Aosta ValleyCapital: Aosta. It is the smallest of the 20 regions. It covers 3,261 square km and is one of the five autonomous ones. Mont Blanc, just over 4,800 m, stands on its border with France.
LiguriaCapital: Genoa. It is the third smallest region, at 5,416 square km. Its coast is on the Ligurian Sea, and the Apennines begin here and run down the peninsula to Calabria.
LombardyCapital: Milan. It has the most people of the 20 regions. About 10 million live here. Lake Como, the third-largest lake in Italy, is here, and Lake Garda is shared with Veneto and Trentino-South Tyrol.
PiedmontCapital: Turin. It is the second largest region, at 25,387 square km. The Po, the longest river in Italy at 652 km, rises here on Monviso and passes Turin on its way east.
North-east 4
Emilia-RomagnaCapital: Bologna. San Marino, a separate country, is surrounded by Italy. It covers 61 square km, and nearly all of its border is with the province of Rimini here. Part of the Po delta is here too.
Friuli-Venezia GiuliaCapital: Trieste, on a bay of the Adriatic. Austria lies to its north and Slovenia to its east. It is one of the five autonomous regions, and its official languages are Italian, Friulian, Slovene and German.
Trentino-South TyrolCapital: Trento. It is made up of two autonomous provinces. Trentino is the south and South Tyrol the north, where most people speak German. It borders Austria and Switzerland, and the northernmost point of Italy is here.
VenetoCapital: Venice. The Po reaches the Adriatic here, near Adria. Most of its delta is in this region. Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, is shared with Lombardy and Trentino-South Tyrol.
Center 4
LazioCapital: Rome, which is also the capital of Italy. The Tiber, 405 km long, flows through the city, and Vatican City is an enclave inside it. Lakes Bolsena, Vico and Bracciano, in the north, are volcanic.
MarcheCapital: Ancona. The coast is on the Adriatic. Its province of Pesaro and Urbino has about 3 km of border with San Marino. The rest of that border is with Emilia-Romagna.
TuscanyCapital: Florence. Elba lies off its coast. It is the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago and Italy's third largest, after Sicily and Sardinia.
UmbriaCapital: Perugia. No coast and no border with another country. It is the only region of Italy with neither. Lake Trasimeno is here, and the Tiber crosses it.
South 6
AbruzzoCapital: L'Aquila. The Apennines' highest mountain stands here. It is Corno Grande in the Gran Sasso massif, 2,912 m. The coast is on the Adriatic.
ApuliaCapital: Bari. The Italian name is Puglia. It has the Adriatic on one side and the Ionian Sea on the other, and Capo d'Otranto, on the heel, is the easternmost point of Italy.
BasilicataCapital: Potenza. It has two coasts. One is about 30 km on the Tyrrhenian Sea. A longer one is on the Gulf of Taranto, in the Ionian Sea. The Sassi of Matera have been a World Heritage Site since 1993.
CalabriaCapital: Catanzaro. The Strait of Messina separates it from Sicily. Capo Spartivento is the Italian mainland's southernmost point. The Apennines, which start in Liguria, end here.
CampaniaCapital: Naples. Vesuvius stands near the city. The volcanic field of Campi Flegrei is also here. The coast is on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
MoliseCapital: Campobasso. It is the second smallest region, at 4,461 square km. Only the Aosta Valley has fewer people. Its short coast is on the Adriatic.
Islands 2
SardiniaCapital: Cagliari. It is the third largest region, at 24,100 square km. It is one of the five autonomous ones. The Strait of Bonifacio separates it from Corsica, which belongs to France.
SicilyCapital: Palermo. It is the largest region, at 25,832 square km. It is one of the five autonomous ones. Mount Etna stands near Catania, and the island of Lampedusa is the southernmost point of Italy.
How this list was compiled: Names, capitals, ordinary or autonomous status and areas written for this site and checked on 2026-09-19 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Italy. Region codes, Italian, French and German names, the two autonomous provinces and the Italian names of the capital cities checked the same day against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:IT. The five groups are the ISTAT macro-regions, checked against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUTS_statistical_regions_of_Italy. Other facts, all read on 2026-09-19: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Italy (seas, straits, extreme points, Mont Blanc, the Po, the Tiber, Lake Garda, the Apennines, Vesuvius, Etna, the volcanic lakes of Lazio), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po_(river), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Garda, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Como, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Sasso_d%27Italia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilicata, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli-Venezia_Giulia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbria, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elba and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentino-Alto_Adige/S%C3%BCdtirol. The height of Mont Blanc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc, read on 2026-09-19; surveys since 2013 give between 4,805 and 4,810 m, so the detail line says just over 4,800 m. Neighbors, coasts and shapes named in the hints were worked out from the drawing itself. Boundaries follow Natural Earth. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 42°N 12.5°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This Italy map quiz asks for all 20 Italian regions, from the Aosta Valley in the Alps to Sicily off the toe. No region needs a numbered ring here: even Molise and the Aosta Valley are big enough to tap.
Read the full guide
Five areas, from the North-west to the Islands
The areas under Start from are the five groups Italy's statistics office uses: the North-west (4 regions), the North-east (4), the Center (4), the South (6) and the Islands (Sicily and Sardinia). The South makes a good first round, because the heel, the instep and the toe are hard to mix up. A miss shows the right region; the end card replays those.
Italian names count too
Under Name it, press Type it and the Italian names count where they differ from the English: Lombardia, Piemonte, Toscana, Sardegna, Sicilia, Puglia, Valle d'Aosta and Trentino-Alto Adige. Trentino-Südtirol counts too, and Friuli alone is accepted for Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Accents and hyphens do not matter. Print blank numbers the regions alphabetically, 1 for Abruzzo to 20 for Veneto.
Read the boot from the bottom: Apulia is the heel, Basilicata the instep and Calabria the toe, with Sicily just off the toe.
East coast from the top: Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia. West coast: Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, a sliver of Basilicata, Calabria.
Sicily and Piedmont are the two largest regions and nearly the same size. The Aosta Valley, tucked into Piedmont's corner, is the smallest.
Questions and answers
How many regions does Italy have?
Twenty. Fifteen are ordinary regions and five are autonomous regions with a special statute: the Aosta Valley, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily and Trentino-South Tyrol. On the map the two kinds look alike, and all 20 are asked.
Are San Marino and Vatican City on the map?
Both are drawn as land that cannot be tapped, because they are separate countries. San Marino, 61 square kilometers, borders Emilia-Romagna and, for about 3 km, Marche. Vatican City is an enclave inside Rome, in Lazio. The island above Sardinia is Corsica, part of France.
Which Italian regions have no coast?
Five: the Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino-South Tyrol and Umbria. Umbria alone has neither a coast nor a border with another country. Basilicata has two coasts: about 30 km on the Tyrrhenian Sea and a longer one on the Gulf of Taranto.