The Apennines are the long mountain chain that runs down the middle of Italy, like a backbone, from the northwest of the country to the south. People say the Apennines, always with the, and almost always in the plural, because it is a range, not one peak. They are not the Alps: the Alps stand along Italy’s north, against France, Switzerland, and Austria; the Apennines belong to the peninsula itself. Towns, railways, and weather on either side of Italy are shaped by this ridge. Though actually, English also has the adjective Apennine — the Apennine peninsula, Apennine villages — but the name students meet on a map is the Apennines.