The geography of Italy includes the description of all the physical geographical elements of Italy. Italy, whose territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region, is located in southern Europe and comprises the long, boot-shaped Italian Peninsula crossed by the Apennines, the southern side of Alps, the large plain of the Po Valley and some islands including Sicily and Sardinia. Italy is part of the Northern Hemisphere. Two of the Pelagie Islands are located on the African continent.
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 126 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 472 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2020, around 258,685 people resided in greater Venice or the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 51,000 live in the historical island city of Venice and the rest on the mainland (terraferma). Together with the cities of Padua and Treviso, Venice is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.
Burano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly coloured homes. The primary economy is tourism.
The Brenta is an Italian river that runs from Trentino to the Adriatic Sea just south of the Venetian lagoon in the Veneto region, in the north-east of Italy.
Chuuk Lagoon, previously Truk Atoll, is an atoll in the central Pacific. It lies about 1,800 kilometres northeast of New Guinea and is part of Chuuk State within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). A protective reef, 225 kilometres (140 mi) around, encloses a natural harbour 79 by 50 km, with an area of 2,130 km2 (820 sq mi). It has a land area of 93.07 square kilometres, with a population of 36,158 people and a maximal elevation of 443 metres (1,453 ft). Weno city on Weno Island functions as both the atoll's capital and the state capital, and is the largest city in the FSM with its 13,700 people.
A lazaretto, sometimes lazaret or lazarette, is a quarantine station for maritime travelers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. In some lazarets, postal items were also disinfected, usually by fumigation. This practice was still being done as late as 1936, albeit in rare cases.
Grado is a town and comune (municipality) of 8,064 residents in the Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on an island and adjacent peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste. The territory of the municipality of Grado extends between the mouth of the Isonzo and the Adriatic Sea and the Grado Lagoon, and covers an area of about 90 square kilometers between Porto Buso and Fossalon. Characteristic of the lagoon is the presence of the casoni, which are simple houses with thatched roof used in the past by the fishermen of Grado, who remained in the lagoon for a long time, returning to the island of Grado only during the colder period of the year.
Orbetello is a town and comune in the province of Grosseto (Tuscany), Italy. It is located about 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Grosseto, on the eponymous lagoon, which is home to an important Natural Reserve.
Santa Marina Salina is a comune (municipality) and one of the main towns on Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands. It is situated in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 140 kilometres (87 mi) northeast of Palermo and about 70 kilometres (43 mi) northwest of Messina.
USS Swallow (AM-65) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was the second U.S. Navy ship named after the swallow. Swallow earned two battle stars for World War II service. She was sunk by a kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa on 22 April 1945. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1945.
The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano is a museum in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1838 when naturalist Giuseppe de Cristoforis donated his collections to the city. Its first director was Giorgio Jan.
Jesolo is a seaside resort town and comune of 26,873 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy. With around 5.5 million visitors per year, Jesolo ranks second among beach resorts in the country for number of tourists, and third in terms of nights spent there. It ranks 6th overall as a tourist destination, immediately behind the major cities of Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence. With 204,711.4 visits per thousand inhabitants, it is also one of the 50 Italian towns with the greatest tourist pressure. Its 15 kilometres of beaches and proximity to Central Europe make it a favourite destination of many German, Austrian, Dutch and French visitors.
The Republic of San Marco or the Venetian Republic was an Italian revolutionary state which existed for 17 months in 1848–1849. Based on the Venetian Lagoon, it extended into most of Venetia, or the Terraferma territory of the Republic of Venice, suppressed 51 years earlier in the French Revolutionary Wars. After declaring independence from the Habsburg Austrian Empire, the republic later joined the Kingdom of Sardinia in an attempt, led by the latter, to unite northern Italy against foreign domination. But the First Italian War of Independence ended in the defeat of Sardinia, and Austrian forces reconquered the Republic of San Marco on 28 August 1849 following a long siege.
Barbana is a small island located at the northern end of the Grado Lagoon, near Trieste in north-east Italy. It is the site of the Santuario di Barbana, an ancient Marian shrine, whose origins date back to 582 when Elia, the Patriarch of Aquileia, built a church near the hut of a hermit from Treviso named Barbanus. The island, which can be easily reached by ferry from nearby Grado, is populated by a small community of Franciscan friars.
The Provincial Museum of Torcello is a museum founded at the end of 19th century on the Venetian island of Torcello. It has two sections: the Archaeological Section and the Medieval and Modern Section.
The Tizard Bank, 10°15′N114°30′E is a partially sunken atoll and one of the significant maritime features of the north-western part of the Spratly Islands. It is claimed by Vietnam, China, and Taiwan, and various parts of it are occupied by these states.
Marano Lagoon is a huge lagoon in northeastern Italy. It has a surface area of around 160 square kilometres.
The Metropolitan City of Venice is a metropolitan city in the Veneto region of Italy, one of ten metropolitan cities in Italy. Its capital is the city of Venice. It replaced the province of Venice in 2015 and includes the city of Venice and 43 comuni. It was first created by the reform of local authorities and then established by Law 56/2014.
