Overview
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains are a mountain range consisting of parallel smaller chains extending c. 1,200 km along the length of peninsular Italy. In the northwest, they join with the Ligurian Alps at Altare.
Description
Apennine Range, also called the Apennines, Italian Appennino, series of mountain ranges bordered by narrow coastlands that form the physical backbone of peninsular Italy. From Cadibona Pass in the northwest, close to the Maritime Alps, they form a great arc, which extends as far as the Egadi Islands to the west of Sicily. Their total length is approximately 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), and their width ranges from 25 to 125 miles. Mount Corno, 9,554 feet (2,912 meters), is the highest point of the Apennines proper on the peninsula. The range follows a northwest-southeast orientation as far as Calabria, at the southern tip of Italy; the regional trend then changes direction, first toward the south and finally westward.