The Republic of Italy (Republica Italiana) is a European nation consisting of the southern two thirds of the Italian peninsula as well as the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The Republic of Italy was formed in 1978 with the Secularization Act, which granted secular authority to the Papal States and divided the church and the state. This was immediately followed by the Vatican Act, which established a separate state within Rome where the Catholic Church was the national authority, and within months the independent republics of Sicily and Sardinia had been annexed into the new, secular Italian nation. Italy's capital is Rome, and it has a population of approximately 43,000,000. Italy is a parliamentary republic, with a largely formal Presidency currently occupied by Carlo Verdone and a Prime