Closest Campings

About Italy

Italy (Italian: Italia) is a large country in Southern Europe. It is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites - art and monuments are everywhere around the country. It is also famous worldwide for its cuisine, its fashion, the luxury sports cars and motorcycles, as well as for its beautiful coasts, lakes and mountains (the Alps and Appennines).

Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory. Campione d'Italia is an Italian enclave in Switzerland.

Regions:

• Abruzzo
• Apulia (Puglia)
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Campania
• Emilia-Romagna
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia
• Lazio - the region located around the capital Rome
• Liguria - home of the Italian Riviera and Cinque Terre
• Lombardy (Lombardia)
• Marche
• Molise
• Piedmont (Piemonte)
• Sardinia (Sardegna)
• Sicily (Sicilia) - the large island located to the south of the Italian peninsula (the "ball" to Italy's "boot")
• Tuscany (Toscana)
• Trentino-Alto Adige
• Umbria - the Italy's green hearth
• Valle d'Aosta
• Veneto

Cities

• Rome - (Roma): the capital, both of Italy and of the ancient Roman empire; centre of the Roman Catholic Church (the Vatican)
• Milan - (Milano) - shares with Paris the title of fashion capital of the world
• Florence - (Firenze): History, art, architecture. Uffizi gallery, David of Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Venice - (Venezia): History, art. Saint Mark's Piazza. The city is built on a lagoon, filled with canals, with no roads for cars. Very poetic and romantic
• Naples - (Napoli) with its famouse gulf and Vesuvius volcano, including Herculaneum and Pompeii
• Genoa - (Genova) a vibrant and historical port city, birth place of Columbus
• Bologna - (Bologna): A major trade fair city.
• Palermo - capital of Sicily
• Siena - a mediaeval town in southern Tuscany
• Verona - a restored Roman coliseum is the stage for modern opera productions
• Turin - (Torino): The first capital of modern Italy. Host of the 2006 Winter Olympics
• Bari - the "Milan of the South," gate to the East
• Bozen - (Bolzano): The capital of the most german-speaking region and home of the Iceman
• Brescia - a vibrating financial and commercial centre, not far from Lago di Garda
• Padua (Padova) - Home of Saint Anthony's cathedral and the second oldest University in the World.
• Pesaro - the city of Rossini
• Pisa - location of the famous Leaning Tower
• Ravenna - also known as the "Capital of Mosaics."
• Rimini - in summer the best place to join young style of life, discotheques and sea.
• Trento - world-famous skiing centre
• Trieste - 100 years of italian history in the city centre

Climate

The climate of the costal regions is a typical Mediterranean climate with mild winters and generally hot and dry summers. Italy and the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia have very changeable weather in autumn, winter, and spring in marked contrast to the settled sunny weather of summer. Disturbed weather can continue into late May and may commence any time after early September. Throughout the winter, however, cloudy rainy days alternate with spells of mild, sunny weather. The least number of rainy days and the highest number of hours of sunshine occur in the extreme south of the mainland and in Sicily and Sardinia. Here sunshine averages from four to five hours a day in winter and up to ten or eleven hours in summer. Generally, the hottest month is July (where temperatures can reach 32°C/34°C); the coldest month is January; the wettest month is November, with an average rainfall of 129mm; while the driest month is July, with an average rainfall of 15mm.

By car

Italy has a well-developed system of highways in the northern side of the country while in the southern it's a bit worse for quality and extension. Every highway is identified by an A followed by a number. Most of the highways (autostrade) are toll roads. Some have toll station giving you access to a section, others have entrance and exit toll stations. Don't lose your entrance ticket or you will be charged for the longest distance (example: if you are on A1 Milano-Napoli at Milan toll station you'll be charged for the entire 700km distance). All toll stations accept major credit cards as well as pre-paid card (Viacard) you can buy at tobacconist, Autogrill, gas stations.

Policemen sometimes read your ticket at the toll station to see how long you took since joining the autoroute: they can use that info to give you a speeding ticket. Even if speeding is very common on Italian Highways, be aware that there are a number of automatic and almost invisible system to punish speeding and hazardous driving. If you don't know the road very well you should probably keep a reasonable speed. A good clue of a nearby check system is when cars around you suddenly reduce speed. If you see a lot of cars keeping themselves just under the limit and nobody overtaking, you'd better do the same.

Speed limits are: 

• 130 km/h on highways (autostrade); 
• 110 km/h on freeways (superstrade); 
• 90 km/h on single-lane roads; 
• 50 km/h inside cities.

Italian laws allow a 5% tolerance on local speed limit. Fines are generally very expensive.

Drink and driving is a controversial issue. The tolerated limit is 0.50g/L in blood, being above this limit is thus illegal and can entitle you an expensive fine and licence withdraw and maybe also a night in jail, but you'll find that people of every age are not significantly worried for that and there's nothing such designated driver or else. All passengers are required to wear their seat belt and children under 10 must use the back seat. Unless clearly posted on the road you are using, you are supposed to yield to any vehicle coming from your right from another public thoroughfare. Signposts used in Italy are patterned according to EU recommendations and use mostly pictograms (not text) but there are minor differences (example: highways directions are written on green background while the white stands for local roads and blue for the remaining).

Modified: 19.02.2007 19:07:57 CET
Source: http://wikitravel.org/en/Italy

Image Gallery

ESTATE SOFT. Autor: *DANILO AGNAIOLI*	Castello di San Giuliano Autor: Roberto Brencio
Campagna umbra - Inverno Autor: Stefano Gasparotto	Piccolo Borgo Autor: *DANILO AGNAIOLI*