Italy's Official Name is: Italian Republic.

Passport/Visa Requirements: Passport needed by citizens of the U.S. and Canada. A tourist visa is not required for a visit of up to three months. Reconfirm travel document requirements with your carrier before departure.

Capital: Rome.

Population: 59,150,000.

Languages: Italian (official), with German, French and Slovene in the Alps region.

Predominant Religions: Christian (Roman Catholic).

Time Zone: 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (+1 GMT). Daylight Saving Time is observed from the end of March to the end of September.

Voltage Requirements: 220 volts.

Telephone Codes: country code is 39, city code for Rome is 06, city code for Milan is 02, city code for Torino is 11. Italy is located in Southern Europe, forming a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean sea, northeast of Tunisia.

Italy became a nation-state in 1861. In the 1920's Benito Mussolini established a fascist dictatorship, which ended an era of parliamentary government.

His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the economic and monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.