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Italy is located in southern Europe and comprises the long, boot-shaped Italian Peninsula, the land between the peninsula
and the Alps, and a number of islands including Sicily and Sardinia. Its total area is 301,230 km², of which 294,020 km²
is land and 7,210 km² is water. Including islands, Italy has a coastline of 7,600 km on the Adriatic,
Ionian, Tyrrhenian (740 km), France (488 km), Austria (430 km), Slovenia (232 km)and Switzerland. San
Marino (39 km) and the Vatican City (3.2 km), both entirely surrounded by Italy, account for the remainder. Italy
is a mountainous country, with the Alps as the northern boundary and the Apennine Mountains forming the backbone of the peninsula,
but in between the two lies a large plain in the valley of the Po, the largest river in Italy, which flows 652 km (405
miles) eastward from the Cottian Alps to the Adriatic. Most of Italy's rivers drain either into the Adriatic Sea (like
Po, Piave, Adige, Reno) or into the Thyrrenian (like Arno, Tiber and Volturno), though the waters from some border municipalities
(Livigno in Lombardy, Innichen and Toblach in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) drain into the Black Sea through the basin
of the Danube, and the waters from the Lago di Lei in Lombardy drain into the North Sea through the basin of the Rhine. In
the north of the country are a number of subalpine lakes, the largest of which is Garda (370 km², 143 sq mi). Several
islands form part of Italy. The largest are Sicily(25,708 km², 9,926 square miles) and Sardinia (24,090 km²,
9,301 sq mi). There are also a few active volcanoes in Italy: Etna, the largestactive volcano in Europe; Vulcano; Stromboli;
and Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe.
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