Grassland use in Europe Italy

Italy is a peninsula extending far into the Mediterranean Sea. The estimated population is 60.4 million people (data 2017). The population is unevenly distributed. The Po Valley, in northern Italy, and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, in central and southern Italy, are densely populated, while the Alps and Apennines highlands, as well as the island of Sardinia are very sparsely populated. The averagepopulation density is 201 inhabitants per square kilometre, a value that is higher than that of most western European countries. Italy has a surface area of 301,338 km 2 . The territory is mostly hilly (42%) with plain areas only covering 23%, mainly in the Po Valley, which is the country's largest plain (44,000 km 2 ). The rest of the territory is covered by mountain areas (35%). The Alps, along the northern border, and the Apennines, which form the backbone of the entire peninsula and the island of Sicily, are the largest mountainous systems. Italy lies in the temperate zone but there is a strong climate variation between thenorthern regions bordering the European continent, and the south, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, due to the considerable length of the peninsula (1,200 km). Three main biogeographic regions dominate the country: - the Alpine area, which has a continental mountain climate; - the continental climate area, mainly represented by the Po Valley, characterised by hot summers and severe winters; - the Mediterranean region, covering the central and southern Italian regions and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The most important climate trait is the concentration of rainfall during the relatively mild winters and its total absence during the hot summers, associated with a large intra- and inter-annual variability. Italy has a variety of soils as well, originating from several types of parent materials, at different altitudes, under different climate conditions in preceding eras.Dark-brown podzols are very common in the Alps, where rainfall is heavy. In the Apennines, brown podzolic soils predominate, supporting forests, meadows and pastures. Rendzina soils are characteristic of the limestone and magnesium limestone mountain pastures and of many meadows and beech forests of the Apennines. Sparse red-earth soils, rocky soils, clays, dune sands and gravel can be also found.