France- ITALY

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France, officially the French Republic (French: République française), is located in Western Europe. France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as L’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. Its bordered (clockwise from the north) by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. The borders of modern France are approximately the same as those of ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was conquered for Rome by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BCE, and the Gauls eventually adopted Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved) and Roman culture. Christianity first appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and became so firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries that St. Jerome wrote that Gaul was the only region “free from heresy.” In the 4th century AD, Gaul’s eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of “Francie” was derived. The modern name “France” derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris

France - ITALYItaly:

Italy (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. [7] By far the larger portion of Northern Italy is occupied by the basin of the Po river, which comprises the whole of the broad plain extending from the foot of the Apennines to that of the Alps, together with the valleys and slopes on both sides of it. Throughout its whole course indeed, from its source in Monte Viso to its outflow into the Adriatic Sea — a distance of more than 5 degrees of longitude, or 220 miles in a direct line — the Po receives all the waters that flow from the Apennines northwards, and all those that descend from the Alps towards the south, till one comes to the Adige, which, after pursuing a parallel course with the Po for a considerable distance, enters the Adriatic by a separate mouth. Northern Italy was inhabited by Celts and Proto-Celtic tribes in the "Lombard Valley", while Etrurian people settled in Tuscany that, as the recent studies show, have to be identified with the "People of the Sea", a German wave in the Mediterranean Sea before the start of the Classic Age. After the Roman invasion, the Lombardy (as the northern regions and Tuscany have been called as a whole entity until the born of Italy) became a strategic region of the Empire when the German incursions started in late 2 AD. In this period important Celtic cities like Turin and Milan were transformed into military settlements in order to provide with the best defense Rome and the regions of Italy. Lombardy, Austria, Bavaria and Hungary became the target of the oriental German people's invasions (Ostroghots, Avars, Lombards) and since this people used to adopt the language of the conquered people as well of the conquerors they mixed their language with that of the Magyars, the western Germans and the Romans. The Kingdom of the Lombards lasted for two centuries.