Ligurian Sea in the context of "Apennines"

Genoa (/ˈdʒɛnoʊə/ JEN-oh-ə; Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] ; Ligurian: Zêna [ˈzeːna]) is the sixth-largest city in Italy and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria. As of 2025, 565,301 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,629 inhabitants, more than 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera.

On the Gulf of Genoa in the Ligurian Sea, Genoa has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean: it is the busiest port in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea and twelfth-busiest in the European Union.

The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (/ˈæpənaɪn/ AP-ə-nyne; Italian: Appennini [appenˈniːni]) are a mountain range consisting of parallel smaller chains extending c. 1,200 km (750 mi) the length of peninsular Italy. In the northwest they join the Ligurian Alps at Altare. In the southwest they end at Reggio di Calabria, the coastal city at the tip of the peninsula. Since 2000 the Environment Ministry of Italy, following the recommendations of the Apennines Park of Europe Project, has defined the Apennines System to include the mountains of north Sicily, a total distance of 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The system forms an arc enclosing the east of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas.

The Apennines conserve some intact ecosystems that have survived human intervention. In these are some of the best-preserved forests and montane grasslands in Europe, now protected by national parks and, within them, a high diversity of flora and fauna. These mountains are one of the last refuges of the big European predators such as the Italian wolf and the Marsican brown bear, now extinct in the rest of Central Europe.

The Italian geographic region, Italian physical region or Italian region is a geographical region of Southern Europe delimited to the north by the mountain chains of the Alps. This subregion is composed of a peninsular and continental part and an insular part. Located between the Balkan Peninsula and the Iberian Peninsula, it protrudes into the centre of the Mediterranean Sea and overlooks the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Ligurian Sea, the Sardinian Channel, the Sea of Corsica, the Sea of Sardinia, the Strait of Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Italian geographic region, in its traditional and most widely accepted extent, has an area of approximately 324,000 square kilometres (125,000 sq mi), which is greater than the area of the entire Italian Republic (301,230 square kilometres (116,310 sq mi)). The region also includes territories that are sovereign parts of Croatia, France, Slovenia, and Switzerland, as well as the four small sovereign states of the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of San Marino, and the Vatican City State (the Holy See).

This is a list of islands of Italy. There are nearly 450 islands in Italy, including islands in the Mediterranean Sea (including the marginal seas: Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, Libyan Sea, Ligurian Sea, Sea of Sardinia, Tyrrhenian Sea, and inland islands in lakes and rivers. The largest island is Sicily with an area of 25,711 km (9,927 sq mi). The outlying islands of Italy make up an official region of Insular Italy with an area of 49,801 km (19,228 sq mi).

The March of Tuscany was a march of the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages. Located in northwestern central Italy, it bordered the Papal States to the south, the Ligurian Sea to the west and Lombardy to the north. It comprised a collection of counties, largely in the valley of the River Arno, originally centered on Lucca.
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Liguria (/lɪˈɡjʊəriə/ lig-YOOR-ee-ə, Italian: [liˈɡuːrja]; Ligurian: Ligûria [liˈɡyːɾja]) is a region of north-western Italy; its capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennines mountain range and is roughly coextensive with the former territory of the Republic of Genoa. Liguria is bordered by France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It rests on the Ligurian Sea, and has a population of 1,509,908 as of 2025. The region is part of the Alps–Mediterranean Euroregion.

The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera (Italian: Riviera ligure [riˈvjɛːra ˈliːɡure]; Ligurian: Rivêa lìgure [ɾiˈveːa ˈliɡyɾe]) is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Longitudinally it extends from the border with France and the French Riviera (or Côte d'Azur) near Ventimiglia (a former customs post) eastwards to Capo Corvo (also known as Punta Bianca) which marks the eastern end of the Gulf of La Spezia and is close to the regional border between Liguria and Tuscany. The Italian Riviera thus includes nearly all of the coastline of Liguria. Historically the "Riviera" extended further to the west, through what is now French territory as far as Marseille.

The Italian Riviera crosses all four Ligurian provinces and their capitals Genoa, Savona, Imperia and La Spezia, with a total length of about 350 km (218 miles). It is customarily divided into a western section, the Ponente Riviera, and an eastern section, the Levante Riviera, the point of division being the apex of the Ligurian arc at Voltri. It has about 1.6 million inhabitants, and most of the population is concentrated within the coastal area. Its mild climate draws an active tourist trade in the numerous coastal resorts, which include Alassio, Bonassola, Bordighera, Camogli, Cinque Terre, Lerici, Levanto, Noli, Portofino, Porto Venere, Santa Margherita Ligure, Sanremo, San Fruttuoso, and Sestri Levante. It is also known for its historical association with international celebrity and artistic visitors; writers and poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway were inspired by the beauty and spirit of Liguria.

The Gulf of Genoa (Golfo di Genova) is the northernmost part of the Ligurian Sea. This Italian gulf is about 145 km (90 mi) wide from the city of Imperia in the west to La Spezia in the east. The largest city on its coast is Genoa, which has an important port.

Pisa (/ˈpiːzə/ PEE-zə; Italian: [ˈpiːza] or [ˈpiːsa]) is a city and comune (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, and several medieval and Renaissance palaces, mostly facing each other on the avenues along the Arno ("Lungarno"). Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics.

The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.