Italy is a sovereign state.
The Big Four , also known as G4 or EU4 , refers to France , Germany , Italy and the United Kingdom . Italy . Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea , Italy shares open land borders with France , Switzerland , Austria , Slovenia , San Marino and Vatican City . A unitary state is a state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme and any administrative divisions ( sub-national units ) exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate .