Italy is a sovereign state.
The Big Four , also known as G4 or EU4 , refers to France , Germany , Italy and the United Kingdom . The eurozone , officially called the euro area , is a monetary union of 19 of the 28 European Union ( EU ) member states which have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender . The Human Development Index ( HDI ) is a composite statistic of life expectancy , education , and per capita income indicators , which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development . Italy . The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic , military , cultural and diplomatic affairs , and it is both a regional power and a great power . 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 .