Mountains of Italy: the new large MountainCarto map
A large physical map that tells the story of Italy through its mountains
The next MountainCarto release is also the largest ever produced: 100 × 140 cm, printed in a professional print shop on 250 g matte coated paper. A map designed to be an important wall piece—bright, detailed, and capable of portraying Italy through what defines it most: its mountains. It will be available in print within a few days.
Below you can already explore the interactive preview of the map, zooming in freely on its many details. And if you wish, you can embed it in your own website or blog using the share button within the map and following the instructions provided.
Italy is a mountainous country in every sense: not only the long backbone of the Apennines and the Alpine arc to the north, but also secondary ridges, hill systems, volcanic chains, and even underwater mountains rising from the Mediterranean seafloor. This is why the map is called Montagne d’Italia: it is a physical map that reveals, at a glance, the deeply mountainous nature of our territory—without administrative borders, regions, or nations. In the mountains, you don’t see boundaries or barriers, except for the natural ones.
A rigorous selection of mountain groups and main peaks
In the Alpine area, the map shows a large portion of the Alps according to the SOIUSA classification (International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps). Not the entire chain is represented, but a substantial part of its sections is: from the Western Alps to the Dolomites, from the most imposing massifs to the secondary ridges.
In the rest of Italy, the map includes:
- the main mountain groups
- the major geographical areas
The entire toponymic base — mountain positions, names, and elevations — comes from OpenStreetMap. The selection of the most significant peaks was carried out uniformly across the whole territory: I use an algorithm that analyzes each summit, compares its elevation with the surrounding peaks, and calculates a prominence ranking. This brings out the mountains that truly stand out above the others — those that define a group and play a key morphological role.
The selection was then manually checked by consulting the corresponding entries on Wikipedia to ensure geographical consistency and accuracy.
A rich and readable physical representation
The map is created in 2.5D, a technique that combines cartographic precision with a three-dimensional perception of the terrain. The landscape is depicted with great attention to detail, thanks to multiple layers of information that make the geography easy to read at a glance.
Land cover
Forests, grasslands, rocky areas, glaciers — each environment is represented with its own dedicated palette, designed to enhance the shape of the terrain and clearly distinguish between different landscape types.
Seafloor
The sea is not a simple uniform background: it displays the underwater relief and the main morphological structures. Shades of blue gradually darken with depth, highlighting ridges, trenches, and submerged features. The map also includes seafloor toponymy: underwater mountains and ranges, valleys and canyons, basins, banks, and shoals.
Extensive toponymy
The map includes a wide range of names: mountain groups, peaks, ridges, plateaus, and secondary crests. Each label has been carefully placed and checked to make the map not only visually appealing, but also informative and complete.
A comprehensive view of Italy
Montagne d’Italia is a physical map designed to show the country through its morphology: a territory defined by ridges, uplands, and mountain systems that shape its natural form. Not an isolated band of mountains, but a structure that runs through the entire peninsula. It is an invitation to look at the landscape with a geographic perspective: without borders, without regions, without administrative grids. Only forms, ridgelines, valleys, basins, and plains interwoven between one mountain system and the next.
Open data sources used
The map was created using exclusively open and freely accessible data from various cartographic, geographic, and satellite sources. By combining heterogeneous datasets, it was possible to build a rich, updated, and coherent representation of the Italian territory.
- OpenStreetMap — toponymy, mountain locations, elevations, and mountain groups.
- Italian Military Geographic Institute (IGM) — national cartographic reference.
- GEBCO 2025 — bathymetric data for seafloor representation.
- Copernicus Sentinel / ESA WorldCover 2025 — land cover data (modified), © ESA WorldCover Project 2025.