Nature

The boot of Italy, which stretches 1 300km/808mi from north to south, juts out into the Mediterranean between Greece and Spain. The country’s relief rises from great swathes of plain that cover about a quarter of its total area of 301 262sq km/ 116 317sq mi. Its coastline (almost 7 500km/4 660mi long) is washed by four inner seas: the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic.