great chain of the Apennines. It is usual with geographers to divide the country into Northern, Central, and Southern Italy, the middle section generally being taken to extend between Spezia and Cape Circeolo on the west coast and Rimini and Monte Gargano on the east coast. This division, however, especially as regards its southern boundary, is purely arbitrary, and it will be more convenient in this article, while retaining the terms commonly in use, to describe the country under the two divisions into which physically it falls—the great plain of Northern Italy, and the generally mountainous peninsula to the south.

On the northern frontier the Alps sweep round in a mighty arc from Nice to Trieste, running out in places into Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venice. For the most part they rise steep and abrupt, except where their wall is pierced by long, deep valleys; and some of the loftiest peaks in the system, including Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, belong to this mountain-girdle. The highest mountain entirely within the kingdom is Gran Paradiso (13,652 feet), the culminating point of the Graian Alps, in Piedmont. Between the Alps and the Apennines spreads the broad fertile Lombardo-Venetian plain, a nearly level country, which differs altogether in character from the peninsula to the south, and for a long period was politically distinct from it. Most of this great