Case Study Italy (Physical Geography) 01

This KS3 quiz looks at the physical geography of Italy. The shape of Italy is often described as being like a boot. During the winter, it has relatively warm and wet weather but in the summer, most of the 'boot' is subjected to hot and dry weather. This climate makes farming very difficult, particularly in the southern half of the country where the soils are thin, not very fertile and usually on steep slopes. Italy has two important and well known volcanoes. Vesuvius is the one that destroyed the city of Pompeii in AD79 whilst Etna is active on Sicily.

The 'boot' joins onto Europe at the southern edge of the Alps. Here, several large lakes have formed - Garda, Como and Maggiore are three well known ones as they are popular holiday destinations. The Alps are not the only mountains of Italy, the Apennines run the entire length of the country from the Alps in the north west and right the way down to Sicily. They are lower than the Alps, the highest mountain is just under 3,000 metres in height.