BulgariaBulgaria, one of the oldest states in Europe, is located in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering (from south to north) Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.
The 111.000-square-kilometre-large territory (about a third of Italy) features notable environmental diversity and is characterized by more than 500 waterways such as the Danube (which separates Bulgaria from Romania) and the Iskar (the largest river, over 360-km-long) and by more than 360 lakes.
The large Danubian Plain, which covers almost a fourth of the territory, is situated in the north; the Balkan Mountains and the sunny Black Sea coast are situated in the south; the lowlands of Thrace, crossed by the river Maritsa and the Rhodope Mountains, stand further north.
Bulgaria, with its 8 million inhabitants, is a parliamentary democracy divided into 28 administrative divisions, with Sofia as its capital and largest city. The local currency is the Lev.
Bulgaria has a temperate climate, with cool winters characterized by subzero temperatures, and mild summers in Thrace and along the coast.
PolandLa Repubblica parlamentare polacca si estende per una superficie di 312.685 km2, confinando con la Germania a ponente, la Repubblica Ceca e la Slovacchia a meridione, l’Ucraina, la Bielorussia e la Lituania est, la Russia a nord. Il confine settentrionale si affaccia inoltre sul mar Baltico, con un tratto costiero sabbioso di 524 km. Il paese conta circa 38.560.000 ab. La capitale è Varsavia (1.693.000 ab.), seguita da Łódź, Cracovia, Breslavia, Poznan e Danzica.
Il territorio ha un andamento quasi interamente pianeggiante, leggermente increspato da modesti rilievi dei Carpazi nella zona meridionale. Il sistema fluviale è dominato dal corso della Vistola che taglia longitudinalmente il paese, e dell’Oder, ma non vanno dimenticati gli oltre 9.000 specchi d’acqua concentrati nelle regioni settentrionali. Il clima è caratterizzato da estati calde e inverni rigidi e nevosi, con precipitazioni contenute. La vegetazione tipica è quella della steppa, sono presenti foreste sulle dorsali montuose, mentre la fauna è quella tipica dell’area centro-europea e paleoartica (nelle foreste sopravvive ancora il bisonte europeo).
RomaniaRomania is a country located in South-East Central Europe. It shares borders with Ukraine to the north, Bulgaria to the south, Hungary and Serbia to the west and the Republic of Moldova and the Black Sea to the east.
Romania’s terrain is distributed roughly equally between mountainous and hilly territories. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania and cover about a third of its surface; they are divided into eastern, western and southern Carpathians, the latter being the so-called Transylvanian Alps. In south-central Romania the Carpathians sweeten into wooded lowlands such as Maramures, Moldova and the Romanian Plain; these lowlands abound in lakes and rivers, especially in the area surrounding the Danube Delta, an important biosphere reserve.
Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state. It has a population of about 22.300.000 inhabitants; density is higher in the main towns such as the capital city Bucharest; the local currency is the Leu.
Owing to its position on the eastern side of the European continent, Romania has a climate that is transitional between temperate and continental, characterized by cold and foggy winters, an high rainfall level during autumn and spring and very warm summers; temperatures range from -3 to 0°C in winter (between November and February) and from 20 to 22°C in July.