2011 ~ Italy Photo <br>Gallery

The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes.

Mere administrative districts of the central state during the Kingdom of Italy, Regions were granted political autonomy by the 1948 Constitution of the Italian Republic.

Nevertheless, the actual implementation of regional autonomy was postponed till the first Regional Elections of 1970, as the ruling Christian Democracy party didn't want the opposition Italian Communist Party to gain government in many of them where it was historically rooted (the red belt of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche).

The regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001 (brought about by a centre-left government and confirmed by popular referendum), granting them with residual policy competence.

A further federalist reform was proposed by the regionalist party Lega Nord and in 2005, the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new reform of the Constitution that would have entailed greatly increasing the powers of all regions. In June 2006 the proposals, which had been particularly associated with the Lega Nord, and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in a referendum by 61.7% to 38.3%.

The results varied considerably from one region to another, ranging to 55.3% in favour in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria.

Region	Adjective	Capital	Area (km²)	Population
Abruzzo	Abruzzese	L'Aquila	&000000000001079400000010,794	&00000000013240000000001,324,000
Basilicata	Lucan	Potenza	&00000000000099920000009,992	&0000000000591000000000591,000
Calabria	Calabrese	Catanzaro	&000000000001508000000015,080	&00000000020070000000002,007,000
Campania	Campanian	Naples	&000000000001359500000013,595	&00000000058110000000005,811,000
Emilia-Romagna	Emilia-Romagnol (Emilia-Romagnolo)	Bologna	&000000000002212400000022,124	&00000000042760000000004,276,000
Friuli-Venezia Giulia	Friulian	Trieste	&00000000000078550000007,855	&00000000012220000000001,222,000
Lazio	Latial	Rome	&000000000001720700000017,207	&00000000055610000000005,561,000
Liguria	Ligurian	Genoa	&00000000000054210000005,421	&00000000016100000000001,610,000
Lombardia (Lombardy)	Lombard	Milan	&000000000002386100000023,861	&00000000096420000000009,642,000
Le Marche (The Marches)	Marchisan or Marchean	Ancona	&00000000000096940000009,694	&00000000015530000000001,553,000
Molise	Molisan	Campobasso	&00000000000044380000004,438	&0000000000320000000000320,000
Piemonte (Piedmont)	Piedmontese	Turin	&000000000002539900000025,399	&00000000044010000000004,401,000
Puglia (Apulia)	Pugliese	Bari	&000000000001936200000019,362	&00000000040760000000004,076,000
Sardegna (Sardinia)	Sardinian	Cagliari	&000000000002409000000024,090	&00000000016660000000001,666,000
Sicilia (Sicily)	Sicilian	Palermo	&000000000002570800000025,708	&00000000050300000000005,030,000
Toscana (Tuscany)	Tuscan	Florence	&000000000002299700000022,997	&00000000036770000000003,677,000
Trentino-Alto Adige (Südtirol, Southern Tyrol)	Trentine - South Tyrolean	Trento	&000000000001360700000013,607	&00000000010070000000001,007,000
Umbria	Umbrian	Perugia	&00000000000084560000008,456	&0000000000884000000000884,000
Valle d'Aosta (Aosta Valley)	Valdôtain or Valdostano	Aosta/Aoste	&00000000000032630000003,263	&0000000000126000000000126,000
Veneto	Venetian	Venice	&000000000001839100000018,391	&00000000048320000000004,832,000

Torre degli Asinelli e Garisenda, Bologna, Emilia Romagna

Il Golfo di Napoli e il Vesuvio, Campania

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The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level.

The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There ar...

The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level.

The Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions of north-west Italy.

The peak, the 7th highest mountain in the Graian Alps with an elevation of 4,061 m, is close to Mont Blanc on the nearby border with France.

On the French side of the border, the park is continued by the Vanoise National Park. The Gran Paradiso is the only mountain whose summit reaches over 4,000 metres that is entirely within Italian territory.

The highest summit was first reached on September 4, 1860 by J. J. Cowell, W. Dundas, J. Payot and J. Tairraz. Today it is generally considered an easy climb, except for the last 60 meters to the top.

Climbs normally start from either the Rifugio Chabod or the Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele Secondo.

The latter is named after Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy who created the Gran Paradiso royal reserve in 1856, presently Gran Paradiso National Park.

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Gran Paradiso is the heart of the Gran Paradiso National Park, the homeland of friendly capricorns.

The Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions of north-west Italy. The peak, the 7th highest mountai...

Gran Paradiso is the heart of the Gran Paradiso National Park, the homeland of friendly capricorns.

The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. It is a part of Southern Limestone Alps and extends from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley (Pieve di Cadore) in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley (Val Sugana). The Dolomites are nearly equally shared between the provinces of Belluno, South Tyrol and Trentino.

There are also mountain groups of similar geological structure that spread over the River Piave to the east - Dolomiti d'Oltrepiave; and far away over the Adige River to the west - Dolomiti di Brenta (Western Dolomites). There is also another smaller group called Piccole Dolomiti (Little Dolomites) located between the provinces of Trentino, Verona and Vicenza (see the map).

One national park and many other regional parks are located in the Dolomites. In August 2009, the Dolomites were declared a natural heritage site by UNESCO.

During the First World War, the line between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces ran through the Dolomites. There are now open-air war museums at Cinque Torri (Five Towers) and Mount Lagazuoi. Many people visit the Dolomites to climb the Vie ferrate, protected paths created during the First World War. A number of long distance footpaths run across the Dolomites, which are called "Alte vie" (i.e., high paths). Such long trails, which are numbered from 1 to 8, require at least a week to be walked through and are served by numerous "Rifugi" (huts). The first and, perhaps, most renowned is the Alta Via 1.

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A tourist mecca, the Dolomites are famous for skiing in the winter months and mountain climbing, hiking, climbing and Base Jumping, as well as paragliding and hang gliding in summer and late spring/early autumn.[citation needed] Free climbing has been a tradition in the Dolomites since 1887, when 17-year-old Georg Winkler soloed the first ascent of the pinnacle Die Vajolettürme.

The main centres include: Rocca Pietore alongside the Marmolada Glacier, which lies on the border of Trentino and Veneto, the small towns of Alleghe, Falcade, Auronzo, Cortina d'Ampezzo and the villages of Arabba, Urtijëi and San Martino di Castrozza, as well as the whole of the Fassa, Gardena and Badia valleys.

In the first week in July, the Maratona dles Dolomites, an annual single-day road bicycle racing race covering seven mountain passes of the Dolomites, is staged.