Nighttime on the Italian Peninsula. Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at the Italian Peninsula at night.

The cluster of lights on the left side of the image is the city of Naples, while the center cluster is Bari and the right cluster is Brindisi. To the south are the cities of Palermo and Catania.

This image was captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

The Italian Peninsula, also known as Italic Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula, is a peninsula extending from the southern Alps in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. It is nicknamed lo Stivale (the Boot). Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this characteristic shape, namely Calabria (the “toe”), Salento (the “heel”) and Gargano (the “spur”). The backbone of the Italian Peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Also Nighttime on the Italian Peninsula is beautiful with a bright sight to see.

In general discourse, “Italy” and “Italian peninsula” are often used as synonimous terms. However, the Po Valley may be excluded from the Italian peninsula. In this sense, the Italian peninsula includes only about 44% of Italy’s total area. On the other hand, Sicily and other smaller islands off the peninsula may be geographically grouped along with it.

Geographically, the minimum extent of the Italian Peninsula consists of the land south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers, north of the Tuscan–Emilian Apennines. It excludes the Po Valley and the southern slopes of the Alps.

All of these territories lie within the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino and Vatican City and the extraterritorial sovereign territory of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta:

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory