Capital: Rome
Area: 301,230 km²
Population: 57,3 million (December 2000 est.)
Ethnic groups: Italians (including small clusters of German-, French-, Slovene-, Albanian and Greek-Italians)
Official language(s): Italian
Religion(s): Roman Catholic 98%
Currency: 1 euro = 100 cents
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
In 1953 Hermann Gmeiner, the founder of the SOS Children's Villages, already advocated the establishment of an SOS Holiday Village in Caldonazzo on the Caldonazzo Lake near Trento in order to bring together all the SOS Children's Villages' children from all over Europe. In 1963, volunteers and Hermann Gmeiner founded the local SOS Children's Village Association Trento. In the very same year the community of Trento provided a property for the building of the first SOS Children's Village in Italy, which shortly thereafter became operational. In subsequent years additional SOS Children's Villages were established in Ostuni, Vicenza, Morosolo, Rome and Saronno. For several years now, the Italian SOS Children's Village Association has also been supporting the SOS Children's Villages' projects outside of Italy.
At present there are six SOS Children's Villages in Italy, four SOS Youth Facilities and the international SOS Holiday Camp Caldonazzo.