Southern Italy - Geography

Geography

Southern Italy forms the lower "boot" of the Italian Peninsula, containing the ankle (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania and southern Lazio), the toe (Calabria), the arch (Basilicata), and the heel (Apulia), along with the major islands (Sicily and Sardinia). Separating the "heel" and the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto, which sits at the angle between the heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The rest of the southern third of the Italian Peninsula is studded with smaller gulfs and inlets.

On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of the "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano; on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gulf of Salerno, the Gulf of Naples, the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast. Off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri.

The climate is mainly Mediterranean (Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria, and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, a name from the Greek that it has historically maintained for centuries. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. Palermo would be the second largest city if one includes Sicily as part of Southern Italy. The region is geologically very active (except Sardinia) and highly seismic: in 1980 the Campania massive earthquake killed almost 3,000 people and made 300,000 homeless.