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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a Southern European country. It comprises the Italian Peninsula, the Po River valley, and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, and shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia.

The country also shares a sea border with Croatia and France. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory. It is a highly developed country with the 7th highest GDP in 2006, a member of the G8 and a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957.