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The miracle of Italy is that all its treasures come packaged in a gorgeous country of majestic mountains, placid lakes, idyllic islands, splendid cities and wonderful walled villages. An ideal climate plus warm and gracious people make Italy a perfect destination for an active vacation, the art lover, the gourmand, the hedonist combined, why not, with business. Doing nothing is not easy! For active holidaymakers, Italy features a wide variety of distraction to choose from, when you want to gain new strength and energy from your adventures and activities. Old castles and modern hotels, magnificent villas and beautiful holiday resorts - Italy offers a wide choice of prestigious localities and venues, all fully equipped, for a perfect combination of work and pleasure.
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The great artistic legacy of Italy, unequalled anywhere in the world, is not only distributed throughout the major cities and their famous museums; one can say in truth that there is no Italian city, Do you want to tailor yourself a different vacation? Italy offers a variety of opportunities. Why don't try your hands at pottery or blowing glass? Why not experience ancient music classes or test yourself in cooking or learning Italian? And a lot more... however modest, which does not contain and cherish some share of this wealth of art. Indeed, many of them can be considered real treasures - so beautiful and valuable are the works they contain. The artistic riches of Italy's main cities have already been described.
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| Land area: |
113,521 sq mi (294,019 sq km)
Total area: 116,306 sq mi (301,230 sq km)
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Population :
(2006 est.) |
58,133,509 (growth rate: 0.0%)
Birth rate: 8.7/1000
Infant mortality rate: 5.8/1000
Life expectancy: 79.8
Density per sq mi: 512
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Capital and largest city:
(2003 est.) |
Rome, 3,550,900 (metro. area), 2,455,600 (city proper) |
| Other large cities: |
Milan, 1,180,700
Naples, 991,700
Turin, 856,000
Palermo, 651,500
Genoa, 602,500
Bologna, 369,300
Florence, 351,600
Bari, 311,900
Catania, 305,900
Venice, 265,700
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| Monetary unit: |
Euro (formerly lira) |
| Languages: |
Italian (official); German-, French-, and Slovene-speaking minorities
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| Ethnicity/race: |
Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian- and Greek-Italians in the south)
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| Religions: |
Roman Catholic approx. 90%, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic
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Literacy rate:
(2003 est.) |
99%
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